USEFUL GIFTS

Some years ago a dear friend gave me this tiny jug with some grape hyacinth bulbs but sadly they never came to anything - however, I love the jug, so often put some flowers in it on my kitchen windowsill.

A few months ago, the mother of a friend of ours died and knowing we liked flowers, our friend asked if we would like some of the grape hyacinths from her Mum’s garden.  Of course, we said we would, not least because we always chatted to her Mum whenever we saw her and we thought it would be good to have them in our garden to remember her.  Mr. HCB collected them yesterday and they were sitting in a large green tub in the garage, waiting to be transplanted into our garden, when I spotted them.  I didn’t realise they were flowering so profusely, so decided rather than just putting them straight into the garden, if I took the flowers off, I could enjoy them now on my kitchen windowsill and next year in the garden - so win/win!

The flowers resemble bunches of grapes, hence the common name Grape Hyacinth although the correct name for them is Muscari.  I also found out that the flowers are edible and are sometimes used in Mediterranean cuisine, often pickled in vinegar but I don’t think I will be trying that any time soon.

Here’s hoping that we have plenty of this in the coming months, but preferably not during cricket matches - Mr. HCB tells me that the season started today, but unfortunately, the game due to be played at Somerset has been rained off, at least for today.  

PETRICHOR
The pleasant, earthy smell that follows rainfall particularly after a dry spell of weather.
This is an old English word deriving in two parts from the English word ‘petri’ meaning rocks and the Greek word ‘ichor’ which means fluid from the Gods.