Apothecary

My mom showed me how to pick the barely-opened peony blossoms, dip the stems in candle-wax, put the flowers in ziploc bags, and refrigerate them. This way, up to several months later we can take them out of the fridge, cut the waxy tip off the stem, put them in water, and the flowers will open up as if they were newly picked from the garden. It's a trick I'm taking full advantage of, because if I could change anything, I would have gotten married right now, during the peak peony season. They are just such lush, beautiful flowers, and this way I can at least have a few to mix in with my other flowers at the wedding festivities next month.

Meanwhile, my mom is making lemon-thyme cookies while her sourdough starter bubbles happily on the kitchen counter, she's also got a vat of wool on the stove being dyed, my sister K is trying to figure out how to grind her own minerals and make face powder, and the warm weather is making the garden outside surge and the frogs, spiders, and lizards that abound in North Carolina to find their way indoors. Yesterday I had to chase a large brown lizard out the door with a broom. So, it feels a little less like a wedding party around here and more like a witch's coven what with all the candles, herbs, wildlife, and concoctions. Now I just need to come up with a magical spell that will make the time speed up, because I can't wait to get married!