Basil

I've been thinking about doing something about my rather overgrown basil bush.  Well, inspiration (more like energy which has been missing in action) struck this morning and without thinking I went outside and stripped the bush of all its dried flowers and some not at all dry ones.   The pups came out to see what was up, but kept their distance and seemed rather perplexed - not sure why.

We are approaching the last half of winter now, and I have been meaning to do some cutting back and 'whatever' type of business I am supposed to do at this time of year - I don't know what that is really - but I know I should be doing something. 

(They look as confused as I do)

And so, I stripped all the branches of their flowers, discovering a hidden lemon on our lemon tree which must have escaped the pup's attention, as they are always delighted to find bright-yellow, accessible balls growing on trees, and will unceremoniously pluck them and leave them lying about.  I realised early on that they will win the fight for the lemons and seeing we only had three this year, decided to not sweat it at all.

I also discovered some ripening tomatoes among the basil that had survived the winter thus far and had a happy moment wondering at the happy coincidence of basil and tomato growing together when they are such a delightful culinary pair.  I must add that I did not plant tomatoes in my garden - they simply appeared.

The reason I wanted the basil stripped in the first place was at the thought of creating 'basil water' for cosmetic use.  I have been doing a lot of reading and researching of late as I want to make my own cosmetics, shampoos etc and the thought of 'basil water' as a base just sounds delightful.  I have also discovered how to make a home still and can't wait to get started making my own fragrant waters.

Unfortunately, our stove and oven blew up recently and replacement is not going to happen in a hurry.  So, now I have the basil flowers all ready, but no way of heating the still.  With this in mind I began to wonder if I should seed the flowers instead - that is when I went online to find out about harvesting seeds and found that I had actually done the right thing in waiting for the flowers to dry out ... but alas!  I find no seeds.

DH walked into the kitchen and upon seeing the basil all spread out drying, had a stupefying 'Gunja'  wishful moment - called up from somewhere in his distant, delinquent past .... uh..hum .... moving on quickly.

So, I guess I will dry out the seedless flowers and keep them in safety for a time when I am able to heat my homemade still and then I will Blog about them again.

In the mean time, the house smells delightfully of basil (and for some reason - rose water), and I will extend myself the luxury of a handful of fragrant flowers in my bath tonight as compensation for a job half done, I am terribly impatient when I have things I want done and I can't get my head around having to leave this off for another distant date.