An Old Recipe for Scented Lavender Ink

Lavender from My Backyard Garden

Lavender from My Backyard Garden © 2008 Bo Mackison

Ever need to post something to calm and refresh yourself? That is what this simple photograph of lavender is meant to do for me this evening. I imagine breathing deeply in the plants and feeling a gentle relaxation overcome me.

I have had this recipe for many years, and have never made it, but maybe this August will be a good month to give it a try. My great-grandmother made scented inks every summer using a variety of garden flowers, including heirloom roses, geraniums and her very favorite, lavender.

LAVENDER INK

An ink that you scent with the flowers of the lavender plant will surely send a message of calm and enjoyment when the special recipient opens the envelope. What an added enjoyment to the message you send…

People do still write an occasional letter now and then — don’t they?

Here’s the recipe.

1/2 ounce lavender flowers, dried well
5-6 tablespoons of water (distilled if possible)
one small bottle purchased ink, black or dark blue

Crush the dried lavender flowers and simmer them in water for about 30 minutes – until there is 2 tablespoons of brown liquid left in the pan.

Strain through a piece of cheesecloth and mix with ink when fully cooled.

Enjoy.


Graffiti Train

Train Graffiti

Train Graffiti © 2008 Bo Mackison

Blue Crazed Graffiti

Blue Crazed Graffiti © 2008 Bo Mackison

Train graffiti

Train graffiti © 2008 Bo Mackison

Trains stopped on the rails west of Madison.

What Better on a Hot Summer Night…

Ice Cream Cone

Ice Cream Cone © 2008 Bo Mackison

…than taking a stroll to the corner dairy store for a scoop of vanilla ice cream in a Safe-T Cup cone? When I was a kid, the ice cream always dripped faster than I could lick it and my arm would be streaked with the sweet stickiness to my elbow. And the cone? It always tasted a bit like cardboard – a slightly sweet cardboard, but cardboard nonetheless.

In these days of franchises and fast food, are there many real “dairy stores” any longer? Places where they make the ice cream in the back? As a kid, I only had to walk down the street to visit Deters Dairy Store, but it is likely I’m dating myself. Yes?

Time Worn Barn

Red Barn

Red Barn © 2008 Bo Mackison

Ghost Runner

Ghost Runner

Ghost Runner © 2008 Bo Mackison

Aerial act at the Dane County Fair in Madison, Wisconsin. The eerie effect matched the sultry summer feel of the night, the aerialist maneuvering a hundred feet in the night sky. Whatever would possess someone to choose this as an ambition? Nerves of steel, as the saying goes? Risk-taker? Ghost runner.