#3: Fish Spatula

Potpourri

Time is now marked by COVID pre and post…oh wait, we’re not post…we’re in the Delta quadrant.

I have a houseguest…the first since pre. It’s been how many months since the last? Seventeen? Eighteen? More?

We walk to a favorite spot to gather petals for rose petal water. It takes one cup of packed petals and it takes many to fill one cup. We sniff, pick, and fill a bag until it looks like enough. Back home, we lay them out on a sheet pan covered with paper, stir them around with our fingers, and pick out blemished and dry blossoms, stamens and stems. A few bugs hitchhike home with us and as they crawl away we relocate them. Don’t ask.

We pack one cup tightly with petals and turn them into a larger glass vessel where they fluff up to nearly 4 cups. They are lighter than air.

I pour boiling water…2 cups…over the petals and stir them around with a clean fish spatula. I could use a spoon or a chopstick, but I remember a chef once saying that a fish spatula can be used for everything…it is closer, too. The water is already turning a beautiful pink. When they cool, I strain out the petals, and use the spatula again to push out all the water I can. The chef is right.

Now cool, I pour some into a small spritz bottle. Some spills on the table. How many mils are in a tablespoon? How many tablespoons does it take to fill a 2 ounce bottle? How many mils did I spill? This is how I homeschool my son long ago.

I spritz my guest who says this feels like a fairy home.

This is me in another of my fairy homes a long time ago.