Get Your Goat: Labdanum
A farmer in Crete gathers an ancient perfume ingredient the hot (and sometimes hooved) old-fashioned way. Will wine taste better if the grapes are stomped by barefoot virgins? How about cheese made by silent monks? Cookies baked by elves? And will perfume smell more…
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Birches at Pentecost
Pagan, imperial, atheist, orthodox, a green spirit muscles through Russian history. In the Protestant denomination of our raising, Pentecost meant an outpouring of red Sunday outfits and searing reference to the apostles’ “tongues of fire.” In the Eastern Orthodox faith, Pentecost – better known as…
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Blame the Spencers
For the downfall of sweet peas, fragrance-loving gardeners still point an angry finger at Althorp and its longtime gardener, Silas Cole. I, but not my cousin Ben, am descended from the Spencer family of England, and even wear the name. Over the years my dear…
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Red Poppies — Gentling War
The red poppy, and ritual remembrance, numb the realities of war. At the 11th hour of the 11th month of the 11th day, Allied powers signed the Armistice with Germany in 1918, ending World War I. The moment will be remembered November 11 in many…
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Citizen Carnation
For Madrid’s grandest festival, admission is free. But there’s a floral badge to belong. How does a sodbuster become a saint? Like anyone else: with miracles and the pullies of culture. Isidro de Merlo y Quintana (1070 -1130) more than qualified. Supernatural accountants attribute 438…
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A Smoker’s Garden of Delights
A set of beauties protruding from flower heads helped hawk packs of cigarettes. Dimly we remember little coupons inside packets of Raleigh and Old Gold cigarettes, but by the time we took up this fiendish habit in the late 1960s, nobody much smoked Old…
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