#cloved orange

This craft is special to me because my first time seeing it or making one was when my mom was our Brownie leader and taught all of us.  I love the smells and process of making it.  This is a wonderful all-around sensory experience.   Materials: Oranges Cloves Ground spices (e.g. cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, all-spice) Citrus zester or vegetable peeler Toothpicks Rubber bands We did this with…

Small forgotten curios collection

As I was cleaning out under the main shrine up in my Tower of Woo yesterday, I happened to find an old round cardboard box way in the back that I had all but forgotten I had. When I opened it a smell of cloves jumped forth and attacked my nose in a friendly but insistent way. Woooh! It came from a cloved orange I had made three or four years ago - could be five, too - as part of my Norwegian jul celebrations. Now it was all dark and dried out, but that smell! I had no idea it could last so long! The box was - and still is - filled with all kinds of curios, along with that lovely orange. Here it is, all labelled for you:

Two hollowed-out pieces of wood with interesting insect scribblings on them.

Young rhinoceros beetle on top of a gall from the same oak as no.3

Different types of galls from the one and same oak - there are regular oak apples and some "bushy" kind I don't know the name of

Big dragonfly

Rowan berries, I think - they've gone all brownish and shrivelled up

Famed cloved orange still emitting its magic smell after maybe half a decade

Piece of tree root

Head of a pretty big stag beetle

Tuft of a real deer

Smallish vertebrae of don't-know-what 

Pewter ashtray used to hold some of the stuff (we don't smoke)

Three or four hazel nuts in ashtray, under the other stuff

Snail shell

I didn't take out a thing, so there could be stuff at the bottom that can't be seen.

A chess game and a letter

“Chess? But I don’t know how to play chess.” Surana stared uneasily between the board and the two men.

 “That’s the idea.” Cullen gestured to the chair for her to sit down. “It’s something new that you can just enjoy. And I think the game will suit you.”

 She sat down a bit reluctantly, one hand reaching down to pet Timur who had settled onto a sun-warmed old rug that was waiting next to the chair. “And losing repeatedly to the best chess player in Skyhold is supposed to be fun how? Or did you think I hadn’t been warned by Zheevá, Commander?”

 The elf raised a thin eyebrow when Rylen instead took the chair across the board from her, and Cullen pulled up a stool on her side opposite Timur. “Ah, but you’ll have the best chess player in Skyhold coaching you. Rylen learned the rules when he was a recruit, but never played much.”

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