We did go outside into the gardens for a little while. We lit several blocks of incense charcoal, and then scattered through the garden pinching off bits of the different plants to see what would or
wouldn't smell good when burned. The big surprise of the evening was finding out that Rue gives off a scent like coconut when burned! There was an orange tree in bloom, and as luscious as the blossoms smelled, there was almost no scent when burned... and that was exactly the point of our going outside and burning things. Well... that and the fact that it was really fun, and The Rosemary House has such incredible gardens with so many smelliferous things to burn.
While making incense cones from the various powders is one of my favorite classes to teach, it is a fairly obscure topic and sometimes the classes don't fill up - requiring cancellation. We had 10 eager participants last night, and that was really fun. It is always interesting to see the many different shapes that are all "cones".
Everyone got to make a batch of incense in either sandalwood/benzoin/lavender, or some chose to leave out the lavender. They all did a great job. As usual, classes start out a little bit "tight", and by the time we are through everyone has dirty hands and feels like we know each other.
One other tip discovered last night.... Susanna is Mom to kids that are young enough to require wet-naps. Soap and water doesn't effectively remove the tacky resins from the hands after making cones. But wet-naps work in a snap.
