Borago officinalis, fleurs de bourrache, Borretschblumen, flores de borraja, bláthanna borráiste gorm

And another Persian deli (while I was on my way to the Indian spice shop and the Indonesian supermarket), and I was glad to find one nearer to home, i.e. on the same side of the city. If you’re from elsewhere and are familiar with the dimensions of Adelaide, that last comment may raise a laugh, but it’s all relative. I once moved from a large apartment to a bedsit. Walking from one side to the other seemed to require the same effort, if not time.

So, the spice aisle, or rather wall. It wasn’t long before I’d come across a packet of borage flowers – a packet of blue. These were somewhat more expensive than the myrobalan, and the packet only contained 30g, but I just couldn’t resist. There’s at least half left over for their original purpose – herbal tea.

The colours aren’t so deep, but subtle and not ones you get from the majority of plants. They remind me of woad seeds (but paler), and of course there’s some resemblance to alkanet (same family). Try as I might, I couldn’t get a photo with their true shades, but this one is the closest. The Fe-modified skeins are pure grey in real life.