Rosmarinus officinalis (Rosemary) "Rosemary is for rememberance"

This is the 363rd day of 2010, and there are only two more days of this decade (in the Gregorian calender) after today passes. The promise of the onset of a new year is an occasion for me to send a card to people who bring meaning to my life. While you may not have time to go on my on-line viewing sources to choose a card for you to do the same, I do have a beautiful selection of cards in the store-front pages of my web-site, and I hope you will make it a New Year's resolution to reach out to your colleagues, friends and family from time to time by sending them a card for the array of events that  are bound to occur during the course of  the new year for all persons.

As an urban gardener, I often include herbs with my correspondence, particularly  at the onset of a new year, when I like to accompany my greeting with rosemary an herb I grow in my roof-extension garden. This herb is also a 'subject' of one of my petite wrap-around cards as seen below).

During warmer months, I include a sprig of fresh rosemary as it is a symbol of friendship. However, since I am unable to include a fresh sprig during winter months, I harvest and dry my rosemary: rosemary that I grow in a variety of containers on my roof-top extension garden, as seen in the "window" box propped on an old piano bench in this "card" image, and also seen with its Simon and Garfunkel comrades "parsley, sage and thyme", huddled together in an old-fashioned metal milk-bottle holder, and captured in a photo at the top of this post (where they are posing below my Rosemary triplets that are shaped into a lovely topiary). Since I cannot send a fresh sprig of rosemary during winter months, I prepare it in another way. When I do my garden winterizing (various winterizing methods have been discussed in a previous post which you can view here), I cut back my rosemary, dry it, then I grind it and put it into small jars (as shown below):

to give as New Year's gifts. Rosemary is an herb that is wonderful to use for culinary purposes if you are so inclined, but it is also an herb that is a symbol of friendship, so it is great to include in a correspondence when expressing appreciation to someone in your life.

I am prompted to include rosemary with New Year's wishes by Ophelia, who in Hamlet, reminds us that "Rosemary means remembrance," and this is not the first quote of Ophelia's that inspires my card sending, as you may recall from a previous post entered on this past Valentine's day which you may refer to by clicking here. BTW, sending rosemary at the start of a new year, because of its association with remembrance, also addresses the rhetorical question asked in the traditional new year' s song, Old Lang Syne, as to whether it is right that old times be forgotten. This song is generally interpreted as an invitation to remember those near and dear to our heart and evidenced by sending a card.