I may be growing a fennel bush

I received a package from the illustrious Ms. S. Pal. Behold.

There were wonderful new-to-me-yarns: A skein each of Rowan Big Wool, Rowanspun, Wool Cotton, and the magnificent, heard-about-it-but-WOW! Kidsilk Haze. (Pardon me while I put on my dribble bib.) I started swatches of each immediately, except the Kidsilk Haze. There should be a warning on its wrapper, "Froggeth ye not for, yea, verily, I ain't gonna do it." I am petting it so much it will soon be be unknittable if I don't stop.

I also got a poem, Widecombe Fair, a kit to make a star cushion (?)--I'm not sure what it is exactly because I don't want to open it yet. I'm sure to lose the bits and pieces. There was also an elegant card with elephants on it. Miz Pal included a stick of rock candy, which I am not going to eat but keep on my desk shelf as a remembrance so I can get the warm fuzzies when I see it, and some beautiful ruby colored English Rose soap--smells heavenly but tastes terrible (and how would one know if one did not try it?). And I got a sweet little tin of comfit. Do you know what comfit are? They are confections made of a small piece of fruit, a seed, or a nut coated in sugar. (One had to look it up. One was not schooled in comfitture.) When I saw it I stripped it of its plastic wrap, opened it, saw some pink Tic Tac looking things and popped one in my mouth. Hmmmm. It was naive little tidbit but amusingly presumptious with a nicely focused hint of cinnamon. Quite nice. However, it did have a very small piece of wood at it's core and I spat this out. (Translation: I went, "Blaaaah!" over the trash can.) I had another. Same small bit of wood. I picked up my tin and read "Cinnamon Comfit", ingredients: sugar, starch, fennel seed, cinnamon oil, color #120. I didn't know what a comfit was so I thought perhaps it was not meant to taken orally and grabbed the Webster's to look it up. Turned out that the bit of wood was the fennel seed, duh, which was what made the candy a comfit and not a Tic Tac. I have had several since and I have decided I like them. I chewed a few of the fennel seeds and some I swallowed whole--not really up on my Comfit Etiquette. Someone must let me know the proper procedure. (I did discover, however, that I can not spit them with any degree of accuracy.)

I like trying new things but I was a I-never-had-it-and-I-know-I-won't-like-it person for a long time; afraid to try anything new. No more. I enjoy new taste experiences and look forward to more--Ms. Pal has been asking about chocolate and tea preferences. Can't wait to taste them.

But I still don't like the soap.