We went to visit our friends Bea and Momo at Bricket Wood, St Albans, UK. My husband and Momo went for a walk around the garden where Momo works. They came back with some beautiful flowers of BORRAGE or BORAGE

Here is a description of this flower from a botanical site I found

The plant is rough with white, stiff, prickly hairs. The round stems, about 1 1/2 feet high, are branched, hollow and succulent; the leaves alternate, large, wrinkled, deep green, oval and pointed, 3 inches long or more, and about 1 1/2 inch broad, the lower ones stalked, with stiff, one celled hairs on the upper surfaces and on the veins below, the margins entire, but wavy. The flowers, which terminate the cells, are bright blue and star-shaped, distinguished from those of every plant in this order by their prominent black anthers, which form a cone in the centre and have been described as their beauty spot. The fruit consists of four brownish-black nutlets.


Borrage flowers, preparing the ice bowl, frozen ice bowl and ice cube with borrage.

These flowers are great on your salad bowl or for desserts. You can crystallize them and imagine a dainty cup cakes with these flowers?

Anyway I mentioned to them I never made that ice bowl you see on magazines. Bea immediately look at her cooking décor books and immediately we swung into action.
To add colour leaves of PINEAPPLE SAGE were added.


Borrage photo from botanical.com

Here’s how to have some fun:

1. Take two glass bowls, one slightly smaller than the other.

2. Place the smaller one inside the larger bowl.

3. Put two strips of heavy duty tape across the top of the bowl to make a cross shape.

4. Using a jug, add some water to the gap

5. Slide the flowers and the leaves, use a stick to place them

6.Add more water, watch how the smaller bowl rises. Stop adding water when the smaller bowl has risen and is level with the big one

6. Place your bowls in the freezer until the water has frozen.

7. When the water has frozen, take the bowls out of the freezer and run under cold water. This will loosen the bowls around your ice.

Fill the bowl what ever you fancy!
Oh we made some ice cubes too.