Today I made three smudges: one with rosemary, basil, and cinnamon; one with rosemary, lavender, and cinnamon; and one with just basil and cinnamon.
It’s unusual that I make a smudge with lavender. It’s easy to get in the springtime, but otherwise, it’s rare. I have a lavender plant, but I’ll only cut one of the branches for a smudge if all the leaves on that branch are already dead. That was the case, and so I made a lavender smudge.
That makes a total of 1.5 “special” smudges I currently have, the .5 being the vanilla smudge I half burned around the new moon. I have more vanilla, and so could theoretically make another vanilla smudge, but it’s so expensive that I want to use it for something else first before I burn it.
The rosemary and basil are from the grocery. I have a rosemary plant, but it’s tiny and has only one branch. It amazes me that it’s still alive, as this is my fourth attempt in less than two years to grow a rosemary plant. I gave up on the basil more than a year ago. Adjua Luna’s Temple will have an herb garden, but in that parallel universe, I’m a reliably good gardener. In that universe I cut branches from blissful, thriving plants to make my smudges without ever having a need to worry for the health of the plant.
The cinnamon will probably always be from the grocery. I’m not going to grow cinnamon.