Daphne

It’s a cold rainy Monday morning in Melbourne and I’m sitting at my desk preparing my recipes for cooking class tomorrow.
Over the weekend, my lovely niece gave me quite a few sprigs of daphne from the bush by her front door and I am drinking in the exquisite scent of the small but strongly fragrant blooms.
A native of China and Japan, this bush, also known as winter flowering daphne,  grows well in cool climates which enables it to flourish and flower prolifically in Southern Australia. The most common varieties have pink and white flowers but there is also a white variety, often with yellow and green variegated leaves that has a more citrussy perfume…  If you can get your hands on a sprig of either variety, put it in a vase near your work space or next to your bed and enjoy it during its brief season…. definitely one of life’s little pleasures!