Botanicals

They're special, apparently meant for mixes with gin and named 'Gin Botanicals' ! We were at the off-license to get some whisky for DJ yesterday and this trio of glass tubes was displayed near the till. My cardamom stock (for my banana pancakes and other baking) is almost depleted and so far I've had no joy finding them in the supermarket, so I bought them there and then, with the idea that this trio was pretty photogenic too ! The black ones are Bayas de Enebro, Spanish juniper berries, when you crush one it smells amazingly of a very fruity gin. The red ones are Pimienta Rosa, pink pepper with a citrus kind of taste and then there's the tube full of cardamom pods. Cardamom is a very special spice, when you crush those seeds you can find inside the pod the aroma is definitely enticing. I wonder what would happen if I'd spice up my banana pancake with all three, I can try that tomorrow morning ! Will it be a monster creation or angels food?

Talking about monsters, thanks so much for creating a collection full of mostly very benign monsters for Abstract Thursday ! I did have the usual difficulties choosing only 5 but marvelled at your creativity ! I wonder what you will make of next Thursday's theme. Last week one of my own photo challenges was finding faces in things I saw and captured. This phenomenon of finding/seeing faces in inanimate objects is called pareidolia and is rather addictive but also can be so amusing. In the end you can see and find faces in almost anything. So join me in finding an abstract face this coming Thursday and tag it AT108 :-) Here are my special 5 of last Thursday:
PaulineP   for an intriguing face with piercing eyes
DawnP   for an all natural tree trunk monster
Doingok for a colourful Puerto Rican bad spirits chaser
LifesJourney for an abstract of a dragonfly seemingly waltzing with its exuvia
Inverculain  for creating a monsterly dragon head in the clouds

Looking forward to next Thursday when all will be seeing faces ;-)

Thank you so much for your kind comments and stars for yesterday's comma butterfly on the hibiscus.