Question

( Cut for the benefit of spoiler-paranoid readers of Le Guin and Pullman )

A taste of early summer all year round

To those of you with elderflowers...

Go, now and pick a bag of flowerheads, and experiment with drying them - in the conservatory, or in the oven when it's cooling down, or extremely cautiously in the microwave - and then crumble off the dry flowers and put them in a light-proof, air-tight jar. In the autumn, when the nights are drawing in and the cold creeping up, make elderflower tea (perhaps with a spoonful of local honey) and remember the lazy, hazy days of summer...