Cranes and geraniums

Following my acquisition of Japanese treasures, I was inspired to try making origami cranes. My plan is to hang these from string across my ceiling. Here's my flock so far:



With no idea of my current crane compulsion, yesterday my friend Jan surprised me with a birthday gift (not my birthday, hence the surprise) of a pair of tiniest origami crane earrings. They are tiny and beautiful, dark green with a light green and gold pattern. This photo doesn't come close to doing them justice, but at least shows how small and cute they are:



This week sees the establishment of pink and white geraniums in Board of Design's window box, as part of a New Regent Street beautification initiative. What has this got to do with cranes? Well, geraniums are also known as cranesbills, so called for the appearance of the seed-heads, which have the same shape as the bill of a crane. The genus name is derived from the Greek γέρανος, géranos, or γερανός, geranós, crane.

Quite interestingly, according to Stephen Fry, ozone smells of geraniums.