Pomander balls

One of the cosiest things I like to do before Christmas is to make pomander balls. Their smell of cloves and orange is so pleasant. They are easy to make, also for those with less well-developed fine motor skills. In addition, the orange balls with brown dots looks lovely, hanging in the window frame. In fact, they have some resemblance to virus particles. Continue reading

The groove

When my boyfriend finally returnedĀ from Africa in 1989, two years of intense letter writing came to an end. I had written about my life as a budding researcher, he about his life as a volunteerĀ in the bush. Still I became a bit puzzled the morning of our reunion in Paris, when he after a night in a cheap hotel bed announced that he had dreamt that we were competing peptides in the HLA groove!

Continue reading