The Tudor Rose

In England, one sees depictions of the Tudor Rose in many places. This wild rose, reminiscent of those depictions, grew along a footpath surrounding the ruins of Kenilworth castle:


Some decorative stonework found at Windsor Castle:


A depiction, again by the ruins of Kenilworth:

On a sign denoting the rating of a very good bed and breakfast in Lacock:

On a shield among the atmospheric decorations at Warwick Castle:

Simple poison ivy itch relief

One word - Plantain.

A simple garden weed is the best source of itch relief from poison ivy that I've ever found - and believe me I've tried them all.

Plantain is supposed to relieve bug bites, stings, and even the itch from poison ivy and poison oak rash. I was skeptical, but the other night I woke up itching with poison ivy. I have a bug bite balm which I made from several other herbs. I put that on; it helped right away and I went back to sleep.

As the rash matured over the next 24 hours or so, the bug bite balm no longer helped. Finally I plucked a leaf of plantain growing (with abandon) in my yard. I pulverized it between my fingers and rubbed the juice on my rash. Instant relief. And lasting.

I was amazed.

I gathered a nice bunch of leaves and made an olive oil infusion, hoping to make a balm for poison ivy with it. I've found that the infused oil is very good for mosquito bites (immediate and lasting relief), but that it does not work on the poison ivy. Soooo sad.

I guess fresh is best, but I'll try making a glycerite to see if that works on poison ivy.

If you want to try this remedy, remember, it's the lawn weed plantain and not the bannana plantain. Also, don't use plants that may have lawn chemicals (fertilizer, weed killers) on them. The pictures above are of two different varieties of plantain. Both work equally well, but I've found that the narrower-leafed variety is easier to smoosh up with your fingers to get juice out of.
EDIT 7/11: I have found out how to make a poison ivy itch-relief spray using fresh plantain leaves. See this post.

More flowers from my travels

Here are just a couple more pictures of flowers among Greek ruins. The first was found among a Byzantine era fortified city up on a high hill overlooking what used to be Sparta. I don't know what the name of the flower is:


And light purple color of this flower stands no chance against the blazing Aegean sun and a backdrop of the blue Mediterranean:

I've pulled back in this picture to show the blue water below. It's the Gulf of Argolis, part of the Mediterranean. This flower grew among the ruins of another fortification which sits high above the city of Nafplio right on the gulf. The city of Argos is nearby:

The cable is fixed!

Hurray! Now I can post a couple of pretty pictures I took in Greece.

This first picture is of some beautiful poppies. They sprinkled the sunwashed ruins of Akrocorinth with a bit of vibrant color:


And the other picture is of a hummingbird moth feeding on one of the big, beautiful thistles that also grew there. Click on the picture to really see it!:

P.S. To find out where I was in the last "Where in the world was I?" post, look in the comments section of that post.

Buried Cables and Gardening Don't Mix

My husband accidentally sliced through the internet cable while turning a garden plot for me.

Hopefully it will be fixed tomorrow - but if not, you'll know why I'm not posting (I posted this from the computers at the library).

Have a nice weekend!

Where in the world was I? - a four parter

Okay, this is the last installment of my "Guess where in the world I am" game. This installment has four parts. You can guess the location(s) for each of the four parts.

PART ONE:

These two pictures represent one location. Where in the world was I?

PART TWO:

These two pictures also represent one location. Where in the world was I?

PART THREE:

These two pictures represent one location. It may be easy to guess a very general location, but how specific can you get?

This picture below is blurry because the light was very dim and flash photography was not allowed. Holding the camera still enough for a quality photo was a challenge:

PART FOUR:

There are four pictures in part four. It may be easy to guess the general location represented by all four photos, but again, how specific can you get in identifying where in the world I was with each photo?

Below, can you guess which platform my family wanted to reach?:

Do you know where this pub can be found, and what significance it may hold for Tolkien fans?

This one's a gimme:

Good Luck!!!

And for those who would like to know the answer to my last "Where in the world was I?" post, I was in ancient Ephesus. The apostle Paul turned his back on Ephesus when the people there refused to stop worshiping Artemis.

You can't really blame them, the temple to Artemis in Ephesus was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. In some ancient lore, it was the Amazons on their travels who first built a temple to Artemis in Ehpesus.

The apostle John died there not long after returning from exile on the island of Patmos (where he received the revelation which eventually became the Book of Revelations).

Home from wanderings

I am home now. Arrived this morning after a very long trip home.

I'm so tired that when I called to have a pizza delivered, I couldn't remember my home telephone number. They wouldn't accept my credit card over the phone because I sounded shady, so I had to drive to a teller machine, get some U.S money (all I have on my is foreign), and pick the order up.

Tired not necessarily from the whole vacation, just the trip home which involved spending the night at the airport in Atlanta. Yech.

I'll post a couple more "Where was I?" posts over the next day or two. I did happen to pick up a small gift from one of the countries I visited which I will bestow upon one lucky commenter in my "Where in the world" posts (adrienne, right now it looks like you're a shoe in!).

Must sleep now.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Round 2: Where in the world am I?

Sorry it's been so long since my last post. My internet access has been non-existent until now, and it may not last long.

The answer to the last post is: Acrocorinth in Greece. See the comments section of that post to learn more.

Here is the next picture. I was here many days and a couple of countries ago. It was a wonderful place to visit:


Most visitors are wowed by it's New Testament connections. That is indeed impressive, but I was wowed by it's mythological connections to the Amazons. They are depicted here on one of the ruined buildings:

Where was I?? Leave a comment with your guess.

Where am I? Can you guessf from the picture?

The guessing game has begun (see previous post).

Where in the world am I? Can you guess from the picture? It's a tricky one. You can be as general or as specific with your guess as you like. Here's the picture:

I'm looking for a little souvenir prize to bring home to award one of the commenters. There will be other posts with other locations coming up - whenever I have internet access on my travels and the time to post a picture. So keep visiting over the next couple of weeks and guessing where in the world I am!

Where in the world is the Inconsequential Blogger?

Remember the old "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" game?
Well I'm leaving very early on Thursday morning to go on a trip. I'll be gone for just over two weeks. I'll be traveling to different destinations the whole time. Whenever I get a chance (which may not be very often) I'll post a picture of someplace where I am or have just visited and I'll let any blog visitors who happen to stop by try to guess where I am.

So keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks for my (sporadic) posts and see if you can guess where in the world I am.

There may be a prize involved, if I become organized enough and spot something fun and small during my travels to bring back to be the prize . If such a thing should happen, it would be awarded in a drawing from all of the commenters.