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.

Grave Goods

I recently read Grave Goods by Ariana Franklin, and enjoyed it immensely.

Set in the late 12th century Britain, under the rule of Henry II, this is a nice little piece of historical fiction. Adelia Aguilar is a trained doctor and something of an early forensic scientist. Glastonbury Abby has just burned to the ground, Henry is having troubles with the Welsh, and two skeletons just dug up on the abbey grounds may be those of the legendary Arthur and Guinevere.

King Henry may be able to help the abbey in its efforts to rebuild and help repress the Welsh uprisings if these skeletons are found to be authentic. He calls on his Mistress of the Art of Death - Adelia - to find out what's what with regard to the remains.

But there is more than meets the eye to this tricky diagnosis. A danger lurks around the ruined town of Glastonbury that may mean the end of the Mistress of the Art of Death.

Historical fiction, bones, early feminism, and a good, old fashioned love story thrown in. What's not to like?

I need to take a book with me on my upcoming vacation (for a very long airport lay-over). I'm thinking of taking along one of Ariana Franklin's other books - unless anyone out there has a favorite that they'd like to recommend??

Beekeeping

There is an early 1800's farmhouse and barn nearby. I walk by it every day. A foundation owns it which gives tours and raises money to help with restoration and upkeep. They also have a nice little herb garden, grow grapes, and have recently added a larger, kitchen garden and a few fruit trees.

And now I've noticed a beehive out by the fruit trees. It doesn't appear to have any bees in it yet, but I think it's very exciting. If the little farmhouse foundation starts keeping bees, it'll be a treat to watch the process.

I'm a fan of the Birdchick Blog, where you can learn all sorts of interesting things about birds and hear of her exploits now and then as beekeeper for author Neil Gaiman's bees.

The Sunburn Song

Here's my post for last Memorial Day Weekend. It's as fun now as it was then:

Watch This Clip

Space - the final frontier

This is a picture of deep space. You can see individual stars shining among masses of more stars and glowing gasses:


Actually I'm just pulling your leg! It's a picture of water spilling over a small, local waterfall.

And for proof, here's the inhabitant of the space behind the falls:

Rrrribit!

Ouch!

I almost broke my hand yesterday - but it turns out it's just bruised and swollen. It's a beautiful day so I'll still try to get some work done on the new herb garden bed, even with the bum hand.

Maybe all I'll be up to is ordering the kids around while sipping lemonade : )

Wood for chopping

Apart from the new herb garden project (see previous post), we finally got a dead poplar taken down today.

It was the tallest tree in our yard (alive or dead):


Now it lies strewn on the ground:

We were too cheap to pay to have the wood and debris hauled away. Hey, I have children, why do I need to pay someone to do all that?

Seriously though, I have a friend who heats her home with a wood stove and is always looking for more fuel. If it turns out that she can't take it, then my family will take turns chopping it into firewood four our own use. I've done it before (albeit, in my youth). Between the four of us, I'm sure we can get the job done.

Pulling up the sod

I've been creating a new space for an herb garden.


Phase one is complete (removal of sod).

Phase two will be amending the soil. Phase three will consist of sectioning and planting.

I figure I'll have it all worked out just in time to go on vacation and come back to withered plants : ) Actually, I'm kidding. I'm sure the person who'll be taking care of everything will take - well - good care of everything.

You can see the sod that I took up was a combination of dandelion, clover, and wild violet, with a little bit of grass in the mix. The little brown thing sticking out of the ground is our well. We hesitate to put chemicals on the lawn because we figure they'll end up in our water.

As long as the ground cover is green, right?

The Queen's Thief

I just found out that the fourth book in Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief series is due out in 2010. Hurray!

The other books in the series are:

The Newberry Award winning The Thief

Book two, The Queen of Attolia


Book three, The King of Attolia

These are extremely clever, extremely entertaining books by one smart author. If you haven't read any of them, I would suggest you pick pick them up an read. Ms. Turner isn't the type of author to chug out one book after another. She takes her time and rewards her readers with clever gems to relish.


Oh, that I could be that clever.....

Garlic Mustard

Last year a mystery plant appeared in my yard. It seemed at first a welcome addition, a nice, green ground cover in a very shady spot.

I thought that it might be wild ginger. The leaves were very similar and when crushed they smelled vaguely onion-y. They were a rounded heart shape:


This year, however, the plants shot up, the leaves became elongated and pointy, and the plants flowered

I found a nice picture of this very same plant while visiting the Tales of a Kitchen Herbwife blog. She identified the plant as garlic mustard.

I googled it and found that it's an invasive plant in our area. It's edible, with a garlic/mustard taste, and it can be used medicinally as well. I ate one small leaf. Wow! I can still taste it, and I'm sure that I now have a nasty case of garlic breath.

The medicinal uses can be found here and here.

Right now I'm thinking that I want to erradicate what I have in my yard so that It doesn't begin to take over. I'm not a huge garlic lover, so I don't think I'll be tossing it into my salads, and I know of other plants which can do the medicinal duties that this one is said to be good for.

So it looks like I'll be saying goodbye soon to my garlic mustard.

A little history of my back yard

My yard lies right up against a park which used to be a farm. In the picture below you can see the little strip of no-man's land which runs between my yard (you can see my back yard fence) to the left and a long, narrow hill rising up at the right which serves as a buffer between my house and the park. The park people are responsible for mowing and upkeep here:


In the back corner of my back yard, looking just over the fence into the park, you can see some old irrigation piping from the farm, plowed-up rocks which were dumped in what used to be a shrubby buffer between farm fields. and some old fence posts still standing:

There's even an old bundle of barbed fencing wire:

My little town was an important junction on the underground railroad and it's said that the farm was one of the many safe stops here. Runaway slaves would hide out in the forest on the edge of the fields during the day, and find safe shelter in the barn at night until they could be transported to another safe place. We like to think that the forest they hid in during the day is where our back yard is now.

Ohio was a northern state, but runaway slaves weren't safe even in the northern states. They were hunted down by people who made money off of finding and returning them. They were only really safe when they reached Canada. Lake Erie and a boat to Canada was the goal of the runaways. Today, Lake Erie is only about a 40 minute drive away.

If you want to read an excellent children's book involving runaways and the underground railroad, then pick up Shelley Pearsall's book, Trouble Don't Last. It involves Ohio (though not my little town) and one of the routes which led to a boat and safety in Canada.

In the picture below, I'm standing in the back corner of my yard, looking toward the baseball fields in the park. In the foreground is the fence, then the remains of a horde of wild rose brambles which used to flow over my fence. For some reason they died off, but there are plenty more out there. The park left the brushy border between farm fields and it is now a brushy border between the baseball fields and the soccer fields.

If you have good eyes, you can just make out the tall lights that were erected only last week around the furthest ball fields. I'm not looking forward to their being turned on (if you click on the picture you can see them). I've posted about my feelings on artificial nighttime lighting before (you can find the posts - including this one - here):

In a spot just on the other side of my fence, in an area where the brambles died off, I found a clump of lemon balm growing. That made me happy.