Using family members as guinea pigs

I made up a batch of salve with some plantain infused oil that I made up a couple of weeks ago. In an earlier post I mentioned how fresh plantain leaves, crushed and the juice rubbed on poison ivy, is an excellent source of itch relief.

Well, I infused some oil with fresh plantain leaves, but it didn't have the same effects on poison ivy as the fresh juice. It did seem to be very good for mosquito bites, though. So I made up some salve hoping that it would be a good treatment for bug bites and stings, but now I have to try it out to see if it works well before putting it up for sale on my Etsy site.

I asked my son, "Do you have any itchy bug bites?"

Him: "No."

Me: "Oh. That's so sad."

Him: "It's sad that I don't have itchy bug bites?"

Me, the good mother: "Yes."

In the evening I purposly lured my hubby out on the back porch. After a while -

Me: "The mosquitos are out - do you have any bites?"

Hubby: "No, lets go inside."

Me, going inside: "No, stay out a while longer. I need someone to get an itchy bite."

My family loves me.

Where the wild things are...

That describes my yard.

If I turn my back on it, it begins to go wild. I've been battling weeds, spraying poison ivy, trimming wayward hedges, trying to keep the herb garden from going native, removing dead squirrels (actually, delegating said task to hubby), and rescuing chipmunks from the jaws of cats.

But its all waiting for just a few short days of neglect. If I turn my back for just a moment, the wild will return with abandon.

A well ordered yard takes a lot of effort - a half feral yard takes even more.

Whew! I need a tall class of iced tea.

A Peacock Picture for your Perusal

Busy with herbs

I've been busy gathering herbs.

I found an elderberry bush from which I've gathered some blossoms. The bush grows near the old farmhouse that's close by. I'm sure that elderberry was there on purpose for use in the household way back when, but now you've got to wade through waist-high goldenrod, ironweed, and assorted other things to get to the bushes. And you have to battle the wild roses that grow alongside to get to the blossoms - all the time trying not to rub against the poison ivy.

My daughter laughed at me because after getting through all of that and wrestling with the bush to reach the high-up blossoms, my head was covered with the little, star-like flowers which had shaken loose and showered down on me. The Elder Mother, whose permission you are supposed to ask before taking the blossoms, was playing games with me. I hadn't asked for her permission : ) So instead, finally remembering my manners, I thanked her as I left.

I also found several spots where yarrow is growing wild - the wild edges of the park next door, on a hill by a roadside, etc. It's in bloom right now so I've gathered some of that, too.

I added lavender to my garden this year and I've been gathering blooms off of that.

A few things that I'm excited about that I have in my garden this year are: holy basil, evening primrose, elecampane, and, of course, calendula.

The scent of holy basil is amazing. I think it's my new favorite! It's spicy in a clove sort of way. I'll add it to teas to stave off oncoming illness (colds/flu) or to help when a person already has something nasty. I'll also mix it with lemon balm for a relaxing tea.

I've purchased several new jars in which to keep my dried herbs.

A few things I've made recently with fresh herbs:

Elder blossom infused cider vinegar

Plantain infused oil

Yarrow infused oil

Plantain glycerite

It's important to always check on the safety of the herbs you want to use. I have several books which told me that elder leaves could be infused in oil to be used on the skin and wounds, etc. I was happily making some of this oil when I brought up elderberry on one of the medical sites which summarize uses, clinical studies, and cautions of herbs and their remedies. Turns out the leaves, bark, root, and unripe berries of the elder should not be used. They contain a cyanide-like compound which can be poisonous. So out went the oil being infused with elder leaves.

If I feel industrious I'll try to add a few pictures to this post later.

Cupid and Psyche

Here is a sculpture, found in the Louvre, depicting the main characters in one of my favorite mythological tales, that of Cupid and Psyche:

A beautiful sculpture for what is both a beautiful and, in some ways, sad story - even Cupid had troubles with love. But it has a happy ending.

Click on the image to see a larger version.

Happy 4th of July weekend!

Here are some fireworks for you:

Bang!


Ahhh!

Ooohh!

Pop!

Wow!

Ahhh!

Boom!

Pop!

Swii!shhh Bang!

Ooooh!

Ahhh!

Wow!

Ohhh!

Bang!

And the finale ......

Boom!

Happy 4th!

I should be cleaning, but... an update instead

We are having people over tomorrow for a fireworks party. Our nice little town has a spiffy 4th of July display, usually just before, or just after the 4th. We have the best seats in the house because the fireworks are shot off in the park right next door. The whole neighborhood is practically one big party on that night - which, this year, is tomorrow night.

So I should be tidying up, but, always looking for an excuse to take a break, I've decided to post an update on my manuscript.

Way back in February a literary agent requested to see the full manuscript of a work that I had submitted the first chapter of. I said back then that I would keep you updated.

Well, I think this manuscript may be cursed, because I never heard back. Even after politely emailing when the three month mark had passed (which is perfectly acceptable to do). The funny thing is, this is the second time this has happened.

This particular manuscript has been requested three times. One agent responded really rather quickly and passed on it. One thanked me for sending it and said that she would get to it right after Book Expo America (last year's BEA), and then I never heard from her again (even after a polite 3 month email, too). And then came this last request and... nothing.

So perhaps it's cursed.

I'm working on a couple of other projects, though, so I'm thinking this one will go into a drawer now.

It's very exciting for an agent to request your manuscript, but it's equally frustrating when you realized you've dumped it into a black hole and will never ever hear anything back.

Ah well, time to move ahead. And get back to cleaning ; )

Yew trees and churchyards

Apparently many churchyards in England have yew trees growing in them. Some of the trees are much older than the churches, and some have obviously been planted there when, or after, the church was built, sometimes near a door, as in the picture below:


The religious/spiritual/ritual/sacred significance of the yew goes back beyond the advent of Christianity in England. Churches were sometimes built on sites that had pre-Christian sacred/spiritual significance, hence the presence of yews already.

The yew continued to signify a connection to those gone before us to the hereafter, and of death, but also of life everlasting - resurrection in Christian terms. So they were often purposely planted on church grounds.

This particular door with its yews is said to be the possible inspiration for the doors of Moria in Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. It is found at the rear of a church in a small town in the Cotswolds, where Tolkien is said to have gone wandering and sketching. In Tolkien's version, however, the trees flanking the doors are ancient hollies.

An interesting aside, in the Harry Potter books, Voldemort's wand is made of yew wood (it dispenses death, yet its wielder seeks everlasting life), and Harry's wand is made of Holly - anciently thought to be a ward against evil.

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.