Botany, Travel, and Art, Oh My!
Forewarning to all ye who enter here: Thar be spoilers on this page. So in the event you have somehow not yet read or watched anything of the Potterverse, you have been warned. Let us proceed.
The World Tree, in its many forms, is often depicted with the Overworld, the branches, representing the future, the spirit realm, and sometimes thought and possibility. These are all unknown quantities most of the time and often thought to be subject to change based on current events.
Getting out in nature is therapy, a form of self-care. People often say that they need to "go be in nature." Where is this nature? Is it the mountains, tall trees a sheltering canopy overhead? Is it the violent waves crashing against a battered rocky shoreline? Perhaps "nature" is the expansive park in your town square, home to childhood games and Sunday picknicks.
A warning if your computer tends to lag: This post has a good number of photos so as to illustrate the baking process. I tried to minimize how many were included, but there's still quite a few. PSA over, now, on with the show.
Oats, as I've said in previous posts, are a hearty foodstuff that is often eaten as part of muesli, granola, or as hot cereal. This switches things up a bit, combining the nutrient-dense properties inherent in oats with the oils and energy in peanuts (especially as in this example, we're using crunchy peanut butter, allowing whole nut pieces to be present), dense nutrients of flax, and the brain-boosting, nutrient-rich properties of dark chocolate. And the whole thing can easily be made vegan and gluten-free... (read more)
Oats have long been seen as a good source of nutrients, protein and an energy-rich foodstuff. New discoveries show that our Paleolithic ancestors may well have been eating oatcakes or other oat-based foods in the Stone Age (Watson, 2015). Furthermore, oats are more suited to temperate regions with cooler, wetter climates than some other cereals
Cleveland Sage. Jim Sage. Blue Sage. Fragrant Sage. All these are common names for Salvia clevelandii. Regardless of region, this plant is known for its aromatic qualities--a trait shared by its cousins in other sage species. Native to southern California and northern Baja, this perennial thrives in a chaparral habitat, usually found growing wild below 3000 ft / 900 m. Initially identified in 1874 by Asa Gray and Edward Lee Greene, it was named in honor of San Diego's noted plant collector, Daniel Cleveland.
Today is Easter, the time when in the Christian tradition, someone who was once presumed deceased is reborn into a new, but strikingly similar form. Yesterday was World Transgender Awareness Day, celebrating a community so often misunderstood, harassed, or ignored--a community whose very nature calls out in an expression of change, ideally able to embrace the individual's truest self. On the Spring Equinox, March 20, was Ostara, the transition between the hibernation and death of winter into the rebirth and new life of spring. I find it apt that all three of these events occur during a liminal period, not entirely one or the other--the dusk of one season and dawn of the next.
There are many species in the Sempervivum genus, each unique and with particular properties. Noted by Linnaeus in 1757, the genus name translates to "always living," a reference to the plants' hardy, drought-tolerant nature, enabling it to survive in both intense heat and frost. They are also known as houseleeks, hens, chicks, or hen's nests in some areas.
While each species has its own unique traits and properties, all share an inherent hardiness in dry, arid conditions. However, because they evolved to exist in regions largely devoid of water for the majority of the year, they are highly suceptable to over-watering and potential rotting--either from fungus or from being waterlogged.
Today, we'll be talking about the ever-lovely Golden Barrel Cactus (Echinocactus grusoni), first described by Hildmann (1891). I will admit that the barrel cactus has always been a favorite of mine. In retrospect, that is likely because it looks much like a cuddly pillow (unlike the soft-spined Paraguan and Brasilian native, (Notocactus leninghausii), but I digress.
