THEME Thursday, April 28, 2010 - Sleep

EtsyBlogger Teammates Artwork.  Click on photo to transport to each shop!

Original Photo 5x7 Sebastian and Snowflake

A Sleepy Horse - 5 x 7 print of an original watercolor

Sugar - Kitty Cat and Blue Beaded Earrings

Jumping Off Places Meme ... Week 9 April 22, 2011

The bee flitted from blossom to blossom in an erratic pattern as my spirit revels in the height of the tall, fragrant, wheat colored grass.  When laying within the fold of this huge beautiful field behind our house, looking at the pussy willow tree upside down, and the awesome blue cloudless sky, my thoughts wander.
The momentary escape mingles with reality and I turn it over quickly, out of my mind, thinking only of the pieces of milkweed dancing along in the background to the deep, neverending blue sky.  Breaking off a piece of the tall grass and putting it into my mouth, I feel engulfed in peace.  When I am here, I believe that I am loved more than anything imaginable. 

An unexpected exhale, a relaxing.  Taking in the fresh air, breathing in and asorbing the colors that suround me in every direction.  I long to be, in this, my favorite place in all of my small world.  There is no wrong, no looking over my shoulder, making a snow-like angel within the tall, wheat colored grass ... places like this are known by wild deer, not children. I am blessed to share such a teeny place in all of the universe.

In the distance I see shadows behind the kitchen window.  Can I be seen.  Am I ever truly alone?

Thursday, April 14, 2011 Meme - "SPICE"

I LOVE SPICES, HOW ABOUT YOU?

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark or vegatative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor.comor, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. Flavoring may be to hide other flavors. In the kitchen, spices are distinguished from herbs, which are leafy, green plant parts used for flavoring.
Many spices are used for other purposes, such as medicine, religious rituals, cosmetics, perfumery or for eating as vegetables. For example, tumeric is also used as apreservative; liquorice as a medicine; garlic  as a vegetable.

Early history

Humans were using spices in 50,000 BC. The spice trade developed throughout the Middle East in around 2000 BC with cinnamon and pepper, and in East Asia (Korea, China) with herbs and pepper. The Egyptians used herbs for embalming and their need for exotic herbs helped stimulate world trade. The word spice comes from the Old French word "espice" which became "epice" and which came from the Latin root "spec", the noun referring to appearance, sort, kind ('Species' has the same root.) By 1000 BC, China, Korea and India had medical systems based upon herbs. Early uses were connected with magic, medicine, religion, tradition, and preservation.

Digs found a clove burnt onto the floor of a burned down kitchen in the Mesopotamian site of Terqa, in what is now modern-daySyria, dated to 1700 BC.

In the story of Genesis, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants. In the biblical poem Song of Solomon, the male speaker compares his beloved to many forms of spices. Generally, early Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, and Mesopotamian sources do not refer to known spices.

In South Asia, nutmeg, which originates from the Banda Islands in the Molukas, has a Sanskrit name. Sanskrit is the ancient language of India, showing how old the usage of this spice is in this region Historians believe that nutmeg was introduced to Europe in the 6th century BC.

The ancient Indian epic of Ramayana mentions cloves. The Romans had cloves in the 1st century AD, as Pliny the Elder about them.  Indonesian merchants went around China, India, the Middle East and the east coast of Africa. Arab merchants facilitated the routes through the Middle East and India. This made the city of Alexandria in Egypt the main trading centre for spices because of its port. The most important discovery prior to the European spice trade were the monsoon winds (40 AD). Sailing from Eastern spice growers to Western European consumers gradually replaced the land-locked spice routes once facilitated by the Middle East Arab caravans. 

Middle Ages

Spices were among the most demanded and expensive products available in Europe in theMiddle Ages, the most common being black pepper, cinnamon (and the cheaper alternative cassia), cumin, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. Given the Medieval Medicine's main theory of humorism, spices and herbs were indispensable to balance "humors" in food, a daily basis for good health at a time of recurrent pandemic.

Spices were all imported from plantations in Asia and Africa, which made them expensive. From the 8th until the 15th century, the Republic of Venice had the monopoly on spice trade with the Middle East, and along with it the neighboring Italian city-states. The trade made the region rich. It has been estimated that around 1,000 tons of pepper and 1,000 tons of the other common spices were imported into Western Europe each year during the Late Middle Ages. The value of these goods was the equivalent of a yearly supply of grain for 1.5 million people.  The most exclusive was saffron, used as much for its vivid yellow-red color as for its flavor. Spices that have now fallen into obscurity in European cuisine include grains of paradise, a relative of cardamom which most replaced pepper in late medieval north French cooking, long pepper, mace, spikenard, galangal, and cubeb.

Early modern period

The control of trade routes and the spice-producing regions were the main reasons that Portuguese navigator Vasco do Gama sailed to India in 1499.  Spain and Portugal were not happy to pay the high price that Venice demanded for spices.  At around the same time, Christopher Columbus returned from the New World, he described to investors new spices available here.

The military prowess of Afonso de Alburquerque (1453–1515) allowed the Portuguese to take control of the sea routes to India. In 1506, he took the island of Socotra in the mouth of the Red Sea and, in 1507, Ormuz in thePersian Gulf.  Since becoming the viceroy of the Indies, he took Goa in India in 1510, and Malacca on the Malay peninsula in 1511. The Portuguese could now trade directly with Siam, China, and the Moluccas. The Silk Road complemented the Portuguese sea routes, and brought the treasures of the Orient to Europe via Lisbon, including many spices.

With the discovery of the New World came new spices, including allspice, bell and chili peppers, vanilla, and chocolate. This development kept the spice trade, with America as a late comer with its new seasonings, profitable well into the 19th century.

In the Caribbean, the island of Grenada is well known for growing and exporting a number of spices, including the nutmeg, which was introduced to Grenada by the settlers.

Handling spices

A spice may be available in several forms: fresh, whole dried, or pre-ground dried. Generally, spices are dried. A whole dried spice has the longest shelf life so can be purchased and stored in larger amounts, making it cheaper on a per-serving basis. Some spices are rarely available either fresh or whole, for example turmeric, and must be purchased in ground form. Small seeds, such as fennel and mustard seeds, are used both whole and in powder form.

The flavor of a spice is derived in part from compounds that oxidize or evaporate when exposed to air. Grinding a spice greatly increases its surface area and so increases the rates of oxidation and evaporation. Thus, flavor is maximized by storing a spice whole and grinding when needed. The shelf life of a whole spice is roughly two years; of a ground spice roughly six months. The "flavor life" of a ground spice can much shorter. Ground spices are better stored away from light.
To grind a whole spice, the classic tool is mortar and pestle. Less labor-intensive tools are more common now: a microplane or fine grater can be used to grind small amounts; a coffee grinder is useful for larger amounts. A frequently used spice such as black pepper may merit storage in its own hand grinder or mill
.
Some flavor elements in spices are soluble in water; many are soluble in oil or fat. As a general rule, the flavors from a spice take time to infuse into the food so spices are added early in preparation.

Production in tonnes. Figures 2003-2004 Researched by FAOSTAT (FAO)
India	1 600 000	86 %
China	99 000	5 %
Bangladesh	48 000	3 %
Pakistan	45 300	2 %
Nepal	15 500	1 %
Other countries	60 900	3 %
Total	1 868 700	100 %

Jumping Off Places Meme ... Week 8 April 2011

Younger memories ... click here

The inward journey is a lifelong pilgrimage.  

An adult now, the journey has been filled with many good memories, and even more prevalent, the nightmares.  It is unfortunate that the monster mother continues the games and actions meant to control and injure, even in her seventies, as the youngest of us continues her healing battle. 

Maine and New Hampshire camping vacations, participating in elementary school May Pole Ceremonies, empty refrigerator boxes used to slide down the grassy hill between our house and my grandparents home. Standing at the edge of Nanna & Grampy's backyard filling our mouths with warm, sweet, fresh raspberries and blackberries from the vines.  Traveling into the woods on the tailgate of our station wagon eager to pick wild blueberries, and eating hard pears from the school yard tree.  Raising tadpoles, ice skating and bonfires on cranberry bogs in winter.  Clyde, my fathers black Labrador retriever, yearly month-long vacations visiting maternal relatives here in Florida.  Suddenly, I learn that my father is not my real father. 

Good memories tempered by the impossible. 

It was like a boomerang, coming back only to knock me upside the head.  She yelled at me.  "How dare I embarrass my "father" like that in front of everyone?"  Oh my god, in trouble again.  What is happening?  My head spins.  Who kicked me in the stomach?

Arriving at Aunt Betty and Uncle Al's home, everyone leaves the car making a beeline for the house.  I am told to wait.  She takes me aside in the driveway, yells at me again for embarrassing my "father", how could I be so rude.  "No, he is not your father."  "Stay here until you stop crying."  NEVER bring  the subject up again, questions are unacceptable. 

Frightened into believing!  Why am I different?  Why is this so bad?  Head continues to spin, stomach hurts, can't breath.  Hold me.  Please hold me.  Love me, PLEASE!  She gives me a piece of gum and tells me not to come into the house until "you can stop crying"!  I see her back walking away through my hot, salty, frigthened tears.

God, please take me away, anywhere.  Somewhere.  Help me find my real father, he will take me to a home of love and peace.  "Real" grandparents?  Sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles ...

It is a coming to terms, realizations, purging, giving up, and letting go.  Looking at the adult, with an adults vision and a child's broken spirit.  How do I forgive?  Do I want to know how?

Theme Thursday Meme March 31, 2011 ~ SILLY

SILLY STATE LAWS

Check out this array of crazy codes of conduct from across the nation. Some are no longer on the books (thank goodness), others are truly letter-of-the-law lunacy.

FLORIDA:  Doors that open inward, instead of outward

NEW HAMPSHIRE:  Don’t even think about collecting seaweed at night

SOUTH CAROLINA:  There’s no playing with pinball machines until you’re 18

ALASKA:  It is considered an offense to push a live moose out of a moving airplane

HAWAII:  Coins are not allowed to be placed in one’s ears

NEW YORK:  A person may not walk around on Sundays with an ice cream cone in his/her pocket

INDIANA:  Hotel sheets must be exactly 99 inches long and 81 inches wide

VERMONT:  Women must obtain written permission from their husbands to wear false teeth

COLORADO:  It is illegal to ride a horse while under the influence

ALABAMA:  Boogers may not be flicked into the wind

More?  Click Above Map ...

Theme Thursday Meme March 24, 2011 - Paper

Where would the world be without paper? It has thousands of different uses and is used throughout the world many times in a day. Paper is largely used to write or print on, but it is also used in packaging, napkins and paper towel, toilet paper and some countries even use it as a food product.

History of Paper

• The ancient Sumerians used clay tablets to write.
• The ancient Egyptians used papyrus as a writing material. This was much better than writing on clay tablets. Papyrus was made from beaten strips of papyrus plants. There is evidence showing that the Egyptians used papyrus as early as 3700 BC. They later exported papyrus to Greek and Rome. The word ‘paper’ comes from the Greek work for ‘papyrus’.
• From about 1600 to 250 BC, the ancient Chinese wrote on bamboo strips or bone. These were heavy and difficult to transport.
• The first ‘paper’ was invented in ancient China sometime around 200 BC. However, this paper was made very differently modern paper.
• Cai Lun, a court official during the Han Dynasty in China, is credited with inventing ‘modern’ paper. He first made paper from rags and plant fibers in 105 AD. While the papermaking process has changed throughout the years, modern paper is still quite similar to that made by Cai Lun. Paper became widely used as a writing implement by the 3rd century (200-300 AD).

The Thursday Meme often gives me the exciting opportunity to feature some of my very talented and artistic etsybloggers teammates.  Be amazed with me at the variety of paper materials, and designs. 

Donna Pool ~ Cat Note Cards

Mr. PenQuin ~ Paper Flower Accents

Rose Works Jewelry ~ Multicolored Paper Beads

Please stop, take a few moments to explore the artists shops, you may find a gift for you or someone else, and help the handmade artisan and movement at the same time.
~Re

Theme Thursday Meme March 17, 2011 ~LUCK

Theme Thursday: Teammates

from the EtsyBloggers Team

Cottage Candies

"We're a couple of sisters from Texas using a combination of family recipes and our own recipes, to create scrumptious candies"

Ragamuffin Design

 "working on my PhD, teach at a local University and am a competitive athlete"

The Clay Shoppe

"Carrie & Kathy have a passion for creating things with polymer and precious metal clays"

Question: Do you believe in "LUCK"?

Theme Thursday Meme SPACE March 10, 2011

Our Space - Home Sweet Home

One of the benefits of having your own space,

is using it as you will, when you want too!

Meme Thursday Feburary 24, 2011

This week I learned what is, and how to pronounce, "Meme".  Thank you Margaret of Splendid Little Stars.

Because of the detailed information provided to my by Margaret, I was lead to Theme Thursday's Blog and this weeks Meme, "Point".

"POINT"