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Redbuds are back!

"The sin of inadvertence, not being alert, not quite awake, is the sin of missing the moment of life... live with unremitting awareness."

Joseph Campbell

 

Ah, the Redbuds ( Cercis Canadensis) are starting to bloom all over the place here.  This is hands down my favorite memory of the spring trees when I lived in Ohio and Kentucky when I was younger.  In the Appalachian hillsides they are like lavender blotches in evenly balanced spots throughout.  They are usually the first tree to flower in the spring here and I love then so.

Here is what wikipedia sez about them:

Edibility

Native Americans consumed redbud flowers raw or boiled, and ate roasted seeds. Analysis of nutritional components in edible parts of eastern redbud reported that:
the flower extract contains anthocyanins, green developing seeds contained proanthocyanides, and
linolenic, alpha-linolenic, oleic and palmitic acids to be present in seeds.

"We are each other's harvest; we are each other's business;

 we are each other's magnitude and bond. "

Gwendolyn Brooks

This was a glorious sunrise that I saw here in Florida a while back.

Below is a new feature that I just discovered on my cheapo cell phone camera called "embossed".  As a long time paper maker, I have always loved embossed paper.  As a Luddhite , I am continually amazed what digital photography can do for Art.  This is the same centuries old Live Oak tree on our road that I spend alot of time under.

and here is a previously blogged element of my "Year of the Tiger" collage, embossed:

Radishes!

Considering the number of gardens that I have planted over the past 20 years or so, and the amount of organic farms that I have worked on, it is surprising that I have never before grown radishes, but I havent.

These I planted from seed back in November.  They too made it through the record cold temperatures here in Florida and I am just now beginning to harvest them.  They were so very beautiful, vibrant and just exuded "Life" yesterday when I pulled them out of the ground.  In additon to these,  I have been   harvesting lettuces, onions,kale, arugula and dill.  What an amazing thing it is to be growing food to eat again.

Here is what I found on http://www.botanical.com/ for Radish:

---Description---The name of this familiar garden plant is suggested by its colour, being derived from the Saxon, rude, rudo, or reod (ruddy), or from the Sanskrit rudhira, meaning blood. The genus is distinguished by its elongated pod, which has no longitudinal partition when ripe, but contains several seeds separated by a pithy substance filling the pod. The actual plant is unknown in a wild state, but is supposed to have come from Southern Asia, and may be descended from the wild Raphanus raphanistrum of the Mediterranean shores, the long roots developing seeds sown in a loose soil, and the turniprooted kinds in a stiff soil. In the days of the Pharaohs, the Radish was extensively cultivated in Egypt, but apparently it did not reach Britain until A.D. 1548. Gerard mentions four varieties as being recognized in 1597. The leaves are rough and partly divided into segments, the outer one being larger and broader than the rest. The flower stem grows to about 3 feet in height, bearing medium-sized flowers that vary in colour from white to pale violet, with stronglymarked, dark veins. Structurally, it resembles the turnip, as the swollen, fleshy portion is really a stem which gradually passes downwards into the real root. Many kinds are named, the best known being (1) turnip-rooted, both red and white, including the white and black Spanish kinds; (2) oliveshaped, including the white, scarlet, and French breakfast forms; (3) the long, tapering varieties, like Long Red and Lady's Finger. The flesh is white, crisp, and tender, not specially nourishing, but valued as an antiscorbutic because of its quantity of nitrous juice. When too large for eating raw, they can be steamed for half an hour and served like asparagus. They should be well washed, but never peeled except when preparing the juice for medicinal purposes; in dry weather the bed should be watered the day before they are pulled. The young, green, seed-pods may be used for pickling, alone or with other vegetables, and are considered a fair substitute for capers.

---Constituents---Phenyl-ethyl isothiocyanite, a pungent, volatile oil, and an amylclytic enzyme.


---Medicinal Action and Uses---Radishes are an excellent food remedy for stone, gravel and scorbutic conditions. The juice has been used in the treatment of cholelithiasis as an aid in preventing the formation of biliary calculi. The expressed juice of white or black Spanish radishes is given in increasing doses of from 1/2 to 2 cupfuls daily. The 2 cupfuls are continued for two or three weeks. then the dose is decreased until 1/2 cupful is taken three times a week for three or four more weeks. The treatment may be repeated by taking 1 cupful at the beginning, then 1/2 daily, and later, 1/2 every second day.

As a followup to Thursday's post, I was able to catch the speech  (at the Library of Congress) by the Dalai Lama on cspan yesterday.  It is always wonderful to me to see him crack himself up and erupt into a giggle.  I was particularly moved by his comment that suggested that we as an American culture are on a sort of bipolar rollercoaster of emotions.  Elation followed by depression.  How right he is.  May we all aspire to remain calm in the face of adversity and to put everything into a perspective of the importance of realizing to not take ourselves so seriously.  Yes, including myself.  I have struggled with "the rollercoaster" in the past and am still learning to just "observe" and learn.

"All major religious traditions carry basically the same message,
 that is love, compassion and forgiveness the important thing is
 they should be part of our daily lives. "
The  14th Dalai Lama

I belong forever in the woods...

I feel absolutely at home and at peace anytime that I walk down a wooded path.

My Dad and I went for a hike yesterday in a new local nature park and I was reminded

(over and over it seems lately) that I really belong in the woods.  Sometimes I feel like doing what Everett Ruess did in the early part of the 20th century.  Just putting on a backpack and walking away, into the woods to stay.  I can't honestly picture myself hunting game to eat, but I truly wish there was a way for me to do this, here in the 21st century and just may if I don't find a job soon.

  Does anyone out there remember the "Peace Pilgrim"?  She just left everything and walked away, depending on the kindness of strangers for her daily food and lodging.  I do truly relate to that and all of the writings I have read of Everett Ruess.  He left L.A. in the 30's and walked into Escalante Canyon in Utah and was never seen again.  Can this be done in the 21st century?  I do think that if I could find the funding for the basic necessities, food, water, art supplies, empty books for journals,  carrying my tent, sleeping bag, fleece,my drum...I would be content.   Just How long is my "thneed" list (Dr. Suess' things we THINK we need)?

I am so very happy that I can and have survived without a blackberry or this or that newest technological gadget. But here I am in the library using a public computer for my online journal.

 Being alone in nature is appealing but I also am a social creature and crave the companionship , conversation and comraderie of like minded folks. Where is the balance of all of that? Yes, finding peace within is the ultimate goal but we are all human.  This is the paradox of it all.

Bald Cypress knobs on the Rainbow River

Hallelujah!!!!!

I will be forever "moved" by K.D. Lang's rendition of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, sang last night for the opening ceremony of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics.  If you did not see it, search it, sit back and take it in.  I am proud to be of her "tribe".  What an all around amazing opening ceremony.  It was also So wonderful to see all of the color and glory of the First Nation people .