Isn't it weird how you can experience situations throughout your life that are so heartbreaking or stresstul that you can't imagine ever being okay again. Then a few weeks, months or even years later, you notice that the days go by without you thinking about those times.
You laugh, you smile, you go about your day and realise that you're stronger and happier than you thought you ever could be again. Those bad times might always be in your mind, but you feel at peace with your past; and the memories that come back don't punch you in the heart like they used to.
You realise that you are, in fact, as strong as everyone was saying you were at the time, and that you would in fact get through what you went through. Isn't it amazing how much we can change, how much we can learn, and how much we can grow.
"They won't know how hard you rode for them🚘 until you park it." 🚗
It's Pollinator Week! Include host plants in your pollinator gardens! These host plants are the nurseries of the pollinator garden, where the eggs and immature insects grow before metamorphosis into butterflies and moths.
Some examples include: Dill, fennel, and parsley- Eastern black swallowtail Cassias- sulfur butterfly Hollyhock- painted lady Passion vines- Gulf fritillary butterfly Milkweed- monarch butterfly Bean plant- long-tailed skipper Pawpaw- zebra swallowtail
Mary Queen of Scots Rose and a little Scottish history
This tough reliable rose is present in gardens as one of the good garden hybrids which have a strong fragrance. A particularly old variety with double purple-lilac flowers named 'Mary Queen of Scots' is said to have been brought to Scotland by Mary Stuart (1542-1587) from France in 1561.
The ancient Romans strewed roses over their dead and graves. This resulted in Hecate, Goddess of the underworld, being depicted wearing a rose garland. In early Christianity roses had a mystical quality and were central to ceremonies surrounding birth, marriage and death. In the Islamic world rose water was used to purify the mosque.
Roses also have a long history as an emblem and are regularly seen in heraldry. For example the white rose is the plant badge of the Clan Keith which dates back to the time Malcolm II (died 1034) and the Battle of Barrie in 1010. David I (c.1080-1153) granted the family lands in Lothian in 1150. Later Robert The Bruce (1274-1329) granted the hereditary Marischal Earldom to Sir Robert Keith after the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314.
George Keith, the 4th Earl Marischal (c.1553-1623) founded Marischal college in Aberdeen and negotiated the marriage of James VI to Anne of Denmark. However Earldom and much of the land was lost following the clans support of the Jacobite cause.
The plant is associated with tartan - the small black hips grown each autumn produce juice which provides a peachy dye if used on its own, and a beautiful purple shade when mixed with alum.
Throughout Britain, Europe and Asia a white rose is found on coastal sand dunes and limestone heath. Next to the thistle, Rosa spinosissima is probably the most emblematic native plant. It has been used as a Scottish emblem since Charles Edward Stuart or 'Bonnie Prince Charlie' (1720-1788) and may have been the source of the Jacobite white cockade.
In the years leading up to the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745, Jacobites were forced to meet and plot in secret, and the white rose or white cockade (a flower made from ribbon, often worn on a hat) was a way of identifying those who supported the cause.
Eventually wearing the cockade could be grounds for imprisonment and even execution.
Another legend tells how Bonnie Prince Charlie plucked a white rose from the roadside and stuck it in his hat as he made his way south from Glenfinnan to start the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745.
The plant was initially grown in gardens for its herbal properties and it was one of the first roses described and illustrated in 16th century herbals of Northern Europe. Its hips and leaves have been used to make a tea in some places
The Burnet Rose has become a symbol of Scotland, celebrated in song and poetry. Under the pen name Hugh MacDiarmid, Christopher Murray Grieve (1892-1978) wrote these poignant words from 'The Little White Rose':-
The rose of all the world is not for me. I want for my part Only the little white rose of Scotland. That smells sharp and sweet - and breaks the heart.
“Blessed are those who do not fear solitude, who are not afraid of their own company, who are not always desperately looking for something to do, something to amuse themselves with, something to judge.”
~●~ 🌸 Paulo Coelho
Ice making during the Persian Empire in the middle of the desert: the Yakhchal or “Ice Pit” is an architectural method that was used to produce ice and preserve food. The Persians were already making tons of ice and freezing food in the desert 2,400 years ago.
1- Design of the structure: The Yakchal had a dome shape with thick walls made of bricks and clay. This construction helped maintain a cool temperature inside the vault.
2- Water collection: During the winter, water was collected from rivers or from melting snow in the mountains. This water was directed towards the Yakchal through canals.
3- Freezing process: The water was distributed in small ponds or pools within the vault. During the night and in the coldest hours of the day, the water would freeze due to the low temperatures of the desert at night.
4- Ice storage: Once frozen, the ice was cut into blocks and stored in the lowest part of the Yakchal, where the temperature was coldest. The dome shape and natural insulation of the walls helped keep the ice frozen for many months.
5- Later use: During the summer, the stored ice was used to cool drinks, preserve food or even for medical purposes if necessary. In short, the Yakchal took advantage of the natural cold of desert nights to create and preserve ice, using simple but effective storage and thermal insulation techniques.
No means no place like home sweet home Alabama.
This is “Die Katzensymphonie” (The Cat Symphony), by Austrian painter, Moritz von Schwind (01/21/1804 - 02/08/1871).
It is an unplayable violin melody, with the cats representing notes. Some have theorized that it is supposed to be poking fun at Wagner, whose music Schwind was not a fan of.
The drawing was made in 1868, using the mediums of pencil, pen, and brush. It was gifted to violinist, Joseph Joachim, in honor of his appointment as director of the Berlin University of Music. It now is part of a collection at the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe in Germany.
Happy MidSummer's Night!
"Starry eyes" Artist - Anna Seed
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows, Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows, Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine, With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine: There sleeps Titania sometime of the night, Lulled in these flowers with dances and delight.
(Oberon, Act 2 Scene 1) (A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM - William Shakespeare)
LITTLE PEOPLE OF ARIZONA
According to the book "Oral History of the Yavapai" by Mike Harrison. The Kakaka are just like natives. But little, tiny natives. They live in the mountains...(and) they talk Yavapai, but they don't talk to everybody; just to the teacher, the leader--like medicine men.
"The Kakaka never die. They are around all the time. You can't see them all the time, but it can happen sometimes... But quick like that and you can see them no more...They are just like the wind, like air."
In addition to being small in stature, Kakaka have a round head and no nose: "Just holes in there."
The Kakaka aren't peculiar to the Yavapai. "All the tribes know about the Little People," the book states. For example, the Kachina of the Hopi are purported to be the same beings.
The Kakaka reportedly live on (as well as under) the area mountains. Among these are: Granite Mountain (in Prescott,) Jerome (Cleopatra?) Mountain, Superstition Mountain, Four Peaks, Fossil Creek, Red Mountain (at Fort McDowell,) as well as the mountain at Bloody Basin which the Yavapai call "Kathatkullo" (Turret Peak?).
"The Kakaka also have houses. Like over at Tiguan Ranch near Prescott. There is a rock ledge there and they have a house with little rooms. Same over there near Horseshoe Ranch. There is a Kakaka house up on the cliff. There are (also) many Kakaka houses...at Fort McDowell."
One of the authors of "Oral History...," himself a medicine man, gave testimony to his own sighting of the Kakaka. While rounding up cattle above Horseshoe Dam, "I see two Little People coming right down (Chalk Mountain.) I see them walking and then they are gone all of a sudden.
When one is in the company of the Kakaka, time seems to stand still. One incident of note took place circa 1872 at Four Peaks when the Kakaka escorted a young man into a tunnel there. "He goes in there and takes a walk down in the tunnel and the Kakaka take him all the way up to Four Peaks." Upon his return, the young man thought he had been gone a couple of days, "but the people missed him for a long time." He had, in fact, been absent for 30 to 40 years!
He related that "the Little People live under the mountain" and "it is just like day in there...And there are some of the Little People in there making something like gravy. They eat it some time and they sleep some time."
The young man told the people of a warning the Kakaka gave him--that many of the people would soon die. The man wanted the people to follow him back to the Kakaka for safety. However, knowing that this man had just disappeared for decades, they were all apprehensive to join him. So he went back alone. Later, out of curiosity, the people followed his tracks to a point where they stopped. "They don't go no further," the oral history states, "They go up in the air, I guess."
Four or five days later occurred the ghastly massacre at Skeleton Cave. His prophecy had come true. As far as anyone knows, this man might still be with the Kakaka today.