Mediterranean Diet sort of

Hello,

I am trying to follow the Mediterranean Diet.  I have even learned how to spell it.  It is supposed to be healthy and it is reccomended by the American Arthritis Foundation.

You see Gentle Reader, I have been struck with arthritis in both my knees, as well as my feet.  I am sure it is in my wrists and shoulders as well, but no one has x-rayed them lately to let me know.

I just finished up a series of three gel shots in each knee to replace the hyaluronic acid (the fluid in the joints).  These are supposed to start taking effect in three weeks or so.

So, I have to lose weight.  I am counting calories with MyFitnessPal,  and I am logging my steps with  Fitbit.  Of course, I have to have some light female type surgery next week, so I plan to start a good exercise routine around the beginning of December.

So, what have I bee making?

I made yummy waffles and muffins from the leftover batter with this recipe from the Gluten Free Goddess.

Tonight I made Falafel with this recipe from the MediterrAsian Site.

That is all, I will try to blog again soon.  Maybe this weekend.

Association of Zoological Horticulture Conference

Well, it is the second to last day of the conference.  I am sitting in the lobby of the Courtyard by Marriott in Downtown Columbia.  Just to the right of me our impromtu acoustic band of Bob, Steve and Gerry are playing and singing on guitar and harmonica (Bob) and mandolin (Gerry and Steve).  Yep, we have two mandolin players in our group.

We (my husband and myself) drove up.  We stopped at the St. John's County rest area, and I believe there was Perennial Peanut blooming in their grass area.

We also stopped in Darien, Georgia, which is the home of Altie, a North American version of the Loch Ness Monster.  You can even have your picture taken with Altie.

We made it to Columbia, and Saturday we did the pre-Conference tour of Redcliffe Plantation and Lush Life Nursery.

The plantation was originally built by James Henry Hammond as a recreational place.  While there were no permament field slaves on the site there were four structures for the house slaves.  One is still standing.

There is a link for more information about this historic site here.

We then had lunch at Lush Life Nursery and a tour of this small but great Crinum nursery.

The next day was paper sessions, and I don't have any good pictures, but the following day was zoo day and we started by kayaking and canoeing on the Saluda River.  

Here is a picture of me and my husband in our canoe.  You can see that he is doing a great job of steering.

I took a lot of pictures at the zoo, here are a few....

There are two lions sleeping in the center of the picture.

 A picture of a pretty vine.

 Jellyfish

 Garden Eels.

Then we went to the Botanical Gardens.

My husband by a lichen covered rock on the path over to the Botanical Gardens.

Maple Tree Blooms

So our Red Maple Acer rubrum is blooming right now.  Soon it will leaf out and be covered bright red leaflets and seeds.

This tree is native to eastern North America, and I am at the southern edge of it's range. (zone 9) While it can grow as tall as 75' it tends to not grow so tall here.

My husband planted this tree before we moved into our house in 2000.  When he planted it it was less than a foot tall, and probably a seedling from the same year.  Now it is about 15 foot tall, and starting to provide shade for our house during the summer in the evening.

Deciduous trees are good for reducing your heating and cooling bills, by providing shade in the summer and dropping their leaves in the winter, allowing more sunshine to help warm your house.

Catching Up

So I missed a few days.

Here is a picture of some lovely roving from the Unique Sheep.

It is Cultivated Silk and Merino Wool in a 50/50 blend in the color Everlasting Evergreen.  I am spinning it up into a lace weight yarn and knitting the Silver Bells and Cockleshells  shawl pattern by Melissa Lemmons. 

Here is a picture of the yarn spun, plied, washed, thwacked, and dried.

This is the first 56 yards, I am still working on the first of 4 oz of roving.  

And here is today's picture: a bloom from my Louis Philippe Rose.

This a bourbon type rose.

Here is the description from the Antique Rose Emporium, which sells this and many other Antique Roses:  "The flowers are double, deep crimson with a touch of blush at the center and like all old Chinas exhibits an occasional white streak through the petals. This rose is often confused with ‘Cramoisi Superieur’. The only differences we can detect is that ‘Louis Philippe’ is more compact and the color varies. A Texas statesman, Lorenzo de Zavala, collected this rose during his 1834 stint as Minister to France and planted it at his home in Lynchburg."

An Antique Rose is defined as any rose bred before 1850 when the first hybrid tea rose La France was bred.  They tend to be more vigorous, and disease resistant than modern roses.  This one also has a fantastic classic rose scent as well.

A Spice of Life

I read somewhere, (The Glutenfree Goddess) that you should have a signature/secret ingredient.  I have chosen Ginger Zingiber officinal for mine.  So, I decided maybe I should grow some.  I bought some fresh ginger root from my local grocer about 2 weeks before Christmas.  I used one tuber, (actually ginger is neither a root, nor a tuber, but actually a rhizome or underground stem) and set the other one aside, hoping that the bump was an eye, and that I would get a sprout and Voila!

If you look closely at the bulbous form at the base of the sprout, you can see little pre-roots forming.  That is my signal to plant this soon.  I am going to keep it inside because it is a vigorous plant, which is a nice way of saying invasive, and also because I want to keep an eye on it.

Kew gardens says this plant is possibly native to India, and it also does best if the ground is wetter than dry.  YMMV.

In Full Bloom

Here is the same bloom as yesterday, but fully opened.

The scientific name for this plant is Schlumbergera truncata.  The first part of the name is for a collector of cactus Frederic  Schlumberg who lived in on the outskirts of Rouen in southern France.  The namer  of the species was Charles Lemare, and the collector was Allan Cunningham who under the employment of Kew Gardens spent the years between 1814 and 1816 collecting plants from the Rainforest of what is now Brazil.   The second part of the name refers to the fact that the "leaves" are really a segmented trunk, which is botanically called cladodes.

Their specific origin is the Rio de Janeiro.  And they also are pollinated by humming birds.  Like many plants they must be cross pollinated with another plant that isn't closely related.

The best article I could find on the internet discussing this plant is on the blog Plants are the Strangest People.