The Moon

Where would we be without the Moon? It lights our way on dark nights, pulls at the waves and creates the tides, encourages plants to grow, in fact it rules our very lives. The Moon is gradually leaving the Earth and one day our planet will have no Moon. It will take a very long time before this happens but when it does, the people who are living on our planet will have a very different life to that which we live today. Imagine a sea without any tides, without any waves! We have been brought up with a Moon. It is there and it is familiar; it is part of our lives and although we may not realise it we all have an affection for the ball of rock that rolls across our sky.

Sharing some pictures that I have taken of our wonderful, dusty, rocky Moon – carry on rolling for us all to look at!

 

Luck lies here

As I may have mentioned before, I grew up in a very small village in Worcestershire. There were residents that had always lived either in the village or fairly near by and had lovely melodic dialects. Others had travelled from various places and quite a few of those had grown up in Birmingham and so had a sing-song accent that made them into what was called ‘Brummies.’ This meant that youngsters such as myself used a variety of dialects and word pronunciation became a jumble of village and town.

For instance a flowering bush that everyone called lie-l’c (lilac) was pronounced lie-luck by many of the youngsters (others would say lie-lock or even lie-lurk) – we were always told that it obtained its name because it was a lucky plant and the luck lay with it, or luck lies when it is taken into the home. Perhaps it is the only hard wood that country folk actually take in the house as many believe that no woody plants should be cut and placed in a vase because it releases bad luck from the ground and into the home when displayed indoors. A superstition, of course, along with the many others that people worry about.

Here is a little verse that I wrote as a youngster about the lilac bush:

Luck lies beneath the lie-luck tree
  That’s where you stole a kiss from me;
The lie-luck sealed it in your heart
  Which meant that we would never part!

Forget-you-not’s

 

 

Where would humanity be -
Without charity
And philanthropy?

                                                                                               

 

When I was a little child, my mother would frequently remind me how lucky I was to be me. None of us have the power to decide where we are going to be born, who are going to be our parents, what country we will grow up in or what our young lives have in store for us. We should never be quick to judge those who haven’t walked the safe paths that we have been fortunate to tread!

St George–slayer of dragons

23rd of April, a day of celebrating the Patron Saint of England, St George. He was born in Lydda around the year 280 AD, some believe it to have been on 23rd April. He most certainly died on 23rd April in the year 303 AD. His father was Greek but George was born in Palestine when it was still under the flag of Rome. He became a Roman soldier and he was both brave and ferocious, which is why his reputation now includes that he was the slayer of dragons, for nothing ‘afeared’ him! Like many others preceding him he was in the end executed for his beliefs.

St George saying, toast, words inspiring love of the Patron Saint of England:

“May your sails be made of fine spun silk, your dreams be sweet and light but most of all may your life be free of dragons and if by chance it isn't, then the ghost of St George rise up and slay them all! No one should have dragons in their life! ♥♥♥”  Anon

Mothering Sunday–Mother’s Day

It is Mother’s Day today. Full of love and tradition, it is the day when children honour their mothers. From days of long ago, this has been traditionally done by the giving of flowers.

Mothers years ago would receive a posy of wild flowers picked from the roadsides, fields and hedgerows. Nowadays it is more usual for children to purchase their flowers or a little surprise from the shops . . .

 

 

A special gift – this is a little flower posy picture for you – *right click and save as a png and you will have a posy of roses without any background as a picture to add wherever you please*

Here is the full picture if you would prefer the roses left on the plant – a wonderful sweet smelling floribunda rambling rose with the most enormous blooms. Each flower is a perfect rose.

Happy Mother’s Day, one and all.

May your day be bright and happy. Full of bird song, sweet perfume and soft breezes. Happy voices, love and laughter with plenty of joy and merriment. Enjoy each moment – our lives are like a fabulous novel. We do not know how each chapter will begin, what we will find when we turn over a page. Sometimes we have no idea of the storyline – who are the heroines and the heroes – who may be the villains. We all seek our happy endings and strive every day to make sure that our particular best sellers will be everything we had always dreamed and hoped for.

Faux hemp–a cautionary tale

A couple of years ago, whether you picked up a newspaper, magazine, health book, etc it seemed the whole world was recommending the health benefits of hemp oil and hemp seeds. I bought into this notion as well. We are all wanting when it comes to bountiful good health and life giving treasures.

I was shopping one day when I came across some of these ‘health-giving’ hemp seeds – they were hard and full (obviously packed full of their precious oil and nutrients). Some even labelled them as ‘seeds of gold’ so how could I go wrong. All I needed to do according to article after article was to crush them, perhaps with a food processor or coffee grinder, the helpful articles indicated.

Well I got my precious hemp seeds home and I tried grinding them up .. but they felt like crushed gravel, really brittle and hard. Could I really risk sprinkling them onto my breakfast or lunch? What about my teeth? The thought of cracked teeth and tooth crumbs immediately took away their health giving properties. So I put them at the back of the cupboard and forgot about them.

Last year when cleaning out the cupboard I came across them and thought to myself that I might as well throw them outside for the birds to eat. One sprouted and before I knew it began to grow. It was bound to die for the weather had turned quite chilly. It didn’t die and the other day I noticed that it was flowering. These were not hemp flowers though. So my healthy hemp seeds were not hemp seeds at all. When I realised what they were I was really thankful that I hadn’t eaten any because these were the seeds of a deadly poisonous plant!

The plant that I am referring to and came from the seed which I purchased is called a Stinking Hellebore. It is also known as Bear’s Foot and Dung Wart. It’s Latin name is: Helleborus Foetidus.

Yeasts are attracted to the plant which linger around its flower heads and helps to raise its temperature. Perhaps this is what increases its poisonous properties. It is one of those plants that require instant hand washing after touching because it leads to volatile bouts of sickness and violent and projectile vomiting and delirium.. so best enjoyed at a distance!

Stinking Hellebore - Helleborus Foetidus – Bear’s Foot or Dung Wart

 

Adam and Eve

As a little girl, I remember being told about the story of Adam and Eve. When I was old enough to read, my mother bought me a bible. It was the authorised King James Version in Ruby Text. It contained a few pictures but was mostly thousands of words in tiny print. A very long read with all the begetting … It was not a satisfying read as there were so many instances that didn’t make sense to me. Two people suddenly became thousands within a few lines of print.

As a woman, I felt deceived by the fact that the stories in the book that I had cherished as a little girl were incomplete. It is believed by some that parts of the Bible had been laced together from original texts provided by The Dead Sea Scrolls. Allegedly, it has been claimed that Genesis was pruned. There is no mention of Adam’s first wife, Eve being his second wife. I wonder if, at some point the original script will be returned? Perhaps not, for it was removed so long ago that many perhaps prefer the version that they know.

Wild fig - ficus carica

We’re in need of a spy

The failing with all people, is that having been taught something it tends to plant itself quite deeply setting itself in stone deep in our brains. Never mind whether a particular fact is accurate or right, if we have learnt it then as humans very few of us will question its accuracy. Yet facts are rarely ever concrete. They should never be written in stone. As we evolve then so should our knowledge and our capacity for recognising that anything may not quite be as we once thought. We should at the very least learn by our forebears who believed fervently that the Earth was flat; the Sun spun around the Earth; the Moon was made of cheese; all religious people were good; all fat was bad, and so on and so forth.

The latest findings about sugar has been a welcome revelation. The reason I make this statement is because so many people over the last few years have rubbished every kind of sugar as they have with salt.

Now according to a recent Horizon programme ‘if sugar is completely taken out of the diet the body loses the ability to produce insulin and therefore is more likely to develop diabetes.’

This programme will turn everything you have ever been taught to understand about fat and sugar completely on its head. So if you wish to lose weight without dieting, if you never want to gain weight then take a look at this Horizon programme: Sugar V Fat

 

 

Sugar V Fat

Learn from these doctors and never have to worry about being over-weight ever again ……. and remember the main rule – avoid foodstuffs with a 50% fat 50% sugar ratio this is usually processed food and is never found in nature. Look after your muscles – dieting on a high fat diet destroys muscle!

The ultimate diet ride – eat in moderation and be careful of any fad diets as you never know what harm they may be doing to your body and you only have one body!

Random Ramblings

Random Ramblings personal post:

When I first took up blogging seven years ago this year, everything was new. Blogs were new. When I mentioned the idea of blogging to family and friends, there was not one person that knew what I was talking about. “What is a blog?” They all asked. To explain that it was online space that could be either private or public where your interests could be published for either a small group of people or the world to read or look at and maybe comment on was so new, it was alien.

I have a wide variety of interests and could have created umpteen blogs to cover everyone of them individually. If I had chosen to take this route, I may have created a monster rather than a pleasure because even a small amount of blogging is time consuming. It is something, as a hobby that you have to love doing. I am not a paid blogger, I simply write my blog for the sheer joy of it.

I decided upon the name of ‘Random Ramblings’ for my blog because it opens the door for me to write about anything and everything. It also means that I can ramble on about any of my interests, which encompass almost everything. I can add unusual facts about anything whenever I come across them or when they are winkled out of my mind.

Of blogging, I will say – it is a most enjoyable hobby that can now be done almost anywhere not just in front of a computer and sat at a desk. I am so grateful to Google, not only in them creating Blogger but giving it to us all for free. Blogger blogs stand alone, which means that they can be used for any activity. Ticking a box instantly uploads them onto the Google Search Engine. Added to this they now have the option of having single stand alone pages with tabs so they may be also used as professional business sites.

Check out the various Random Ramblings links you can follow or join me here too:

• Random Ramblings …… Polly Dot Google + Page: Google+
• Random Ramblings …… Kloggers Twitter feed:    Twitter
• Random Ramblings …… YouTube page:                YouTube
• Random Ramblings …… Kloggers Photobucket:    Photobucket

 

Random Ramblings back-link and badge:

<a href="http://kloggers-randomramblings.blogspot.com/"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_tHm9wCkYuLGu9epUPBry11xAUvsoBbDfolqqWZKfANddKdEI02Fkmn-J9lmPJ3g1MgUGIAZ_hsIgVjCKDxnj8_h8e-eP-6K3UDbOm_y-Dc0bz7EVpdoTCOQOuXhX4N0sl1Qg=s0-d"></a> <span style="font-weight: bold;"></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>

 

Additional notes:

To have your own interesting hobby/to start your own website/to create your own blog/to write a story/to keep an online diary/to begin your own family photograph album sharing pictures and information: why not become a blogger? Start your own blog? The excitement all begins with just one click of a button!

Start your blog here: Click and begin a dream

•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•*´¨`*•.¸¸.•

The Wars of the Roses

It was Sir Walter Scott who first used the term 'Wars of the Roses' as an explanation of the bloody skirmishes, plotting, violence, revenge and lastly murderous war that took place between the two houses of York and Lancaster.

Whenever they are mentioned in films or on television programmes it appears that everyone makes the assumption that it was a war between the counties of Yorkshire and Lancashire. Even to this day, the white rose is used to represent Yorkshire and the red rose, Lancashire. The actual event however not only took place over many years but was between two households and their supporters: The House of York and The House of Lancaster. The recordings of disagreements began before 1400 but the first major battle happened in 1455. The then Duke of York owned land and estates throughout South Wales and along the Welsh border but his most passionate and committed supporters were from the Midlands area. The Duke of Lancaster owned land in North Wales and swathes of land and estates in parts of Cheshire and Gloucestershire.

The bad blood boiled over when Richard II a York Plantagenet was overthrown by one Henry of Bolingbroke, the Duke of Lancaster who was also a Plantagenet. He was crowned Henry IV in 1399. The two households plotted and raged between themselves and the crown bounced from one side to the other many times until it landed upon the head of Richard III who was a King of the House of York. Richard went into battle to fight alongside his men to protect the crown but he lost both his head and the crown on the battlefield as it was taken from him by Henry and his supporters from the House of Lancaster. Henry was duly crowned Henry VII but he had a plan to keep the crown by beginning a new house and by using his wile. He had a new design to depict both York and Lancaster and he commissioned it to be both white and red, it would be known as ‘The Tudor Rose’ and it would represent the symbol of a ‘United Kingdom.’ The Royal family would merge and become ‘The Tudors.’

 Wars of the Roses animated gif

Men from all backgrounds fought in these battles and 3% of all the males in the land died during this bloody conflict

Crucifixion Thorn, Crucifix Thorn, Anchor Plant, Colletia Paradoxa

A few years ago whilst holidaying in Ireland I came across a most unusual plant. It had juicy leaves like a succulent. It was furnished with spines like a cactus. It was shaped in some places like thick vicious thorns in other areas it appeared to resemble a ship’s anchor. It was both soft and yet firm to the touch almost like a thick animal skin.

I later learnt that there are several types within the family or genus of Collectia. They all originate from South America and each variety has small white flowers when in bloom.

 

The beautiful Crucifix Plant also known as the Crucifixion Plant or the Anchor Plant, which originates from South America and is part of the genus Collectia – they produce tiny white bell shaped flowers. This plant helps to enrich nitrogen in the soil where it grows.

Retired and lonely website where people simply talk

Only a person with a whiter than white reputable background could pull off a wonderful idea such as Silverline. This is the website designed for people who are now retired and in desperate need to talk to another person. Someone who will listen, someone who will respond with the human touch. This website offers them someone to give them time and friendship on the other end of the telephone line.

Silverline is the brainchild of Esther Rantzen (a person who acts on a need, an angel to both young and old), who finding herself with the need to talk to someone, came up with this wonderful idea and slowly developed it into realisation. It offers a lifeline to the lonely. A voice to those who never see or speak to anyone day-after-lonely-day and most of all the means of being able to have a conversation with someone without any fear. It has its own free telephone number so people who need to talk to someone, do not have to worry about excessive telephone bills.

❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀❀◕‿◕❀

If you do need a friend to talk to then please do visit the site and see what it can offer you. It is backed by a lovely lady. This is her website, this is your website: Silverline

Free telephone line open 24 hours every day: 0800 4 70 80 90

 

 

Retired and lonely people finding friendship and someone to talk to ..

“Need help? Call us ANYTIME on: 0800 4 70 80 90

The Silver Line is the only free confidential helpline providing information, friendship and advice to older people, open 24 hours a day, every day of the year.”

Who is Esther Rantzen’s this is what Wikipedia advises

 

Please visit the Silverline website for more details: http://www.thesilverline.org.uk/

Nature’s beautiful building blocks and why do we not try this style of creating dwellings

The more we look at what insects (or nature) offer the world with millions of years of knowledge behind their daily activities the more I wonder about the intelligence of man. Years of patient construction to find perfection that guards against the elements is discarded by us as we still insist on placing down concrete or clay bricks and blocks cemented in place. It would be so interesting if scientists took a new look at what the oldest teachers on the planet have silently perfected. Perhaps there may then be safer places for us all to live in.

  New empty comb produced by the bees in the hive

New empty comb produced by Buckfast honey bees 

A close-up section of new comb produced by Buckfast honey bees

A close-up section of new comb produced by Buckfast honey bees

Close-up of virgin comb produced by the Buckfast honey bees

Taphrina deformans – red lumps on peach tree leaves

I have two peach trees in my garden. One was a purchase, a present that was going to be an apricot tree. The other grew from out of the compost heap. Neither of these trees have yet produced any peaches. Both have had red swellings that have formed on the leaves. I had seen red lumps on willow trees as a child so decided to try and find out what had caused them and how I could get rid of them.

The problem however, was taken out of my hands as my husband merrily sprayed the branches with bug spray, left the branches for a week or so and cut off the worst of the problem. This cured both the trees. So when I began to investigate and came across websites stating that the disease taphrina deformans is caused through a fungal infection I think that they may well be quite wrong. I would say it is more likely to be caused through an infection possibly a virus spread by a microscopic mite such as a similar attacks on willow leaves.

Infected peach leaves with Taphrina deformans

Thankfully both my peach trees are now beautiful with no signs of the red lumps that you see above.

Spy in the sky

Is it simply wanderlust or maybe pushing a person’s very immortality? A feeling of power? Being selflessly brave, totally free, no ties or responsibilities that makes certain people take the ultimate risk to push themselves nearer and nearer to the edge of the cliff of life? Further and further to that precipice place where a revolver of chance will decide whether they may live or die? Whether they are a spy in the sky, an ice and snow land gulper, a mountaineer, an explorer or a depth stroller the one thing that they have in common is the lack of value of their very being. I’ve often wondered why that would be? Wherever they may go or whatever they may see could surely never be as beautiful as the morning sun dancing on the flowers. It will dance long after their time is gone but why make that time shorter? The value of a second in time to a dying man is worth more than every diamond in a mine.   

A lone adventurer flying in a current of wind came into the view of my camera – a spy in the sky!

Spy in the sky

Digging for gold

One member of the daisy family that I have wanted in my garden for a very long time is Golden Rod. Now I have purchased a lovely plant and it has flowered for me in its first year in the garden. My Grandma who the family always lovingly referred to as Nan had one of these plants in her garden so it holds some lovely memories for me.

This particular variety is often known as Canadian Golden Rod or Solidago Canadensis and usually grows wild in North America and Canada but is a cottage garden plant in England. It is a member of the daisy family and if you look closely you will see hundreds or thousands of tiny bright golden daisies on every stem. It attracts pollinating insects who sip up its sugary nectar a tiny flower at a time. It’s a good plant to have in the garden to attract nectar feeding insects and below a Gatekeeper butterfly with a slightly damaged wing is feeding furiously on flower after flower. The versions that are often found in gardens today are small and stocky compared to those that sway about in the countryside.

 

   

The bottom picture shows a Canadian Golden Rod plant (Solidago Canadensis) with both a Gatekeeper Butterfly sometimes called The Hedge Brown Butterfly (Pyronia tithonus) and a Green Bottle Fly or Blow Fly (Phaenicia sericata or Lucilia sericata)

What surprised me probably more than anything is that the common Green Bottle or Blow Fly often feasts on the nectar of the flowers so despite his bad name of eating up rotting flesh he also is essential for pollinating plants

Green Bottle Fly or Blow Fly (Phaenicia sericata or Lucilia sericata) drinking nectar from the tiny daisy heads of a Canadian Golden Rod plant (Solidago Canadensis)

Doncaster Diamond

One of the most useful and true sayings I have ever heard was passed on to me many years ago. It is something that I have found to be a most precious piece of information and if everyone kept this knowledge ready but accessible, in a corner of their mind, they would be blessed with the most rewarding, valuable and everlasting jewel that they could ever own.

The saying is simply:

• ‘Think on.’

So before taking action; before making a statement; before expressing an opinion; before giving yourself to a new belief, etc, always take care to look at the pros and cons of your actions. It is simple advice but it will save you time and time again. It is advice that will make you rich in many ways.

As Doncaster is a town in South Yorkshire, it may well have started off as ‘Think on, lad!’ or ‘Think on, lass!’ … perhaps – but never forget it, it is the Doncaster Diamond that will make you a far better person than you could ever imagine. It will also save you from getting embroiled into situations that will cause you grief!

Sometimes, people who say the least posses the most wisdom!

Essential for life – 90 plus nutrients our bodies require to remain healthy

Since the early stuttering of man’s realisation that nutrition and the quality of food is the main ingredient to good health we are slowly beginning to learn the vital importance of everything that we put into our bodies. This is a slow and often painful path to gain true knowledge. Indeed there are many who have laid down the gauntlet many years ago without effort, care, knowledge, tests or experiments and sadly even in our wisdom we are still following their dictations.

Mans’ beliefs regarding essential nutrients at the moment:

Essential Vitamin List

Vitamin A (Retinol)

Vitamin B1(Thiamine)

Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin)

Vitamin B3 (Niacin)

Vitamin B4 (Choline)

Vitamin B5(Pantothenic Acid)

Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine)

Vitamin B7 (Biotin)

Vitamin B8 (Inositol)

Vitamin B9 (Folic Acid)

Vitamin B10 (PABA or Para-AminoBenzoic Acid)

Vitamin B11 (PHGA or Pteryl-Hepta-Glutamic Acid)

Vitamin B12 (Cobalamin)

Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)

Vitamin C (Ascorbinogen)

Vitamin C (Rutin used by blood vessels)

Vitamin C (Tyrosinase is required for strengthening the effectiveness of white blood cells)

Vitamin C (Factor J used for the oxygen carrying capacity of the red blood cells)

Vitamin C (Factor K)Vitamin C (Factor P required for the strength of the blood vessels)

Vitamin D2 (Ergocalciferol – found in plants)

Vitamin D3 (Cholecalciferol – found in animals)

Vitamin E (Alpha-tocopherol)

Vitamin F (Essential Fatty Acids Omega 3 and Omega 6 – Omega 9, is usually listed separately)

Vitamin G (Also referred to as Vitamin B2 or Riboflavin)

Vitamin H (Also referred to as Vitamin B7 or Biotin or Vitamin I)

Vitamin I (Also is occasionally referred to as B7 or Biotin or Vitamin H)

Vitamin K1 (Phylloquinone)

Vitamin K2 (Menaquinone)

Vitamin L (Lysine)

Vitamin M (Also known as Vitamin B9 or Folic Acid)

Vitamin P (Bioflavonoids and Flavonoids – usually occur in the same foods as Vitamin C)

 

Essential Mineral List

Aluminium
Arsenic
Barium
Beryllium
Boron
Bromine
Carbon
Calcium
Cerium
Caesium
Chloride
Chromium
Cobalt
Copper
Dysprosium
Erbium
Europium
Gadolinium
Gallium
Germanium
Gold
Hafnium
Holmium
Hydrogen
Iodine
Iron
Lanthanum
Lithium
Lutetium
Magnesium
Manganese
Molybdenum
Neodymium
Niobium
Nickel
Nitrogen
Oxygen
Phosphorus
Potassium
Praseodymium
Rhenium
Rubidium
Samarium
Scandium
Selenium
Sodium
Strontium
Sulphur
Silica
Silver
Tantalum
Terbium
Thulium
Tin
Titanium
Vanadium
Ytterbium
Yttrium
Zinc
Zirconium

 

Essential Amino Acid List

Valine

Lysine

Threonine

Leucine

Isoleucine

Tryptophan

Phenylalanine

Methionine

Histidine

Arginine

Taurine

Tyrosine

 

Comments:

Although these nutrients are found in the body, it is not known for definite the exact requirement needed to support good health. Many will be in such minute portions that they may not ever, at least by current means, be totally measurable. Others are totally guess work. What is apparent is that most are best obtained through the ingestion and digestion of food and we must aim to make our foods far more nutritious. Perhaps the way forward would be to grow food on well prepared, naturally fertilized soils using a combination of animal manure and compost ..