Author: Venessa M

Writer, blogger, sometime artist, cook, parent and gardener. I have years of business experience in the not for profit state, and I also offer my services as VA to others who would prefer some one else does the nit picky business stuff so they can do what they love. Need help setting up a WordPress website, I can help. Basic accounts set up Call me. Email traffic, virtual office receptionist you name it, I can do this for you if you want. I do this under the name of @Leave IT to V.
Posted in Gardening

Rosemary – That’s for Remembrance

Posted on by Venessa M

“As for Rosemary, I let it run all over my garden walls, not only because me bees love it, but because it is the herb sacred to remembrance and to friendship” – Sir Thomas Moore

Rosemary has been in use for so many years that, like Lavender, its history is steeped in myth.  Neanderthals probably used it to flavour those big mammoth roast joint and two tubers on a Sunday.  Known both as an attractant for the Fae and protection against Fairies stealing your children (by hanging sprigs above the crib which) seems a little Schizophrenic. This is typical of the many and sometimes contradictory uses of that have been traditionally associated with this plant. Having trouble deciding who to marry out of you numerous clamouring suitors? Name pots after each of them, plant rosemary in each.  The one that grows the best is the guy for you.  Rosemary was also said to grown extremely well in a house of strong women.  In some places it also meant that the wife ruled the roost which saw many a plant routinely pruned heavily by the men of the house – Just in case. (A treatment it actually thrives with)

The wood, made into a small box, is said to bestow and restore youthfulness if you inhale the vapours from inside the box daily.  Given that it took me hours to hack off stumps and prune a large bush using only a hand saw it certainly makes a dense and strong wood, although getting trunks to grow much beyond 4 cms in width would take a lot of doing. It was highly prized for making musical instruments as well, if you could get some.

Its use as a smudge in funerary practices (probably to mask the smell of putrefaction) seems to have led to the belief that sprigs of rosemary would protect you against the Plague.  This saw the price of rosemary skyrocket in London during the worse years of the Black Death (think Tulips!) Bet all those midnight sneaky pruning men were sorry then!  Ironically enough, although no really good peer reviewed studies have been done to my knowledge of the effect on human gut flora and immunology, Lab test tube results show it does act as an anti-oxidant, and anti-bacterial.  Studies also show that it does seem to have some sort of effect on improving memory although the mechanism is yet to be determined.  Its claims though are many and manifest as another good for everything that ails you plant.  However, one thing is agreed upon: medicinal internal use of concentrated essential oils, are not for use when pregnant (can cause miscarriage), and Hypertensive patients on certain medications as the diuretic qualities of Rosemary can interfere with those.  (Used externally or as a culinary herb its fine)  It’s also good for skin and hair and seems to help prevent dandruff.  (Boil some up mix with vinegar and use as a final rinse for really shiny, soft hair if you are Brunette in particular)

As a garden plant it makes a great hedge or just general all round background plant.  Its green and lush all the year round, has great blue flowers that are very attractant to bees and flowers when there is not much else about which is more to the point, so it helps keep the native and honey bees healthy.  (There’s also pink and white variants but there are heaps of pink and white flowers, blue is harder to come by)   There is even a prostrate variety for ground covers. It thrives in all sorts of conditions even sea side (rosemary is literally a corruption of the Latin rosmarinus – meaning dew of the sea) and can cope with frost and even light snow.  Although in Australia the most usual variant Tuscan Blue tends not to cope too well with many days below zero degrees so look around for local varieties if you live in the Snow Belt or King Island. It helps repel things like flies and fleas, and once established you can’t kill it with a brick.  It’s supposed to be easy to strike but I’ve only had success with tip cuttings in autumn and winter.  Bruise the end and leave a heel if you can.  Tent and leave it until spring, making sure its damp but not soaking.

Culinary use is best restricted to baking where it can be left whole so you can remove the woody sprigs (such as in a bouquet garni), but it’s very, very good with potatoes or lamb.  Some hipster cooks recommend keeping a bush by the Barbie so you can skewer your meat directly onto freshly plucked sprigs.  Sounds good eh?  However, I can tell you it’s hard enough to thread those suckers onto straight sharpened bamboo, can’t imagine doing it with blunt springy sprigs.  Tie a few together and use as a brush to baste instead.  I’ve soaked them in wine and then put onto hot coals in a Webber as a smoke as well. Steep in salt and oil and that will pull the flavours straight out for a great rub or base for a salad dressing.  If you want to bake the world’s best Greek lamb:  Juice one lemon.  Add about 2 tbs salt and set aside.  Poke holes all over it and then poke in a sliver of garlic, finely sliced lemon peel and sprig of rosemary.  Rub/pour salt and lemon juice over it.  Drizzle with olive oil and then bake hot and fast for rare or low and slow for well done (however, you usually do it)  Eat with freshly baked bread, potatoes roasted with garlic and rosemary and a salad to assuage your conscience.  Close eyes firmly to the carb count and oil that is being soaked up in the bread and enjoy. Preferably with a nice robust Red!

“..pray love, remember” Ophelia (Hamlet: Act V Sc IV)

Posted in Gardening

Lavender a plant for all Seasons

Posted on by Venessa M

“…especial goode use for all griefes and paines of the head and brain” John Parkinson, 1640

The NHS in the UK used a meta analysis of studies of efficacy for complementary practices and Herbal. One of them was specifically on Lavender and they found it actually did have both antibiotic as well as antiseptic properties when used in cleaning.

Lavender has been probably cultivated as a medicinal and garden plant ever since someone came across the plant and thought “what a fabulous scent, gee that makes me feel good!”  Its recorded history goes back two and a half thousand years to the Egyptians although there are biblical references too in the book of Solomon to Nard or Spikenard which was the old term for the Lavender that originated in the Mediterranean (from the Syrian town of Naard).  Cleopatra reputedly used it as her secret seduction ingredient using its heady scent to help seduce both Julius Ceasar and Marc Antony.  Its referred to in all the old herbals and physics and the term Lavender eventually became general use from the Romans using it in all their cleaning processes and soaps (from Laeve – to wash)  My favourite use of Lavender has to be in the 4 thieves vinegar.  This was a mix of Thyme, Lavender, Rosemary and Sage steeped in vinegar that the looters and thieves during the great plague, used to sluice themselves down with, after a hard night of robbing the dead.  Ironically, since Lavender repels fleas (the actual vector of infection for the plague) it may have even worked.

I like to think the term Sovereign Specific applied originally to Lavender, which along with Rosemary and Evening primrose were used to treat an extraordinary range of ailments.  Its use as a perfumery and medicinal plant is well documented and I won’t go into it here.  Its documented and proven use as an antiseptic means adding it to the final rinse of your clothes or a few drops on a minor wound is a good old fashioned remedy that works.  I make solution of equal parts white vinegar and water and a table spoon of essential oil and put that in a spray bottle.  It works equally well as a counter top wipe or room deodoriser.   Not really meant to be ingested, although the two main cultivars for essential oils,  L.Augustifola  (officinalis or English lavender) and L.Spica,  have been used in cooking for centuries.  The flowers are used in teas and baking and to infuse butters and cheeses.  I’ve even had them in Mash Potatoes in a fancy restaurant once.  L.Mustead is also used for essential oil production but there are hundreds of varieties and more hybrids being produced every day.  You can grow it just about anywhere although it really hates waterlogged soil or high humidity,  and prefers sandy well drained soil.  I’m growing mine in clay soil on a slight slope. The Hardy Lavenders (L.Spica, augustifola and dentata) will tolerate frost and even snow, but really the best place for them is warm wet moderate winters and hot dry summers.  Once established they will thrive on neglect and will grow robustly on very little water and the occasional prune to keep it in shape if you

Posted in Philosophy, Social and political rants

42?

Posted on by Venessa M

I think the most futile arguments I ever see online are those around Creationism, intelligent design, and Evolution/cosmology.

The first issue is that like most poor rhetoric, you are conflating a What with a Why We pretty much know “What” happened. But because some people feel threatened with their world view thinking their “Why” is threatened, they will ignore all the mountains of evidence to the contrary. (Some visible by just looking up into the night sky!) This is attacking the strongest part instead of the weakest.

You see, although most cosmologists agree that some sort of singularly of nothing existed, and then there was something which in mere minutes spread and became our nascent universe. There is no evidence as to why. To paraphrase Terry Pratchett: in the beginning there was nothing, which exploded. For no adequately explored reason. If you are a religious person. Insert God here. There’s no evidence to the contrary and you can take comfort in knowing you are as correct as anyone else who wasn’t there at the time. I remember reading a SF short story as a teen (who’s author and title has disappeared into the mists of my memory) a civilisation sent out a probe to collect knowledge. This was particularly well built and indestructible to all intents and purposes (I suspect Star Trek the motion picture writers to have read this as well) It observed all things including the eventual heat death and shrinkage of the universe to a nothing. Being so knowledgeable it figured out how to exist outside of the non existence space time. it spent countless Eons in non time thinking and then the last words of the story is the probe saying “Let there be light”. The thing is given the difference between evidence and belief this could be just as true. No matter how far you go back, eventually you get to a why question you can’t answer. Call it God if you like. Just don’t insist on teaching it as fact.

Then you look at our amazing planet. although it appears that proteins and amino acids can pop into existence anywhere anytime given enough of a soup of chemicals and energy. Life seems to have happened only once (as far as we can tell and it happened over 3 billion years ago before the earth had hardened from molten rock which is pretty amazing) one bag of chemicals twitched thus instead of this, and before it faded it found a way to replicate itself. All life from the thermophilic bacteria on ocean vents, to billionaires owe their existence to this trick.

“pull out a human genetic sequence to repair a faulty yeast cell and it will use it as if its one of its own – as indeed it probably is”

Bill Bryson

Its likely this has happened many times in the universe as evidenced by things found in meteorites. But the only time we know for sure is it happened here. Call us the pinnacle of creation if you must.

maybe “…things just happen what the hell”.

Terry Pratchett

My Narrative telling ape brain finds amazing coincidence in things like the Earth orbits within a very narrow band in the solar system that allows it to have have liquid water. A few degrees closer or further away and it wouldn’t. But that seems amazing to me because the correlation does not equal causation fallacy that I insist on seeing with my story telling brain. Take another fact. Our DNA, durable though it is, would be ripped to shreds in minutes ending the whole life thing, if it wasn’t for the fact that we have a magnetosphere deflecting it. This is produced by our spinning molten metal core. (the only planet in our solar system to have one) Honestly its as if giant engineers created an engine to produce and protect life. But just as real is that fact that because of this cosmological anomaly, Life when it twitched into being, was able to gain a foot hold. Life is a function of the earth, not the earth cradles life. Call it a miracle if you must, because it is. Just don’t insist that we now understand the thoughts of the divine.

Remember those undersea vents? Well scientists for years wondered why the Oceans’ Salinity remained (relatively) stable. Given erosion etc it should just get saltier and saltier until the whole of the earth is covered in it. But water is sucked down into subduction zones with the continental shelf, Gets swirled around in the mantle and sub mantle then many thousands of years later gets pumped out as fresh water. Like a balanced aquarium filter on a giant scale. I know there’s nothing supernatural about it. Like the magnetosphere, ice ages and the miracle of life. It just is. That I personally find it amazing is just because I’m a human trained to look for patterns, even ones that aren’t there.

Humans need belief. If only they tried as hard to believe in Justice, equality, mercy, kindness and fought to have them taught as immutable facts of existence, striking down bullshit exceptionalism and divisive thoughts. How much more could we achieve if we did?

Posted in Uncategorized

Election night bingo card.

Posted on by Venessa M

Hi I’ve created a bingo card for those who want to record their milestones or even use it as a drinking game (use alcohol wisely) Since I’ve referenced Anthony Green, its set for the ABC coverage. I’ve attached it as a word document for downloading so you can change it easily. Salute.

Go here to down load the Word doc.
Posted in Philosophy

The Most Useful thing I ever Learned

Posted on by Venessa M

That young children under 7, cannot absorb more than one instruction at a time, and cannot absorb anything when they are stressed.  For example, a fairly typical set of instructions to your kids before going out might be:

“Can you pick up your toys, put them away, grab your backpacks, and wait by the car.”  This is may be the same set of instructions they get every day before going to school. But in children under 7, the most likely scenario is that they are found lined up by the car, ready to go, no backpacks and toys left lying in wait to trip you if you don’t look out.  That is because they were only able to process the last instruction. Parents then compound the problem by shouting,

“What did I just say!?”

The child scared by the parent’s anger, and entering flight and fight mode, gets Cortisol, the stress hormone, flooding into their system. This can chemically strip their last few moments of memory.  So they go silent or say,

 “I don’t know”. 

Naturally, the situation deteriorates from there. 

Now if you want a happier home life, keep instructions simple.  One at a time, and never follow an exasperated outburst with a question.  You’ll have less of your own Cortisol response to worry about.