Saturday, December 26, 2009

Eat the weeds dot com



My favorite little star (chickweed) is on one of his(Deane's) videos
Stellaria media, Stellaria pubera,

Here is a cute little video link;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy3vRYftDqE

Here is his website link;
http://www.eattheweeds.com/www.EatTheWeeds.Com/EatTheWeeds.com/EatTheWeeds.com.html
(As always; You can just click on the title and it will redirect you to Green Deane's website. Ah, me and my mother nature style food stuff. Enjoy, and please feel free to comment. ;)Allisonian

Thursday, December 24, 2009

My Christmas Bracelet Therapy....





Here are some of the ways I spent the season... If you love them, as I did, or are interested in ordering one, please email me at
allisonians@gmail.com








©Allisonians
Please ask me for permission to use my photos or writing before you purger (plagiarize) yourself. silly silly

My Wish; A SAFE and Happy Holiday, A Beautifully Clean, Fresh, Lively Heart. Happy 2010. Let Us Remember to Take Care of our Mother Earth...


HAPPY CHRISTMAS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Merry Christmas!


I remember a Christmas Story in one of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Books.


Their Pa had gone out in a terrible storm. He was supposed to be home with needed staples (food) and was late. They weren't even sure what day it was, but they were not too concerned with that. What they wanted was their Pa's safe arrival home. He did, indeed come home on Christmas day. He'd been detained because of the horrific storm.
They were overjoyed that their Pa was safely home with the help, I think, of their neighbor, Mr. Edwards. They had a simple dish that they were so happy to have and Pa brought them a single candy stick each. They were happy with it. That winter was cruel and daunting for them, but they made it. Their family stayed true to each other. Of course their need existed, but the simplicity of the story comes back. I haven't seen a life like that. Simply, primal with necessities that preceded anything we know, but still, simply elegant in the imagination, their simplicity of a season and a holiday.

I may not have the exact details of the story; or be even close, I do apoligize if this offends. Otherwise, I am happy to share my simple and sacred imagining. I couldn't find my old book to be sure of her words compared to my memory of that particular story, but the nature it brought me exudes life.

Giving thanks for my simplicity of this year,
Merry Christmas!
Allison

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Merry Christmas

Well, I can't really say why Lakewood is especially important to me; but this story says it all for itself.

~~Semper Fi ===Latin== Always Faithful~~



Lakewood police officer pens Christmas story
Posted By Mike Archbold on December 16, 2009 at 9:50 am
A little boy and his toy dinosaur who came by the Lakewood Office Department station Sunday to honor the four slain police officers touched an officer enough that the officer wanted to share it with friends.

One of the friends who received the letter, Tukwila police officer Mike Murphy, said he and his fellow officers were so touched by the story that they thought it should be shared with the community.

Murphy said the officer who wrote it agreed but wanted to remain anonymous.

"It is just a story of one child reaching out and helping heal the pain we have all suffered," Murphy said in his e-mail. "Our only goal in sending it is to reach out to our community and thank them for this and all the other love and support they have sent us through this very difficult time."

The Christmas story is reprinted below:

December 13, 2009


I’m not much for writing Christmas letters, and in fact this year, I didn’t even feel like making the effort of buying and addressing Christmas cards at all. I’m sure you all have heard of the terrible tragedy that occurred here in Lakewood two weeks ago today – four of our officers, four people that have become my friends over the past 5 years as we all worked here together, were gunned down as they sat in a coffee shop. Three fathers and a mother – all of whom were dedicated to their jobs and their families – now dead. The grief at our station and in our community has been overwhelming and we have all now just barely begun to process what this means for our department and for police departments all across our state and nation. Several times since this event happened, police agencies have responded to reports of individuals across King and Pierce Counties causing commotions and claiming to be planning to kill more officers. We do our best to maintain our composure and continue to do our jobs the best that we can.

It is hard not to remain bleak and jaded with these events so fresh in our minds. But something happened today, just 20 minutes ago, which made me want to send out a Christmas letter. I’m here at work and was just out in our secure parking lot helping another officer load collection bins into his car to take to a local Lakewood Police Independent Guild fundraiser event. I heard a woman, standing with a boy who couldn’t have been more than 3 or 4 years old, calling, “Excuse me….” through our locked gate. She had apparently been trying to get to our front counter but found no one there, it being Sunday, and had just happened to see us in the parking lot. I walked over to her and saw that the little boy was holding a plastic baggy containing a dollar and some change, and was clutching a well-worn stuffed dinosaur.

The woman told me that her son, AJ, had seen the stories on tv about our 4 slain officers. She said that they had driven to our station all the way from Kingston because her son was so intent on helping the children of these officers. I opened the gate and the boy handed me the plastic baggy containing all the money from his piggybank and a note on which he had written “AJ….From me to Pleec. I Love You.” And then, with tears in his eyes, he handed me his stuffed dinosaur. AJ’s mom explained that he wanted to give the children of the slain officers the most precious thing that he owned, and that was his dinosaur, Bruno.
I told AJ that I would take the money that he wanted to donate, but that I thought the best thing he could do for the children of our 4 officers was to keep Bruno safe with him but to keep those kids in his heart when he hugged his dinosaur. He agreed and gratefully took Bruno back from me and held him tightly as if he never wanted to let him go again.

We have seen many, many acts of generosity and kindness over the past 2 weeks. We have hugged more friends and strangers than we could have ever imagined and have mended broken ties with people we haven’t talked to for years. Yet nothing has touched me deeper, or given me more hope for the future, than AJ and his stuffed dinosaur. I gave AJ one of our department challenge coins, explaining to him that we only gave them out to the bravest and most deserving people we came across. I hope he will realize someday how much more than a dollar and some change he gave to me and to the Lakewood Police Department today.

So anyway, none of that is about Christmas, but it is about hope and love and I thought it was appropriate to share this holiday season.

I hope this letter finds all of you well and eager to spend the holidays with those you love. Squeeze everyone a little tighter and hug them a little

Is It Legal To





Interesting Site. Simply click on the Title to redirect to the site, and please remember to come back and see me. Please leave me feed back if this site was helpful. I haven't been register long here, and haven't much legal ease, but look forward to reading some of the topics generated, and maybe learning a thing or two.

Please either comment or email me with your comments.

Have a great day!

Friday, December 11, 2009

And My Favorite Subjects..... Mother Nature and Eating.....AND of course~~Chickweed; oh my little stars

Why Eat Wild Herbs and Edible Plants? What Do You Get In a Weed That Money Can Not Buy?

For hundreds of years people took advantage of the medicine cabinet at their doorstep. Before the advent of processed foods and modern convenience stores, wild plants were a common dietary supplement. They were the ultimate natural multivitamin!

Often the plants we call weeds have therapeutic value. Our pharmaceutical industry bases many new medicines on the healing factors in herbs.

Why eat wild herbs?



They are power packed with phyto-nutrients, hundreds of times the vitamin and mineral density of a supermarket lettuce. Remember our common lettuce started out in the wild. Due to thousands of years of agriculture it has become rather meek and mild, compared to its ancestors.

They are free; great value nutrition.

You only need a little to reap the nutritional benefits.

Nutrient dense wild plants support all levels of health, starting at a cellular level.

What if you live in the city?
Not everyone lives in the countryside these days, with healthy spray free wild herbs at their doorstep. How can you get the benefits of wild plants without turning into a forager?


Drink herbal teas made from wild herbs, like nettle.

Eat darker leafy green vegetables whenever possible. Shop at a farmers market for the older varieties and more unusual green vegetables. These vegetables are most likely less hybridised and therefore intrinsically more powerful health wise.

Take a green powder like barley grass or Vitamineral Green. Vitamineral green contains wild plants in its nutrient dense ingredient profile.

If you do live rurally, how do you spot the good ones?
People ask us, “how do you avoid the poisonous ones?” Good question! Ask around and learn one edible variety at a time. Often community gardens have people in the know. Gather this precious knowledge slowly. Read books. You will feel more connected to your local environment and

What to do with wild herbs and dark leafy greens?



Wild herbs can be juiced (the forerunner to wheat grass juice!) with carrots and apples, made into dressings or pesto, and chopped finely into salads.

Wild Weed Pesto Recipe
- This really tastes good!
Makes 2 cups
This recipe works well for many other greens if you are unfamiliar with edible weeds. Try rocket, coriander or spinach. It can also be spiced up with the addition of fresh chilli. Almost any other nuts or seeds can be substituted for the pumpkin seeds.

2 cups (packed) chickweed, puha or other mild-tasting edible weeds
1 cup pumpkin seeds, soaked overnight in water, then drained.
3 cloves garlic, chopped
4 Tab olive oil
2 Tab miso (or ½ tsp sea salt)
Juice of one lemon

1) Wash your weeds and drain well. Chop them into about 1 cm bits.
2) Place in a food processor. Blend together with all other ingredients. Adjust consistency with either olive oil (to make it thicker) or water (to make it thinner).

Conclusion on Eating Wild Weeds
So what are you going to get out of a common weed, that you won’t get out of spinach? Not less, you get more of everything! More vitamins and minerals, to feed the powerhouse in every cell exactly what it’s needs to be well. As nutrient values in common vegetables have declined, eating a few finely chopped wild herbs in your salad will top you up… for free!

Copyright Wild Health and Anna Wilde 2007

Anna Wilde works with people who want to improve their health naturally.
Get recipes and straight forward advice to stay motivated, eat well and be healthy.


Check out her ‘Healthy food made easy’ website Sign up and get free simple healthy recipes like: Bircher Muesli and articles like: The War on Fat

What people say about Wild Health:
“Fantastic quantity and quality of information.
Thanks for a lot of new healthy food ideas I wouldn’t have found anywhere else." Maria
“This changed my life. I lost weight and feel better than ever” Brian
“I am buzzing with ideas!” Sarah



This is not My advice, but I like how these people think and so does Jack Johnson..

Peace out!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Sri Yantra; Loom; Mendala; Bindu


A mandala is a plan, chart or geometric pattern which represents the cosmos metaphysically or symbolically, a microcosm of the universe from the human perspective. A Sri Yantra is a type of mandala with geometric patterns. Sri Yantra literally means loom, instrument or machine. In actual practice, a yantra is a symbolic representation of aspects of divinity, the creative forces of the universe. It is an interlocking matrix of geometric figures, circles, triangles and floral patterns that form fractal patterns of elegance and beauty. These visual patterns can have a powerful effect on the mind. Just as primordial sounds, or mantras, can be useful in balancing our mind and body through hearing, primordial shapes can generate increased coherence in our brains, creating a balancing and calming influence. In cultures around the world, beautiful visual patterns are used to quiet a restless mind.




Yantra Meditation

As you look at the yantra, allow your eyes to focus on its center. This dot in the center is called the Bindu, which represents the unity that underlies all the diversity of the physical world.

Now allow your eyes to see the triangle that encloses the bindu. The downward pointing triangle represents the feminine creative power, while the upward facing triangle represents male energy.

Allow your vision to expand to include the circles outside of the triangles. They represent the cycles of cosmic rhythms. The image of the circle embodies the notion that time has no beginning and no end. The farthest region of space and the innermost nucleus of an atom both pulsate with the same rhythmic energy of creation. That rhythm is within you and without you.

Bring your awareness to lotus petals outside the circle. Notice that they are pointing outwards, as if opening. They illustrate the unfolding of our understanding. The lotus also represents the heart, the seat of the Self. When the heart opens, understanding comes.

The square at the outside of the yantra represents the world of form, the material world that our senses show us, the illusion of separateness, of well defined edges and boundaries. At the periphery of the figure are four T-shaped portals, or gateways. Notice that they point toward the interior of the yantra, the inner spaces of life. They represent our earthly passage from the external and material to the internal and sacred.

Now take a moment to gaze into the yantra, letting the different shapes and patterns emerge naturally, allowing your eyes to be held loosely in focus. Gaze at the center of the yantra on the page. Without moving your eyes, gradually begin to expand your field of vision. Continue expanding your vision until you are taking in information from greater than 180 degrees. Notice that all this information was there all along, you just became aware of it. Now slowly reverse the process by re-focusing back to the center of the yantra. Now gently close your eyes. You may still see the yantra in your mind’s eye. The patterns of creativity represented by these primordial shapes express the fundamental forces of nature. They govern the world and they govern you.






http://www.chopra.com/mandalas

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

It's a wiki winter and vinegar is what I am thinking about. I want my lavendar vinegar that Is ALL used up...


Job's Tears
In Japan, an aged vinegar also is made from Job's Tears; it is similar in flavor to rice vinegar.
Reference Wikipedia


I haven't made apple cidar vinegar and I am just now REALLY wishing that I did....

I am making donuts in its stead.

dah-da-donut

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Learning to Crochet On My Own,~Some learnin' aint book learnin'

I made a accorn necklace and now I am making a red bead wire leaf to either adorn Nancy's package or, with luck, become a brooch. WE will see. I ordered a camera battery, so I can even take pictures one of these days.. Happy holidays!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hear is another Francis quote, I like this one~~~

A person who works with their hands
is a laborer,
A person who works with their hands and head,
is a craftsman,
A person who works with their hands, head, and heart
is an artisan!

St.Francis

Christmas ICE for Miss Icey






WELL;
La
Tee
Dah

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Dr. Andrew Weil's Tip of the Day~~Click on this title to go to his website. There is a great food pyramid

4 Tips for Nutrition and Cognitive Health
Thursday, December 3, 2009 at 9:06AM
To help preserve mental function and protect against age-related cognitive decline consider implementing these healthy lifestyle, nutrition and supplement choices:

1.Eat an anti-inflammatory diet. It helps prevent inappropriate inflammation and counters the damage from oxidative stress, which may be linked to Alzheimer's disease. Focus on antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables, foods rich in vitamins C and E, omega-3 fatty acids, and the spices turmeric and ginger. My Anti-Inflammatory Food Pyramid has more information and specific recommendations.
2.Eat berries. Blueberries in particular may improve motor skills and help reverse age-related short-term memory loss, and may also protect the brain from stroke damage.
3.Use cooking methods that limit inflammation. Cook at lower temperatures to avoid the formation of AGEs (advanced glycation end products) which have been linked to Alzheimer's disease, and avoid cooking methods that require excessive fat, such as deep frying.
4.Focus on fish. Wild Alaskan salmon, sardines, herring and black cod are excellent sources of anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acids, yet are relatively low in potential environmental toxins. Diets rich in fish have been shown to help alleviate depression and other mental-health issues.

isn't inovation key? I dare say......

I have to give this one a KUDOs by only my standard. What a lovely article and photos as well(Just ClICk on the title and see, it's an advent calendar inovative and down right smart and kind. Happy holidays and frugal festivities to all! who need them...

Winter Blessings~and hot drinks~~

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Annie's Remedy Website has some great chickweed, my starillia, so called, herb of study...Just click on this title to go to the site ;)

I am intent on studying my herbs this winter, so that I can find them come this spring.. Have a pleasant winter's nap for any of you fortunate, or in need of, a good winter's nap...
Until we meet again.....
Allison

Banana This; Recycle Old Peels~ fertilizer or silver polish

There are things you can do with that old peel.

1. Do you have a green thumb? House hold plants and outside gardens require fertilization. A great way to give your plants nutrients is with a banana peel. The banana peel is very rich in potassium and phosphorus, which give that added boost to your plants soil, especially so with roses. Here is how to use a banana peel to fertilizer your soil for your plants. Remove the peel from the banana. Place the banana peel on a cookie sheet to let it air dry. Grab a paper bag or envelope. Crumble the dried banana peel and place it in the bag. Let the banana sit at room temperature for about two days. When your caring for your plant, give it a potassium treat of crumbled banana peel. Mix well in the soil to ensure the roots are fed evenly.
2. Have you been thinking about pulling out that old silver? Well there is no time like the present. Bananas peel can also be used to polish silver. Yes, polish silver. Take the old peels and place them in a blender. You want the peels to become smooth and creamy. Once they have, grab a cloth and small amounts of the creamed banana peel and begin polishing your silver. The shine will be breath taking.

SOURDOUGH STARTER with WILD YEAST

SOURDOUGH STARTER with WILD YEAST
Wild yeasts exist in the air around you and to some extent on the wheat berries. There are wild yeasts on grapes (unsulphured) and apples and other fruits. It is those wild yeasts which are 'captured' to make a sourdough starter. The process takes from 3 to 5 days. I wish I had specific amounts for you, but you could start with 1/4 to 1/2 cup of flour and mix in enough warm (not hot) water to make a thin paste. DO NOT make it too soupy. That, in fact, is the trick to a good starter, according to the French bread makers, and I think they should know. And after you've fooled around with the flour and water thing, you might wish to branch out into adding those unsulphured grapes, apples, sour milk, etc as a catalyst in order to capture other strains of yeast. Each of these strains has a slightly different taste. In fact if you move to another area, you might end up with a starter that produces an entirely different flavor. For instance, San Francisco sourdough bread is well known and has a distinct taste due to the wild strains in the air there. On day one you mix the flour and water (and add any catalysts to encourage fermentation) and place in a warm spot. After 3 days, the dough should be moist, inflated, and slightly sour. More flour and water is added (mixed in) and left to sit in a warm spot. After 2 days the process is repeated. Then the next day it is done again. Note the order: 3 days, 2 days, 1 day. At this point you should be able to make a loaf of bread using part of the starter and adding back what you took out in the form of more flour and water. Rule of thumb: Use about 10% starter to size of loaf. In the case of a 2 lb loaf this is a bit over 3 oz of starter (3.2 to be exact). For a 1 lb loaf 1.5 oz would be used. A book that describes this process in great detail is The Village Baker by Joe Ortiz, copyright 1993, published by Ten Speed Press, Berkley CA. If it's not still in print, try the used books stores, that's where I got mine. Or try your local library. If they don't have it, they might be able to get it for you. ©2008 by Ernestina Parziale

Thank You For Visiting!

Thank You For Visiting!
Have a Great Day!