Flower Power

Do you use herbs and flowes to flavor the air and cooking?

Rosemary, called "dew of the sea" finds nourishment in sea mist and humidity. Greek mythology reveals it adorned Aphrodite when she rose from the sea. Its fragrance flavors meats and stews.  Native to the Mediterranean region, it grows in Southern California as a landscape plant. When shaped annually in the garden, the aroma scents the breeze, clothes, and work gloves. Take a few springs to add to your car, or for use in the kitchen.

Bay trees flavor many dishes like spaghetti sauce. They also have symbolic meaning. Greeks fashioned the bay laurel leaves into crowns to place on the heads of victors in games and battles.The God, Zeus, loved the laurel. It contain oils used in medicines to treat breathing ailments.

In addition to flavoring food,  plants provide olefactory effects. Lavender provides a sense of ease when we need relaxation.

Geraniums, a common garden plant,  exudes an odor that meets with mixed reviews. They can smell like rose, peppermint, even chocloate and lime.

Leaves of camphor and eucalyptus refresh when crushed or rubbed.

Roses used in sachets and potpourris also add fragrance to water, baths, and waft through a room when cut and placed in a vase. After the flowers of the rose have been pollinated, the fruits form rosehips. They add flavor to tea and provide 
vitamin C.

Today, stop and smell the flowers and herbs. Slow down, relax, and take in the simple pleasures.

Try Nasturtium Pesto
Makes 2 cups

Ingredients
4 cups packed nasturtium leaves
2 cups packed nasturtium flowers
1 1/2 cups olive oil
5 cloves garlic
1 to 1 1/2 cups walnuts
1 to 1 1/2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese

Method
Pick a basket full of fresh leaves and flowers without any blemishes. If your plants aren’t blooming yet, using only the leaves is fine too. Nasturtiums are highly beneficial in the garden for being natural aphid traps, so you’ll want to make sure you’re not harvesting a colony of aphids along with them.

Thoroughly wash and dry the leaves and flowers; tear larger leaves in half.
Add the leaves, flowers, garlic, olive oil, walnuts, and Parmesan to a blender or food processor. If you want the pesto extra nutty and extra cheesy, use the full 1 1/2 cups for each ingredient.
Blend all the ingredients until the mixture is smooth.

Ladle the pesto into small jars and refrigerate. It should keep for up to two weeks.

Find your flower power.

Celebrate May Day

May lst incorporates traditions from the Gaelic Beltane celebrated with feasts and rituals. The name means fire of Bel; Belinos being one name for the Sun God, whose coronation feast is celebrated. The plant world blossoms and an exuberant mood prevails. 

In the old Celtic times, young people would spend the entire night in the woods "A-Maying," and then dance around the Maypole the next morning. May morning brings a magical time for wild water (dew, flowing streams, and springs) collected and used to bathe in for beauty, or to drink for health.

Many Celts would rise at the first light of dawn to gather flowers and branches to decorate their homes. Women  braided flowers into their hair.  Beltane marks the return of vitality, of passion. 

Celebrate May Day near a water source.

   

Go for a walk in a forest setting.

        

Search for water sprites and fairies. 

             

Gather plants or flowers to display in your home.

Enjoy fantasies.

    

Create stories about the natural world.  

         

Benefit from the magic in the air.

Creativity and Sleep

During the first stage of sleep known as half-sleep, rapid, electrical activity is replaced by slower, higher voltage activity. Sleep specialists cannot pinpoint the precise moment of falling asleep because the transition from relaxed wakefulness to sleep happens gradually.



Two types of waves (alpha and theta) occur together on the sleep monitor for several minutes, each seeming to fight for attention. In the transition, called hypnagogia, the individual is a passive spectator of random associations, neither awake nor asleep.

Artists, scientists and inventors such as Charles Dickens, Albert Einstein and Johannes Brahms experienced moments of creativity during times of half-sleep. Thomas Edison napped in a chair holding steel balls. When he dozed, the balls dropped onto pans on the floor and awakened him suddenly. This aroused ideas of discovery.

Sleep scientists do not understand the causes and implications of these creative surges. They search for some connection between creativity and alpha-theta brainwaves or between creativity and intense visualization. 

Most theorists believe the half-sleeping mind, removed from rational categories, can integrate opposites and accept uncertainty.  For example, as he rose out of bed one morning, Einstein realized space and time are not separate entities. Our cognitive restrictions loosen in half-sleep allowing for unusual and illuminating associations.




The space between sleep and the edge of awakening remain mysterious and symbolic. Meanings shift and deepen to create possibility. Taking advantage of sleep's nuances may nurture creativity.



Keep a notepad by your bed and notice thoughts and feelings during sleep time. Do you feel creative notions appearing if you awaken suddenly?  

Write your first thoughts and feelings upon awakening. 

Notice connections and imagery
for additional writing.