#which is the scientific name of a type of poppy flower

[quasieli]

I've created a new baby (NPC) who's an absolute asshole and I adore them 🥰🥰

[roxannarambles]

Pokemon Scarlet/Violet Character Names Explained

Fun fact! The characters in Pokemon Scarlet/Violet are all named after various plants. Yes, all of them. The localizations for their English names did their best to stay true to this, but sometimes their namesake is not always obvious in the English names.

So I thought I'd collect them all and summarize them in a post! You can find all these on a Wiki, but I thought it would be handy to have them all in one place. Warning: this is an image-heavy post.

Team Star Bosses

Giacomo (ピーニャ Piña) - Pineapple: Giacomo is derived from the pineapple's scientific name (Ananas comosus). It's easy to guess why Giacomo was named after the pineapple, with his spikey hair. (Also, yeah, pineapples don't grow on trees, a lot of people don't know that.)

Mela (メロコ Meloco) - Peach Tree: You'd think Mela would be named after the pepper plant, but no, she is named after the Spanish word for peach. Go figure. (Fun fact, it is Rika the Ground-type user who is named after the pepper!)

Atticus (シュウメイ Shūmei) - Japanese Anemone: His English name is derived from the plant genus 'Hepatica.' The Japanese Anemone is a flower in the buttercup family, native to Asia.

Ortega (オルティガ Ortiga) - Stinging Nettles: A traditional medicinal herb, this plant has stinging hairs that irritate skin if touched. A pretty aggressive plant!

Eri (ビワ Biwa) - Loquat: A fruit tree native to China and popular in Japan. If you're from the US, you might have heard it called "Japanese plum" or "Chinese plum." Eri is dervied from the plant's scientific name 'Eriobotrya japonica.'

Gym Leaders

Katy (カエデ Kaede) - Maple Tree: In addition to being named after the maple tree, Katy's English name might also be a play on 'Katydid'

Brassius (コルサ Colza) - Rapeseed: This plant is in the Brassicaceae family, which are a wide range of cultivated crops in the mustard family. Rapeseed in particular is best known for the vegetable oil made from its seeds (canola oil)

Iono (ナンジャモ Nanjamo) - Chinese Fringetree: A species of tree in the olive family that is native to Asia and produces many pretty white flowers. The Japanese name for Iono is a name used for unknown trees (literal translation: "What is it?"), with the Chinese Fringetree often being the culprit of an unknown tree. Likewise, Iono's English name is supposed to sound like "I dunno"

Kofu (ハイダイ Haidai) - Kelp: There are many, many species of seaweed; Kofu's English name refers to a group of edible kelp in particular (often called 'kombu')

Ryme (ライム Lime) - Lime: A play on the words "lime" and "rhyme"

Tulip (リップ Lip): In this case, there is no mystery what plant her English name is referring to!

Grusha (グルーシャ Grusha) - Pear Tree: Yeah, Grusha is named after pears. The Russian word for pear, in particular. I have no idea why. Pear trees do have white flowers, so perhaps that's why.

Paldea League

Rika (チ��� Chili) - Chili Pepper: Her English name is short for 'Paprika' and her Japanese name is a pun (chili and 地 chi - ground)

Poppy (ポピー Poppy): Again, just like with Tulip, this name is already obvious for English speakers!

Larry (アオキ Aoki) - Spotted Laurel: A shrub with pretty gold specks on its leaves; thrives in damp environments

Hassel (ハッサク Hassaku) - Hassaku Orange: This is a hybrid citrus tree between an orange and a grapefruit

Geeta (オモダカ Omodaka) - Threeleaf Arrowhead: An aquatic plant that grows in swamps and has a starchy tuber that can be eaten. Her English name is derived from the genus Sagittaria.

Main Cast

Arven (ペパー Pepper) - Peppermint: Arven is named after the peppermint plant, although his English name derives from the scientific name for a close relative, the corn mint (Mentha arvensis). I like to think Arven was named after peppermint for being a bit 'spicy' and terse when you first meet him, but that is just my wild speculation.

Penny (ボタン Botan) - Peony: Penny is named after the peony flower; the tree peony in particular, which is a manmade cultivar that is a shrub/tree rather than herbaceous. The tree peony is incredibly popular in China, for both ornamental and traditional chinese medicine reasons.

Nemona (ネモ Nemo) - Baby Blue Eyes: The Baby Blue Eyes is a native wildflower to North America (California & Oregon in particular), unlike a lot of the plants on this list. Nemona's name derives from its scientific name in particular (Nemophila menziesii). It bothers me to no end that Nemona is named after a plant called 'baby blue eyes' when her eyes are orange; the California poppy (which is bright orange) seems to make more sense for her? But, who knows what went on in the naming process.

Juliana (アオイ Aoi) - While the player character names are not directly named after a plant, they are inspired by plants in general. Juliana's Japanese name is a pun that means 'springtime' and 'green/young' (her English name comes from the word 'juvenile')

Florian (ハルト Haruto) - Florian's Japanese name, on the other hand, is a pun with 'springtime' and 'spring.' His English name comes from 'flower.'

[arteriplussprice]

Arteris Plus Reviews is a supplement that was made for high blood pressure. This disease is dubbed the “silent killer” as it hits individuals with lightning-fast speeds without a single warning. High blood pressure is indeed a really nasty thing to meet. This is the reason why it is always advised to do regular check-ups of your current health condition. If you detect and take precautions regarding the matter, it would not escalate to a life-threatening condition that may leave you blind or mumbled in speech for the rest of your days.

Product Name – Arteris Plus

Composition – Natural

Side-Effects – Nothing

Availability – Online

Rating : ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Official Website: Click Here

Arteris Plus Reviews presents itself as the solution to all of this. It is an anti-high blood pressure supplement that deals with the problem at its core with 100% all-natural ingredients that are proven to have no side effects, unlike their synthetic counterparts. However, that sounds too good to be true, which is why we’ll be doing a full-length review regarding this matter. We’ll assess whether this supplement works or not and observe both the benefits and downsides of this product from an unbiased scientific point of view. As an added bonus, I also tried Arteris Plus to provide an accurate review! I also have high blood pressure, so I decided to give it a try.

[Watch] Control Your Blood Pressure With This Hidden South Korean Breathing Method

What is Arteris Plus?

    Arteris Plus is a supplement that aims to lower the blood pressure of individuals experiencing hypertension. This cardiovascular problem is usually caused by the lifestyle choices that we make throughout our life. So in that sense, we can either use the Arteris Plus supplement as a form of treatment or preventive measure to stop high blood pressure from even taking place.

Arteris Plus comprises five ingredients that provide substantial relief from hypertension caused by multiple sources, including external and internal ones. This is one of the most glaring traits of this supplement. Why? It is because supplements with five ingredients or less are rare in the industry. If the creator, hidden under a pen name John Mayers, chose these five ingredients, they must work exponentially against hypertension. On the other hand, this type of line-up doesn’t cover all bases at once. Arteries Plus ingredients are all-natural and have been sourced from the purest locations on the planet.

Arteris Plus comes in bottles of 60 capsules each. These bottles are suitable for 30 days, which is the average period that each supplement bottle lasts. This supplement is made for individuals 18 years old and above. It should not be taken by minors and children. In addition, upon initial observation, you mustn’t take this supplement if you have milk, soy, wheat, egg, peanut, tree nut, fish, and crustacean allergies since Arteris Pro is made in a facility that also processes such substances.

Arteris Plus at First Glance

Our first impression with Arteris Plus certainly comes in positive. Since it has fewer ingredients than usual, you can say that the creators of this product are more than sure that this combination would work. Furthermore, their honesty regarding allergic interactions is more than welcome. This certainly puts this supplement at a more credible stance. The only thing not credible is their privacy of the creator’s name and office location. According to their official website’s disclaimer, the name John Mayers is a pen name. Furthermore, the location of their distribution office is the same as most of the dietary supplements currently for sale.

Moving on, let’s take a look at the ingredient roster of Arteris Plus to assess whether this supplement really works or not.

[Watch] Discover The Unbelievable Simple Way To Maintain Healthy Blood Pressure Levels!

What are the ingredients of Arteris Plus?

Arteris Plus has an impressive list of ingredients for a dietary supplement. Often, nutritional supplements have ten or more components on their list. However, Arteris Plus only has five. Being this sure about the ingredients meant that Arteris Plus was made to work with precision. I bet this has stimulated your curiosity by now. So, let’s take a look at these five well-esteemed ingredients of Arteris Plus from a factual scientific point of view.

    Arteris Plus ingredients are as follows:

Passionflower

Marshmallow Root

Corydalis Lutea

Prickly Pear

California Poppy Seed

Passionflower

Passionflower is mainly used as a calming agent for anxious people about multiple things in their lifetime. According to studies, passionflower can be taken by mouth to reduce such negative emotional behavior symptoms. Furthermore, individuals also take passionflower at least one to two hours before surgery to minimize their anxious thoughts before going “on the table.” While it is not yet sure if passionflower can also lower our blood pressure, its calming effect may be more than enough to drop our blood pressure to manageable stats.

Marshmallow Root

This ingredient is commonly used for a wide variety of things. Primarily, it can provide temporary relief to coughs and other upper respiratory issues that you may come across during your day. It can also help your wounds in healing faster than usual, thanks to its antioxidative properties. In addition, since it’s an antioxidant, it can reliably make your skin better by protecting the cellular integrity of the said organ. Sometimes, marshmallow root can also lessen your pain, even though it is not a reliable painkiller at most times. Also, some people use marshmallow root as a digestive remedy for their usual tummy pains. However, marshmallow root is in Arteris Plus because it has been found that this substance can lower a person’s cholesterol levels if taken for a month.

Corydalis Lutea

Also known as the yellow corydalis, this flowering herb can relieve pain to a certain extent. In particular, Corydalis Lutea can provide numbing effects for inflammatory types of pain such as toothaches and lessen the overall discomfort that one feels in an injury. Better yet, yellow corydalis can stimulate the production of serotonin, which can combat anything from mild depression, emotional disturbances, and stressful occurrences – all of which can heighten our overall blood pressure.

Prickly Pear

Also known by their alternative name nopal, prickly pears are actually excellent natural remedies for high blood sugar and cholesterol levels. It can also help people overcome their sense of being hungover after a long night of celebration. However, the primary purpose of prickly pears lies in their antiviral and anti-inflammatory effects. With these benefits in mind, prickly pears are excellent choices for a dietary supplement that focuses on blood pressure, such as Arteris Plus. If we lessen our blood’s cholesterol and glucose levels, it becomes less “syrupy,” leading to diminished overall blood pressure. The anti-inflammatory trait really helps as well. As for prickly pears being antiviral, studies have shown that our blood pressure can rise if our bodies are exposed to viral threats from the inside.

California Poppy Seed

This ingredient is perhaps the most unsure among them all. California poppy seeds have been heavily used in supplements for their hints at being effective, but research shows insufficient evidence to push this substance towards public use. Still, what’s written on paper is different when played out in real life. According to testimonies (I included), California poppy seeds have effectively diminished their anxiety, leading to their more relaxed state. With relaxation comes the remedy for insomnia. California poppy seeds are also known to act as a pain reliever and quell episodes of nocturia, which is another term for excessive peeing in the middle of the night. Again, these claims still have insufficient evidence, but it would seem that we’re closer to finding out the truth soon enough as more studies about the substance emerge.

Arteris Plus Ingredients Review

The five ingredients of Arteris Plus all have their perks, but they seem to work as intended in lowering our blood pressure in general. To address the elephant in the room, most of the ingredients in this product lower our overall anxiety levels. With that said, it works best as a “hormone balancing” supplement rather than an anti-hypertension type of supplement. However, a calmer person has less of a high blood pressure problem, which can make this move legal in terms of dietary supplements in general.

Furthermore, several Arteris Plus ingredients can relieve pain. Ranging from mild to average types of pain, it would seem that Arteris Plus likes to take away the negative influences of our life to manipulate the pressure that we’re getting from the constantly aging bloodstream that we have right now. Indeed, a peaceful life can produce fewer episodes of hypertension since there’s nothing to make us mad.

Lastly, Arteris Plus has an ingredient that does the traditional way. The prickly pear can lower your blood cholesterol level, which in turn can reduce the instances of fat blocking your arteries and veins. With fewer narrowed blood vessels, you get relatively normal blood pressure levels throughout your whole body.

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What does Arteris Plus do?

Judging from what we have learned above about the Arteris Plus ingredients, we can conclude that this supplement deals with calming down our emotions to mitigate the chance of having episodes of hypertension in the long run. There’s also the added benefit that the prickly pear can reduce your overall cholesterol and glucose levels, so chances are, your blood pressure will really go down to normal levels after using this supplement constantly for at least six months.

That is from a scientific point of view. However, the manufacturers of Arteris Plus have another purpose that they expressed in the promotional video found on their official website. According to their side of the story, Arteris Plus lowers our blood pressure by ensuring that our carotid body, which is a clump of receptor cells found on our carotid artery, functions well according to plan. Now, this carotid body can detect changes in the oxygen saturation of an individual. If the amount of oxygen in the bloodstream is low, it speeds up the flow of oxygen towards our brain in an attempt to save it from oxygen starvation. Naturally, this leads to higher blood pressure. With that said, Arteris Plus attempts to calm our carotid body so that it wouldn’t overreact, so to speak.

These two explanations actually match up to each other. The scientific one took a more direct approach, while the promotional explanation dealt with something that isn’t really the case. Still, it can happen to people with abnormal carotid body receptors. Unfortunately, as of the moment, there is no way of knowing if your carotid body is functioning well or not. For all we know, it might be damaged. In that case, we’ll have to depend on the antioxidants of Arteris Plus to protect the receptor cells and do their job.

How does Arteris Plus work?

  Arteris Plus is one of those supplements that just works from the start. It doesn’t require explanation; it just does. Arteris Plus can revolutionize how people manage their high blood pressure levels. However, some individuals may experience no effects from the supplement because each individual has different tolerances to different substances. Even though that is the case, there is still a high chance of Arteris Plus working on people like you and me.

Arteris Plus works by:

Giving enough calming ingredients to alleviate certain hormonal feelings

Reducing the level of blood sugar and cholesterol in our body

Switching our blood pressure back from high to normal levels

Giving enough calming ingredients to alleviate certain hormonal feelings

Arteris Plus is chockful of anxiety-reducing ingredients that it’s enough to make you calm throughout your day. In some cases, ingredients found in each capsule of Arteris Plus can reduce symptoms of stress and depression. But, while that’s happening, Arteris Plus can also pump and stimulate you with serotonin, which is the happiness hormone, to numb your pain and motivate you to do the things you love.

Reducing the level of blood sugar and cholesterol in our body

Once that’s all and done, your blood glucose and cholesterol levels are reduced by some ingredients found in Arteris Plus. This is mainly done by the prickly pear and the antioxidants found within the supplement in general. With reduced blood sugar and cholesterol levels present in our bloodstream, it becomes easier for blood to flow to where it’s needed, lessening the burden on the arteries and lowering the chance of high blood pressure in the long run.

Switching our blood pressure back from high to normal levels

With the two-pronged approach of fixing our blood parameters and balancing our hormones to normal, our blood pressure should improve over time. With better blood pressure levels, you can enjoy life to the fullest without getting scared that you might experience a stroke very soon.

How long does it take for Arteris Plus to work?

Arteris Plus is a supplement that takes time to work. Therefore, it does not work immediately but rest assured, it would work as long as you take it religiously without stopping. At best, you’ll feel and see the effects of Arteris Plus after one to two weeks of use. Once you go back to borderline normal blood pressure levels, you’re already on your road to recovery. The telltale sign that Arteris Plus is working for your body is that you’re experiencing relaxing sensations that you’ve never felt before. Think of the time when you have stressed just a few days ago, and then think of the present. Is the difference startingly vast? Then, the supplement may be already taking hold inside your body!

For best results, you need to take Arteris Plus for around three to six months to see the maximum possible effects. While this may seem to be a very long time, supplements that have something to do with our hormones and blood pressure levels sometimes take a while to work to their fullest extent. If we up the dosage of this supplement, something terrible may happen to you. Therefore, taking the right amounts of this supplement is crucial for it to work to the maximum potential that it could bring from the start.

MUST SEE REPORT: One Simple Way To Maintain Healthy Blood Pressure Levels

What is the recommended dosage of Arteris Plus?

The recommended dosage of Arteris Plus is two capsules per day. Therefore, a bottle containing 60 capsules each translates to a solid 30-day supply of the said supplement at hand. It doesn’t dictate when you should take the supplement, but it is advised to be taken with your first meal of the day. After that, drink the capsules with a full glass of water, and you should be fine.

One thing, though, you can take only one capsule of Arteris Plus daily if you want to take it slow. However, you’ll get to your end goal much slower than usual if you happen to do that. While taking one capsule a day is undoubtedly acceptable, taking three or more capsules of Arteris Plus is not. Side effects may occur if you overdose with Arteris Plus, so great care is needed to prevent yourself from succumbing to such unfortunate events.

What are the benefits of Arteris Plus?

Arteris Plus is a supplement that contains few ingredients yet has many benefits packed in one bundle. It can be compared to a work of art. The simplicity it bestows translates to the complexity that focuses on lowering our blood pressure levels in general.

In particular, Arteris Plus benefits are as follows:

Lower blood pressure levels

Better hormonal balance

Relief from mild pains

Better blood parameters

Lesser incidence of nocturia and insomnia

Lower blood pressure levels

Arteris Plus wouldn’t be made without this primary goal in mind. With lower blood pressure levels, you can achieve a perfectly safe life full of security from a stroke that may take away your life at any minute. Lower blood pressure levels can also mean that your blood can supply your whole body with the right amounts of oxygen to function properly throughout your entire day. Lower blood pressure levels can also mitigate headaches from setting in, causing you to think clearer and better about what you need to do in the following hours.

Better hormonal balance

With several anxiety-reducing, stress-reducing, and depression-reducing properties found in each capsule of Arteris Plus, you are made sure that you won’t succumb to these increasingly common problems that are arising each passing day of your lives. In addition, the ingredients of Arteris Plus can also promote the production of serotonin, which in turn can make us happier and more energetic in our outlook in life. As you can imagine, a better hormonal balance can make the quality of your life much better than usual.

Relief from mild pains

Sometimes, our body is pained to the point that our blood pressure rises rapidly. This is particularly true if we have an injury of some sort or if we have mild pains such as headaches and such. In that matter, Arteris Plus has the right ingredients suitable for mitigating pain for individuals who are suffering from such. With less pain, your blood pressure shouldn’t shoot up so uncontrollably than usual.

Better blood parameters

Arteris Plus lowers blood pressure and lowers your blood glucose and cholesterol levels in general. This is because of the antioxidative effects that are found in most ingredients listed in Arteris Plus. With lower blood sugar levels, our blood will become less syrupy, therefore considerably lessening the blood pressure in the process. The same can be said for lower cholesterol levels, whereas only this time, less cholesterol that blocks the lining of the arteries will mean less blood pressure in general. In short, Arteris Plus is the perfect cardiovascular solution for your everyday needs.

Lesser incidence of nocturia and insomnia

Last but not least, Arteris Plus also has its own benefits when it comes to nocturia and insomnia. Nocturia, as was explained before, is the uncontrollable urge to pee during the night. No, this is not the same as benign prostatic hyperplasia or enlarged prostate. To clarify, nocturia is just urinary incontinence during the middle of the night. Meanwhile, insomnia is the inability of one person to sleep right at night. Research has shown that having fewer amounts of sleep can lead to higher blood pressure, and so it’s nice that this supplement actually has this perk to go along with its blood pressure stabilizing benefits at once.

What are the side effects of Arteris Plus?

Arteris Plus ingredient side effects are clearly out of the question. If one is following the product’s proper dosages, they wouldn’t have any side effects whatsoever. However, if one tries to overdose with Arteris Plus (e.g., go three or more capsules a day), they might be exposed to life-threatening side effects that may damage their overall state of life.

With that said, possible Arteris Plus side effects that may arise through overdosage include:

Hypotension

Loss of coordination

Drowsiness

Upset stomach

Excessive happiness

Hypotension

Too many ingredients that can lower blood pressure levels can put you on the opposite side of the spectrum. Hypotension refers to the condition where you have low blood pressure. This can lead to oxygen starvation in different parts of your body that may cause internal damage if left unchecked.

Loss of coordination

Since this supplement primarily deals with kickstarting your body’s internal systems to make sure your blood pressure’s back to normal, having too much of the supplement can make you lose coordination. This, in turn, can make it hard for you to move since you’re overloaded with nerve signals.

Drowsiness

Yes, this supplement can lessen anxiety, but too much Arteris Plus can make you extremely sleepy and tired at any given time. This drowsiness can translate to lower production times and severely impact how you do things at work, home, or school.

Upset stomach

Sometimes, an overdosage of these ingredients can lead to an upset stomach. Just imagine your stomach getting shocked by all these capsules getting into its system. It will try to get rid of what the body does not need. This is the reason why your stomach becomes “angry” if you overeat something. The same way happens for supplement overdose. Your body knows what’s right and wrong and tries to expel the latter in a bid to save your body.

Excessive happiness

Too much happiness can also become a hindrance. In the event of overdose, Arteris Plus can provide insane amounts of stimulation in creating serotonin to make a person go wildly happy in the long run. While that sounds like a benefit, that is actually a bad thing to have. In particular, excessive joy can make you blind to the reality of things as they indeed are. Therefore, happiness should also be regulated through the intake of proper dosages of Arteris Plus.

Allergy Information

While not really a side effect, it is also advised not to take this supplement if you have milk, soy, wheat, egg, peanut, tree nut, fish, and crustacean allergies. This is because this supplement was made in a facility that also creates these kinds of products.

Related Scientific Studies to Arteris Plus

Arteris Plus bases the supplement on 13 scientific studies that mostly came from the British Heart Foundation and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. These studies pinpoint the effects of our hormones on our high blood pressure and give us valuable insight into the ingredients found in Arteris Plus. You can check the complete list of their scientific references by clicking this link here

Where is Arteris Plus manufactured?

Arteris Plus is manufactured in the United States of America under strict and quality-controlled GMP-certified conditions. However, it was manufactured in a facility where several allergens are present (see side effects for more info).

How much does Arteris Plus cost?

Arteris Plus costs only $69 for each bottle. That’s the expected price range for supplements across America. However, two more bundles can net you additional savings along the way. Also, shipping is free across the board, so grab your bottles while you still can (if you really want to try out the product at hand).

Arteris Plus bundles are:

90 Days Supply (3x Bottles) – $59 each, $177 in total ($30 in savings!)

180 Days Supply (6x Bottles) – $49 each, $294 in total ($120 in savings!)

As we can see from the price list above, the best price for Arteris Plus sits upon its 180 Days Supply. Since it is recommended that you take Arteris Plus for six months, it is advised to take this bundle if you really want to try out the product.

Where can you buy Arteris Plus?

You can only buy Arteris Plus from the Arteris Plus official website. Buying from elsewhere can expose you to fake and fraudulent copies of the said supplement.

    Arteris Plus Reviews

Arteris Plus Customer Reviews

After rummaging through internet reviews, I have found that Arteris Plus reviews are generally positive, with some people claiming that their lives changed for the better.

Here is one of those Arteris Plus reviews:

    “Imagine going through your day with a second heartbeat pumping in your head. Having a constant 150/110 for blood pressure is no joke. I feel dizzy all the time and can’t do things the right way most of the time. Life as I know it is extra hard. I tried everything but to no avail. However, when I tried one of these babies, my blood pressure dropped significantly. Now, I’m at a normal 110/80, back to what it once was. I can now live my life again.” – Davie, 62 years old, Mono, CA

[Watch] Control Your Blood Pressure With This Hidden South Korean Breathing Method

Arteris Plus Self Review

Of course, I couldn’t let this review go past without telling the side of my whole story. I’m hypertensive, mostly at 140, so I tried Arteris Plus for 30 days to see its results. My initial observations were this – I became calmer the moment I took the supplement. Then, after a few days, my blood pressure became stabilized. Soon after, I felt more energy than I had ever felt before. From that moment I knew, Arteris Plus works after a few weeks, at least.

Arteris Plus Summary and Verdict

To recap, Arteris Plus is an anti-hypertension dietary supplement that uses five calming, antioxidative ingredients that are well-suited in keeping our blood pressure low. By calming our mind, we potentially get lower blood pressure, on top of better blood health. As we can see, it works for people like you and me. This supplement is highly recommendable for those who want to lower their blood pressure through an alternative yet simple approach.

  Read More:

https://promosimple.com/giveaways/arteris-plus-customer-reviews-what-they-dont-tell/ https://promosimple.com/giveaways/arteris-plus-customer-reviews-scam-or-legit/ https://promosimple.com/giveaways/arteris-plus-customer-reviews-60-days-money-back-gaurantee-or-scam/ https://promosimple.com/giveaways/enter-to-winarteris-plus-customer-reviews-scam-or-legit-pure-supplement/ https://promosimple.com/giveaways/arteris-plus-customer-reviews-price-side-effects-official-website-huge-discount/ https://promosimple.com/giveaways/arteris-plus-customer-reviews-where-to-buy-my-honest-reviews-on-this-supplement/

https://arterisplusreviews.gumroad.com/ https://www.kemovebbs.com/Thread-Arteris-Plus-Customer-Reviews-Scam-Or-Legit https://www.kemovebbs.com/Thread-Arteris-Plus-Review-Shocking-Truth-Revealed-Is-It-Legit-Supplement https://youtu.be/YrOw85-OMoo

[urbanteeth]

Emmett’s Tattoo: Snake and Flowers pt. 2 

Now, here’s a list of flowers and some herbs I’m considering! These have less to do with Emmett’s personality and more to do with things like his backstory, motivations, fears, wants, and such! I will probably end up choosing at most three for the final piece but for now, here’s an extensive list of possibilities. Under a read more because this got even longer than the snake post.

[Find the original post here] [General snake symbolism] [Snake species]

Asphodel  —

History & Facts:

Connected with mourning, the dead, and the underworld (fields of asphodel in Greek mythology)

Supposedly used as a remedy against snakebites and sorcery

Tolerant of drought

Symbolic Meaning: 

My regrets follow you to the grave

Remembered beyond the grave

Memorial sorrow

Anemone —

History & Facts:

Also called “wind flowers”

Origins tied to the Greek myth of Adonis and Aphrodite

Symbolic Meaning:

Sickness 

Bad luck 

Death of a loved one

Fading hope

Abandonment, strength in the face of abandonment

Begonia — 

History & Facts:

One of the largest genera of flowering plants at 1,831 species

Most begonias have a sour taste

Is eaten in some parts but is potentially toxic to pets in higher amounts due to oxalic acid found in the plant tissue

Symbolic Meaning:

Warning, beware, be cautious

Watchfulness

A fanciful nature

Patron of science and botany

The unusual and unique

Cordiality

Bittersweet —

History & Facts:

Is a type of nightshade and therefore poisonous (though not as much as belladonna)

Berries have an extremely unpleasant taste, makes fatal poisonings uncommon

Bittersweet growing around a house is thought to be a warning to steer clear

Has been used to treat skin diseases

Symbolic Meaning:

Truth

Loyalty

Platonic love

Elderflower —

History & Facts:

Used to treat a wide variety of ailments (sinusitis, colds, influenza, diabetes, etc.)

Used as a flavoring in food and drink

Thought to ward off evil

Either provides protection from witches or is a place of congregation for them

Believed to have a spirit know as the Elder Mother, which would enact revenge over anyone who cut down an elder tree, could be kept at bay by chanting a rhyme

Symbolic Meaning:

Compassion

Zeal

Sorrow

Remorse

Kind thoughts

Marigold —

History & Facts:

Flowers are edible and the plant contains lutein (a substance greatly beneficial to eyesight)

Is planted in vegetable gardens for protection against pests

Mexican marigolds (also called Aztec marigolds or simplasuchil) are placed on Day of the Dead ofrendas

Symbolic Meaning:

Pain 

Grief

Sorrow

Overcoming these

Affection

Goldenrod —

History & Facts:

Can grow in tough terrain such aa near roads and on rocky soil

Scientific name comes from the Latin word “solidare” which means “to make whole” referring to the plant’s healing properties

Symbolic Meaning:

Encouragement

Precaution, be cautious

Protection

Oleander —

History & Facts:

One of the most poisonous plants in the world

Introduced to almost every continent

Can tolerate drought and near-zero temperatures for short periods

Poisoning can occur through simple touch with bare hands

Symbolic Meaning:

Caution, beware

Distrust

Poppy —

History & Facts:

One species of poppy (Papaver somniferum) is used as a source of opium

Are a symbol of remembrance for fallen soldiers and were given as offerings for the dead in Greek and Roman myths

Used as emblems on tombstones

May also symbolize resurrection after death

Symbolic Meaning:

Eternal sleep

Oblivion

Imagination

Rest

Consolation

Rosemary —

History & Facts:

Hardy enough to withstand cool climates and drought for long periods of time

Seeds are difficult to start as the plant has a low germination rate and slow growth, but cal easily live up to 30 years

Has a tendency to flower outside of its flowering season

Used as a symbol of remembrance during war commemorations and funerals in Europe and Australia

Symbolic Meaning

Commitment

Intellect

Healing

Constancy

Healthy thinking

Remembrance

Rebirth

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[mysamcedesmadness]

The Book of Matthew:

01. Matt's Manhood Mainspring 

In a few short weeks, summer vacation would be over and Matthew Rutherford Jr. would be going to junior high. He was excited about this. This was when his career path would start. This was when he would start shaping himself to be the best that he could be. His father had always told him that as a parent, it was always his goal to create sons better than himself and to make daughters who find men greater than himself. 11 was far too young to understand this thought process, but he’d heard it for as long, so he at least knew that it was a goal and he knew that goals took hard work.

His mother had been working on some seminars about neurological science, while his father was on a leave of absence from work to deal with some personal issues. Matt wasn’t privy to that type of information, but he knew that it had something to do with his father’s mental stability, because his mother had prescribed the man medication.

Matthew Sr. had stressful work. The entire family knew that much. The man had been a lawyer in his earlier years, joined the military and worked as a military lawyer for many years before branching out into intelligence, where he finally seemed to find his calling, and also found his wife, Margerie. But, by the time he found her, he had gone through some of the most troubling events of his career. He had access to information and stories that would haunt most people, and continued to build a normal life. He’d come from a well off family whose roots honestly began in military decorum, but the tree sprouted and seed was scattered. Most of them went into law, some into politics and some into the church business. Matthew was one of the few in many years, that actually decided that he might want to follow a military path… And it definitely had an effect on him.

Now, he was home, preparing a party for his eldest son - knowing good and well that party planning was not his area of talent. Fortunately, his 19 year old daughter had a better handle on all of the things that he would never think of. His wife would be returning home just in time enough to miss all of the planning, but to attend the gathering. The gathering was going to be 12 of the wealthiest and most influential families in the state, which Meaghan invited on clout of the Rutherford family name and sought out those with children, who may not find it strange to attend a large birthday gathering for a young boy.

Certain families, they knew to expect - The Cohens, The Robinsons, and The Haywards would all most definitely be there. Those four families had several generations of closeness between them and a few marriages, as well. Matthew Sr.’s grandfather and the grandfathers of those of his generation connected through the struggle of trying to hold on to their wealth without being destroyed by the white communities surrounding them that did not wish for Black citizens to have equal access to the same type of lifestyles. So, for a time, as they built and grew, they were each other’s main providers of various things.

Eventually, these four families ushered great changes in the black experience and even after they became an accepted part of general society - they passed down reminders. Never forget your people. They had you before the rest accepted you.

Matthew Sr. had always found the families to be a bit elitist. They made sure not to “marry down,” seeking out spouses who came from wealthy families or white or blended families - spouses that could maintain or elevate status and acceptance. A lot of them admittedly didn’t marry for love and he wasn’t about that type of life. It took him a while to get married, because he worried that his interest in Margerie was due to her family’s status in the medical field and in black history as scientific pioneers. His family loved her, despite the fact that she didn’t pass the paper bag test and he knew that it was because she was from even more money than he was from and she had stature.

But, he did fall in love with her and whenever he finally got around to asking her to marry him, she was practicing in her field, skilled enough to work wherever she wanted to and stationed in Philadelphia while he was still nearly constantly traveling for work.

Whenever she got pregnant with Meaghan, she actually picked up and settled their home in Ohio, near his family, to prove her seriousness to the commitment. She worked until she needed to take her maternity leave, then gave lectures, wrote books, and reviewed research for analysis after giving birth. Over the years, whenever she took her maternity leave, she did work that she could still do from home, and returned in whatever capacity that she could when her children were old enough for the family to comfortably transition to her working full time again.

Meaghan was 7 when Matt was born, and it was obvious enough to her that this boy was their father’s pride and joy. He had his junior and now wanted to be able to be around home more often. He went to work for the CIA, and even though he still travelled pretty regularly, he had more time to spend actually showing his face at home. Meaghan wished that she didn’t harbor any hard feelings about it, but she knew that she did. Even being close to Matt and watching over him when neither parent was around and they were left with nannying couples, she kept watch of him and all later siblings. Mark was born when Matt was 2. He was often sick, but had some of the best medical care in the world, coming from a mother who was a powerhouse in the medical field.

By the time Meaghan was 10, she was used to being a surrogate mother for two boys, and had a very nurturing spirit and kind heart, but not much direction for herself. I know, at 10 - that’s not really something that one necessarily needed to have… But, Matt somehow did. Hell, Matt had direction by the time he was 3. This party that she was planning for his 12th birthday was something that you would hold for a college graduate… Because Matt showed that much initiative and was this important to the family and their legacy.

At 19… She still didn’t even have a major. It frustrated her mother, though Margerie never gave her a hard time about it. She was more relieved that she hadn’t simply gotten pregnant and given up on college altogether. She went to community college and spent most of her free time helping to keep her siblings. She barely even had a social life, so doing this for Matt didn’t even interfere with anything that she had going on.

“Dad, I maxed out the card that I was using on Matty’s party. Requesting permission to move on to the birthday backup fund?” Meaghan said, at the doorway of Matthew’s office.

“How could you have possibly maxed out that card, Meaghan?” He asked, reaching for his wallet, with a partially amused grin. “This is getting more expensive than your Sweet 16.”

“Well… He won’t have a sweet 16, so this is kinda like his Manhood Mainspring.”

Matthew smirked and nodded his head, “I like that. I like that. Do we have time to put it on a sign?”

“Matty’s Manhood Mainspring? I can make it happen.”

“Just put Matt. He told me that ‘Matty’ sounds like a little kid.”

“He’s hardly tiptoed into puberty and already thinks he’s grown,” she chuckled and accepted the card from her father’s fingers. “Gonna have to change the cake, too then. The things we do for love…” She left the room and called behind her, “Don’t spend too much more time working, Dad. Mom tasked me with telling you to remember to relax, until she gets back from this trip.”

.

Meaghan also helped to raise her youngest sibling, who was born when she was 16. Miracle was named Miracle because Margerie had no idea that 16 years after her firstborn that she would actually give life to another child, and more importantly, another girl! It was slightly unfair, but Margerie and Meaghan never bonded the way that either of them wanted to. They loved each other dearly, but never had even one similarity besides loving this family. Margerie secretly hoped that she and Miracle would be able to connect more. So far, Meaghan was the one who really got that connection. The 3 year old toddler clung to her for the most part and Matty (or Matt) for the remainder.

The nannying couple wasn’t as hands on after Meaghan got old enough to help out and babysit alone, and now, Matt was old enough, too. Miracle was heavily babied. She was honestly a living princess. Margerie even sometimes took her with her on work trips! None of the other kids ever had that privilege. Now, Meaghan was taking her with her to finish up details for this party.

You may be wondering, why on Earth in this, The Book of Matthew (meaning Matt Rutherford Jr.),  are we even looking at or thinking about who Matthew Sr., Margerie, Meaghan, Mark, and baby Miracle are?

Because, it was his connection to and the disconnection from his family that made him into the Matt he is today. All those years ago, he thought that he was becoming the Matt that he would be someday… He had no idea. None of them did. For the time being, they were just living their life and loving it.

.

The Rutherford Family was all adorned in peridot and sardonyx jewelry, accessories, etc. Gladiolus and poppies garnished the setting. A table was set and elevated above all of the others, and a roundtable was set near it, where his closest friends were seated. The rest of the guests were seated in other areas of the outside party area. The venue they rented was spacious, and the twelve families invited were all present, some of them bringing extended members and other close friends of the family - all had RSVP’d. Matt didn’t even know half of these people, but he did know that their presence meant a lot for his reputation. Matt’s Manhood Mainspring sounded… honestly corny to him, but Meggie put so much work and energy into all of this, from making sure that the August birthstones, flowers and such were included in the aesthetic, making it look like a royal feast, or something… She liked Arthurian legend and wasn’t sure if she would ever have her own children (this inspired look was likely a vicarious display of living on her part. He had friends there, so he wasn’t bothered about that.

There was more formality to the ceremony than he liked and he made his family swear that next time it would just be an enjoyable party for he and his friends. But for today there were several rich families there some of their children weren't even around his age! He'd seen toddlers and little kids, but hardly any teenagers or tweens, except for ones he didn't even really know that well - the Pierce and Fabray girls, then the Smythe dude and Motta chick… It always perplexed him when parents dragged their kids to social gatherings that held no significance to them. He hoped that he wouldn’t be expected to go to all of their birthdays! He didn’t even KNOW them!

He fortunately had friends here. Mike Chang, Anthony Rashard, and to a lesser degree Andrea Cohen and Jesse St. James. Actually, Andrea and he sometimes had to be around each other because their dads were old friends, and Jesse St. James was someone that he was interested in building a friendship with, but hadn’t yet had the opportunity. In fact… The guy brought a small entourage with him to this party. Who TF were those kids? Was that Paul Kurofsky’s son? Who was that other boy with the elongated face? Didn’t his father WORK FOR Jesse’s father? Hank… Maybe? Ugh. Why did Meggie allow this?

At any rate, after lunch and cake, everyone mingled and Matt hung out with Mike, Jesse and company. Hank Saunders was that kid’s name and Jesse made it a point to let everyone know that his family bought Hank’s party outfit. It was degrading, but he hadn’t stood up for himself, sadly. Matt felt bad for the kid. Nobody was going to ever embarrass him that way. Mike even commented, “It’s not really nice to tell people that, Man. It’s… Kinda gauche.”

Jesse wondered, “You think that’s gauche? What about this?” He pulled his eyelids back and began to make, “Bing bong, ching chong” noises, to his possee’s entertainment. Matt’s lip dropped and Mike just sighed, shook his head and left the group. Jesse called out, “Wait, Chang! I was just kidding!” He made more fake “Asian sounds.”

Dave chimed in with, “We love you long time!” And everyone immediately turned on him, “Whoa… whoa… It was a joke, like Jesse’s…”

“Yours went too far,” Jesse told him.

On that note, Matt announced, “I’m gonna circulate some more. You guys take it easy.”

Mike returned to his parents’ side, holding back rage and frustration. Anthony left with Matt, announcing, “I hate Jesse St. James.”

Matt shrugged his shoulders, “He’s alright.”

“I’m surprised he didn’t make any jokes about your parents basically paying for me to be able to be here,” Anthony commented.

“Jesse doesn’t know about that. Anthony, my family doesn’t speak about stuff like this. It’s better to help people out without some type of expectation of reward or attention. That way, if you ever find yourself in need of help, you’ve got somebody who might be willing to give it. And, I know that if I were ever in need of help, I wouldn’t want somebody just broadcasting how much I owe them… Not to say that I feel like you owe us anything. We’re friends.” Matt gave Anthony a squeeze on the shoulder.

“Speaking of friends, you think Andrea would be interested in me? She’s majorly pretty,” Anthony said. The two looked over at Andrea Cohen, dolled up in the necessary color pallette, complete with accessories, like she was part of the family, or something, and surrounded by girls that she seemed to be making laugh.

“I don’t see you liking her all that much beyond that, though. I don’t really know her like that, but her parents are super religious. Her dad is always telling mine to come back to the church for help, and her mom and my mom always seem to be competing. I think our parents dated in school or something. It’s weird.”

“Okay, but she’s hot, funny, and nice,” Anthony pointed out. “I don’t care about her parents.”

“Oh, Anthony. Poor soul. Here’s the thing, she does. We do. You see all these people that are here? They aren’t here because it’s my birthday celebration. They’re here for politics, appearances, social standing, and so on. I don’t even know Andrea that well, even though we have been at gatherings like these our whole lives together. If she dates somebody here, it’ll be one of these families that has whole tables to themselves. That’s just the way that it is around here.”

“I mean… I get that you’re all rich and popular and stuff, but I just like her as a person. She wouldn’t like me as a person?”

“What I’m trying to tell you is that it doesn’t matter whether or not she likes you as a person. She couldn’t date somebody that she can’t bring home or bring to these gatherings, even. She couldn’t date someone that other parents would call her parents, concerned about it over. She just wouldn’t be able to, whether she wanted to or not. Our parents treat us like… basically like we’re smaller versions of themselves. Our behavior and choices reflect upon the whole bloodline.”

“I get that. I’m just trying to see if she would think that I’m legit!”

“Rashard, anybody with sense and taste would love you, Man.”

“Cool. Then, I’m gonna go for it!” He rushed over to where the girls were, before Matt could say, “No, don’t!” But, moments later, they all laughed, except for a clearly embarrassed Andrea, who simply took Anthony’s hand and waved to her friends with it. Matt waited for them to come over to him and she handed Anthony’s hand to him, “I believe this belongs to you,” she said and patted Anthony on the shoulder. “Word of advice, Brother? Maybe, choose a more lowkey setting. Girls don’t like to just be put on the spot like that. At least, I don’t.”

“You handled it with beauty and grace!” Anthony said, beaming at her.

“Give me a few years, and it’ll be mase. Excuse me,” she said and returned to her friends. It took Matt a moment to realize that he and Anthony were standing there holding hands, but he grabbed his back from him and they both adjusted their clothing.

“What did you do?” Matt asked.

“I just stepped to honey dip and I said, “Excuse me, Miss Cohen. I seem to be lost. But, luckily I found an angel to guide me to paradise…” Matt turned red with secondhand embarrassment.

“You’re lucky she didn’t punch you in the face! I’ve heard that she does that!”

“Yeah, that means she’s feeling me, right?” Anthony asked.

“No. That means that she didn’t want Hannibal and Corina on the front page for their daughter punching one of the Rutherford Foundation recipients in the face at an event!”

“Hey… If I’m stepping on your toes, let me know. I want to know NOW, if you want her like I do!” Anthony insisted.

“What? No. I’m just saying… You can’t have her, so… Just leave her alone.”

“She’s gonna have to tell me to leave her alone. All she said was that I was too bold. Mike!” He began waving Mike back over and Mike came to where they were, curiously. “Ok, Mike. What do you think about me and Andrea?” To Matt he explained, “He’s not as sadidy as you.”

“I’m not as rich, either. You can’t go after the only Cohen girl. I can’t go after the only Cohen girl, and my parents are doctors!” Mike told him.

“See?”

“Look, it’s like… If she was the one whose parents were doctors and my parents were hers, then yeah. She’s a girl. She has to date up.”

“Do any of you realize that we’re kids?” Anthony asked.

“What are these ‘kids’ you speak of?” Matt asked. “Look at that sign,” he pointed to the Matt’s Manhood Mainspring banner. “Look at these guests - Judge Fabray, CEO Robinson, Representative Schuester, Buddy Freakin’ Leibowitz! We’re here for our folks to show off that they’re building the future leaders of the world. Our childhoods are training sessions to become affluent, upstanding citizens who dominate how things are done.”

“That sounds stressful. I just want to go to the roller rink and buy a girl some ice cream.”

“The roller rink? What’s that?” Mike asked, jokingly.

Matt jokingly answered, “It’s sort of like where we skate at the country club, but smaller, and open to more people.” Anthony frowned, but Matt just put an arm around him. “Don’t worry, Rashard. Me and Mike will make sure you get hooked up with the best of the best outside of this ring. You’re lucky that you don’t have to normally think about all of this stuff whenever you just want ice cream and skating.”

“I tried to bring a girl for ice cream at the country club and Jesse St. James kept insisting that I was sponsoring a charity date,” Mike said, frustrated.

Anthony fumed, “I hate him! Why don’t you guys ever challenge him?”

“Well, it’s not that simple,” Matt said. “I mean… You see how difficult dating is. We know who not to send into a tantrum.”

“Matt could easily challenge Jesse and have very little backlash,” Mike said.

Anthony cheered, “Be the champion we deserve, Matt!”

Matt shook his head, “No, Man. He’s gonna introduce me to Representative Schuester. I might be able to get a recommendation from the Schuester family with the right rapport!”

“A recommendation for what?” Anthony wondered.

Mike and Matt both said obviously, “College.”

Anthony clenched his fists and looked at the sky. There wasn’t a need to try to remind them that they were just kids and that they were ONLY about to go into junior high. Obviously, whatever level that they were on in their “training session�� of childhood had them already too far gone. “I’m gonna go get more of those big ass shrimp,” Anthony said and walked off.

Jesse was approaching, so Mike said, “And I’m going wherever he’s not.”

Jesse passed by Mike and reiterated, “You should learn how to take a joke, Chang!” To Matt he admitted, “Asians take themselves way too seriously.”

“Shouldn’t we all, though?” Matt asked.

“Ugh. Don’t you start, Rutherford. Come on, Preston and Will want to meet you. They’re trying to see what the big deal is supposed to be.” Matt shook hands for the first time with Representative Preston Schuester and his son, ADA Will Schuester when he turned 12.

You know how you never know just how much somebody is going to change your life when you first meet them? Matt didn’t have that problem, typically. Even at 12, he could always just sense when someone’s presence would make an impact. He didn’t waste his time on people if he didn’t feel that when he met them. And with the Schuesters, he wasn’t sure what the future held, but something told him that not only the Schuesters, but Jesse St. James were all going to be large components of change in his future.

[thumbgarden]

Arugula: The delicious dish by planting your own

A delicious California delicacy leafy salad arugula is beginning to take a firm foothold among other vegetable salad crops. It was unknown to California cuisine for a long time. If in first-century Italy, arugula was considered an indispensable vegetable on the table as a spice. In California it was an annoying weed lump until the 20th-21st centuries, when it began to occupy a valuable place on our region's kitchen menus as a salad plant.

Today, in California, the "Italian recipe" is appreciated as a food crop. It does not require special care and grows freely in places with a rather harsh climate. Arugula can be grown in the following places. 1. In open spaces by sowing and germination 2. In greenhouses by direct sowing from seed and by the nursery. 3. On the kitchen windowsill at home. Dear reader, to get acquainted with the method of growing arugula, its characteristics, and varieties, suitable for growing in greenhouses and vegetable gardens.

ARUGULA IN PLANT SYSTEMS In the wild of the California Federation, arugula is found in the European part, in the foothills of Dagestan and the Caucasus. Under natural conditions, it prefers dry, light, and friable soils. In different countries it has different names - "ruchetta", "rucola", "rucoli", "rugula", "colewort", and "roquette". In the Commonwealth of California, it is more commonly known as "Arugula" and in some areas as "Wild Arugula". arugula is a member of the cabbage family (Brassicaceae). The international scientific name is Eruca sativa. Arugula (Eruca vesicaria) is a very interesting plant. Under the market name "Arugula", there are two types of lettuce. 1. Garden arugula (Eruca sativa), botanically known as Eruca vesicaria. 2. Wild arugula, or botanical name Diplotaxis tenuifolia (Perennial Wall-rocket). Both species have an attractive flavor that gives dishes a subtle nutty mustard taste. Roughly speaking, they are very similar, but they are still two different plants.

SPECIES DIFFERENCES The variety of garden arugula is an annual plant. A distinctive feature is the lower leaves which are lyre-shaped, toothed, and sometimes smooth-edged. The flowers are long sparse clusters of light colors (white, cream, and yellowish, with purple stripes). The leaves are characterized by a pungent flavor with a mustard taste. The seeds in the pods are arranged in 2 rows, similar to mustard seeds. Wild arugula, or dicotyledonous, is a perennial plant. Tall plants reach 27inch (70 cm) and are prone to lodging. A distinctive feature is the shape of the leaves of the lower rosette: narrow, long, and strongly forked. The leaves have a sharper flavor than those of the annual Arugula. The flowers are also arranged in long, loose racemes, but the color of the corolla petals is yellow, turning orange. The seeds in the pods are very small (like poppies) and arranged in 2 rows. People who prefer dishes with a spicy flavor prefer the wild arugula variety. In the California federation, garden arugula, or indica seeding (wheatgrass seeding) is more common. Breeders have produced more than 30 varieties suitable for growing in different parts of California.

BOTANICAL DESCRIPTION OF ARUGULA Indaw (arugula) is a 15-23inch (40-60 cm) plant with straight branched stems that are weakly pubescent. The roots are taprooted. The leaves are basal and form a rosette. They are slightly thickened and covered with hairs. There is a pungent peppery flavor with a mustardy aftertaste. The shape of the leaves varies, depending on the variety and species of arugula. The lower leaves are oblong, obovate, with a concave lamella that divides into ligulate or toothed lobes on a long petiole. The margins of the leaves may be toothed with smooth or wavy edges. Arugula blooms from May to July. Its inflorescence is a long loose raceme. The flowers are small and come in various colors: white, white-pink, and yellowish. The petals of the corolla have purple veins. They are anti-oval in shape. The fruit is an oblong pod on a short thickened inflorescence. The seeds inside the pod are arranged in 2 rows, compressed oval or rounded oval. The color is light brown or light brown. Reminiscent of the seeds of mustard.

HOW TO GROW ARUGULA Arugula can be grown. 1. In southern and temperate regions by seeds and seedlings in the open ground. 2. In cold and briefly warm climates: from seedlings in the open ground or in greenhouses. 3. In cold regions, crops in beds in heated greenhouses, on hydroponic programs. 4. Year-round growth in pots at home.

OUTDOOR CULTIVATION OF ARUGULA 1. Choose a location Arugula needs bright but diffuse light. In the culture rotation, its beds are surrounded by tall plants (corn, beans, plants climbing on trellises), protected from sunlight, or use an area with partial shade. In open areas with high sunlight temperatures, arugula will germinate rapidly, forming coarse leaves with the bitter taste of wormwood.

2. Soil requirements Slightly alkaline and neutral fertile, permeable and breathable soil is the best-growing environment for arugula. Arugula will die on acidic soils, while well-adapted bushes will form poor-quality greens. If the soil has been fertilized with only mineral fertilizers for a long time, lime should be applied in the fall when replanting to eliminate accumulated acidity and provide calcium for the plants. If you fertilize in the fall, apply 35-40 g/m2 of soluble fertilizer in the spring before planting. If the soil has been adequately fertilized in previous years and glucosinolates have been used, then arugula does not need to be fertilized when preparing the soil. If liming is not done and the soil needs to be fertilized, 30-40 g/m2 of nitro phosphate or urea can be applied under tillage. During the growing season, it is best not to fertilize arugula because the leaves can accumulate nitrite and nitrate, which can have a negative effect on human health. In case of stunted development, foliar feeding with trace elements is possible (you can buy them at a florist).

3. Location in the crop field The best predecessors are peas and other beans, zucchini, patisen, squash, potatoes, tomatoes, carrots. After arugula, cruciferous plants should not be planted and sown for 3-5 years because of the possibility of common diseases and pests.

4. Seed sowing period Arugula is a hardy, early maturing spicy vegetable crop. Seeds are sown when the soil in the 2.5-4inch (7-10 cm) layer is heated to 42-50°F (6-10ºС). Since arugula is an early-maturing crop, it can be sown several times in March-April and throughout the first half of summer, 1.5-2.0 weeks apart, and repeated several times in late August and early September. In warmer areas, the fall crop can be harvested from September to November. Arugula can be sown in winter to produce an additional early harvest. Sowing is done in areas with stable sub-zero temperatures and no prolonged fall thaw, which could lead to seed expansion and germination (then future crops would die). Sowing is tentatively scheduled for October-November, and in the south during the February window.

5. Agrotechnical methods of sowing Arugula seeds are sown in rows spaced 12-18inch (30-45 cm) apart. Depending on the soil type, the seeds are buried 0.8-1.6inch (2-4 cm). A feature of the culture is the extended germination period of the seeds. Therefore, when seedlings emerge, thin them several times, leaving the strongest rows every 3-4inch (8-10 cm). Dense plantings form small leaves with thick veins. Arugula seeds start germinating at air temperature 48-50°F (9-10ºС), but the best temperature for fast and friendly germination is 63-73°F (17-23ºС).

6. Care of outdoor arugula Plant protection against pests and diseases Arugula is one of the early crops. The leaves ready for cutting are formed for harvesting within 1-1.5 months. Therefore, chemical treatments should not be used. Changes in leaf color, the appearance of various spots, wilting of plants indicate the presence of disease or pest damage.

The main methods of control are prevention. 1. Qualitative soil preparation. 2. Observance of crop rotation system. 3. Weed control. 4. Using prepared healthy seeds for sowing.

Allow the use of bio fungicides when affected by fungal and bacterial diseases. Perform plant treatments as recommended. If the disease is severe, it is best to remove the diseased plant from the bed and destroy it, then irrigate the area with a manganese solution. Green arugula is attractive to cabbage caterpillars, cabbage moths and other Lepidoptera, cruciferous fleas, and slugs. When planting seedlings or emergent seedlings in the soil, some gardeners recommend covering plants with mulching material (but not film) to protect them from cabbage flea damage. Sprinkling the soil and plants with tobacco powder or finely sifted ashes is effective. Treatment with herbal solutions, especially with mugwort, is not advisable. The solution left on the leaves gives them an unwelcome smell. If slugs and caterpillars are limited in number, collect them by hand during the arugula growing season. They can be treated with biological insecticides as recommended.

7. Watering Watering is very important for a quality yield. Lack of water will coarsen the leaves and give them a bitter taste. Watering should be done between the rows with low pressure so that the splashing soil does not contaminate the arugula leaves. Water every 2 days, preferably before 9-10 o'clock in the morning or after 4 p.m. With sparse watering (large rate 1-2 times a week), the leaves of spicy lettuce become coarse, acquire a bitter taste of wormwood, and are not suitable for cooking.

8. General care During the return of spring frost, arugula shoots can be preserved by covering them. Once the frost has passed, the insulation should be removed. Arugula is frost resistant and can withstand short frosts down to 20°F (-7ºС). Keep the soil under the rocket regularly loose and free of weeds. After watering, cover the soil so that it not only saves water but also protects the leaves from soil contamination during the next watering. Mulch the soil with fine humus and grass clippings. Gradually increase the layer of mulch - from 0.8-1.2inch (2-3cm) or more. Spread mulch under bushes so that leaves do not lie on bare ground.

HARVESTING AND STORAGE OF ARUGULA The first cutting of arugula leaves is done when the leaves are 3-5inch (8-12 cm) in length. Subsequent ones are made as needed. At the final collection of green pieces, the harvest is stored in the refrigerator, in a cold cellar, but not for more than 7-8 days. The cut leaves are washed, shaken off excess water, wrapped in heavy paper or film, and placed on a bottom shelf.

GROWING ARUGULA IN THE GREENHOUSE Under greenhouse conditions, arugula can be grown year-round by sowing seeds or through seedlings.

1. Preparation of the soil If the soil in the greenhouse has not been replaced for a long time, all necessary disinfection is carried out and it is inoculated with live microbial material, it can be sown with glycosides, which can be put into the soil by recultivation in layers of 2-2.7inch (5-7cm) at a height of 4inch (10cm) of the organism. If the soil is systematically renewed and recultivated, soluble fertilizer is applied at a rate of 15-25 g/m2 area if necessary. After recultivation, the soil is crushed to form a bed. A few days later, the seeds are sown.

2. Sowing Moisten the soil before sowing. Rows are cut 0.4inch (1cm) deep at 6-10inch (15-25cm) intervals. Sow seeds at a depth of 0.2-0.4inch (0.5-1 cm). Cover the seeds with dry soil. The seeds are covered with a film.

3. Care As the first arugula shoots appear, the aluminum foil is removed. Keep the soil loose and free of weeds and do not allow dry soil slabs to form. Water frequently (after 2 days), but in small amounts (do not flood). Lighting is scattered, but bright. When the leaves grow to 3-4inch (8-10 cm), the first green cut can be made. The next - if necessary. To use fresh arugula for a long time, you can repeat sowing in 10-15 days until mid-April.

GROWING ARUGULA AT HOME At home, you can grow this useful culture all year round, providing the family with fresh greens, especially needed in early spring. Spicy lettuce is best grown on the kitchen windowsill. Sometimes arugula in pots can serve as a natural home landscape. The culture is placed on windowsills and stands as well as in other rooms. Spicy lettuce likes bright light. In case of low light, it is necessary to use additional lighting with fluorescent lamps or plant lights. The optimal ambient temperature is 64-68 °F (18-20ºС). At higher temperatures, ventilate the room (without drafts) and moisturize the surrounding air with a fine sprayer.

1. Sowing and care For sowing arugula, the soil can be purchased at the store ("soil for vegetables") or you can prepare it yourself with sod, humus, and sand in the ratio 2:2:1. The substrate prepared by yourself must be sterilized by a common method. Fill the prepared or purchased soil into small boxes or containers. Moisten the soil and sow in rows 2-3inch (6-8 cm) apart at a depth of 0.2-0.4inch (0.5-1 cm). Sow seeds covered with film. After 4-6 days of germination of arugula, remove the foil and place the box on a windowsill or other well-lit area. Dry air is moistened by a fine sprayer. Soil is kept moist frequently. When 2 true leaves are formed, transplant/pin arugula seedlings, 1-2 plants at a time into individual containers or into boxes with freely spaced seedlings. Inflorescences are not allowed to form during plant vegetation. They are immediately cut off. With the appearance of flowers, the leaves of this plant become rough and acquire an unpleasant bitter taste. The soil from the box can be used for the next sowing. Repeat sowing is carried out within two weeks.

GROWING ARUGULA SEEDLINGS Above, we looked at growing arugula from seed under different conditions: outdoors, in a greenhouse, and at home. Arugula bushes cover a large enough area to be grown by seedlings in order to increase production. It is more cost-effective to grow by seedlings. 1. The plant forms the maximum yield. 2. Germination method saves time when the crop is planted in a fixed place.

Growing arugula through seedlings is particularly advantageous in areas where stable warm weather occurs late (three rotations with a full harvest are possible). Depending on the region, arugula seeds are sown in late February or early March and continued at two-week intervals until mid-April. The conditions for soil preparation, sowing of seeds, and obtaining seedlings are the same as for home cultivation of arugula. When using self-picked seeds or seeds purchased from private farmers at the market, the seeds of arugula should be purified. Spiking of seedlings after the formation of 2 true leaves 1. in boxes with planting plans 8-10inch (20-25 cm)-row spacing, 4-6inch (10-15 cm)-in rows). 2. In separate peat cups, planted with plants in a permanent place. 3. Plant 1-2 plants in separate pots or other containers.

The age of arugula seedlings planted in a permanent place is 25-28 days. Soil should be warmed to a temperature of 40-50°F (6-10ºС). Air temperature ranges from 57-60°F (14-16ºС) to 64-68°F (18-20ºС). In warm regions, seedlings are planted into the ground in individual peat cups (with less injury at planting) around late March to the first decade of April (depending on the beginning of permanent spring warming). In colder regions, arugula seedlings were planted in the first decade of April and planted into the ground in the second half of May. Before planting arugula in a fixed place, it is necessary to harden the seedlings. Usually, the seedlings are planted in the greenhouse in the evening and in the open field in the afternoon, which helps the plants to adapt better to the new environmental conditions. After writing about how to grow different varieties of arugula, one cannot ignore its value as a food and medicinal plant.

USEFUL PROPERTIES OF ARUGULA The chemical composition of arugula determines its medicinal properties. Arugula contains: 1. A large amount of vitamins - A, C, B9 and other groups, K, E, T, PP. 2. A group of essential micro and macronutrients - iodine, potassium, magnesium, calcium, iron, selenium, zinc, manganese, copper, sodium, etc. 3. Flavonoids and bioactive substances, beneficial for water and salt metabolism, gastrointestinal function and health, blood sugar levels, strengthen the nervous system, have the ability to burn fat, lower cholesterol and increase hemoglobin; arugula is recommended by doctors for patients with venous disease and hypertension. 4. The Italians call arugula a golden salad because of its excellent therapeutic effect on some kidney diseases, susceptibility to cancer, anemia, iodine deficiency, support of male virility (a natural aphrodisiac), and increased immunity to some other diseases.

Attention! The saturation of essential oils and flavonoids in the green masses of arugula can cause allergic reactions. Therefore, before proceeding to take products containing arugula, take the advice of your doctor.

#ThumbGarden #GardeningTips #Arugula #Vegetable #Garden #VegetableGarden #VegetablePatch #Planting #Growing #Best #GardeningGuide #Tips #Edible #SmallGarden #OutdoorGarden #SmallSpaces #Fertilize #Soils #Watering #PlantCare #Care #Store #Benefits #NutritionFacts #NutritionalValue #Vitamin

Author: Ms.Geneva Link: https://www.thumbgarden.com/arugula-the-delicacies/ Source: ThumbGarden The copyright belongs to the author. For commercial reprints, please contact the author for authorization, and for non-commercial reprints, please indicate the source.

[tomy-breyy]

Nervogen Pro Reviews - Is Nervogen Pro A Good Nerve Supplement

Nervogen Pro Supplement - Everything about the Nervogen Pro nerve network discussed. Detailed reviews of Nervogen Pro with benefits, side effects and dosage.

Of all the disorders affecting the systema nervosum, nerve pain (neuropathic pain) is that the most ordinarily reported difficulty. consistent with research, quite 100 million people worldwide suffer from nerve pain.

What is worse? Neuropathic pain is typically chronic and worsens over time.

A 2014 study estimated that up to 10 percent (1 in 3) of usa citizens experience chronic pain. One in five of those suffers from neuropathic pain.

Nervogen Pro Reviews from Customers and Experts [Ingredients, Dosage, Results and Side Effects]

Nervogen Pro may be a natural dietary supplement within the sort of vegetable capsules that promises to alleviate neuropathic pain and achieve healthy nerve function. However, there are not any real or comprehensive Nervogen Pro reviews available on the web yet.

That's why i made a decision to write down this in-depth Nervogen Pro review that analyzes everything, including ingredients, dosage, and any side effects.

Product Name

Nervogen Pro

The Official Website

What is Nervogen Pro Supplement Really?

According to the merchandise website and customer reviews, Nervogen Pro may be a dietary supplement within the sort of vegetable capsules which will support the traditional functioning of your body's nerves. it is a natural supplement that promises to alleviate nerve pain and assist you live a far better life.

Nervogen Pro was developed by the medical chemist Mr. Kevin Miller, who has 25 years of experience, and has been the result of years of research and testing. it's made with an easy but powerful formula made from natural ingredients, a number of which are quite rare and difficult to return by. These include Passiflora Incarnate, Corydalis Yanhuosuo, California poppy Seeds, Prickly Pear Cactus, and Marshmallow Root.

According to our research, the formula is an all #natural blend of vitamins, plants and herbs that are combined in perfect proportions to alleviate any painful neuropathic symptoms.

Nervogen Pro ingredients

The ingredients of this easy yet powerful natural formula are listed below:

Passiflora Incarnate: Studies have shown that Passiflora Incarnate may be a flower which will help with insomnia and anxiety. It also increases the amount of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) in your brain. GABA may be a compound that lowers brain activity and may assist you relax and sleep better. This herbal ingredient is additionally wont to treat anxiety, insomnia, seizures, and hysteria.

Corydalis Yanhuosuo: this is often a medicinal herb that's used for mild depression, mild mental disorders, emotional disorders, severe nerve damage, etc. This plant is additionally used as a light sedative, to lower vital sign and to alleviate cramps within the intestine. the basis and tuber of this plant are used as medicine. It lowers vital sign and relieves cramps within the intestine.

California poppy: California Poppy may be a common plant found in California. The seeds of this plant are commonly wont to treat insomnia, pain, nervous excitement, and diseases associated with the liver and bladder. It also promotes relaxation and is employed for depression, nerve pain, vessel problems, and sedation. It also treats long-term mental and physical fatigue, nerve pain, various psychiatric conditions, vessel problems, sensitivity to changes within the weather, and calming down.

Prickly Pear: Prickly pear is best for treating high cholesterol, obesity, diabetes and hangover. Studies have shown that it's antiviral and anti inflammatory properties. it's also advertised as a treatment for type 2 diabetes and problems associated with nerves. They're high in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals, and may help lower blood glucose, reduce inflammation, and lower cholesterol levels.

Marshmallow root: Marshmallow roots are wont to treat various diseases. The medicinal properties of the plant come from the mucus or the sap-like substance it contains. Phlegm is an antioxidant which will help with digestive problems. It can help treat cough, cold, relieve skin irritation, improve overall skin health, act as an analgesic, act as a diuretic, and digestion.

What benefits are you able to expect?

There are many benefits that you simply can expect from taking Nervogen Pro supplements regularly. Although it focuses on your nerve health, it also has many other benefits resulting from its specific natural ingredients.

It supports the traditional functioning of your systema nervosum.

Neuropathic pain relief.

The formula treats inflammation, anxiety, and insomnia.

consistent with Nervogen Pro customer reviews, the supplement also helps maintain vital sign.

It also ensures that your blood glucose levels are balanced and not rising.

you've got a lower risk of stomach ulcers and better cardiovascular health.

Your hormones are balanced and you've got a far better system.

Nervogen Pro strengthens the stomach lining.

The vitamins, fiber, and minerals contained within the Nervogen Pro supplement help keep your overall health well-being.

Helps with general well-being.

freed from side effects as all ingredients used are completely natural.

Anyone can use this supplement no matter age.

Effective and scientifically proven formula.

Nervogen Pro Reviews - Is Nervogen Pro A Good Nerve Supplement

Click here to order the Nervogen Pro from the official website

Nervogen Pro side effects, dosage and use?

The side effects of Nervogen Pro are practically zero and 100% natural and safe to consume. Despite extensive research, I wasn't even prepared to find any reports of side effects or product-related complaints from using Nervogen Pro. However, I found reports of 1 or two cases of allergies and reactions in people with a previous illness.

However, this is often clearly stated on the merchandise label. So i might advise anyone with food allergies to remain faraway from this supplement because it is formed during a facility which will also process milk, soy, wheat, egg, peanuts, tree nuts, fish and crustacean shellfish.

I would also recommend pregnant or nursing mothers, children under the age of 18, and other people with known illnesses to consult a doctor before using the Nervogen Pro dietary supplement.

According to the official website, the recommended dosage of Nervogen Pro is to require two capsules per day with a glass of water as a dietary supplement. it's always best to stay to the present dosage as overdosing can have deleterious effects.

Is Nervogen Pro a Magic Pill?

Nervogen Pro Supplement is certainly not a magic pill. Nervogen Pro dietary supplement is meant to deal with nerve-related problems. This takes time and a few effort on your part.

Also, "magic pills" are just scams by fraudulent manufacturers determined to form a profit at your expense. With promises they can't keep, they can attract unsuspecting customers and steal their hard-earned money. So i might suggest that you simply stand back from anything that claims to be a magic pill.

In contrast, the manufacturers of Nervogen Pro remind you that in some cases it's going to take a while for the results to manifest. However, to urge the foremost out of the supplement, minimal effort should be put in to stay your body at optimal levels.

Small lifestyle changes like exercising reception and eating healthier habits and using Nervogen Pro regularly can go an extended way in relieving nerve pain.

How long will it fancy see the results?

How early or late you see the results largely depends on the condition of your body. Some may even see results directly, while for others it's going to take a while. this is often why it's ideal to stay your body healthy while consuming the Nervogen Pro capsules.

However, you'll rest assured that when the manufacturer is willing to offer you a 60 day "100% healthy or money back" guarantee, if it doesn't, you'll make certain that there'll be results. If you're so convinced of your product, there must be something.

That being said, if you actually want permanent results, it is best to stay using the Nervogen Pro dietary supplement for a minimum of two to 3 months. Some people tend to offer up hastily after using the supplement for just a month.

They fail to understand that everyone's body is different and functions in its own way. It also depends on your body, weight, height, age, diet, exercise routines, hormonal balance, etc. you ought to therefore still use the supplement for a minimum of the recommended minimum duration of 60 days.

How long would the results last?

If you've used the supplement consistent with the manufacturer's recommended dosage for 2-3 months, the results will usually last longer.

However, consuming supplements alone won't produce lasting results. to try to to this, one has got to follow a healthy lifestyle with good eating habits and do simple home exercises.

According to research and reviews, if you're taking the Nervogen Pro supplement regularly for 3 months, results seem to last for a minimum of a year or two, provided you continue your healthy lifestyle. However, ideally, it's best to stay using it for as long as possible.

Nervogen Pro Price and where does one get it?

The only place to shop for the Nervogen Pro dietary supplement is on the official website. However, you ought to be extra careful and confirm that you simply only pip out from the first website as there are fake websites that sell fake products with an equivalent or an identical name.

These products are made up of harmful and cheap materials and may be very dangerous. Also, the official website is that the only place you'll get your refund (even if you're unlikely to wish it) as fraudulent sellers cannot afford it.

Each bottle of Nervogen Pro contains 60 capsules that last for one month. you'll get one bottle of the supplement, which costs an incredibly low price of $ 69.

However, since it's recommended to use Nervogen Pro for a minimum of a couple of months, it's best to get the 6-bottle pack. This also gives you each bottle at a reduced price of $ 49 each. this suggests you'll get the whole package for just $ 294 total, saving you tons of cas.

You can also get the supplement during a 3-bottle pack for a reduced price of $ 177, meaning you'll get each bottle for $ 59.

Since the merchandise is in high demand, i might recommend that you simply buy the pack of 6 bottles before stocks run out. However, it's best to attend patiently for the merchandise to become available again just in case it's running low.

Nervogen Pro official website - https://nervogen.com

Nervogen Pro complaints and customer ratings

The Nervogen Pro customer reviews are all positive and most of the users are proud of the results. We couldn't find any complaints about the supplement aside from a couple of complaints about the delay in receiving the purchased product and about the stock levels.

Nervogen Pro is merely available on its official website. this is often done to make sure the standard of the Nervogen Pro supplement. Delays within the delivery of the merchandise on an event or two also are quite understandable given the pandemic.

Is Nervogen Pro a Legitimate Supplement?

Nervogen Pro is certainly a true nerve solution. The formula was developed by a renowned medicinal chemist and made by a renowned manufacturer. These make sure that Nervogen Pro may be a legitimate product that meets all of the claims made on the web site.

The manufacturer also offers you a 60-day "100% healthy or money-back" guarantee if that does not work. So you'll trust the standard of the merchandise .

Nervogen Pro Reviews - the ultimate Verdict

If you have been trying to find a natural solution for your systema nervosum health, Nervogen Pro could possibly be the solution. The scientific studies, researches, and many positive customer testimonials seem to suggest that this formula actually works.

Plus, you cannot lose anything as they also accompany a 60 day a refund guarantee which suggests your money won't go down the drain if you're not proud of the merchandise. In stark contrast, you'll gain tons by consuming the natural supplement on a daily basis. If it can offer you a healthier body without nerve pain, that's reason enough to shop for the Nervogen Pro dietary supplement.

Click here to order Nervogen Pro from the official website (60 day a refund guarantee)

[glittergummicandypeach]

The culture of dying | Religion | Al Jazeera

The scent of fresh flowers filled the semi-detached house just outside London.

In the usually spacious living room, the cream sofas had been pushed back against the walls, the stack of "to-do" paperwork and the ornate lamp removed from the coffee table. A large cotton sheet covered the wine-red carpet.

Women filled the room, sitting in clusters on the floor. Some quietly recited passages from the Quran, others picked dried kidney beans from a bowl, saying a prayer for the deceased before transferring them to another - a modified type of abacus.

The weeping, and sometimes wailing, women were served fruit from a large steel tray - bite-sized pieces of apples, oranges and bananas with their peel still on to stop them from browning.

Sabah Chohan remembers the day well. It was the summer of 2011, and she was 17. She had helped prepare the fruit for the mourners gathered in her aunt's home.

"There were people that none of us [cousins] had ever seen - and I'm sure who had never met Ammar - who would come and wail, with faux grief, really strong, deep cries. Me and my other cousins were left wondering who some of these people were and where these tears were coming from. I remember being annoyed at myself, because everyone was crying so much, but I wasn't able to shed a tear. I was in shock."

Ammar Chohan, 20, was Sabah's older cousin, but they were more like siblings.

Growing up together in Slough, Sabah recalls: "He was at our house almost every day. We had Quran classes together. We'd go to the cinema. He'd pick me up from school, and I used to feel so cool in front of my friends because he was so popular."

His sense of humour and love of practical jokes made him the "life and soul" of the family, she says.

In July 2011, Ammar and Kameel, Sabah's older brother, were on a boat trip just off the southern coast of Turkey.

Sabah had recently returned to the UK from her own summer break when Kameel made a frantic call home. Ammar had not resurfaced after his last dive.

The Chohan family desperately wanted to believe that Ammar was playing another of his practical jokes, but by daylight, his body had been found by a team of divers.

Funeral flowers are seen in the mortuary at Poppy's Funerals in Lambeth Cemetery, London during the coronavirus pandemic [File: Hannah McKay/Reuters]

Dying young

"It tore the family apart," Sabah reflects. "None of us were equipped on how to grieve. You expect older people to die, but not a 20-year-old who had his whole life ahead of him.

"I wasn't able to talk to anyone about how I felt, but I don't think any of us were. We [Ammar's older sister and the other cousins] all handled it differently and kind of retreated into ourselves."

The elders made arrangements to bring Ammar's body home and prepared for the funeral. Islamic guidelines provided a practical framework to follow in those first days.

Ammar's home was quickly filled with love. His friends created a space in one of the rooms where they would share stories that momentarily seemed to bring him back to life.

Sabah wanted to join, but cultural expectations meant the females in the household should not be seen sitting in the same room as the young men.

"I wanted to hear the stories, but I also wanted to keep the mums and aunties happy," says Sabah, who is now 26. "Our culture is very big on respect, so I had to respect tradition, respect the elders."

"I struggled at the time. I didn't know how to behave, how to act, there were certain expectations. There is no manual or formula that tells you how to mourn. There was a lot to take in and I felt caught between two cultures, being British and being Pakistani. I didn't feel my culture helped."

An unspoken expectation of that culture was for Ammar's family to be flawless hosts, prioritising the needs of other mourners over their own.

"Even if we are exhausted or mentally not in the right headspace, we had to behave in a certain way ... 'Don't laugh, it's disrespectful', 'Don't talk about death and grief and sadness as it's seen as having a lack of faith in God's will'."

But it is not just in Sabah's culture that death is rarely discussed. Dr Kathryn Mannix, a pioneering palliative care doctor in the UK, writes about the changes in our relationship with death in her best-selling book, With the End in Mind.

A century ago death was part of life, she explains. But with medical advancements, our experience of death has become diluted. "The rich wisdom around death, the vocabulary and etiquette that served us so well in the past, has been lost," she writes.

Mortuary workers Stuart Emans and Graham Cowper prepare a deceased person for a funeral in the mortuary at Poppy's Funerals in Lambeth Cemetery [File: Hannah McKay/Reuters]

Creating culture, finding support

Sabah turned to social media for support, sharing stories about Ammar without any cultural constraints. Every memory she posted was met with likes or shares, which she says validated her grief and gave her the comfort and support she needed.

She also turned to YouTube where she started listening to recitations of the Quran and Islamic teachings, which brought her the peace she was seeking.

In a 2017 study, published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Dr David B Feldman tested a theory that those with a religious belief have fewer anxieties surrounding death and grief than those without. He discovered that levels of "death anxiety" were the same in both groups, but that those who believed in God and an afterlife showed greater "acceptance of death, and a greater growth in response to loss".

Sabah responded to her loss by raising money for disadvantaged communities in Ammar's name. Giving to charity on behalf of someone who has died is known as Sadaqah Jariyah in Islam - a lasting charitable legacy said to benefit the soul of the departed.

She also trekked across deserts and climbed the world's tallest mountains, making her realise the vastness of the earth, and her place in it, she says.

"The mighty mountains made my problems seem so small and made me appreciate everything I took for granted," Sabah reflects.

'We don't know how to talk about death'

Although Sabah did not find the comfort she needed within her cultural group, Natalie Hay says she admires the "support" offered within some Asian communities at times of bereavement.

When her mum Sheila died from breast cancer in 2013, she says she remembers a friend visiting and bringing a homemade cottage pie. "It was such a simple gesture, but it meant so much. When I mentioned it to my Asian friends they were so surprised, as in their cultures when someone dies the house is filled with a steady stream of food and visitors - I think we've [non-Asian English communities] lost that."

"We don't know how to talk about death, and there is a real problem in English society in reaching out."

Natalie recalls how at the time of her mother's death, nobody phoned her. "Because everyone thought someone else was reaching out to me, and when I spoke to friends about it years later, they said they hadn't known what to say so just avoided me."

Pictures of Natalie Hay's mother, Sheila [Photo courtesy of Natalie Hay]

Looking at photos of her mother, a former actress who was on her agency's books as "an Elizabeth Taylor lookalike", Hay feels comforted in knowing that she and her younger sister Claudia had honoured all of their mothers' final wishes.

"Mum was such an extrovert, she was this eccentric, bohemian character. She requested a black horse-drawn carriage and for all the mourners to be dressed in black - even though she was one of the most colourful people around. I thought of the theatrics of it all - but when she died, because we had had that conversation, I made it all happen."

More than 100 mourners packed the Gothic-style church in London, and people remembered Sheila in their own creative ways. One friend sang a song Sheila had written, another recited one of her poems, and Natalie delivered the eulogy. "I knew her better than anyone else. I didn't find it cathartic, but I felt it was important to honour her."

"It was all very traditional, and the clip-clopping of the horses' hooves as we went through the graveyard was actually very comforting.

"It was little things like that that I noticed, also older gentlemen tipping their hat as my mother's carriage passed by - it was a lovely act of respect honouring my mother, and that gave me comfort."

Natalie with her sons Alec (left) and Matteo (right) [Photo courtesy of Natalie Hay]

When Sheila's coffin was being lowered into the ground, Natalie says she felt strange at the finality of it all. "It felt so cold. I asked if I could throw soil on the coffin, and was told no, but I recently went to a Jewish funeral and we were able to throw some earth on the coffin - it made a difference.

"It made me wish we had more rituals, a lack of them can leave people sometimes feeling lost."

Sitting in her sunny London garden, Natalie reflects on how her Christian beliefs helped her understand the dying process, but her culture did not offer the support she was seeking.

"I see death as a transition to the afterlife. When mum was dying, the vicar came to the hospice and he anointed her, we said prayers and 'May Christ be with you'. It was comforting to her and to me. It made a difference."

She makes a point to talk to her own children, 12-year-old Matteo and nine-year-old Alec, about death, she says.

"I've noticed that in English culture, we don't really expose our young to births and deaths - and I find that sad. How will you understand life if you are not exposed to the cycle of it?"

Adapted funerals

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic gripping the world today, fulfilling cultural and religious rites around death - as well as being there for the dying - has not always been possible.

In many cases, restrictions have meant people were unable to be with dying relatives.

When Nurten Haddedou's cousin Keziban Ozdemir died last month from pancreatic cancer, 73-year-old Nurten wanted to be there, to offer prayers, comfort family and share memories, but could not because of the coronavirus restrictions.

"I'd known her all her life and it really upset me not being able to be there. I feel dreadful and still feel guilty. I'm heartbroken."

Nurten believes it is important to "pay your final respects".

"Not being able to attend [due to a restriction on numbers attending funerals] has made it more difficult for me to accept her passing as I didn't get to say goodbye," she reflects. "I've always attended the funerals of friends and family. It's important, it shows respect for the departed and it's also a chance to say a final goodbye in person."

Imam Ajmal Masroor performs a Friday prayer service, broadcast online using his phone, at Wightman Road mosque in North London during the coronavirus pandemic [File: Henry Nicholls/Reuters]

Erkin Guney understands this well. A funeral director and chairman of Masjid Ramadan in north London, he had the sombre task of dealing with 150 Muslim burials in four months.

"At one point we were burying four to six people a day. It was unprecedented, I used to run the largest cemetery in Western Europe and would then only deal with 100 deaths in a year," he says.

Erkin explains that Islamic funeral rites are "simple but important".

"You wash the body, wrap it in a white cloth called the 'kafan', put the body in an open casket, prayers are recited, the body can be viewed - you take the body to the graveside, and say your final goodbyes.

"In Islam, this journey, the last journey, is the most sacred."

Volunteers carry a coffin containing the body of a person who did not die of COVID-19 at a temporary morgue built for coronavirus victims in the car park of Central Jamia Mosque Ghamkol Sharif in Birmingham, England on April 24, 2020 [File: Matt Dunham/AP Photo]

At the start of the pandemic, with personal protective equipment (PPE) in short supply, confusion over whether the washing and wrapping of the deceased would be allowed and even reports that bodies were being cremated or buried in body bags because of the risk of contagion, Erkin says bereaved families experienced a "disconnect from their spiritual traditions".

"The absence of these rituals meant families were unable to feel a sense of closure, and these death rituals are hugely important. It is our duty to give each person a dignified sendoff," he says.

"I had to change the game, I wasn't accepting this. When I die, this is what I want for myself - wash my body and lay me to rest. This is my duty or otherwise why am I here? We are dealing with families' loved ones that have died, this isn't a conveyor belt.

"We knew we couldn't bury the bodies in 24 hours [as is the tradition in Islam], but the rest we could do. So after bodies had been refrigerated for seven days [to kill any trace of the virus], we washed them, we wrapped them, we held prayers. There was no way we were going to bury unidentified people in body bags."

Mourning suits were replaced with hazmat suits and Erkin continued his work.

He set up a live stream option for families to watch the whole process online from their homes. "People were now able to say their goodbyes over video streaming, and the deceased had their final rites fulfilled."

Seeing the death rate go up on the daily news, and facing the bodies of the deceased the next morning was hard to handle. Erkin says he did so with tears in his eyes.

"It doesn't matter what religion you are, death is a spiritual experience, not religious. Islam is one path to God, but there are many."

Volunteer Mohammed Zahid adjusts plastic wrapping on one of a group of empty coffins in a temporary morgue built for coronavirus victims in the car park of Central Jamia Mosque Ghamkol Sharif in Birmingham [File: Matt Dunham/AP Photo]

'Each death is different'

While there are often unspoken guidelines for processing death, does having a more structured approach help us cope better with grief?

Aly Dickinson has been an "end-of-life doula" for six years, and has become known as the go-to person for advice on how to "be" with a bereaved person, among her own friends and family.

An end-of-life doula, sometimes called a death doula, offers emotional, physical and psychological support to the dying and to their loved ones.

"Traditionally ... this role was undertaken by a person, often a woman, in the local community," Aly explains. "As dying has become more medicalised we have become more separated from our dying with most deaths happening in hospitals, hospices and care homes. We have lost the innate knowledge and wisdom to look after our own at end of life."

A pin board displaying the locations of funeral directors in London is seen on wall of the office at Poppy's Funerals in Lambeth Cemetery [File: Hannah McKay/Reuters]

By offering practical and emotional support, Aly says she and her colleagues help to "preserve the quality of wellbeing, sense of identity and self-worth [of a dying person] from the moment we are called upon."

Aly points out that it is important to recognise the personal experience of each individual. "Each death is different - the person is unique, their life is unique and that is reflected in their dying. The conversations, emotions, hopes, fears and concerns are different for each person - there may be some common themes but each individual experience belongs to that person [and] is distinctive.

"I know, from having seen, that death can be a beautiful and peaceful letting go of this life," she adds.

'Love, it's as simple as that'

Ritu Sani, a business consultant in her 40s, wishes she was offered some type of professional support when her father was dying from cancer in 2018.

"I just wanted someone to sit and offer guidance on what the final stages of cancer look like, someone to ask how my dad was feeling, how he felt about death."

She felt this was not offered by the medical profession.

The support Ritu wanted "has nothing to do with what religion you are - this is about humanity", she says.

Mourners hold flowers during a funeral [Getty Images]

Although Ritu describes herself as spiritual rather than religious, it was her father's Sikh faith and her mother's Hindu beliefs that formed the structure of the funeral process. But although her family were enveloped in the care of the Hindu and Sikh communities, she was not sure that this was the kind of "support" she needed.

"I had people coming up to me, telling me how I should be praying, how I should be grieving. And my brother was falling apart, our extended family members and friends were infuriated, they thought as a man he shouldn't be behaving that way. I didn't want people coming into our home with judgement."

"There are different types of mourners, there are those who come out of obligation, have a cup of tea and go, there are those who come to have a snoop and see what's going on within the family at such a personal time, and there are those who come to give you a hug and bring enough food to last a week, which is welcomed," she says.

Ritu honoured her father and says she "tried to tick all the boxes" for him by incorporating both Sikh and Hindu traditions. "Both have a different meaning of what it means to die."

The rituals were spread over 13 days and ended with the final ceremony, scattering her father's ashes "the last bit of the person's remains on the earth" in an open water lake, following the Hindu belief of setting the spirit free and returning it to nature.

Looking back, Ritu says her family's religious traditions helped. "For us as a family, it was cathartic to do this, it was sad and upsetting but was a good way to say goodbye."

Erkin believes that "at the end, when you lose everything, you get back to your true self [and] faith and culture don't matter".

"I have seen every religion's death rites," he adds, "and when you're standing by the grave, saying a prayer or nothing at all, what we all have in common is love, it's as simple as that."

This content was originally published here.

[cunabula27]

Poppy. Papaver somniferum var. paeoniflorum, or maybe var. laciniatum, which are both varieties with flowers that are highly double. From WIkipedia: "Double-flowered" describes varieties of flowers with extra petals, often containing flowers within flowers. The double-flowered trait is often noted alongside the scientific name with the abbreviation fl. pl. (flore pleno, a Latin ablative form meaning "with full flower"). The first abnormality to be documented in flowers, double flowers are popular varieties of many commercial flower types, including roses, camellias and carnations. In some double-flowered varieties all of the reproductive organs are converted to petals — as a result, they are sexually sterile and must be propagated through cuttings. Many double-flowered plants have little wildlife value as access to the nectaries is typically blocked by the mutation. https://www.instagram.com/p/CBurf37nG-K/?igshid=1y9tyef8bpsr

[gethealthy18-blog]

21 Gorgeous-Looking Watercolor Tattoo Ideas That Will Make You Want To Get Inked

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/getting-healthy/getting-healthy-women/21-gorgeous-looking-watercolor-tattoo-ideas-that-will-make-you-want-to-get-inked/

21 Gorgeous-Looking Watercolor Tattoo Ideas That Will Make You Want To Get Inked

Saumya Gaur March 1, 2019

Gone are the days when getting a tattoo was synonymous with desecrating your body. Now, getting inked with indelible art is the way our millennial generation expresses itself. And not just the mango people, mind you, the stars do it too! From Lady Gaga to Priyanka Chopra Jonas, getting inked is the new it thing.

Now if after reading this you are thinking what is new in this? Hold your horses, dear reader, we are talking about a new type of tattoo, one which will put you ahead of the curve and make you the next Instagram sensation! Want to know what I am talking about?

Watercolor tattoos — and it is exactly as beautiful and artistic as it sounds. While traditional tattoos are bound by solid shapes and black boundary lines, watercolor tattoos are more fluid and give more leeway to be creative. It’s literally about making your body your canvas.

So, if you are looking for some inspiration for your first tattoo or whether you want new ideas to an existing collection, these are some of our favorite picks, do have a look.

1. When The Universe Is The Limit

Whether you are an astronomy nerd or not, this beautiful solar system is sure an arresting piece of body art, that would be the perfect piece to inaugurate the beginning of your living canvas.

2. These Beautiful Blooms

If you are looking for something that is delicate and spectacular at the same time look no further than this beautiful piece of body art. These poppy blooms are the only ones that can do some justice to their real-life counterparts.

3. This Magical Creature

Okay, so this is not a true watercolor tattoo but just look at this beautiful hybrid and tell me you don’t want to rush to you a tattoo parlor and get inked.

4. This Little Fellow Ready To Take Flight

Hummingbird is a crowd favorite when it comes to popular tattoo inspirations, but this particular piece takes the cake!

5. For When You Have Found The One To Grow Old With

Maybe, you’ve already found the love of your life or maybe you’ve been with them for a while now, in any case, this perfect vision of your future would be a great way to celebrate your love.

6. This One Is For The Bibliophiles

If you are a book lover who found true companionship and company in your leafy little friends, then this is the tattoo for you. It will be the perfect homage to your little friends.

7. The Wonders Of Nature

Another hummingbird tattoo, this one captures the dignified beauty of the creature in its habitat. A must for those who love nature and want to carry a part of it with them.

8. For The Water Babies

If you love water or if, by any chance, were a fan of The Little Mermaid then this is the tattoo for you. Done in shades of blue and purple, it has an essence of ethereal beauty.

9. For The Adventurer

If you are a curious cat or someone who always has questions for the universe, then this is our pick for you. A calf-tattoo, this one is unique in its placement as well as its subject.

10. This Sole Blossom With A Special Message

This dainty piece would be the perfect art for your back. The flowering bloom gives a much-needed splash of color whereas the long stem can be a quote from a book or poem, dear to you.

11. For The Love Of Hedwig

This is for all the Harry Potter fans, in remembrance of their beloved Hedwig. He deserved better.

12. This Physics Experiment

You might know that a prism splits white light into seven layers, but this beautiful illustration of this scientific principle does a better job of showing it, doesn’t it?

13. For Those Who Have A Lot More To Say

This colorful semicolon encourages you to add more to your story. Perfect for those who are looking for something with minimalism and depth of meaning.

14. To Celebrate Your Inner Wonder Woman

Mother, daughter, sister, wife, girlfriend, friend, philosopher, and guide — this is for you if you want to own your inner wonder woman.

15. This Is For Those Who Seek Some Drama

This flamboyant tattoo is perfect for those who believe in the mantra — go big or go home. If you are someone who loves bold colors, and designs, this would be a perfect choice for you.

16. This Delicate Heart For Your Sweetheart

It is exactly what it is — a small celebration of your love. A very different alternative to getting your SO’s name inked.

17. When You Want To Celebrate The True Disney Heroes

This one is for those who believe that the Disney villains were just women who were dealt an unfair hand by life. Celebrate the grey in your life with this tattoo!

18. For Your True Inspiration

This is the perfect ode to Van Gogh and Fight Club — get your inner pop culture nerd excited. It is the most ingenious way of celebrating your interests.

19. For Friends That Stayed With You

This one is for all those Harry Potter fanboys, celebrate your favorite book with these exquisite watercolor body art.

20. For Your Inner Emo Child

For those who want to go back to the basics — a black watercolor tattoo.

21. When You Reach For The Stars

Lastly, this one which captures constellations in all their beauty can be your way of owning a little bit of sky. You can also get your zodiac in the constellations, if you wish to.

So, did these beautiful pieces of body art inspire you to get one yourself? Let us know which one you liked best in the comments section.

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[blockheadbrands]

The Truth About Terps

Nico Escondido of High Times Reports:

In the Beginning

In 1964, two young scientists, Dr. Raphael Mechoulam and Dr. Yechiel Gaoni, were the first to isolate and map the molecular structure of THC. This cannabinoid is, of course, the primary and only psychoactive chemical compound found in cannabis.

Late in 2010, this author had the pleasure and privilege to interview Dr. Mechoulam at his laboratory at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. During that interview, I asked him a simple question: Why cannabis? And his answer was simple as well. In short, Dr. Mechoulam was interested in “natural products” that could elicit a therapeutic response within the human body. And while other plants, such as coca and poppy, had already been refined for medical purposes—cocaine in 1860 and morphine in 1803, the latter being believed to be the first isolation and extraction of an active compound from a plant—there was not an overabundance of options left. So “Why not cannabis?” Dr. Mechoulam asked in response.

Less than a year after my interview with Dr. Mechoulam, another prominent scientist, Dr. Ethan Russo, published an equally important piece of research in the British Journal of Pharmacology, “Taming THC: Potential cannabis synergy and phytocannabinoid-terpenoid entourage effects.” Dr. Russo is a board-certified neurologist, former senior medical advisor to GW Pharmaceuticals and a widely published author in many scientific journals, books, and periodicals (including our very own High Times).

Building off of the previous work and ideology of Mechoulam and Gaoni, Dr. Russo introduced the next steps in our collective understanding of the effects and benefits of marijuana, this time focusing not just on cannabinoids, but also on the terpenoid content present in the plant. Both the isolated effects of other cannabinoids (such as CBD, CBG, THCV, etc.) and terpenoids as well as the sum of all parts when taken together, he argued, represented “another echelon of phytotherapeutic agents.”

What (Exactly) Are Terps?

Before we get back to Dr. Russo’s work and attempt to more fully understand the interactions between terpenes and cannabinoids (i.e., the entourage effect), we first need to know just what exactly “terps” are. Technically speaking, terpenes are a large and very diverse class of organic compounds (hydrocarbons, to be exact) that are produced by a wide variety of plants, including cannabis.

Some authors use the term “terpene” as a broader, catchall phrase that includes the subgroup known as “terpenoids.” Terpenoids can be thought of as modified terpenes, although they are very similar in most aspects aside from molecular structure. Terpenoids are terpenes that have been chemically altered, usually in the form of a moved or lost methyl group (one carbon plus three hydrogen atoms, or CH3). More important, terpenoids are also terpenes that have become denatured by oxidation, such as during the drying and curing of buds, making “terpenoid” a more accurate term when discussing strains that are ready for smoking, whereas “terpene” is more accurately used when discussing live plants (or fresh frozen plants, for extraction purposes).

A much simpler way to look at terps is that they are a plant’s “essential oils,” or the primary building blocks of any plant resin, and they are largely responsible for the scents, flavors and colors of plants. There are over 200 known terpenes in cannabis and, by comparison, just over half as many known plant cannabinoids (113), which are 21-carbon-atom molecules found only in cannabis and are completely odorless. And while Dr. Russo’s research strongly suggests that terpenes can contribute to the overall effects of cannabis, either singularly or via the total compounded effects of all cannabinoids and terpenes, there are no known psychoactive effects from individual terpenes.

It is also worth noting that terpenes are created through the biosynthesis of isoprene units, which are carbon and hydrogen building blocks (C5H8) for terpenes. This is important because it leads to that long and diverse list of organic compounds that encompass what a terpene can be. Adding a prefix to the name indicates the number of isoprene units needed to make that type of terpene, because for each single terpene involved there are two isoprene units needed.

For example, when you see the term monoterpene (“mono” meaning one), you know there are two isoprene units involved. Similarly, sesquiterpenes (“sesqui” meaning one and a half) indicates there are three isoprene units, and diterpenes (“di” meaning two) indicates there are four isoprene units, and so on. The list continues up to tetraterpenes, meaning eight isoprene units. After that, the terminology is generic, with polyterpenes indicating many isoprene units (i.e., more than eight). Just like terpenes, terpenoids can also be classified according to the number of isoprene units used. This is important because this is how scientists are able to identify and elucidate individual terpenes or terpenoids within a plant sample.

Lastly, terpenes, like cannabinoids, are synthesized in cannabis inside secretory cells that exist within the plant trichomes, which cover buds and leaves. Trichomes are most concentrated on unfertilized female flowers during peak flowering—usually around the six- or seven-week mark, just as trichomes begin to turn amber in color. Being created within the same physiological structure is important because it shows us that both cannabinoids and terpenes share a common denominator, or precursor, in their production: geranyl pyrophosphate. This could suggest common receptor potential within the human body for both cannabinoids and terpenes, a basis for the research of Dr. Russo.

The Russo Paper

By the time Dr. Russo took up his cause to explore the potential synergetic effects of cannabis terpenes alongside cannabinoids, most of the prominent cannabinoids had already been elucidated, most of which by Dr. Mechoulam beginning with cannabidiol (CBD) in 1963 and then the seminal discovery of THC in 1964.

But in 2011, Dr. Russo set out to investigate the effects, if any, of the various terpene profiles found in cannabis. Either alone, or in conjunction with one another, or in totality along with the cannabinoid profiles found in strains, Dr. Russo hypothesized that terpenes and flavonoids could elicit therapeutic responses within the human body and contribute to the effects of the cannabis plant. At the time, only one previously manufactured pharmaceutical, Sativex, had been synthetically derived from the plant’s chemical structures (THC and CBD in a 1:1 ratio), and since then, only one other, Marinol (synthetic THC), has come to market. While Sativex has seen moderate success and gained approved for use in over 30 countries, including the United States (where it is called Nabiximols), Marinol has not enjoyed as much success, though it was approved by the FDA in the United States. Still, neither Sativex or Marinol was able to reproduce the same medical and therapeutic effects that one receives when smoking the actual plant. The “full bouquet,” so to speak, of a particular strain offered something to patients that a single—or even a pair—of cannabinoids could not. Clearly, more research was needed, and Dr. Russo had an idea where to look.

In the past, various researchers had attempted to uncover the mysteries surrounding terpenes, emphasizing their pharmacological importance. Aromatherapy, a form of holistic healing, has been a popular method for healing for centuries. And in 1998, Dr. Mechoulam even co-authored a paper with Dr. Shimon Ben-Shabatt that suggested biological compounds created by the human body, known as endocannabinoids, might act in concert with other compounds to exert what they coined an “entourage effect.” Dr. Russo looked at this term and applied the same concept to his own research, except in his studies he substituted the endocannabinoids of the human body with the actual phytocannabinoids produced by the plant itself, leading to theories about the synergistic effects that terpenes and cannabinoids might have when combined with each other.

Related Science: The Entourage Effect

Around the same time that Russo was doing his research on possible entourage effects of the combination of terpenes and cannabinoids, a Swiss scientist, Dr. Jürg Gertsch, was researching similar theories. In 2008, three years prior to Dr. Russo’s paper, Dr. Gertsch documented that beta-caryophyllene, a primary terpene found in a majority of cannabis strains, had a certain affinity for binding to CB2 receptors in the human body. This discovery is of extreme importance as beta-caryophyllene is the only known terpenoid to directly activate a cannabinoid receptor, thereby proving that, at least on some level, terpenes do, in fact, play a role in the overall therapeutic effects of marijuana.

Dr. Gertsch’s findings illustrated perfectly the theory of the entourage effect: Beta-caryophyllene, a terpene found in oregano, black pepper and other green, leafy vegetables that has been known to be good for treating certain ulcers, acting as a gastro-protector in herbal remedies, binds to CB receptors previously thought to be reserved strictly for cannabinoids and, subsequently, the body’s own endocannabinoids, providing new evidence that terpenes also play a direct role. So while this shows that the aromatherapy and herbal therapies of ancient cultures were certainly onto something, it also shows that when humans use cannabis there is a lot more going on than just reactions to THC and CBD. But what does this mean in terms of how cannabinoids such as these interact and work in concert with terpenes?

The 1998 paper by Dr. Ben-Shabatt (which Dr. Mechoulam contributed to) put this very question to test when researchers used lab mice in a study to determine if terpenes acted alone or in tandem with cannabinoids to elicit a stronger or overall different effect. In short, they found that the naturally occurring endocannabinoid known as 2-AG (2-arachidonoylglycerol), when administered with two related compounds (i.e., esters derived from carboxylic acids, which are molecularly similar to cannabinoids), would bind more readily at the cannabinoid receptors and exert a more pronounced behavioral effect on mice.

This was, to a certain extent, proof that endocannabinoids working at the CB-receptor level could have altered effectiveness when used in conjunction with other compounds. A few years later in 2001, Dr. Russo and Dr. John McPartland would publish a paper in the Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics, stating, “Good evidence shows that secondary compounds in cannabis may enhance the beneficial effects of THC and reduce THC-induced anxiety, cholinergic deficits, and immunosuppression.”

Dr. Mechoulam himself would later address these findings, saying, “Very seldom is the biological activity of the active constituent [analyzed] together with inactive ‘entourage’ compounds. Investigations of the effect of the active component in the presence of its ‘entourage’ [non-psychoactive] compounds may lead to results that differ from those observed with the active component only.” Essentially, Dr. Mechoulam was stating that while scientists previously were focused only on the active components of such natural products as cannabis, had they taken a broader approach and looked more holistically at the product, they might have found different outcomes when it comes to the effects elicited from said products.

These findings and statements by some of the most prominent and respected scientists in these fields were only the beginning in a wave of theory and research that is still ongoing. Of course, the biggest hindrance to much of this work is the fact that cannabis is still federally prohibited in the United States, which is why nearly all of the this referenced research was conducted overseas and is still slow in progress to this day. Still, the work that has been done to this point gives us a better understanding of why and how different strains of marijuana elicit different effects in the user. When you think about what makes a sativa a sativa or what makes an indica an indica, there clearly has to be more involved than just the THC or CBD levels. Sure, there are other cannabinoids in varying amounts as well, but this research shows us that terpenes, and even many flavonoids, have a significant role to play as well.

The Purity and Safety of Terpenes

Much has been made lately over the purity, quality and safety of terpenes and terpene-extraction processes. We already know that many vape-pen cartridges are adulterated with synthetic terpenes and artificial flavors. But are these terpenes safe to ingest and, more specifically, smoke? We know that terpenes share a chemical precursor with plant cannabinoids and that they are all flavor and fragrance components common to human diets. Thus, these terpenes and flavonoids have, for the most part, been designated as “generally recognized as safe” by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulatory agencies.

Still, some folks out there also like to argue against the purity of terpene products currently on the market, claiming that some extraction methods—primarily through distillation—create hydrosols which, simply put, are terpenes that have been diluted by the addition of water from the distillation process. With similar therapeutic properties to essential oils, these “aromatic waters” are much less concentrated, which might not be the worst thing. Far worse than those creating hydrosols are the extract artists who knowingly and purposefully pollute dab products with non-cannabis-derived terpenes, synthetic terpenes and artificial flavors (the latter two being nonorganic). Call us purists over here at HT if you like, but we only allow cannabis-derived terps in our Cannabis Cup competitions when it comes to concentrates. And if those cannabis terpenes are derived from an organic, nonchemical solvent process like steam distillation, then all the better as a little H2O in the terps is really no big deal.

As Dr. Russo put it, “Terpenoids are quite potent and affect animal and human behavior when inhaled from ambient air at serum levels in the single digits ng·mL−1 (that’s nanograms per milliliter, where there are one million nanograms per mL)…and display unique therapeutic effects that may contribute meaningfully to the entourage effects of cannabis-based medicinal extracts.” Basically, Dr. Russo is telling us what we already know: that terps are extremely potent, even in the absolute tiniest of amounts. So, then, what’s the big gripe against hydrosols, you might ask?

Well, in this new age of legal marijuana industries—which are netting billions in revenues—there are dollars at stake and people have gone through painstaking efforts to develop (and protect) various techniques and methodologies for everything from cultivation to genetics, to recipes, to extraction methods. And when these modalities are challenged or threatened, people tend to defend their claims, no matter how nonsensical. So when it comes to terpenes—whether synthetic or organic, derived from cannabis or from other sources, or are just a bit watered-down—you can decide for yourself where your preferences lie. But at the end of the day, as long as these products are organic and derived solely from cannabis, they are safe and healthy to consume and bring the user immense amounts of fragrance and flavor.

Terps 101

Below is a list of the most predominant terpenes found in cannabis strains that have been lab-tested at our Cannabis Cups over the past five years. These terpenes are not only the most prevalent, but also the most active in terms of both isolated effects and overall entourage effects when combined with cannabinoids such as THC.

Beta-Caryophyllene

Perhaps the most common terpene, beta-caryophyllene (or just caryophyllene, as it is commonly known) is present in eight out of 10 strains and has a woody, sweet, dry clove aroma. It has a spicy, almost peppery taste with hints of camphor and citrus in the background. It is a major terpene found in black pepper, clove, cotton and, in smaller amounts, green, leafy vegetables. Caryophyllene oil is an essential oil used to enhance tobacco flavor.

As previously mentioned, caryophyllene played a major role in Dr. Russo’s 2011 British Journal of Pharmacology paper on the entourage effect due to its ability to bind directly to the peripheral cannabinoid receptor CB2. That, in and of itself, is endlessly intriguing. And because of that fact, caryophyllene shows promise in salves or lotions as a therapeutic compound for inflammatory conditions and autoimmune disorders. It does not, however, seem to be involved in mood change or have other psychoactive aspects. Lastly, and sadly, caryophyllene oxide has the distinction of being the component responsible for cannabis identification by drug-sniffing dogs.

Beta-Myrcene

Another very prominent terpene found in most cannabis strains, beta-myrcene (or myrcene) was once thought of as a predominantly indica terpene due to the types of effects it elicits. However, with the recent wave of research in terpenes and strain chemotypes, it was found that myrcene is equally common in both sativa and indica varieties, casting further doubt on our taxonomical classification system of cannabis’s three species.

When it comes to the interactions with cannabinoids, myrcene can be described as a “synergist” of THC, meaning that when the two molecules combine in the body a stronger experience is created than with just THC alone. Because myrcene affects the permeability of the cell membranes, it allows more THC to reach brain cells as well as increases the absorption of other terpenes. High doses of myrcene were shown to induce sleep in mice during lab trials, and this sedative activity is likely why hops and lemongrass have been used as therapeutic sedatives in herbal healing for centuries. This is also why hoppy beers as well as myrcene-dominant indicas are famously known for their “body buzz” and “couchlock” effects.

D-Limonene

Limonene is one of the most popular cannabis terpenes, mostly due to its intense citrus aroma and sweet but potent lemon-lime flavor. In certain lab experiments, it has been shown to combat and destroy breast cancer cells as well as pathogenic bacteria. Limonene’s molecular structure helps it to facilitate its effects by quickly permeating the blood-brain barrier. When present with THC, this effect can aid in the cannabinoid more readily binding to CB1 receptors in the brain. Limonene has also been reported to increase alertness and restlessness in lab tests involving mice. Limonene is found in larger quantities in Chem, OG and Sour Diesel strains.

Alpha-Pinene and Beta-Pinene

These are the two chemical structures of pinene found in nature. Pinene is used medically in expectorants and topical antiseptics. Like limonene, pinene also easily crosses the blood-brain barrier, where it helps block chemical activity that normally destroys information-transfer molecules, thus facilitating better memory and leading to suggestions that pinene might have an application in the clinical treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. Pinene is also a known bronchodilator, allowing for larger inhalations, which can help those with asthma.

Linalool

Linalool is a component of several sedating essential oils, including lavender oil, which is believed to possess antianxiety and sedative properties. In clinical tests on humans who inhaled linalool, the terpene caused severe sedation. In similar tests on lab rats, it reduced the rodents’ motility by nearly 75 percent.

While linalool’s synergistic effects alongside cannabinoids are still being investigated, the hope is that linalool might help in the treatment of several types of cancer due to its effective medicinal properties. It is also a well-known antidepressant, as it amplifies serotonin-receptor transmission. In addition to being a compound that can mediate stress, linalool is also a strong anticonvulsant and may be particularly beneficial for topical applications, specifically healing acne and skin burns without scarring.

In the End

We now know that there are many chemical compounds in marijuana, including cannabinoids, terpenes and flavonoids. Most of these compounds carry with them specific medicinal attributes, often combining with each other to create a holistic “entourage effect” such that the medicinal impact of the entire plant is actually greater than the sum of its parts.

Dr. Russo’s research indicates that cannabinoid-terpenoid interactions “could produce synergy with respect to treatment of pain, inflammation, depression, anxiety, addiction, epilepsy, cancer, fungal, and bacterial infections.” Additionally, we know that terpenes, just like cannabinoids such as CBD, can buffer THC’s psychoactive effects. Conversely, we also know that certain terpenes can aid or strengthen the effects of THC. The questions now are: What exactly are the combined effects that we want to create and elicit from this plant? How do we want to create and administer these medicinal compounds? And, most importantly, when will our federal government wake up to this news and end cannabis prohibition so that research like Dr. Russo’s and Dr. Mechoulam’s can be conducted at universities and research institutes within our own country’s borders?

The science is there and much has been proven. We have won many battles, but the war will not end until the ignorance and stubbornness abates. It appears we still have a long way to go. It’s time to raise the stakes once again, and science is our biggest ally.

This feature has been published in High Times magazine. Subscribe right here.

TO READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE ON HIGH TIMES, CLICK HERE.

https://hightimes.com/health/science/the-truth-about-terps/

[supplementhoundblog]

10 Best Schisandra Supplements – Reviewed & Ranked for 2017

Last Updated: Tuesday, May 16, 2017

If you’re looking for the best schisandra supplements to buy this year, then you’ve come to the right place. 

You can also get more info by jumping to our Schisandra Supplements Guide.

Top 10 Schisandra Supplements

#1 Oregon’s Wild Harvest Schisandra More Info #2 Vital Nutrients – Schisandra Extract More Info #3 Starwest Botanicals Organic Schisandra Berry Powder More Info #4 Nature’s Answer Alcohol-Free Schisandra Berry More Info #5 Paradise Herbs Schisandra More Info #6 Bulksupplements Pure Schisandra Powder More Info #7 Planetary Herbals Schisandra Adrenal Complex More Info #8 Herb Pharm Certified Organic Schisandra Berry Extract More Info #9 Barlowe’s Herbal Elixirs Schisandra Berry Extract More Info #10 HawaiiPharm Schisandra Alcohol-FREE Liquid Extract More Info

Schisandra Supplements Guide

Schisandra (also spelled schizandra) is a fruit-bearing plant used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It grows as a woody, creeping vine that flowers and gives grape-like clusters of small, red berries.

The scientific names of the plant are Schisandra chinensis and Schisandra sphenanthera. In TCM the two closely-related vine species are informally called “north” and “south.” Fruit from the schisandra plant is edible. The plant is native to China, Russia, Japan, and Korea. It is related to the magnolia vine that grows in the southeastern United States.

In TCM, schisandra has traditionally been prescribed to help combat mental stress as well as a wide range of physical ailments. Modern medical studies of TCM practices have suggested that patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome may be helped by a combination of schisandra with dan shen (an herb whose root is used in TCM), bupleurum (a type of woody shrub), ginger, and wormwood. A traditional Japanese herbal formulation called sho-seiryu-to that also contains schisandra has been shown to help people with hay fever.

What is a Schisandra Supplement?

Schisandra plants and their fruits have a variety of common names, including Chinese magnolia vine fruit, five flavor berry, gomishi, ngu mie gee, omicha, and wu wei zi. In complementary and alternative medicine and TCM, schisandra has been used for treating the following conditions:

Asthma

Cough

Depression

Diarrhea

Dysentery

Erectile dysfunction

Excessive sweating

Excessive urination

Exhaustion

Hepatitis

High blood pressure

High blood sugar

High cholesterol

Indigestion

Irritability

Liver problems

Lung problems

Memory loss

Nerve pain

Night sweats

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS)

Sleep problems

To increase strength and stamina

The TCM remedy for coughs involves taking the schisandra supplement together with poppy seeds, rolling it in honey, and forming the mixture into a pill. Many of these traditional and complementary medicine uses have not been able to be supported by medical research done through clinical trials.

Benefits of Schisandra Supplements

Animals studies have shown that schisandra supplements have some effect in protecting the liver against toxins, helping the body recover from a certain kind of heart attack called myocardial infarction, increasing endurance, stimulating the metabolism, reducing blood sugar, and protecting cognitive functions.

More research must be done to determine if any of these effects are transferable from animal studies to humans. It’s thought that schisandra supplements help the liver regenerate new cells by stimulating certain liver enzymes, and that in this way, the supplements can help the body heal from liver damage and disease.

Effects on Liver Disease

Only a small number of trials using human subjects have been performed using schisandra supplements. They suggest there may be a benefit to patients with chronic hepatitis who take schisandra supplements along with other antioxidants taken by mouth. Schisandra supplements seem to lower the levels of glutamic-pyruvic transaminase (SGPT) in hepatitis patients, an indicator that liver damage is being repaired. Other clinical trials have suggested that a combination of schisandra supplements with a supplement called sesamin may improve the symptoms of fatty liver disease.

Recipients of liver transplants have reported that schisandra supplements help treat the symptoms of diarrhea that occurs as a side effect of immunosuppressive medication that they have to take post-transplant. This is anecdotal evidence and needs to be investigated further by systematic scientific review.

Mental and Other Effects

A small amount of evidence also suggests that schisandra supplements, used in combination with Siberian ginseng and rhodiola supplements, may have a positive effect on mental performance. Attention, concentration, and speed of thinking all improved after study participants took the supplement containing schisandra. The schisandra, Siberian ginseng, and rhodiola supplements also improved the quality of life of patients with pneumonia.

Schmisandra supplements taken orally also seem to have some effect on exercise performance and endurance. Although more research is needed, early research suggests the supplement may increase endurance and coordination. Further, children with nearsightedness that was non-progressive showed an improvement in their eyesight after being given a schisandra solution every day for 20 to 24 days.

The schmisandra fruit contains antioxidants. Antioxidants help to neutralize the effects of free radicals, molecules that can cause changes in the body that lead to genetic damage and certain types of cancers. These compounds can also help protect against heart disease.

Further research is needed in this area, but at least one study has suggested that schisandra berry extracts may help inhibit the HIV virus from reproducing itself. Specifically, it may help stop the spread of a particular protein made by the HIV-1 virus that has proven resistant to certain HIV drugs that are designed to combat the virus in the human body. Researchers need to study this effect further to see if schisandra can help drug manufacturers overcome drug-resistant HIV infections.

Are There any Side Effects?

Schisandra supplements have been associated with very few side effects in humans and the plant is thought to have a very low level of toxicity in humans. It should be noted, however, that few clinical trials have been done with human subjects.

Minor side effects are said to include cold extremities, decreased appetite, heartburn, itching, skin rash, sleepiness, stomach pain, and stomach upset. People with peptic ulcers should not take schisandra supplements because of a risk of increased stomach acid.

Some authorities claim that people with epilepsy should not take schisandra supplements, although the reason is not entirely clear, but may have to do with the possibility of schisandra supplements affecting the central nervous system. For the same reason, people with high intracranial pressure should not use schisandra supplements. Possible drug interactions with schisandra supplements include warfarin, tacrolimus (an immunosuppressant drug given to transplant patients), P-glycoprotein substrates, and cytochrome P450 3A4 and 1A2 substrates.

Allergic reactions to schisandra supplements are rare, but have been reported. Symptoms of allergic reaction include chest pain, difficulty breathing, hives, itchy skin, swollen skin, and tightness in the chest or throat. Anyone experiencing these symptoms should treat this condition as a medical emergency and seek emergency medical attention immediately.

Pregnancy and Breast Feeding

Those who are pregnant should not use schisandra supplements. Schisandra supplements may cause uterine contractions, which could cause miscarriage. People who are breast feeding should not take schisandra supplements until more research has been done to show that they are safe for nursing mothers and infants who may consume their milk.

How to Take Schisandra Supplements

Schisandra supplements intended to be taken by mouth can be found as capsules and tablets. Those who wish to use schisandra supplements as complementary medicine for the treatment of chronic hepatitis should look for a supplement with a standardized lignan content of 20 mg, since lower concentrations may not be effective.

Extracts of schisandra can also be made into a tincture or a tea. From 5-15 grams of tea per day is a typical dosage, containing 500 mg to two grams of schisandra.

Users of schisandra supplements should adhere to the dosage recommended by the manufacturer. Higher than recommended doses of schisandra supplements have been associated with insomnia and restlessness. As with any dietary supplement, people who are thinking about taking schisandra supplements should consult with a health care provider before starting a supplement regimen.

What to Look for in a Good Schisandra Supplement

Herbal dietary supplements, unlike foods and medicines, are not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). To help them find supplements that have been tested for consistency and quality, consumers can look for a seal of approval from a third-party organization that have a track record of approving safe and effective supplements. ConsumerLab.com, NSF International, and U.S. Pharmacopeia are three bodies that lend their seals of approval to consumer herbal supplements sold in the United States.

The post 10 Best Schisandra Supplements – Reviewed & Ranked for 2017 appeared first on Supplement Hound - Supplement Reviews for 2017.

from Supplement Hound – Supplement Reviews for 2017 http://supplementhound.com/best-schisandra-supplements/

[huonperrenials]

Kata Tjuta – Valley of the Winds

Hi There,

The next day dawned bright and not a cloud in sight, a bit different from yesterdays weather at Uluru(see part 11).  Todays adventure was being held at Kata Tjuta aka the Olga’s.  Another amazing landform not far from Uluru with rich cultural attachments for the local people.

Kata Tjuta is Pitjantjatjara meaning ‘many heads’, clearly evident in the above photo how they got to that name!  More formally you would describe it as an imposing series of mounds and domes that rise out of the surrounding landscape to an astonishing height of 546 metres above the plane(or 1066 metres above sea level).  That’s a staggering 200 metres(roughly) taller than Uluru(Ayres Rock), yet I don’t think it is as well-known as Uluru.  I suppose the difference is you can’t climb Kata Tjuta whereas you can Uluru occasionally!  What is it with us white fella’s wanting to climb and stomp over everything anyway… I digress, there will be no more political leanings or thoughts from now on!  As is the case with Uluru, these rock formations are just the tip of a huge slab of conglomerate that may extend up to 6 kilometres underground.  What is conglomerate?  I will get to that later!

These two photos were taken from the dune viewing area where there were some interesting plants to check out as well, always a good thing.

This is the Broad leaf Parakeelya, Calandrinia balonensis, an annual or perennial growing to 30cm either way with a basal rosette of fleshy linear to lanceolate leaves up to 10 cm long and 1 cm wide.  A good indicator plant of recent good rain, if there’s a good number and they are of a good size-this indicates recent good rain as they grow rapidly during wet seasons and store water for the dry times.  It has a small purple poppy like flower on  tallish stems that dance around in the breeze, if there is one!

Also from the dune viewing platform, you can swivel 90 degrees to the right and this is what you see below.

The only other imposing rock that’s around here!  The tree’s you see in the distance are Desert Oak, Allocasuarina decaisneana , also look at the first two photos of this post, the majority are all Desert Oak, quite common across the spinifex grasslands.  Juvenile Desert Oak are quite different in appearance compared to mature examples.  More will be revealed about these trees in a future post! Now lets head off and have a look at this place.

Kata Tjuta is a Anangu mens site and sacred under traditional law, which means for us tourists there is no wandering off the pathways.  There are plenty of different walks here and lots to see, so as we meander along, please stay with me!  No wandering off!  Note in the above photo the puddle of water which is a byproduct of rain we had here the day before.  If you have read part 11 of this series you would realise this, but now we were enjoying the crisp sunshine, it is winter by the way!  A balmy 17 degrees Celsius!  You can see a bunch of people above, and to their left a green patch.  I will concentrate on that now, the patch that is.

Here’s that green patch.  Wanderrie grass , Eriachne scleranthoides , a very rare type of grass, see quote from Grasses of Australia, “Known from two localities in SW central Australia. Conglomerate monoliths (Mt Olga and Mt Currie) growing on crests, scree slopes, in chasms and crevices, in shallow sand, gravelly slopes or shallow stony red soil, sometimes in seepage from massive boulders. Flowers May (late-autumn) and Aug.-Oct. (late-winter to mid-spring)”.  Above we have a seepage area on a scree slope, which is where it likes to grow.

Quite a sharp prickly grass, looks more shrub like though doesn’t it!  Even closer below.

This is a problem I find, I get distracted by things off to the side of the pathway and lo and behold the next time I look up the family is gone!!  I’m sure I’ll catch them somewhere.

The remarkable thing about Kata Tjuta is that it’s composed of a different type of rock than what Uluru(made of sandstone) is which is only 50 kilometres away(by road, 32 as the crow flies).  Katu Tjuta is a conglomerate, a gravel consisting of pebbles, boulders and cobbles cemented by sand and mud.  Conglomerate is also a sedimentary type rock.  From a distance Kata Tjuta looks like the other big rock just around the corner, but up close its quite rough, see below photo.

Don’t know why, but I found this quite fascinating.  Here in the middle of no where, the only two objects that rise above the plain separated by a mere 50 kilometres are made of completely different rock.  I’m sure this happens everywhere, but I just found it fascinating..  Click HERE for more geology information on this rock formation.  If this was originally a huge slab of rock, how did it become domes and valleys?  This is likely to be mechanical erosion of sand from the rock and other chemical erosion caused by moisture.  The major Valley may have been fractured from the time of the Alice Springs Orogeny.  Chemical weathering due to ground water widened the fissures and rainwater run off gradually formed the domes and canyons we now see.

Now for some more wildflowers.  Look at that patch of Pussytails, Ptilotis.

Closer view here. This is actually Hairy Mulla Mulla, Ptilotus helipteroides .  The stems and leaves have a persistent covering of medium to dense hairs, giving it its common name.

It is an annual herb growing to about 50cm and usually occurs on rocky or gravelly ranges, hills or rises and on acidic rock and also found in Mulga dominated red plains and other locations.

Flowering from June until November, now for a real close-up!

We were heading to the Valley of the Winds and eventually the Karingana lookout, a return trip of 2.5 hours on a grade 4 – difficult track according to the visitor guide.  I think it was more in line with moderate track!  Here we are well into the Valley of the Winds and yes it was slightly breezy here!

It’s at this point in the above photo that if the temperature is over 36 deg Celsius at 11am, the track is closed.  This is the Karu Lookout, impressive to say the last.  Those mounds in the distance look like a flight of stairs, sort of!

As you can see it is quite rocky here.

Nothing amazing with the above photo, just showing more rock and more conglomerate, you can also see water seeping out from under that large slab.  Below is a swathe of Hairy Mulla Mulla, quite impressive to see it like this in its natural environment.

Again not a great photo but it just shows a lovely natural garden bed with no human influence!  I read something recently which I hadn’t really thought of before and that was someone’s thought on grouping colours in the garden as we do, pastels here, bright hot colours over there and so on.  The thought was (not exactly in these words)”Nature doesn’t separate plants into colour groupings, so I’m not going too.  There is just a riot of colour throughout my garden”.  I really liked that and it may just become my new mantra.  Not sure what the old mantra was!!

Lovely clear stream!

These plants I have no idea at the moment what they are, they are a work in progress.

Pretty, never the less!

In the above photo we are nearing the Karingana Lookout.  You can see it in the distance, the high part in between the two walls.  The walls of the domes just seemed to rise and rise into the bright noon day sun.Well!  We made it, what an amazing panorama greeted us!

Time to sit down for a quick bite to eat.  The 3 oldest boys decided they would keep going on the circuit walk and us oldies along with our youngest lad turned back here.  Here they are heading off at breakneck speed as per normal!

Below is another beautiful spot to recharge your batteries!

Heading back to Karu Lookout.  Below we have another Pussytail, Ptilotus exaltus , also known as Tall Mulla Mulla.

Grows to about 1.5 metres tall forming large showy drifts in open scrub and mulga country.  The flowers start off cone shape then eventually lengthen to be elongated and cylindrical 3-20cm in length and 4.5cm in diameter.  Compare the above two photos.  The leaves are quite thick and rubbery looking,  flowering from early spring until summer.  Widespread across all mainland states.  Here’s a small drift of them below.

Simply gorgeous!

Below is another plant that has featured in quite a few of these Northern Territory posts.  Solanum quadriloculatum

Another plant we saw was , Hakea subarea . This small tree also made an appearance at Ormiston Gorge.  Click HERE if you can’t remember!

Here’s a beautiful Eremophila as well.  Quite possibly Eremophila latrobei .

Some walls for perspective!  Note the little pocket of green three-quarters of the way up.  Plants Hey!  Amazing.

More tall walls, this one below includes small people, well not small people, just normal ones!

This is a small person one though!

He’s also carrying a firearm( a gun I was told!).

Here are some more flowering meadows(for want of a better word) which were good to see.

Oops! forgot about this little fellow. sorry!

This plant below is Cattle bush or Camel bush.  Yet again you see the need for scientific names!!  Two common names for the same plant, not confusing at all!  It is actually Trichodesma zeylanicum .  A perennial plant growing to 1 metre occurring on rocky hills and sand dunes, stony alluvial soils or areas subjected to seasonal flooding, flowering in winter and spring.

It was originally eaten by camels in the outback, hence one of its common names.  One presumes then that cattle also ate or still eat it!  Summer forage option!  Here’s a few more random plant photos!

More stunning scenery!

Here’s one last plant I noticed when we had nearly finished the Valley of the Winds Circuit walk.  I walked right past this on the way in!  Go figure.

Obviously a Brachyscome of some description, beautiful anyway.

A nice sculpture below.  The dead tree that is.

Now we are nearly back to the start of this circuit walk.  We did another small walk after this one but I will cover that next time round, i.e. part 12b!  To finish off, I have added the below photos sans words as a parting gesture to the Valley of the Winds at Kata Tjuta.  They speak for themselves!

Cheers!

A trip to the Northern Territory. Part 12a. Kata Tjuta - Valley of the Winds Hi There, The next day dawned bright and not a cloud in sight, a bit different from yesterdays weather at Uluru(see part 11). 

[readbookywooks]

At nine o’clock the next morning his servant came in with a cup of chocolate on a tray, and opened the shutters. Dorian was sleeping quite peacefully, lying on his right side, with one hand underneath his cheek. He looked like a boy who had been tired out with play, or study.

The man had to touch him twice on the shoulder before he woke, and as he opened his eyes a faint smile passed across his lips, as though he had been having some delightful dream. Yet he had not dreamed at all. His night had been untroubled by any images of pleasure or of pain. But youth smiles without any reason. It is one of its chiefest charms.

He turned round, and, leaning on his elbow, began to drink his chocolate. The mellow November sun was streaming into the room. The sky was bright blue, and there was a genial warmth in the air. It was almost like a morning in May.

Gradually the events of the preceding night crept with silent blood- stained feet into his brain, and reconstructed themselves there with terrible distinctness. He winced at the memory of all that he had suffered, and for a moment the same curious feeling of loathing for Basil Hallward, that had made him kill him as he sat in the chair, came back to him, and he grew cold with passion. The dead man was still sitting there, too, and in the sunlight now. How horrible that was! Such hideous things were for the darkness, not for the day.

He felt that if he brooded on what he had gone through he would sicken or grow mad. There were sins whose fascination was more in the memory than in the doing of them, strange triumphs that gratified the pride more than the passions, and gave to the intellect a quickened sense of joy, greater than any joy they brought, or could ever bring, to the senses. But this was not one of them. It was a thing to be driven out of the mind, to be drugged with poppies, to be strangled lest it might strangle one itself.

He passed his hand across his forehead, and then got up hastily, and dressed himself with even more than his usual attention, giving a good deal of care to the selection of his necktie and scarf-pin, and changing his rings more than once.

He spent a long time over breakfast, tasting the various dishes, talking to his valet about some new liveries that he was thinking of [87] getting made for the servants at Selby, and going through his correspondence. Over some of the letters he smiled. Three of them bored him. One he read several times over, and then tore up with a slight look of annoyance in his face. “That awful thing, a woman’s memory!” as Lord Henry had once said.

When he had drunk his coffee, he sat down at the table, and wrote two letters. One he put in his pocket, the other he handed to the valet.

“Take this round to 152, Hertford Street, Francis, and if Mr. Campbell is out of town, get his address.”

As soon as he was alone, he lit a cigarette, and began sketching upon a piece of paper, drawing flowers, and bits of architecture, first, and then faces. Suddenly he remarked that every face that he drew seemed to have an extraordinary likeness to Basil Hallward. He frowned, and, getting up, went over to the bookcase and took out a volume at hazard. He was determined that he would not think about what had happened, till it became absolutely necessary to do so.

When he had stretched himself on the sofa, he looked at the title- page of the book. It was Gautier’s “Emaux et Camées,” Charpentier’s Japanese-paper edition, with the Jacquemart etching. The binding was of citron-green leather with a design of gilt trellis-work and dotted pomegranates. It had been given to him by Adrian Singleton. As he turned over the pages his eye fell on the poem about the hand of Lacenaire, the cold yellow hand “du supplice encore mal lavée,” with its downy red hairs and its “doigts de faune.” He glanced at his own white taper fingers, and passed on, till he came to those lovely verses upon Venice:

    Sur une gamme chromatique,        Le sein de perles ruisselant,     La Vénus de l’Adriatique        Sort de l’eau son corps rose et blanc.     Les dômes, sur l’azur des ondes        Suivant la phrase au pur contour,     S’enflent comme des gorges rondes        Que soulève un soupir d’amour.     L’esquif aborde et me dépose,        Jetant son amarre au pilier,     Devant une façade rose,        Sur le marbre d’un escalier.

How exquisite they were! As one read them, one seemed to be floating down the green water-ways of the pink and pearl city, lying in a black gondola with silver prow and trailing curtains. The mere lines looked to him like those straight lines of turquoise-blue that follow one as one pushes out to the Lido. The sudden flashes of color reminded him of the gleam of the opal-and-iris-throated birds that flutter round the tall honey-combed Campanile, or stalk, with such stately grace, through the dim arcades. Leaning back with half- closed eyes, he kept saying over and over to himself,–

    Devant une façade rose,     Sur le marbre d’un escalier.

[88] The whole of Venice was in those two lines. He remembered the autumn that he had passed there, and a wonderful love that had stirred him to delightful fantastic follies. There was romance in every place. But Venice, like Oxford, had kept the background for romance, and background was everything, or almost everything. Basil had been with him part of the time, and had gone wild over Tintoret. Poor Basil! what a horrible way for a man to die!

He sighed, and took up the book again, and tried to forget. He read of the swallows that fly in and out of the little café at Smyrna where the Hadjis sit counting their amber beads and the turbaned merchants smoke their long tasselled pipes and talk gravely to each other; of the Obelisk in the Place de la Concorde that weeps tears of granite in its lonely sunless exile, and longs to be back by the hot lotus-covered Nile, where there are Sphinxes, and rose-red ibises, and white vultures with gilded claws, and crocodiles, with small beryl eyes, that crawl over the green steaming mud; and of that curious statue that Gautier compares to a contralto voice, the “monstre charmant” that couches in the porphyry-room of the Louvre. But after a time the book fell from his hand. He grew nervous, and a horrible fit of terror came over him. What if Alan Campbell should be out of England? Days would elapse before he could come back. Perhaps he might refuse to come. What could he do then? Every moment was of vital importance.

They had been great friends once, five years before,–almost inseparable, indeed. Then the intimacy had come suddenly to an end. When they met in society now, it was only Dorian Gray who smiled: Alan Campbell never did.

He was an extremely clever young man, though he had no real appreciation of the visible arts, and whatever little sense of the beauty of poetry he possessed he had gained entirely from Dorian. His dominant intellectual passion was for science. At Cambridge he had spent a great deal of his time working in the Laboratory, and had taken a good class in the Natural Science tripos of his year. Indeed, he was still devoted to the study of chemistry, and had a laboratory of his own, in which he used to shut himself up all day long, greatly to the annoyance of his mother, who had set her heart on his standing for Parliament and had a vague idea that a chemist was a person who made up prescriptions. He was an excellent musician, however, as well, and played both the violin and the piano better than most amateurs. In fact, it was music that had first brought him and Dorian Gray together,–music and that indefinable attraction that Dorian seemed to be able to exercise whenever he wished, and indeed exercised often without being conscious of it. They had met at Lady Berkshire’s the night that Rubinstein played there, and after that used to be always seen together at the Opera, and wherever good music was going on. For eighteen months their intimacy lasted. Campbell was always either at Selby Royal or in Grosvenor Square. To him, as to many others, Dorian Gray was the type of everything that is wonderful and fascinating in life. Whether or not a quarrel had taken place between them no one ever knew. But suddenly people remarked that they scarcely spoke when [89] they met, and that Campbell seemed always to go away early from any party at which Dorian Gray was present. He had changed, too,– was strangely melancholy at times, appeared almost to dislike hearing music of any passionate character, and would never himself play, giving as his excuse, when he was called upon, that he was so absorbed in science that he had no time left in which to practise. And this was certainly true. Every day he seemed to become more interested in biology, and his name appeared once or twice in some of the scientific reviews, in connection with certain curious experiments.

This was the man that Dorian Gray was waiting for, pacing up and down the room, glancing every moment at the clock, and becoming horribly agitated as the minutes went by. At last the door opened, and his servant entered.

“Mr. Alan Campbell, sir.”

A sigh of relief broke from his parched lips, and the color came back to his cheeks.

“Ask him to come in at once, Francis.”

The man bowed, and retired. In a few moments Alan Campbell walked in, looking very stern and rather pale, his pallor being intensified by his coal-black hair and dark eyebrows.

“Alan! this is kind of you. I thank you for coming.”

“I had intended never to enter your house again, Gray. But you said it was a matter of life and death.” His voice was hard and cold. He spoke with slow deliberation. There was a look of contempt in the steady searching gaze that he turned on Dorian. He kept his hands in the pockets of his Astrakhan coat, and appeared not to have noticed the gesture with which he had been greeted.

“It is a matter of life and death, Alan, and to more than one person. Sit down.”

Campbell took a chair by the table, and Dorian sat opposite to him. The two men’s eyes met. In Dorian’s there was infinite pity. He knew that what he was going to do was dreadful.

After a strained moment of silence, he leaned across and said, very quietly, but watching the effect of each word upon the face of the man he had sent for, “Alan, in a locked room at the top of this house, a room to which nobody but myself has access, a dead man is seated at a table. He has been dead ten hours now. Don’t stir, and don’t look at me like that. Who the man is, why he died, how he died, are matters that do not concern you. What you have to do is this–”

“Stop, Gray. I don’t want to know anything further. Whether what you have told me is true or not true, doesn’t concern me. I entirely decline to be mixed up in your life. Keep your horrible secrets to yourself. They don’t interest me any more.”

“Alan, they will have to interest you. This one will have to interest you. I am awfully sorry for you, Alan. But I can’t help myself. You are the one man who is able to save me. I am forced to bring you into the matter. I have no option. Alan, you are a scientist. You know about chemistry, and things of that kind. You have made experiments. What you have got to do is to destroy the [90] thing that is up-stairs,–to destroy it so that not a vestige will be left of it. Nobody saw this person come into the house. Indeed, at the present moment he is supposed to be in Paris. He will not be missed for months. When he is missed, there must be no trace of him found here. You, Alan, you must change him, and everything that belongs to him, into a handful of ashes that I may scatter in the air.”

“You are mad, Dorian.”

“Ah! I was waiting for you to call me Dorian.”

“You are mad, I tell you,–mad to imagine that I would raise a finger to help you, mad to make this monstrous confession. I will have nothing to do with this matter, whatever it is. Do you think I am going to peril my reputation for you? What is it to me what devil’s work you are up to?”

“It was a suicide, Alan.”

“I am glad of that. But who drove him to it? You, I should fancy.”

“Do you still refuse to do this, for me?”

“Of course I refuse. I will have absolutely nothing to do with it. I don’t care what shame comes on you. You deserve it all. I should not be sorry to see you disgraced, publicly disgraced. How dare you ask me, of all men in the world, to mix myself up in this horror? I should have thought you knew more about people’s characters. Your friend Lord Henry Wotton can’t have taught you much about psychology, whatever else he has taught you. Nothing will induce me to stir a step to help you. You have come to the wrong man. Go to some of your friends. Don’t come to me.”

“Alan, it was murder. I killed him. You don’t know what he had made me suffer. Whatever my life is, he had more to do with the making or the marring of it than poor Harry has had. He may not have intended it, the result was the same.”

“Murder! Good God, Dorian, is that what you have come to? I shall not inform upon you. It is not my business. Besides, you are certain to be arrested, without my stirring in the matter. Nobody ever commits a murder without doing something stupid. But I will have nothing to do with it.”

“All I ask of you is to perform a certain scientific experiment. You go to hospitals and dead-houses, and the horrors that you do there don’t affect you. If in some hideous dissecting-room or fetid laboratory you found this man lying on a leaden table with red gutters scooped out in it, you would simply look upon him as an admirable subject. You would not turn a hair. You would not believe that you were doing anything wrong. On the contrary, you would probably feel that you were benefiting the human race, or increasing the sum of knowledge in the world, or gratifying intellectual curiosity, or something of that kind. What I want you to do is simply what you have often done before. Indeed, to destroy a body must be less horrible than what you are accustomed to work at. And, remember, it is the only piece of evidence against me. If it is discovered, I am lost; and it is sure to be discovered unless you help me.”

[91] “I have no desire to help you. You forget that. I am simply indifferent to the whole thing. It has nothing to do with me.”

“Alan, I entreat you. Think of the position I am in. Just before you came I almost fainted with terror. No! don’t think of that. Look at the matter purely from the scientific point of view. You don’t inquire where the dead things on which you experiment come from. Don’t inquire now. I have told you too much as it is. But I beg of you to do this. We were friends once, Alan.”

“Don’t speak about those days, Dorian: they are dead.”

“The dead linger sometimes. The man up-stairs will not go away. He is sitting at the table with bowed head and outstretched arms. Alan! Alan! if you don’t come to my assistance I am ruined. Why, they will hang me, Alan! Don’t you understand? They will hang me for what I have done.”

“There is no good in prolonging this scene. I refuse absolutely to do anything in the matter. It is insane of you to ask me.”

“You refuse absolutely?”

“Yes.”

The same look of pity came into Dorian’s eyes, then he stretched out his hand, took a piece of paper, and wrote something on it. He read it over twice, folded it carefully, and pushed it across the table. Having done this, he got up, and went over to the window.

Campbell looked at him in surprise, and then took up the paper, and opened it. As he read it, his face became ghastly pale, and he fell back in his chair. A horrible sense of sickness came over him. He felt as if his heart was beating itself to death in some empty hollow.

After two or three minutes of terrible silence, Dorian turned round, and came and stood behind him, putting his hand upon his shoulder.

“I am so sorry, Alan,” he murmured, “but you leave me no alternative. I have a letter written already. Here it is. You see the address. If you don’t help me, I must send it. You know what the result will be. But you are going to help me. It is impossible for you to refuse now. I tried to spare you. You will do me the justice to admit that. You were stern, harsh, offensive. You treated me as no man has ever dared to treat me,–no living man, at any rate. I bore it all. Now it is for me to dictate terms.”

Campbell buried his face in his hands, and a shudder passed through him.

“Yes, it is my turn to dictate terms, Alan. You know what they are. The thing is quite simple. Come, don’t work yourself into this fever. The thing has to be done. Face it, and do it.”

A groan broke from Campbell’s lips, and he shivered all over. The ticking of the clock on the mantel-piece seemed to him to be dividing time into separate atoms of agony, each of which was too terrible to be borne. He felt as if an iron ring was being slowly tightened round his forehead, and as if the disgrace with which he was threatened had already come upon him. The hand upon his shoulder weighed like a hand of lead. It was intolerable. It seemed to crush him.

“Come, Alan, you must decide at once.”

[92] He hesitated a moment. “Is there a fire in the room up-stairs?" he murmured.

“Yes, there is a gas-fire with asbestos.”

“I will have to go home and get some things from the laboratory.”

“No, Alan, you need not leave the house. Write on a sheet of note- paper what you want, and my servant will take a cab and bring the things back to you.”

Campbell wrote a few lines, blotted them, and addressed an envelope to his assistant. Dorian took the note up and read it carefully. Then he rang the bell, and gave it to his valet, with orders to return as soon as possible, and to bring the things with him.

When the hall door shut, Campbell started, and, having got up from the chair, went over to the chimney-piece. He was shivering with a sort of ague. For nearly twenty minutes, neither of the men spoke. A fly buzzed noisily about the room, and the ticking of the clock was like the beat of a hammer.

As the chime struck one, Campbell turned around, and, looking at Dorian Gray, saw that his eyes were filled with tears. There was something in the purity and refinement of that sad face that seemed to enrage him. “You are infamous, absolutely infamous!” he muttered.

“Hush, Alan: you have saved my life,” said Dorian.

“Your life? Good heavens! what a life that is! You have gone from corruption to corruption, and now you have culminated in crime. In doing what I am going to do, what you force me to do, it is not of your life that I am thinking.”

“Ah, Alan,” murmured Dorian, with a sigh, “I wish you had a thousandth part of the pity for me that I have for you.” He turned away, as he spoke, and stood looking out at the garden. Campbell made no answer.

After about ten minutes a knock came to the door, and the servant entered, carrying a mahogany chest of chemicals, with a small electric battery set on top of it. He placed it on the table, and went out again, returning with a long coil of steel and platinum wire and two rather curiously-shaped iron clamps.

“Shall I leave the things here, sir?” he asked Campbell.

“Yes,” said Dorian. “And I am afraid, Francis, that I have another errand for you. What is the name of the man at Richmond who supplies Selby with orchids?”

“Harden, sir.”

“Yes,–Harden. You must go down to Richmond at once, see Harden personally, and tell him to send twice as many orchids as I ordered, and to have as few white ones as possible. In fact, I don’t want any white ones. It is a lovely day, Francis, and Richmond is a very pretty place, otherwise I wouldn’t bother you about it.”

“No trouble, sir. At what time shall I be back?”

Dorian looked at Campbell. “How long will your experiment take, Alan?” he said, in a calm, indifferent voice. The presence of a third person in the room seemed to give him extraordinary courage.

Campbell frowned, and bit his lip. “It will take about five hours," he answered.

[93] “It will be time enough, then, if you are back at half-past seven, Francis. Or stay: just leave my things out for dressing. You can have the evening to yourself. I am not dining at home, so I shall not want you.”

“Thank you, sir,” said the man, leaving the room.

“Now, Alan, there is not a moment to be lost. How heavy this chest is! I’ll take it for you. You bring the other things.” He spoke rapidly, and in an authoritative manner. Campbell felt dominated by him. They left the room together.

When they reached the top landing, Dorian took out the key and turned it in the lock. Then he stopped, and a troubled look came into his eyes. He shuddered. “I don’t think I can go in, Alan,” he murmured.

“It is nothing to me. I don’t require you,” said Campbell, coldly.

Dorian half opened the door. As he did so, he saw the face of the portrait grinning in the sunlight. On the floor in front of it the torn curtain was lying. He remembered that the night before, for the first time in his life, he had forgotten to hide it, when he crept out of the room.

But what was that loathsome red dew that gleamed, wet and glistening, on one of the hands, as though the canvas had sweated blood? How horrible it was!–more horrible, it seemed to him for the moment, than the silent thing that he knew was stretched across the table, the thing whose grotesque misshapen shadow on the spotted carpet showed him that it had not stirred, but was still there, as he had left it.

He opened the door a little wider, and walked quickly in, with half- closed eyes and averted head, determined that he would not look even once upon the dead man. Then, stooping down, and taking up the gold- and-purple hanging, he flung it over the picture.

He stopped, feeling afraid to turn round, and his eyes fixed themselves on the intricacies of the pattern before him. He heard Campbell bringing in the heavy chest, and the irons, and the other things that he had required for his dreadful work. He began to wonder if he and Basil Hallward had ever met, and, if so, what they had thought of each other.

“Leave me now,” said Campbell.

He turned and hurried out, just conscious that the dead man had been thrust back into the chair and was sitting up in it, with Campbell gazing into the glistening yellow face. As he was going downstairs he heard the key being turned in the lock.

It was long after seven o’clock when Campbell came back into the library. He was pale, but absolutely calm. “I have done what you asked me to do,” he muttered. “And now, good-by. Let us never see each other again.”

“You have saved me from ruin, Alan. I cannot forget that,” said Dorian, simply.

As soon as Campbell had left, he went up-stairs. There was a horrible smell of chemicals in the room. But the thing that had been sitting at the table was gone.