Prime Thyme Mysteries 3

Thank you, Karen, for hosting me today! This blog tour celebrates the launch of Nightshade, the sixteenth China Bayles mystery. China (for those who haven’t yet been introduced to this mystery series) is a former criminal defense attorney who has opted for a quieter life as the owner of an herb shop in Pecan Springs TX. Each book in the series includes a signature herb that has something to do with the story, the characters, and or/the themes of the book. In this post, I’ll be telling you something about the herbs in Books 7, 8, and 9. (For posts on other books, check out the tour calendar.)
Chile Death

In China’s seventh mystery, Pecan Springs is rattled by the news that somebody has put peanuts into an entry in the chili cookoff. Peanuts in Texas chili? All by itself, that’s a crime (Texans never put peanuts in chili)—but it gets worse when a cookoff judge dies. Was it a culinary error (bad enough) or premeditated murder (worse)? The investigation takes China into a couple of hot spots and nearly costs her life. But the good news is that lover Mike McQuaid (shot in the previous book) is on the mend. Are those wedding bells we hear, or the crackle of chiles roasting over an open flame?
The signature herb? Chiles, of course! Chile peppers are not only super in your salsa, but good for what ails you: poor circulation, headaches, stomach distress, and ulcers, maybe even as an alternative to Viagra. (Chiles have long had a reputation as an aphrodisiac.) While the heat of capsaicin (the chief chemical compound in this herb) can burn, it also takes the pain out of shingles, rheumatism, and arthritis.
There’s lots more about this hot herb—a member of the nightshade family—at Wikipedia. If you’d like to try one of China’s favorite chile recipes, add some jalepeno peppers to cornbread. Or put some chile powder in your hot chocolate for an exotic (and seductive) drink.
Lavender Lies

I always think of this book as the “wedding” book—although between a murder investigation (a local real estate broker is shot to death in his garage) and a surprise guest named Hurricane Josephine, China’s wedding almost doesn’t happen. But it does, and of course it’s an herbal wedding, with rosemary for remembrance, thyme for courage, sage for long life and happiness, and lavender for devotion.

If you’re devoted to lavender, you're not alone. The clean, refreshing scent of its delicate flowers was cherished by the Egyptians (who used it, with other herbs and spices, to make mummies), the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Romans (who called it lavender, from their verb lavere, to wash), and by gardeners everywhere. Lavender is used to scent soaps, cosmetics, potpourris, and sachets. You can also use it in your bath, or put a few drops of essential oil on your hair brush. To help you sleep, put a few drops on your pillow. You can even use lavender flowers to flavor cookies and cakes, make tangy vinegars and punches, and brew fragrant teas.
For recipes from China’s and Ruby’s tea room (newly-opened in Lavender Lies) and ideas for a lavender tea party of your own, check out this page. And for a very good review of lavender’s medicinal properties, read this article from the University of Maryland.
Mistletoe Man

It's Christmas, and China has opened her home for the annual Pecan Springs Holiday Home Tour. But she's also worrying about her friend and partner Ruby Wilcox, who hasn't been herself lately. To further complicate matters, China has to round up a supply of mistletoe, the season's most popular herb. It seems an easy enough task—until her chief mistletoe supplier turns up dead.

Mistletoe is rich in lore, mostly due to the unusual growth habit of this parasitic herb. (In fact, some linguists trace its name to the Old English word mistil, meaning different.) Mistletoe grows on host trees, from seeds planted in the bark by the birds who feast on the white berries that ripen during the winter. The plant has been a part of Yule or winter solstice celebrations since the Druids, and the "kiss of peace" that was once exchanged under this plant by warring North Country clans has now evolved into the Christmas kiss. In folk cultures, mistletoe has been used to enhance fertility and to treat epilepsy; medicinally, European mistletoe is used as a sedative and to slow a rapid heartbeat. Recent research suggests that it may also slow the growth of cancerous tumors, and it is employed in Germany to supplement chemotherapy. Mistletoe is not a culinary herb, but the berries are not deadly, as is popularly believed. Please note that European and American mistletoe are not the same species. Many traditions link the two, but they are very different.
For a serious discussion of mistletoe’s medicinal properties, go here. For a more general overview of the plant (and another view of its cancer-curing properties), check out this page.
Readers often tell me that they enjoy learning about herbs while they are entertained by the story. But I have to say that China Bayles has taught me so much about herbs. For instance, I don’t think I would ever have taken the time to explore the herb mistletoe, if China’s supplier hadn’t gone and gotten himself killed!
Thanks again, Karen, for hosting me here at Rurality. And thanks to all you folks who are trekking through cyberspace with me on this blog tour. I appreciate your notes and comments—I’ll be gone for a couple of days this week, but I’ll be dropping in again when I get back.
About the book drawing and Susan’s blog tour

If you’d like to enter the drawing for a copy of Nightshade go here to register. But do it now, before you forget. The drawing for Rurality closes at noon on April 4, ...
Want to read the other posts in Susan’s blog tour? You’ll find a calendar and links here.

Signs of Change

Leaves reminding us of North America's steady march towards winter.

Foam Pool at Manido Falls

Here is another shot from Manido Falls on the Presque Isle River that I've been anxious to share. This is a 6 second exposure that shows the movement of foam below the falls. I loved this little pool on the side of the river because the foam was moving in slow circles which made for an intriguing long-exposure image. I sure wish I lived closer to this river, as it is an amazing one to photograph!

McAllister Park

First off, happy birthday to my sister, Jan. I hope you enjoyed your day today and partied with friends. I look forward to spending time with you in September.

This morning, San Antonio Hill Country Hikers meet-up group met at 7:45 a.m. for a hike at McAllister Park. The early birds were there at 7 a.m. to do yoga warm-up moves before we set out on the trail.

At 7:45 exactly, Paul led us on another trail adventure, faking us out from time to time and taking us around in circles. No disrespect, we love you, Paul. You make the group fun.

McAllister Park is 976 acres with 15 miles of trails on the north side of San Antonio, not too far from the International Airport. Today we hiked seven miles of trails, mainly on the Red and Blue Loops (I think). If you asked me to lead a group of people on the same hike we did, I would be bamboozled as to where, exactly, we went. I'm glad Paul knew where we were going! We didn't get lost in the urban wilderness.

Here are a few photos of our hike.

Paul caught us looking dazed and confused at the beginning.

Now we've got rhythm and someone to follow.

We didn't see any bunnies. : (

Virgin's bower clematis

Snapdragon vine (Maurandya antirrhiniflora)

The hiking train keeps on rollin' down the track.

I ran ahead to get a photo from the front and they all had to ham it up.

Paul, our leader, wins for the best model pose.

Lots of deer in this park!

Deer in the headlights look.

After seven miles of hiking, eight of us wanted to have breakfast, so we went to The Egg and I. It was a great group with lots of conversation and some really big pancakes!

Sandy

Ruby ordering.

Jessie with her hazelnut coffee and SmartPhone.

Paul with not one, but two, monster blueberry pancakes.

After the walk and a good breakfast, I went back to the 5er and slept for three hours. (I only had four hours of sleep Saturday night.)

This evening, Bob and I went to see "The Way, Way Back" movie with Steve Carrell and thoroughly enjoyed it. The story is a coming of age tale about a 14-year-old boy going on vacation with his mom, mom's boyfriend and the mom's boyfriend's teen-age daughter. They vacation at the shore and the boy is bored, mortified, and angst-ridden dealing with his mother's boyfriend and the interesting group of people vacationing at the beach. He goes to work at a water park where the owner takes him under his wing and helps him deal with being an awkward teen-ager in an awkward life situation. We both recommend this movie.

The short sale on our rental property in Las Vegas is finally going through after we put it on the market a year ago. Tomorrow we sign papers. One more property off our responsibility list; three rentals left in two western states. Luckily, they are all rented and have property managers. Things are looking up.

Travel Bug out.

It's A Blooming Mystery

Flowers bloom on their own time, a fact that seldom bothers me in my daily life as an Austin slacker. But now that I’ve become a Garden Blogger [note those capital letters!], I occasionally need blooms on my plants for a certain date – like last week's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day on May 15th. Nothing makes me drag my feet more than a direct order to hustle, and my garden behaves no less stubbornly. That must be why the Rose of Sharon refused to open one single bud for the 15th, but opened a dozen flowers on the 17th, instead. Should I call it the "Roses of Sharon" since this is more than one shrub in a clump?

There were buds on the Hemerocallis ‘Prairie Blue Eyes’ by the 15th, but none opened until today. It’s not a fancy daylily by today’s standards, but I’ve loved it for a decade, bringing it to Texas from Illinois.

We Garden Bloggers have another scheduled event coming up - the Garden Bloggers book club is due by the end of May. Writing about the book, Passalong Plants, is easy – heck, I’ve even met one of the authors - Felder Rushing - but it’s not so easy to get flowers to open on time. I absolutely need photos of some passalong plants from my own garden to use as illustrations for this post, but will they get their act together and bloom within the next 11 days?

There’s no schedule involved for this next group of plants – just a hope that one of these days they’ll flower for me –

The Pineapple Guava above should bloom in spring – my friend Diane’s shrub was covered in its oddly beautiful flowers just a couple of weeks ago – but this young plant had a rough winter and was frozen back before it had a chance to make any blossoms. The botanical name is Feijoa sellowiana, so it is not actually a guava. Although it would be interesting to taste the fruit, described as Pineapple mixed with strawberry, I’m more interested in seeing the flowers.
Since this pomegranate has leafed out and I like the way the leaves and branches look, is it greedy to want delectable orange flowers, too? I’ll give this young tree one more year in this spot, but if it doesn’t bloom next spring – it will be transplant time the following fall.

Next we have a pair of non-blooming plants. The amarcrinum at right may take a few years to settle in and I’m not worried about it at all… but that perfect weed of a Brugmansia? Angel Trumpets are supposed to love water, sun and organic fertilizer, growing so quickly that even when cut to the ground over winter, they bulk up and hang long, fragrant bells. This one has been treated like a queen for a couple of seasons, given everything it wants, and if it was labeled correctly, someday the bells will be yellow.
I’ll ignore these poky plants, and pay attention to the ones in flower now – a couple of daylilies, annual moss roses, and the last of the larkspur; yellow Achillea, white and gold lantanas and the "Roses" of Sharon; short annual violet Verbenas and tall Verbena bonariensis, a sea of Salvias, budding Cannas and a Butterfly bush in bloom. The view from the back door is just fine today.

NURSERY NEWS
Many of us were dismayed to find that Kimas Tejas Nursery, southeast of Austin in the Bastrop area, had closed its doors last fall. But it wasn’t permanent – I had this news via email from the nursery:
Kimas Tejas has reopened on a seasonal basis. For the months of March, April, May and June, Kimas Tejas will be open Wednesday through Saturday, closed Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
The nursery will be closed for the months of July and August, then will reopen for the fall planting season in September, October and November. Then close for December, January and February.
THE NAMESAKE
One of these days I’m going to buy the DVD of Monsoon Wedding. Did anyone of you also see it? Have you had a special fondness for orange marigolds ever since? The director Mira Nair has a new movie in the theaters, which Philo and I enjoyed this week.
You might like it, too – The Namesake has some wonderful actors with memorable faces, is full of humor, intelligence and sadness, touching on the immigrant experience and Indian customs, separations and reunions, focusing on a coming-of-age story and several becoming-in-love stories. Mira Nair looks at things we’ve seen elsewhere, but from a different perspective. How many times have you seen the Taj Mahal in movies? A dozen times? Usually it looks like a postcard, but this time, it’s seen as the total of many designs and many parts, making us somehow recognize that individual people made those parts.

Brigstock to Great Oakley via Geddington

Part of Mel Jarvis'sAround Corby Walk, but clockwise.





With Barry and Gordon. between 9 and 10 miles in reality. Weather - a shower before we started, then very windy, but sunny. Hard work in the teeth of hurricane Katia's tail.





Beware - ignore miles 5 to 7 on the garmin link- no way did our guided tour of Geddington church cover 2 miles! Nor was I running back and forward across the village! Technical hiccup. Then I left the machine running in the car for part of the journey back. Human error.





We started walking from behind Brigstock Village Hall, crossing the stream via a footbridge, and taking the right-hand of two paths uphill over several cultivated fields. The path runs parallel to and slightly higher than the A43 road.

Making our way towards Stanion with a headwind

Crossing the brook

Once in Stanion we turned left into Willow Lane, then left again just before Keebles Close along a short footpath leading to the Pocket Park, which is managed for wildlife. After the park we turned left again and walked along the road for about 100 yards before turning right on to the footpath which took us uphill through more fields towards Geddington Chase.

Walking uphill from Stanion

The path cuts off the corner of the first field, then follows the hedges as it climbs up a hundred feet or so. It is well marked. Eventually we arrived at Geddington Chase, and followed the wide grassy avenue to Chase Lodge, a fine well cared for house and garden, ruined (for me, though I'm sure the owners have good reason) by their guard dogs, which bark enthusiastically as soon as they hear or see you.

We followed the clear footpath arrows around the house and took the path south-west - not the one directly opposite us. This leads downhill through the woods, past an abandoned building, and on to a track which becomes Wood Street leading into Geddington village. This is a village with a history far bigger than its size would imply. Its most famous attraction is the Eleanor Cross, built by Edward I to mark one of the resting places of the funeral procession of his wife, Eleanor of Castile, as her body returned to London in 1290.

We stopped to look at the information board outside the church, and local enthusiast and editor of the Geddington website, Kam Caddell, came to tell us about the village and gave us a guided tour of the church, which dates from around the eighth century, and stands on a previous pagan site, linked to the well beneath the cross, which is reputed never to dry up. The village was a favourite haunt of English royalty for most of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. For more information about this , go to the village website.

The bridge over the River Ise was built in 1250

We crossed the bridge and walked along Bridge Street almost as far as the Post Office/ Tea Room before turning left along the path leading through a park. It took us out at the main road (opposite Dallington Crescent. The path continues across the road, just next to the drive to a house. We followed the path, eventually turning right near Mill Farm and emerging on to the road between Geddington and Newton. A few hundred yards of road walking, then we took a path to the right. There are two paths - we followed the right hand fork.

We walked uphill through a couple of large cultivated fields towards an electricity pylon - the highest point of this section. The next stretch was downhill, under the railway bridge, and through a field near the old Great Oakley Station. Across the road and into a field next to the track the path has paving stones - the story goes that the landowner laid York stone slabs for the locals to walk to the station, which was far enough away from his land that it caused no disturbance. But once the station was no longer in use, the York stone was replaced by something cheaper - concrete.





We emerged into Great Oakley at the Row, and shortly afterwards took a footpath to the right, through the hall grounds, past a large pond, and past the church with its one-handed clock





We followed the road from the church, turned left, then right to pick up the footpath which follows Harper's Brook to the Spread Eagle.





Then it was about a mile to collect Gordon's car and get a lift home ( and a bag of apples!)

Arrived Deerwood, MN

Uneventful drive from home to Deerwood, MN. Weather was "changeable". Cloudy, sunny, sprinkling, humid, pleasant. Arrived at my hotel a little before 3pm. Took some time to unloaded the car.

Debated for a while - Do I just have dinner? -or- Do I take a bicycle ride THEN dinner. Eventually, I decided I really wanted to get out and ride. Visited a little with the hotel owner as getting ready to leave. Headed out for a road ride to Crosby. Hwy 6 from Deerwood to Crosby has an awesome wide shoulder - even wider than a bicycle lane. (Need to take a photo of the hwy while here.)

When I got to Crosby, I rode on to the Cuyuna Lakes State Trail. (today's photo - the road bike on the trail) Rode the trail to Hwy 6 at the Croft Mine. Could have ridden a little further, but knew I had to ride along the highway on the way back and there was a rough hill as I enter Deerwood.

Felt energized when I got back to the hotel. Showered and walked over to Coach's for food. Special was a 1/4 lb burger. Pint of Fat Tire and a cheeseburger & chips cost me a whole $5.15!

Now that this blog post has been written - time for bed. Was a productive day - 500 miles in the car, 9 miles on the bicycle and $5.15 dinner.

Riding in the red dirt at Cuyuna Country Ride Center tomorrow.