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Book Review: The Winter Harvest Handbook

24 Feb
GREAT READ on the potential and possibilities of four season gardening with unheated greenhouses.

Imagine scrolling Instagram posts and being grabbed by a Martha Stewart post referring to Eliot Coleman’s long time enterprise: organic gardening in Maine year round using unheated greenhouses. This beautiful book has many photos to support the reveal of his family’s passion: life and times growing vegetables for restaurants and markets within a 25 mile radius. Ingenuity emerges in every chapter. Crop rotation, green houses, tunnels, developing custom tools, historical research of Paris in the late 1800s, importance of facing south in the northern hemisphere, custom seeding applications and much MORE. The illustrations are outstanding.

Several years ago my curiosity was peaked by Instagram posts of a longtime friend on the launch of vegetable and flower business supporting the Jonesborough, TN farmers market. Planning involved minimal acreage and a three season planting rotation of most areas. Closed for winter months. Tilling the long time pasture area was challenging. I only briefly saw a map designating plan for plant location and seasonal rotation. Starting from scratch, I wondered how one planned compatible combinations and timing of planting/harvest…so, this Winter Harvest Handbook answered many or most of my questions and more (given the different growing zone). EF

Book Review: A Drop in the Ocean

11 Aug

Jenni Ogden skillfully juxtaposes:  University based health care research scientists and Wildlife researchers in the Great Barrier Reef.

Perhaps one could say Jenni developed a matrix juxtapositions of scientists and researchers in settings of…

Island life where supplies are delivered every two weeks…no utilities or ground transportation in the Southern Hemisphere contrasting with one of the oldest communities in Europe…Unst, the northern most inhabited island in the British Isles.

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Book Review: The Miraculous Fever Tree-the Cure that changed the world

27 May

 

“Absorbing and SUPERBLY researched” with my emphasis on superbly.  I agree with Miranda Seymour!  Rocco is an award winning investigative journalist.  Her interest in medicine began with her grandparents in Africa in the 1920s.  They were blessed to get quinine tablets made locally because cinchona seeds/trees from Peru had been planted there decades earlier.

World history over four centuries is told from

  1.  Tragic loss of life due to malaria in Europe, Africa, Panama, South America, Middle East, India and Asia.
  2. The cure identified by Jesuits in Peru in the 1600s as quinine (so bitter tasting, people thought they were being poisoned) written documentation in early 1630s.
  3. Theories challenged!  Treatment changed!  (Malaria DNA dates back to 5th century.)
  4. Rocco accessed original records from 1624 and more periods…exquisite documentation, details that enrich readers with life, times, goals, accomplishments of key figures.
  5. “Tree of Fevers” published in 1713 in Madrid
  6. The narrative fully immerses the reader wars, exploration, building the Panama Canal, challenges of exporting seeds and cinchona tree to other continents to save thousands of lives globally.

Enjoy reading!

 

 

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Book Review: Origin, A Novel by Dan Brown

26 Aug

Book 5 of 5 featuring Professor Robert Langdon

I have been a Dan Brown fan for years.  I was delighted to find this at a used book store.  Was there no fanfare on the release?  If there was, I missed it.

The dramatic adventure set in Spain includes outstanding narrative of art, architecture, literature, history, science and technology.  I had 2 years of Spanish in high school and appreciated Spanish speaking characters speaking Spanish (English translations keeps one from getting confused).

Not only is reading Origin compelling entertainment, but it is also refreshingly educational as Dan Brown does so expertly.

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Book Review: Aerial Geology

23 Jan

 

I believe this would qualify as a textbook, however it is so beautiful it would also make a great coffee table book.  The content is North America specific.  (Aerial Geology pairs nicely with Tim Marshall’s Prisoners of Geography.)

The photos and narrative reveal what we take for granted in the world.  The earth is best revealed to us in the “birds eye view” from a plane or on foot in our National Parks. (My favorite hiking story is A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson on the Appalachian Trail)

100 significant geological sites are expertly described going counterclockwise from Alaska to Maine.  The header on this webpage would pair up with Site 85 for the Blue Ridge Mountains.  The images below are either crinoids or brachiopods dating back 500 million years (The header photo was taken from an overlook made from this rock.)

Fossils 1
Fossils 2
Fossils 3

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Globe Trotting

16 Jan

Since 2014, I have made a list of countries travelled to by friends and family.  In five years the list is:

Thailand, Ecuador, Peru, Sweden

Germany, Australia, Canada

China, Japan, Mexico

Scotland, Iceland, South Africa, Zimbabwe

Spain, England, France, Holland, Italy

Switzerland, Israel, Argentina

Jamaica, Haiti

My interest in world travel started early.  My grandmother brought dolls in native dress home as gifts for my sisters and me.  (Perhaps that is another post.)

From an early Elfcroft post (and a suggestion for my globe trotting friends):

What happens when you rummage through Grandmother’s end table?  The risk is discovery of something that needs to be dealt with, such as hundreds of postcards sent and received over three decades (1964-1994) of world travels with teacher groups.  The first sort was to separate sent from received.  Then, thanks to Mom saving itineraries, the post cards are arranged by trip, in chronological order.  I used three binders, two for Mam-ma’s travels and one for friends and family.

Mam-ma’s world travel

I chose binder pages so the cards could be viewed from both sides without removing from the sleeve.  The text, date and postage from country of origin are easily observed.  Post cards from Iceland are featured in the photo below.

Why use a camera? Buy post cards.

Having reference maps was essential to understanding the many regions Mam-ma travelled.  Originally, I was going to remove the pages from atlases purchased at Half Price Books, however many times I wanted to use both sides of the pages in different section of the binder.  Solution:  I made color copies from the atlases.

Maps provide context

Itineraries as table of contents

Mom saved all Mam-ma’s itineraries typed in the format shown above.  This was very helpful with sorting.  World travel of our grandmother’s life time ready to share with inquiring minds.

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Book Review: Prisoners of Geography

27 Nov

Tim Marshall provides excellent service to the public who like myself get confused by international news.  The material is comprehensive of the globe, including the Arctic, excluding Australia.  Each chapter also has concise historical information and background of regional conflicts.  One of many subjects I was not aware…neither South America nor Africa (as continents) have significant deep water harbors, which have hindered their economic development.  It is not enough to have 1000s of miles of coastline!

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A Walk in the Woods

1 Aug

My walk in the woods at Cumberland Gap National Park:

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Land of the Free, Home of the Brave

4 Jul

US Naval Academy

Happy Fourth of July

Ten years ago, we had the privilege of touring the US Naval Academy in Annapolis with a WWII veterans group.  Here are a few highlights from that trip…special access…lunch in the dining hall with cadets, tour of the chapel, seeing the cadets march to football game in their dress whites and last but not least attending the Evening Parade at the Marine Corps Barracks (George and Laura Bush were in attendance).

 

 

 

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On the road

17 Apr

Kentucky Artisan Center

This outstanding art center is conveniently located off of I-75 in Berea, KY.  It is an expansive building with many custom features.  High quality art pieces of different mediums are on display and for sale.  http://www.kentuckyartisancenter.ky.gov/

Cafe dining

There is an excellent menu for the café.

Fresh Flowers

Fresh flowers in the restroom is not just for high-end hotels.  I have never used sedum and asters as a cut flowers.  Delightful.  I believe I will now!

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