One of the craft ladies gave me 4 knitting magazines to browse through, and one of them is called Interweave Knits (an American publication). Very good layout, interesting articles and I have logged onto one of the websites advertised in the magazine - www.KnittingDaily.com -
It is free to subscribe and there are about 120 free patterns that you can download once you have signed up. They have a Blog as well and well worth a visit.
Monday, 18 February 2008
KNITTED DISHCLOTHS
My fingers and thoughts are turning to knitting and crochet - the class at our local craft group today was for a Beaded Crochet Cover. This can be used to cover your glass, wine glass etc. from the neverending insects that we share our environment with in the summer heat.
I know my limitations and decided not to do the class - my crochet is still in the basic stage, and am comfortable with a large crochet hook (4 or 4.5)doing squares for a rug.
My preference is for knitting and I am getting itchy fingers to start browsing through my patterns once again, and go through my yarn stash to see what I can make.
Our summer heat usually puts a stop to the knitting, but we have been lucky so far and the temperature has cooled down.
The Craft Group is going on a bus trip to Bundaberg next Thursday 28th, and everyone will converge on the Spotlight Store - here's hoping that there is a good selection of yarns to browse, touch and hopefully buy.
One of my favourite items to knit is Dishcloths. Knitted in cotton, I have given bundles of these to my friends to use in the kitchen. They are great to use, can be thrown in the washing machine with your towels etc. and reused again and again.
If you have a stash of these, you could use a clean one every day in the kitchen.
Lots of sites to check out for free patterns, and all you need to do is type into Google, free patterns for knitted dishcloths and choose the designs that you like.
Some patterns are also featured on peoples Blogs and here is one to check out:
www.WhimsicalKnitting.Blogspot.com
the yarn I like using is LionBrand, which is 100% cotton and you can now buy this on line in Australia. Organic Cotton is also available, and I have also knitted with this yarn - very nice to use.
Before you throw those terrible supermarket cloths into your shopping basket, think again and knit some yourself.
Harking back to a recipe posted earlier - Vanilla Slice - I made this again on the weekend, and mixed chopped mango through the mixture. Yum, Yum is all I can say.
My husband just loves this slice.
I know my limitations and decided not to do the class - my crochet is still in the basic stage, and am comfortable with a large crochet hook (4 or 4.5)doing squares for a rug.
My preference is for knitting and I am getting itchy fingers to start browsing through my patterns once again, and go through my yarn stash to see what I can make.
Our summer heat usually puts a stop to the knitting, but we have been lucky so far and the temperature has cooled down.
The Craft Group is going on a bus trip to Bundaberg next Thursday 28th, and everyone will converge on the Spotlight Store - here's hoping that there is a good selection of yarns to browse, touch and hopefully buy.
One of my favourite items to knit is Dishcloths. Knitted in cotton, I have given bundles of these to my friends to use in the kitchen. They are great to use, can be thrown in the washing machine with your towels etc. and reused again and again.
If you have a stash of these, you could use a clean one every day in the kitchen.
Lots of sites to check out for free patterns, and all you need to do is type into Google, free patterns for knitted dishcloths and choose the designs that you like.
Some patterns are also featured on peoples Blogs and here is one to check out:
www.WhimsicalKnitting.Blogspot.com
the yarn I like using is LionBrand, which is 100% cotton and you can now buy this on line in Australia. Organic Cotton is also available, and I have also knitted with this yarn - very nice to use.
Before you throw those terrible supermarket cloths into your shopping basket, think again and knit some yourself.
Harking back to a recipe posted earlier - Vanilla Slice - I made this again on the weekend, and mixed chopped mango through the mixture. Yum, Yum is all I can say.
My husband just loves this slice.
Thursday, 14 February 2008
COWLEY FAMILY CONUNDRUM
I have hit a brick wall with my Cowley family research - all to do with finding my paternal grandmother - EMILY MONICA HAMMOND.
Emily married ALFRED COWLEY at St Stephens Cathedral Brisbane Qld Australia 17th December 1919.
At that time, Alfred had stated that he was a Widower - I have yet to find out what happened to his first wife - EMMA HUGHES.
Alfred immigrated to Australia in November 1915 on the ship ORONTES (the passenger list shows his status as being Single. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces 24th July 1916, and gave his status as Married, with his next of kin as Mrs Emma Cowley (wife) - 45 Maple Street Hollinwood Lancashire. The address matches that on the marriage certificate of Alfred and Emma.
Emily was supposedly born about 1898 in Townsville Queensland - her parents being WILLIAM HAMMOND and KATE WILLIAMS.
On Emily's death certificate, her parents are shown as GEORGE HAMMOND and KATHARINE DOMMANESQ.
To add further confusion to my research, her sister ALICE HAMMET (surname could have been recorded incorretly)had on her marriage certificate, parents names WILLIAM HAMMET and KATE JOHNSON.
Alice's second marriage to HERBERT HOLDEN has her parents as WILLIAM HAMMETT and CATHERINE DAMMONS.
Can anyone help me - I am unable to find any record of the name DAMMONS and DOMMANESQ.
Emily married ALFRED COWLEY at St Stephens Cathedral Brisbane Qld Australia 17th December 1919.
At that time, Alfred had stated that he was a Widower - I have yet to find out what happened to his first wife - EMMA HUGHES.
Alfred immigrated to Australia in November 1915 on the ship ORONTES (the passenger list shows his status as being Single. He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Forces 24th July 1916, and gave his status as Married, with his next of kin as Mrs Emma Cowley (wife) - 45 Maple Street Hollinwood Lancashire. The address matches that on the marriage certificate of Alfred and Emma.
Emily was supposedly born about 1898 in Townsville Queensland - her parents being WILLIAM HAMMOND and KATE WILLIAMS.
On Emily's death certificate, her parents are shown as GEORGE HAMMOND and KATHARINE DOMMANESQ.
To add further confusion to my research, her sister ALICE HAMMET (surname could have been recorded incorretly)had on her marriage certificate, parents names WILLIAM HAMMET and KATE JOHNSON.
Alice's second marriage to HERBERT HOLDEN has her parents as WILLIAM HAMMETT and CATHERINE DAMMONS.
Can anyone help me - I am unable to find any record of the name DAMMONS and DOMMANESQ.
Wednesday, 6 February 2008
BOOKS AND READING
There are many book newsletters that you can subscribe to, if you are like me, and want to keep up with the new books that are constantly being published. (www.bookreporter.com) - one of the articles made mention of the book list that musician Art Garfunkel has been keeping on the books he has read over the years.
Pretty staggering when you see the number - if you are interested in checking it out, go to http://www.artgarfunkel.com/library.html
All of the members in our Book Group keep a record of books they have read, and it is a good reference point. At our meeting, we always go round the table and ask each member to give us a summary of what they have read for the month - we all have never ending lists of books to read.
A rule of thumb I have passed on - if you don't like a book, give it away. Why waste your time reading something that you don't enjoy, when there are literally millions of books out there waiting to be read.
Fans of historical fiction may like to check out the Historical Novel Society at www.historicalnovelsociety.org.
You can subscribe to their magazine - The Historical Novels Review. The magazine has good reviews of authors and books , and a review of new novels that have been released from the period of Ancient Egypt through to the 20th century; muti-period-time-slip, children and young adult.
Pretty staggering when you see the number - if you are interested in checking it out, go to http://www.artgarfunkel.com/library.html
All of the members in our Book Group keep a record of books they have read, and it is a good reference point. At our meeting, we always go round the table and ask each member to give us a summary of what they have read for the month - we all have never ending lists of books to read.
A rule of thumb I have passed on - if you don't like a book, give it away. Why waste your time reading something that you don't enjoy, when there are literally millions of books out there waiting to be read.
Fans of historical fiction may like to check out the Historical Novel Society at www.historicalnovelsociety.org.
You can subscribe to their magazine - The Historical Novels Review. The magazine has good reviews of authors and books , and a review of new novels that have been released from the period of Ancient Egypt through to the 20th century; muti-period-time-slip, children and young adult.
Tuesday, 5 February 2008
HOME BAKING
One of my previous posts mentioned a recipe website that I discovered - www.recipezaar.com and I cooked one of the recipes that I had printed out
SLOW COOKER CHEDDAR POLENTA. This was an easy way of cooking Polenta, made a large dish, and can be cut into individual portions and frozen (which I have done).
Servings 8 - so you could halve the quantities if you wish
7 cups hot water
2 cups polenta (not quick cooking) or coarse-ground
yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsps salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 cups grated cheddar cheese (about 12 ounces)
Mix water, polenta, olive oil and salt in slow cooker; whisk until well blended. Add cheddar cheese and whisk again.
Cover and cook on high setting for about 2 hours, or until liquid is mostly absorbed. Stir together well (polenta should have consistency of thick cooked cereal).
If not serving right away, pour into buttered (large) dish, spreading into an even layer; cover with plastic wrap and let cool. When ready to serve, cut into rectangles and saute in nonstick skillet with olive oil or until golden or both sides.
I checked the mixture after about 1hr45 minutes and it was ready, so will depend on your slow cooker.
Whilst my husband had a Gluten free meat pie with vegies and mashed potato, I enjoyed a slice of Polenta with some homemade tomato sauce. Delicious.
I may as well keep going with a few more recipes and keep this posting all in the same vein.
Here is a nice PUMPKIN TEA BAG CAKE recipe, which comes from the ABC book - Homecooked.
1 cup (250ml) boiling water
4 tea bags
125g butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
500g mixed dried fruit (any combination - I take out the cherries and substitute with dried cranberries)
1 cup cold mashed pumpkin (press out excess moisture
2 eggs - lightly beaten
1 cup plain flour, sifted
1 cup SR Flour - sifted
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp bicarb of soda
Preheat the oven to 180degrees C. Line a 22cm round cake tin with baking paper.
Pour boiling water onto the tea bags. Stand until almost cold, then squeeze the bags to extract all flavours. Discard the bags.
Put the brewed tea into a saucepan with the butter, sugar, golden syrup and fruit, and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer very gently for 5-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Add the pumpkin and eggs, mix in well then stir in the flours, cinnamon and bicarb.
Pour into the prepred tin and bake for 30 minutes, then reduce the het to 160degrees C. Cook for a further 1 - 1/2 hours, until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in the tin then turn out. The cke will keep for a week in an air tight container.
THIS IS VERY NICE AND ALSO FREEZES WELL.
Over the weekend, Saturday 2nd February, I attended a Rare Fruits meeting, and one of the items at our bi-monthly meetings, is a cooking competition. This is a good venue for people to try out different ways of cooking the rare fruits.
The competition had 2 entries this time - SOURSOP TART and a PUMPKIN PIE. Both delicious but would have to lean more to the SOURSOP TART.
Peel soursop. Put soursop in saucepan and cover with water will cooked.
Strain, then cool.
Add 1/2 tin condensed milk, 2 tablespoons passionfruit pulp.
thicken with 1 tablespoon gelatine.
Pour into tart shell
Place in fridge to set.
I have an idea of when the next newsletter is being prepared (by me) that I will put out a call for people to submit Pumpkin fruit cake recipes and see what response I get.
Today looks like being an indoors one, as the rain has been falling since early morning, so will be spending time baking, and no doubt catching up with more family research.
The garden should be relishing this rain, as on Sunday I spread around all of the fruit trees and some other plants, a dose of Organic Garden Booster (chicken pellets).
Also shifted my 3 black compost bins to the rear of the block - filled in with compost, blood and bone and dolomite, and planted pumpkin seeds. I read an article in an issue of Earth Garden magazine, where Jacki French had recommended this to someone who wanted another use for his compost bins.
So fingers crossed and see how it works. The seeds I planted were from the lady that made the pumpkin pie for the rare fruits meeting. Think they were from a Gramma variety, which is a nice dry pumpkin.
Only wish I hadn't used up all my wood ash, as pumpkins are said to like this as a feed as well.
Another tick for a previous recipe mentioned - VANILLA SLICE.
I had put a few slices in the freezer so see how it would go. No problem, still tasted delicious after 2 weeks in the freezer.
Have a thought of next time I make this, of folding through a quantity of Black Sapote puree (Chocolate pudding fruit). There are a few containers of this in my freezer, from my first crop.
This fruit also goes well in chocolate cakes and muffins.
Would like to hear from anyone who has a good pumpkin fruit cake recipe!
SLOW COOKER CHEDDAR POLENTA. This was an easy way of cooking Polenta, made a large dish, and can be cut into individual portions and frozen (which I have done).
Servings 8 - so you could halve the quantities if you wish
7 cups hot water
2 cups polenta (not quick cooking) or coarse-ground
yellow cornmeal
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsps salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
3 cups grated cheddar cheese (about 12 ounces)
Mix water, polenta, olive oil and salt in slow cooker; whisk until well blended. Add cheddar cheese and whisk again.
Cover and cook on high setting for about 2 hours, or until liquid is mostly absorbed. Stir together well (polenta should have consistency of thick cooked cereal).
If not serving right away, pour into buttered (large) dish, spreading into an even layer; cover with plastic wrap and let cool. When ready to serve, cut into rectangles and saute in nonstick skillet with olive oil or until golden or both sides.
I checked the mixture after about 1hr45 minutes and it was ready, so will depend on your slow cooker.
Whilst my husband had a Gluten free meat pie with vegies and mashed potato, I enjoyed a slice of Polenta with some homemade tomato sauce. Delicious.
I may as well keep going with a few more recipes and keep this posting all in the same vein.
Here is a nice PUMPKIN TEA BAG CAKE recipe, which comes from the ABC book - Homecooked.
1 cup (250ml) boiling water
4 tea bags
125g butter
1 cup caster sugar
1 tbsp golden syrup
500g mixed dried fruit (any combination - I take out the cherries and substitute with dried cranberries)
1 cup cold mashed pumpkin (press out excess moisture
2 eggs - lightly beaten
1 cup plain flour, sifted
1 cup SR Flour - sifted
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp bicarb of soda
Preheat the oven to 180degrees C. Line a 22cm round cake tin with baking paper.
Pour boiling water onto the tea bags. Stand until almost cold, then squeeze the bags to extract all flavours. Discard the bags.
Put the brewed tea into a saucepan with the butter, sugar, golden syrup and fruit, and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer very gently for 5-10 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.
Add the pumpkin and eggs, mix in well then stir in the flours, cinnamon and bicarb.
Pour into the prepred tin and bake for 30 minutes, then reduce the het to 160degrees C. Cook for a further 1 - 1/2 hours, until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in the tin then turn out. The cke will keep for a week in an air tight container.
THIS IS VERY NICE AND ALSO FREEZES WELL.
Over the weekend, Saturday 2nd February, I attended a Rare Fruits meeting, and one of the items at our bi-monthly meetings, is a cooking competition. This is a good venue for people to try out different ways of cooking the rare fruits.
The competition had 2 entries this time - SOURSOP TART and a PUMPKIN PIE. Both delicious but would have to lean more to the SOURSOP TART.
Peel soursop. Put soursop in saucepan and cover with water will cooked.
Strain, then cool.
Add 1/2 tin condensed milk, 2 tablespoons passionfruit pulp.
thicken with 1 tablespoon gelatine.
Pour into tart shell
Place in fridge to set.
I have an idea of when the next newsletter is being prepared (by me) that I will put out a call for people to submit Pumpkin fruit cake recipes and see what response I get.
Today looks like being an indoors one, as the rain has been falling since early morning, so will be spending time baking, and no doubt catching up with more family research.
The garden should be relishing this rain, as on Sunday I spread around all of the fruit trees and some other plants, a dose of Organic Garden Booster (chicken pellets).
Also shifted my 3 black compost bins to the rear of the block - filled in with compost, blood and bone and dolomite, and planted pumpkin seeds. I read an article in an issue of Earth Garden magazine, where Jacki French had recommended this to someone who wanted another use for his compost bins.
So fingers crossed and see how it works. The seeds I planted were from the lady that made the pumpkin pie for the rare fruits meeting. Think they were from a Gramma variety, which is a nice dry pumpkin.
Only wish I hadn't used up all my wood ash, as pumpkins are said to like this as a feed as well.
Another tick for a previous recipe mentioned - VANILLA SLICE.
I had put a few slices in the freezer so see how it would go. No problem, still tasted delicious after 2 weeks in the freezer.
Have a thought of next time I make this, of folding through a quantity of Black Sapote puree (Chocolate pudding fruit). There are a few containers of this in my freezer, from my first crop.
This fruit also goes well in chocolate cakes and muffins.
Would like to hear from anyone who has a good pumpkin fruit cake recipe!
Friday, 1 February 2008
EARTH GARDEN MAGAZINE
After reading an article in the magazine (Dec 2007-Feb 2008), I wanted to post the gist of it to make people aware of how the Government bureauocracy works, and the powers to be treat us as idiots.
This is frome the article -
" An age where a Prime Minister thinks he can quick fix a drought by draining wetlands (well, the water's just going to waste there, isn't it?) and the Treasurer brings in a bill (an amendment to the Small Business Act - but there's nothing small about the businesses it applies to), that will make anyone who complains about a company's business (such as one that drains the wetlands, builds a factory that pollutes, or fails to fix your phone for 46 days) will be liable for the loss of that company's business.......tens of thousands, maybe millions, of dollars - if they complain.
Got a problem? No worries. Just don't let anyone complain about it, and it's fixed.
I'm not sure if it's more terrifying or a comfort to read some of the suggested quick fix solutions for global warming....if some scientsts are suggesting nightmare quick fixes at least others are pointing out the side effects.
Though, come to think of it, if they're criticising company plans and that may cut the company's share price or profits, they'll have to shut up pretty quickly - in Australia anyhow."
No doubt this bill was brought in by the previous political party and don't seem to recall hearing much about this through the media!!!!
This is frome the article -
" An age where a Prime Minister thinks he can quick fix a drought by draining wetlands (well, the water's just going to waste there, isn't it?) and the Treasurer brings in a bill (an amendment to the Small Business Act - but there's nothing small about the businesses it applies to), that will make anyone who complains about a company's business (such as one that drains the wetlands, builds a factory that pollutes, or fails to fix your phone for 46 days) will be liable for the loss of that company's business.......tens of thousands, maybe millions, of dollars - if they complain.
Got a problem? No worries. Just don't let anyone complain about it, and it's fixed.
I'm not sure if it's more terrifying or a comfort to read some of the suggested quick fix solutions for global warming....if some scientsts are suggesting nightmare quick fixes at least others are pointing out the side effects.
Though, come to think of it, if they're criticising company plans and that may cut the company's share price or profits, they'll have to shut up pretty quickly - in Australia anyhow."
No doubt this bill was brought in by the previous political party and don't seem to recall hearing much about this through the media!!!!
FAMILY HISTORY - WILLIAM BOCK/ALICE HAMMET
Success after so long - in my previous post, I mentioned that I was trying to find out more about these people. Well I managed to find a post from a lady who had posted to a message board I think - took the punt on the email address, and I was lucky.
The lady in question is related to William Bock and she was trying to find out further details on Alice. Maybe I can start filling in a few blanks.
Perserverance pays off eventually.
Further inputting of details on the Genes Reunited site has also thrown up more contacts, and I will need to spend a few days updating records and taking print outs of other family member trees. This site is well worth subscribing to.
Whilst searching for recipes the other day, I came across a good site, which I have sent to a few of my friends - www.recipezaar.com - numerous recipe categories and you are sure to find something to try out. A friend of mine has sent me an email, as she was having trouble making gluten free pasta and asked my advice. So I got onto good old Google and typed in gluten free pasta recipes and the above site was one of the many featured. The site allows you to email a recipe to whoever. Found a few Crock Pot recipes, which I am always on the look out for, plus many others.
One I came across was for a Lemon Butter, and I remembered the recipe that I have been making for years, and have passed onto to my mother and sister, who always use it.
Its done in the microwave and very easy.
LEMON CHEESE
2 eggs
1 cup castor sugar
Juice and rind of 2 lemons
1 tbsp custard powder
60g melted butter.
Beat eggs well, add sugar and beat until creamy.
Add lemon juice and rind, custard powder and melted butter.
Mix thoroughly.
Microwave on high for 3 minutes, reduce microwave to medium high and cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring occasinally.
Allow to cool - Makes one jar.
Something else homemade you may like to try is LAVENDER FABRIC RINSE.
Read this in either a Grass Roots magazine, or Earth Garden and have been making it for a few months. This is good if you have lots of lavender flowers -
I have been using a tall pasta sauce jar, but if you have an empty vinegar container, that would also work. All you do is pick your lavender flowers, and pack into the container. Cover with vinegar, and leave to sit in a sunny spot for about 2 weeks - turning the container upside down a couple of times a day.
After 2 weeks, empty the flowers out of the container and you have a lovely lavender rinse to use in your washing machine.
Don't waste money on the commercial fabric conditioners. Most manufacturers these days recommend not using them.
I am reading THE GLASS PALACE by Amitav Ghosh, and enjoying the style of writing and all about Burma. The reading group read a book set in Burma last year called THE PIANO TUNER by Daniel Mason, which opened our eyes to the culture of that country. One of the ladies had visited Rangoon and the surrounding countryside and was captivated by the people.
Both books though show up the English colonials for what they were - destroyers of ancient civilisations, power hungry and corrupt.
The Glass Palace is a book that I would like to buy for myself, as when I finish reading this, will have to return to a friend.
One of the many interesting facts described in the book is about TEAK
Did you know that Teak is a relative of mint, (tectona grandis), born of the same genus of flowering plant, but of a distaff branch, presided over by that most soothing of herbs, verbena.
It counts amont its close kin many other fragrant and familiar herbs - sage, savoury, thyme, lavender, rosemary and most remarkably holy basil, with its many descendants, green and purple, smmoth-leaved and coarse, pungent and frangrant, bitter and sweet.
"The mint leaf was the size of Rajkumar's thumb while the other would have covered an elephant's footprint; one was a weed that served to flavour soup while the other came from a tree that had felled dynasties, caused invasions, created fortunes, brought a new way of life into being."
The lady in question is related to William Bock and she was trying to find out further details on Alice. Maybe I can start filling in a few blanks.
Perserverance pays off eventually.
Further inputting of details on the Genes Reunited site has also thrown up more contacts, and I will need to spend a few days updating records and taking print outs of other family member trees. This site is well worth subscribing to.
Whilst searching for recipes the other day, I came across a good site, which I have sent to a few of my friends - www.recipezaar.com - numerous recipe categories and you are sure to find something to try out. A friend of mine has sent me an email, as she was having trouble making gluten free pasta and asked my advice. So I got onto good old Google and typed in gluten free pasta recipes and the above site was one of the many featured. The site allows you to email a recipe to whoever. Found a few Crock Pot recipes, which I am always on the look out for, plus many others.
One I came across was for a Lemon Butter, and I remembered the recipe that I have been making for years, and have passed onto to my mother and sister, who always use it.
Its done in the microwave and very easy.
LEMON CHEESE
2 eggs
1 cup castor sugar
Juice and rind of 2 lemons
1 tbsp custard powder
60g melted butter.
Beat eggs well, add sugar and beat until creamy.
Add lemon juice and rind, custard powder and melted butter.
Mix thoroughly.
Microwave on high for 3 minutes, reduce microwave to medium high and cook for a further 2 minutes, stirring occasinally.
Allow to cool - Makes one jar.
Something else homemade you may like to try is LAVENDER FABRIC RINSE.
Read this in either a Grass Roots magazine, or Earth Garden and have been making it for a few months. This is good if you have lots of lavender flowers -
I have been using a tall pasta sauce jar, but if you have an empty vinegar container, that would also work. All you do is pick your lavender flowers, and pack into the container. Cover with vinegar, and leave to sit in a sunny spot for about 2 weeks - turning the container upside down a couple of times a day.
After 2 weeks, empty the flowers out of the container and you have a lovely lavender rinse to use in your washing machine.
Don't waste money on the commercial fabric conditioners. Most manufacturers these days recommend not using them.
I am reading THE GLASS PALACE by Amitav Ghosh, and enjoying the style of writing and all about Burma. The reading group read a book set in Burma last year called THE PIANO TUNER by Daniel Mason, which opened our eyes to the culture of that country. One of the ladies had visited Rangoon and the surrounding countryside and was captivated by the people.
Both books though show up the English colonials for what they were - destroyers of ancient civilisations, power hungry and corrupt.
The Glass Palace is a book that I would like to buy for myself, as when I finish reading this, will have to return to a friend.
One of the many interesting facts described in the book is about TEAK
Did you know that Teak is a relative of mint, (tectona grandis), born of the same genus of flowering plant, but of a distaff branch, presided over by that most soothing of herbs, verbena.
It counts amont its close kin many other fragrant and familiar herbs - sage, savoury, thyme, lavender, rosemary and most remarkably holy basil, with its many descendants, green and purple, smmoth-leaved and coarse, pungent and frangrant, bitter and sweet.
"The mint leaf was the size of Rajkumar's thumb while the other would have covered an elephant's footprint; one was a weed that served to flavour soup while the other came from a tree that had felled dynasties, caused invasions, created fortunes, brought a new way of life into being."
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