Celebrate Pick Strawberries Day
”One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste”
~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
~Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
If ever there was a symbol for summer that transcended the sun, it has to be the strawberry. Within the strawberry, we can find all the condensed goodness of hot summer days, cool summer nights, and adventures that will never fade from our memories. The best strawberries are those that are fresh picked while still warm from the heat of the summer sun, and Pick Strawberries Day encourages us to get out there and pick our fill!
History of Pick Strawberries Day
First, let’s talk about the origin of the strawberry. These beautiful red jewels dangling from their green vines seem just a bit too perfect to have been the pure manufacture of Mother Nature, so where did they come from? Well, as it turns out they did, in fact, come from Mother Nature in forms largely similar to those we grow in our gardens today. Strawberries have had a reputation not just for being delicious, but also for having astounding medicinal properties, at least according to 16th-century pharmacists.
But the origin of the berry as we know it comes from Brittany, France, where it was first cultivated in a garden in the 1750’s, as a blend of two other forms of wild strawberry. Long before this, however, they had begun cultivating them in their gardens from the wild, as early as the 14th century. They’ve been with us ever since as a popular dessert and food item, and are grown in the thousands all over the world.
Pick Strawberries Day encourages you to get out and experience the wonders of picking strawberries first hand, and there are local u-pick strawberry fields that spring up anywhere strawberries are grown.
Ellen Auerbach, (Ellen Rosenberg; “Pit”), German-born avant-garde photographer (born May 20, 1906, Karlsruhe, Ger.—died July 31, 2004, NY, N.Y.), created innovative experimental advertising images and portraits, particularly during the Weimar Republic (1919–33). Auerbach studied in Berlin with Walter Peterhans of the Bauhaus design school. When Peterhans relocated to Dessau, Auerbach and fellow student Grete Stern took over his Berlin studio, opening a commercial photography studio that they called ringl + pit after their respective nicknames. With the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany, both women fled the country. Auerbach and her husband eventually settled in the U.S., where she became a citizen in 1942. Although she never again knew such professional success, the work of ringl + pit was rediscovered in the late 1980s, and a major retrospective was staged at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin in 1998.
Word of the Day
| |||
| Definition: | (verb) Revolve quickly and repeatedly around one's own axis. | ||
| Synonyms: | spin, reel, whirl | ||
| Usage: | The airplane gyrated about in the sky in a most alarming fashion. | ||
Great Spruce Head Island, 1940
Idiom of the Day
not any hard feelings— No ill will; no resentment or anger. |
"The dancer Renate Schottelius, New York"
History
Levi Strauss Patents Iconic Metal Rivet for Reinforcing Pants Pockets (1873)
| If you are wearing blue jeans, chances are a version of tailor Jacob Davis's invention is hugging your hips right now. Davis did not invent jeans—that was the more famous Levi Strauss—but he did invent one crucial component: the copper rivets that reinforce the corners of the pockets, now ubiquitous on denim pants. Because Davis did not have the money to file the necessary patent paperwork, he wrote to Strauss—then Davis's fabric supplier—suggesting they apply together. |
Emile Berliner (1851) |
|---|
Shavuot
Shavuot ("weeks") is the second of the three Pilgrim Festivals. At one time, all adult male Jews were expected to bring their first omer, or "sheaf," of barley to the Temple in Jerusalem as a thanksgiving offering. Today dairy dishes are associated with Shavuot, particularly cheese blintzes. After the period of Jewish slavery in Egypt, Shavuot celebrated Moses' return from the top of Mt. Sinai with the two stone tablets containing the Ten Commandments, and it is therefore also known as the Festival of the Giving of the Law. Jews living in Israel observe only the first day of Shavuot.
A soldier lost her ear in a car accident. So the doctors grew her a new one -- on her forearm
Shamika Burrage survived a near-fatal car accident two years ago, but not without losing something pretty important: her left ear. Now, thanks to a novel procedure performed at an Army medical center in Texas, Burrage is getting that ear back in a most ...READ MORE:
A soldier lost her ear in a car accident. So the doctors grew her a new one -- in her forearm
1506 - In Spain, Christopher Columbus died in poverty.
1830 - The fountain pen was patented by H.D. Hyde.
1875 - The International Bureau of Weights and Measures was established.
1899 - Jacob German of New York City became the first driver to be arrested for speeding. The posted speed limit was 12 miles per hour.
1916 - Norman Rockwell’s first cover on "The Saturday Evening Post" appeared.
1927 - Charles Lindbergh took off from New York to cross the Atlantic for Paris aboard his airplane the "Spirit of St. Louis." The trip took 33 1/2 hours.
1932 - Amelia Earhart took off to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She became the first woman to achieve the feat.
1978 - Mavis Hutchinson, at age 53, became the first woman to run across America. It took Hutchinson 69 days to run the 3,000 miles.
1982 - TV’s "Barney Miller" was seen for the last time on ABC-TV.
1990 - The Hubble Space Telescope sent back its first photographs.
1993 - The final episode of "Cheers" was aired on NBC-TV.
2010 - Five paintings worth 100 million Euro were stolen from the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
If You Were Born Today, May 20
You possess much strength of character, warmth, sensuality, and intuition. While grounded and steady overall, you have a flair for the dramatic. You are exceptionally self-aware and spend your life learning, largely through intuition and observation. You are loving and kind but seldom forget a slight. Famous people born today:
1806 John Stuart Mill, English philosopher, political economist and utilitarian, born in London (d. 1873)
1908 Jimmy Stewart, American actor (Mr Smith Goes to Washington, It's a Wonderful Life), born in Indiana, Pennsylvania (d. 1997)
1913 William Hewlett, American engineer and businessman (co-founder Hewlett-Packard), born in Ann Arbor, Michigan (d. 2001)
1915 Moshe Dayan, Israeli military leader and politician, born in Degania Alef, Ottoman Empire (d. 1981)
1944 Joe Cocker, English rock vocalist (With a Little Help from My Friends), born in Sheffield England, (d. 2014)
1946 Cher [Cherilyn Sarkisian], American singer and actress (I Got You Babe, Jack Lalane, Mask), born in El Centro, California
READERS INFO
1.
1899 -
|
2.
INTERESTING FACTS
3.
Portrait of Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier and his Wife is a double portrait of the French chemist Antoine Lavoisier and his wife and collaborator Marie-Anne. Commissioned from the French painter Jacques-Louis David in 1788 for 7,000 livres, the portrait remained in the family until 1924, when it was acquired by John D. Rockefeller. Since 1977, it has been held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Julesburg, Colorado
While on storm chasing expeditions in the Tornado Alley in USA I have encountered many photogenic supercell storms. This photograph was taken while we were approaching the storm near Julesburg, Colorado on My 28th, 2013. The storm was tornado warned for more than one hour, but stayed an LP storm through all its cycles and never produced a tornado, just occasional brief funnels, large hail and some rain.
From Barcelona, 1957
thanks, Sandy
Patchwork Socks pattern by Winwick Mum
knit
thanks, Emma
Vest For Baby Girls pattern by Esra Kaya
knit
Kievit pattern by Ingrid Oudhof
knit
Caroline Top pattern by Alexis Di Gregorio
knit
Happy Hunny Bear Bag pattern by Amy-lynne Mitchell
'Bertolt Brecht Typing, London', 1935
crochet
thanks, June
crochet
thanks, Lisa
crochet
crochet
Little Sweet Bear Lovey pattern by Kristina Jackson Dearly Inspired
crochet
Willem de Kooning, 1944
RECIPE
thanks, Heide
Brooklyn EL, New York 1949
thanks, Amy
Lake Michigan, 1938
SWEETS
Easy, No-Bake Nutella® Pie Recipe
frame wall mirror Tinker made of plastic spoons
Remove the spoon handles all
Apply paint and fix
'Bicycle, Maine', 1940
CHILDREN'S CORNER ... crafts
thanks, Bella
Yellow Parasol Sea Jigsaw Puzzle
“Photography lovers, get lost in Magnum Photos'
| afford basket bear beneficiary berate breed broker build | candlestick cause charts check climb curve enlarge erect | floor forex fresh gamble lasso order | puzzle raise refuse reject revive revolt risks rush | sales sate snob spurn surely truth vessel |
Steps
SUDOKU ... medium
solution:
Male and Mailbox, Chile, 1948
Woman Rescues Wingless Queen Bee; Builds Her a Tiny Garden to Live Out Final Days twistedsifter
Last Spring, Fiona Presly was gardening outside her home in Scotland when she noticed a queen bumblebee at her feet. She quickly sensed that something wasn’t right as the bee seemed shaky and disoriented.
Afraid she might get stepped on, Fiona bent down and noticed the queen bee had no wings.
Not sure how else to help, Presly offered the bee some sugar water and set her on some flowers, hoping she’d be able to eventually manage on her own. When she checked the spot a few hours later, however, she found the bee hadn’t budged. To make matters worse, a heavy storm was brewing — so Presly went one step further:
“I took her inside that night, kept her warm and fed her more,” she said. “I thought I would put her out the next day, but the weather was bad then too. So I kept her inside.”
Now in recovery, Presly reached out to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust for help. They told her it was likely she had a virus known to cause wing development issues. Unable to fly, the chances of survival were slim.
Saddened, Presly decided that she would try to help the bee, making her a tiny private garden to live out her final days.
Fiona aptly named her new friend ‘Bee’ and built her a private little garden to pollinate. She enclosed the garden in netting so her winged counterparts couldn’t swoop in and deplete the garden.
Fiona continued to check on her friend daily, giving her sugar water whenever she seemed weak. Bee seemed to be adjusting to her new home and getting more and more comfortable around her new ‘friend’
As the days continued, Fiona noticed Bee would emerge from the foliage every time she dropped by the enclosure. “She’d walk toward me and crawl on my hand,” Presly said.
“She seemed so happy to see me. It made me stop and think — there’s something going on here.”
According to the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, queens typically spend spring and summer building a nest, mating, and starting a colony — eventually dying at the approach of Autumn.
Under Fiona’s care, Bee had outlived them all, but five months after being rescued Bee fell asleep one last time, never again to wake.
“I was sad when she died, but I knew it was going to happen. She was already older than she should have been,” Presley said. “It had been very special to stay with a wee creature, like Bee. The fact that she lived more than just a few weeks amazed me. That was rewarding in itself.”
Afterward, Presly buried Bee’s body in her garden — joined by a favorite flower.
No comments:
Post a Comment