On Beauty

Well, I guess spring is on it´s way slowly but surely. One of the first flowers to appear is Helleborus. I love this little flower... somehow I think it is very sensual but it might be just the fact that they are a promise of upcomming warmer days filled with sunshine and the hopes of coffee outside....

Helleborus orientalis is the botanical name of the very popular, early blooming shade perennial more commonly known as the Lenten Rose. It grows hardy around the world in temperate zones 4-7. In the English speaking world they are known as the Lenten Rose but are not roses at all. They are actually of the Butter Cup family. Their flowers bloom during the Easter celebration of Lent, leading the vernal precession of color in the shady areas of thoughtful perennial gardens. When they are not in bloom they remain as lush ground cover throughout the year; and they are deer proof. This lush, hardy shade perennial is grown and prized by master gardeners throughout the world. The selection I grow here at my nursery produce a mixed symphony of colors ranging from white to pink to purple with many suprise variations in between - I referred to them as a traditional cottage variety. 

I have to tell you about the book I am reading right now. It is Michael Pollan's "In Defence of Food":

GO an GET it! It is a very good holistic approach to what to eat! I really enjoy his rather nature scientific approach to what we need as biological organsims:

"Looking at eating and food, through this ecological lens opens a whole new perspective on exactly what the western diet is: a radical and, at least in evolutionary terms, abrupt set of changes over the course of the last 150 years, not just to our foodstuffs but also to our food relationships [ecological not social relationships], all the way from the soil to the meal."

Talking about food, we tend to separate ourselves from our habitat. Our brain made it possible to be more or less independent from the daily hunt and gathering but nevertheless or system might not be made for boxed and stored food. At the bottom I kind of have the feeling we might still be as biological as any other animal and they don´t eat processed food to often. I guess so should we. So keep in mind: there ain´t cereal-trees out there. And fruits already have vitamins when harvested ripe, so there juice doesn´t need extra vitamins. 

Eat food, not too much and mostly plants! And read the book.