Number One, Number Two...

I have a tendency to make lists. Long lists.

I make lists for everything. Usually it's "to do today" or "things I want to buy" or "blogs I want to write." But that doesn't mean I can't break out of the shell sometimes and make some crazy lists. But here is a list of the lists I will never make:

• Books I have read. That would take me a couple centuries.
• Places I want to go. Because all I'd have to do is copy the index from the world atlas.
• Favorite food. For one, I could never decide even on multiple favorites.

I almost put "bucket list" on there; because if you want to do something before you die, and you haven't died yet, you should do it right away. But I can't be quite sure that I'll never make a bucket list. You never know when the mood will hit me.

Here's the list of books I want to read. Condensed.

• Jane Austen's Letters- Deirdre Le Faye
• 101 Things You Didn't Know About Jane Austen- Patrice Hannon
• Villette- Charlotte Bronte
• Moby Dick- Herman Melville
• War and Peace- Leo Tolstoy (I think it would just be cool to say that I have read it)
• Cranford- Elizabeth Gaskell
• North and South- Elizabeth Gaskell
• More of Lynn Austen's works
• More of George MacDonald's works
• All of Charles Dickens' works that I haven't read
• All of C.S. Lewis' works that I haven't read

Again, I nearly added "and most of the books I see in the library"... but then it wouldn't have been quite as condensed.

Here is the list of plants I want. Prepare yourself.

• A Clematis jackmanii
• Bleeding Heart
• Lily of the Valley
• A pink Agastache
• Delphinium- tall purple ones
• Peonies- lots of them
• Climbing Roses
• Double Poppies
• Regular Poppies
• Cyclamen
• Orchids- lots more
• Asparagus
• Rhubarb
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Raspberries (a variety that doesn't freeze before they ripen)
• Any vegetable or herb, really

That, too, was a condensed list. Trust me.

And just for fun, here's a list of what I learned from my brothers and their friend yesterday.

• Squirrels make good gifts
• Ninjas have anger issues when it comes to fruit
• The Grand Canyon was made by the Pilgrims (didn't know that, did you?)
• Make sure you have food if there are boys in the vicinity. Lots.

Well, that's all for now. I should probably start doing some of things I have on my many lists...

Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and Connecticut

I like nutmeg. You probably got that already.

I thought it would be nice let you know a little more about nutmeg. So I went to Wikipedia to learn about nutmeg. Really fascinating. Here's what I found out.

The nutmeg tree is any of serveral species in genus Myristica. It is an evergreen tree indigenous to the Spice Islands in Indonesia, although it grows in many places. In fact, Grenada's national flag features a stylized split-open nutmeg.

Ok.

Two spices are derived from the tree- Nutmeg and Mace. Nutmeg is the seed and Mace is a red, "lacy" seed covering called an aril. (As in the aril of a pomegranite. Did you know that? Pomegranite isn't a fruit, it's a false-fruit. An aril. Anyway.) Nutmeg is the only tropical fruit that is the source of two spices and its true fruit is also edible. The fruit looks like an apricot, and a popular way to eat it is candied. But it's easily bruised, which is why it's not exported.

Hmmm.

At one time Nutmeg was one of the most valuble spices. Evidently in England, if you could sell a few nutmegs, you would be financially independent the rest of your life. The British, Dutch, Arabs, French and Portugese all battled for a claim on the nutmeg monopoly. Today, Indonesia is the main producer and exporter with 70% of the market. I think I'd like to go to Indonesia, if ONLY to eat nutmeg fruit off the tree!

That'd be awesome.

However, I learned that you really don't want to eat very much of the ground nutmeg seed. Really. I mean, it would take a lot, but just don't. Don't smoke it either. Unless you want to experiance halucinations and all-over body pain. Get this; nutmeg is illegal in Saudi Arabia. Don't freak out though, even generous culinary servings are fine.

Yikes.

Also, (since I'm certain you were dying to know) Connecticut is only called the Nutmeg State because- as legend goes- certain people there carved fake nutmegs out of wood and sold them as real ones. Which seems like a lot of work for one nutmeg. But I guess (as previously stated) that they were worth a lot more then.

So, that concludes our lesson today. That was a mouthful. I hope you enjoyed learning about nutmeg. I leave with these thoughts:

#1. I wish that the nutmeg fruit was exportable.
#2. I wish I could say that I've tried mace, but I haven't. Not even in spray form. :)
#3. I wish that I didn't have to worry about nutmeg over-consumption.
But (#4) I will never willfully down three ground-up nutmegs in wine. Unlike certain, rather stupid Czech physiologists.

And #5. Nutmeg is pretty awsome.

A Rose By Any Other Name...

So what’s Blue Nutmeg? I mean, isn’t nutmeg… you know… brown? So why blue? For that matter, why nutmeg?

I will tell you.

At the beginning of 2011 my mom asked my brothers and me to find a Bible verse that would be “ours” for 2011. Kind of like a pet rock. It isn’t really yours but if you play with it long enough it feels like yours. The similarity ends when I realize that a rock (in my limited knowledge) has never been a great source of comfort or wisdom. So forget that. It isn’t like a pet rock. I guess the common term “memory verse” would fit better. Who has a pet rock anyway?

But the verse; I chose Psalms 86:11. It’s not a well-known verse, and it didn’t even stick out to me the first time I read it. It took a while. And I’m the sort of person who takes forever to decide. So after I had read my runners-up three… or seventeen times… I made my choice.

Then came the hard part. The whole point of a memory verse is to, well… memorize it. I’m not so good at that stuff. So I used some creativity. I’m pretty good at the creativity. In fact, I prefer creativity to school, dental work and hard labor. Ever since I was pretty little I’ve made this and that. Drawing, painting, cutting. Clothes for my stuffed animals out of Kleenexes. Small houses (for the fairies, of course) out of sticks and rocks. Anything, really. I carved my carrots instead of eating them.

So it seemed a matter of course that I should paint my Bible verse. And I did. And I had a great time! I found the perfect kinds of fonts and sketched it out, and mixed the perfect colors. My favorite colors. I had so much fun that I decided to do it again! And as the ideas for new and different painted verses sprang into my head I got more excited.

True, I have thought of starting a business before. Selling other things I’ve made, or things other people have made. That always seemed like a vague, rather daunting dream. One of those things that you say “Oh, I suppose I may do that someday.” Or “It’s possible, I guess.” But never did it seem like a near, or even feasible, reality. Extravagant reality, yes. Hard? Most definitely yes. But even for me, painfully slow and indecisive, it was a no-brainer.

Sell my Bible verse paintings? Yes!

The decision was made approximately forty-eight hours after the paint started flowing. It was that easy. Alright then, what will the business be called? Aw, rats. Another decision? This would require much more thought than a simple “yes” or “no.” This required an actual thought process. This required some effort. Maybe even a little creativity.

But as it turned out, I only needed creativity. Maybe I used a thought process, in a twisted sort of way. But I know that I didn’t exert any effort. This was how it went. I was looking out on the moonlit river as we drove the curvy road home. Very nice scene, the moon and the steep, tree-covered slope to the ice encrusted river. But that has nothing to do with the business name. But I had a song stuck in my head, On the Blue by Joel Auge. Good song. I can’t really say that has anything to do with the name either. All it did was lead me to think about how much I like the color blue. Favorite, in fact. A light, greenish blue. Seafoam. Has anyone noticed how that color has recently become popular? I’m a trend-setter, what can I say?

This is where I lose all sight of a thought process. Really. Don’t know why or how I started thinking about nutmeg. The only comparison that I can find is that it’s another favorite. Yes, nutmeg is definitely a favorite. In coffee, hot chocolate, applesauce, hot cereal… the shavings by themselves. You either like nutmeg or you’re wrong.

All that was left was to put them together, which I did very quickly. Voila.

So, here comes another job, another distraction, another thing for my to-do list. But another beginning, another challenge, another pleasure too.

So, here comes Blue Nutmeg.