"G" is for GREEN

APRIL 25, 2010 SUNDAY

"Never lose sight of your goal" was the introductory remark by William Osler, MD to his students. I can say today with certainty that I feel no one should lose sight of their life. For a doctor, my life is always in a constant warfare against the common enemy, a disease. Any disease spares neither age, nor sex, neither religion nor sexual orientation. Yes we have drugs, new technologies, but the key is prevention. And also education.

It is intriguing how anyone becomes interested in plants. I've always loved gardening and planting as a child. I do remember one flowering plant that my mother loved. She claimed never to have planted it, but it grew every year (like so many other plants). It was Lily of the Valley, the white variety. It was so delicate with upside-down bell shaped blossoms. Maybe this was my beginning, maybe not. The study of botany is not new. You clearly knew this.

In 1597, John Gerard published a catalogue of the plants in his garden. There were wood-cut images of the plants with descriptions. His text included a description of 'Digitalis purpurea', the foxglove plant. I cannot understand from his English text what the benefits of foxglove were to him.

But two hundred years later, in 1785, William Withering published an account of foxglove and its medical uses. He never wanted to study plants but he became intrigued because of a love interest. How many of us become interested in something because of a partner, or even a spouse? As I stated, he never liked botany until 10 years earlier he became smitten with Helen Cookes. She was an artist who liked to paint flowers. So what does any young man do for his young lady? He collected plants for her to paint. During this very romantic courtship, he became fascinated with botany. This began his study of botany.

Today I didn't want to get lost in the world of herbs. I might have turned some of you off by the last week of blogging. I know I will finish properties of herbs in the next day. I will turn my attention to using herbs in the kitchen.
This way you can may add ginger, thyme, rosemary and fenugreek to your food but this time you will know the medicinal benefits of these herbs.

The metal needle point bookmark was done while on the beach last summer. G is for Green. G is for Giving. G is for my son, Gregory. G is for Ginger, Grapeseed, Green Tea and Garlic.
G is for Gay. I stitched the rainbow flag above G is for "a Boxed Green"

The rainbow flag is a multi-colored flag consisting of stripes in the colors of the rainbow . The actual colors used to differ, but many of the designs are based on the traditional scheme of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet, or some more modern division of the rainbow spectrum (often excluding indigo) What is indigo anyway? What color is indigo? The use of rainbow flags is a long tradition. They are displayed in many cultures around the world as a sign of diversity and inclusiveness, of hope and of yearning. There are several unrelated rainbow flags in use today. The most widely known is perhaps the pride flag representing gay pride.

Photo credit: Rick Byrd
Until tomorrow...