Faith, Folklore, and Friends

My friends know I love books, and enjoy getting recommendations of books they have read.  It is good to read books outside of your comfort zone sometimes.  A friend recommended Thale's Folly by Dorothy Gilman to me. I put it on my list, and found it at the Florence/Lauderdale Public Library Saturday.  I finished reading it today. I love every page , every  sentence of this book. It was published in 1999, and I have missed it on the library shelves for a decade and a half.  Had it not been for Ruth recommending this book, I would have missed something wonderful. Take my word for it, and check it out.  Right now, I am going to make some herbal tea. [Basil,] being applied to the place bitten by venomous beasts, . . .it speedily draws the poison to it; Every like draws its like . . .Hilarius, a French physician, affirms upon his own knowledge, that an acquaintance of his, by common smelling to it, had a scorpion breed in his brain.  ...

Pineapple sage, Salvia elegans, has a very sweet scent that reminds you of pineapples.  The leaves are soft and velvety, and is so beautiful growing at the corner of my front porch.   In its native Mexico, pineapple sage is one of the three most-visited plant species by hummingbirds.  Unfortunately, by the time it blooms here, most of the hummingbirds have migrated.  This year, it didn't bloom until October.   Both the blossoms and leaves are edible.  I have used them for tea and to decorate cupcakes.   Pineapple sage has been used for the treatment of depression and high blood pressure in traditional medicine. Of course, a hot cup of good herbal tea is good for just about everything. I have never been successful in rooting cuttings, but the plant usually comes back every year from the roots.  I hope it stays around for a long, long time.