The month of April has started and I have conveniently forgotten, or been too busy to, post on April 1st (April fools?)And then we were away and then working, and now there is today.
Today, I worked until 1pm and then gave a bodywork session and then took a nap (my most favorite pleasure on afternoons when I get home from work) and then I went out to shop. First, I bought two old german children's books for my god-nephew ("The Firetruck", and "Favorite Animal Stories") and a book on plant identification for me (What is Blooming There?) which is sorted by color of flower- white, red, blue, yellow and green/brown and then by number of petals- at most 4, 5, more than 5, and two identical sides. Then, I went to the mall (at least it is an outdoor mall) to buy small stickers to label my bottles of vinegars- egg shell, dandelion, and nettle, and oils- so far only wild leek, and tinctures-when I make them. I have been collecting wine bottles, juice bottles, jars, etc to make the mother tinctures and oils, etc. but I have only used little pieces of paper precariously resting on the lids. And I bought a spray bottle to water the plant babies (except tomatoes who hate having their leaves wet from anything other than rain. Tomatoes, by the way, which I cannot stop planting- we added two more varieties last weekend; German Stripe, which are green, and ones that we forgot what they were and only wrote "Tomatoes, red?" on the label (to which a friend said, when we told her, "that's like bananas, yellow")). Oh, and they were having a farmer's market outside of the mall and I bought two small dill plants and a roast chicken.
After shopping, I took the subway one stop from home and then got out and walked through a field full of trees, nettle, wildflowers, grasses, along the Urselbach- our little brook that runs through the town. I sat in the field, looking up flowers, and after identifying herbs like Weisse Traubennessel, and Grosse Klette/Burdock, I walked home to practice Tai Chi.
On the food front, I am now working on the idea of an alkalizing diet/elimination diet, neither of which the foodie part of me wants to do, but which I think the Rosacea on my face is not so subtly telling me I need to. Rosacea is an hereditary skin disease with no known "cause" that can be mild to severe and is characterized by small veins appearing close to the surface of the face, pimples and/or pustules, and skin the texture of, oh, fine to middle grain sandpaper. I always thought I just had pimples that never went away, but apparently, I have Rosacea, which is, according to some, like a red warning light for the pancreas and liver. An alkaline diet can help both care for the internal organs as well as heal the skin. Apparently chocolate, sugar, red wine, cheeses, and certain fruits make Rosacea flare up. Then there is the Rosacea Diet, which is even more severe than the Atkins Diet- no sugar, no carbs,etc. based on the concept that sugar is the cause of Rosacea flare ups (Pancreas).Then, there is the concept of the Elimination Diet to determine food allergies, which can also cause flare ups, in which a person eats almost nothing for a month, or at least none of the known allergens- wheat, gluten, fish, peanuts, soy, citrus fruits, strawberries, dairy products, sugar, honey, black tea, alcohol, etc. and then reintroducing things one at a time, three times a day for three days before moving on to the next food. Brutal, but possibly what I need to undertake. We'll see. But it only seems to be getting worse, my skin, especially eating the diet of bread, cheese, sausage, wine, and beer that I have been.
But don't get too worried, I'm still interested in eating well and deliciously and don't plan on being boring. So, tonight, when I came home, I ate corn tortillas (huge carbon footprint, they are flown over from mexico!) filled with roasted chicken, a salad of fennel, carrot, rucola, endive, and red lettuce, and sheep quark with wild leeks cut up in it. yum. Oh, and a glass of white wine.
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