Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Looking in, looking out, clouds and mushrooms

Thoughts:

1- I am thinking about the clouds in the sky yesterday.. sometimes when I see clouds moving quickly past I get this feeling that I am on the outside looking in.. especially those big white fluffy clouds – cumulus – they can be really fascinating to watch. This outside looking in thing happens to me a lot.. sometimes I am in the corner of a room looking in & sometimes I am flowing with all the people like a blood cell flowing in the veins of the Earth – and I realize that I am just a small part of the whole and yet everything is contained inside me..

2- the cookies went over really well yesterday. I brought in 7 types.. most people said it was hard to choose, but surprisingly I think the lemon, the cacao chip and the cacao-goji berry went over the best. Someone mentioned cinnamon cacao & I think I’ll try that this weekend. Also one I really want to try is a superfood one – cacao w/ goji berry, blue-green algae, maca, bee pollen & cordycepts. I have a book on mycomedicinals – and I was looking up all the health benefits of different mushrooms.. cordycepts (dong chong xia cao) does almost everything.. this is the most interesting mushroom also because it only grows on caterpillar larvae. It was written about over 2000 years ago in Chinese texts as an aphrodisiac.. and it was thought to impart immortality to the dead. It is included in the mushroom blend supplement I take – I take very few supplements these days.. but during flu/cold season, I don’t take a chance.. garlic & my mushroom blend!

3- I noticed the yarn I am using to make my Dad’s scarf (Christmas present.. shhh! ; ) comes from Uruguay.. it is gorgeous hand painted, hand spun wool.. but I was interested in how I was so attracted to this yarn and it’s from Uruguay.. and one of my closest friends is from Uruguay. One day I am going to drive with her to the tip of South America. We planned it a couple years ago, but we both knew it will ony happen in a few years. Her son is younger than my kids, he’s in grade 5 now.. We want the kids to be a bit older. When I get there though I want my GPS or a map with a big arrow.. you are here. ..or maybe I can just use the map in my head.. see? ..still on the outside looking in.



The following info on clouds is from: http://schoolscience.rice.edu/duker/weatypeclouds.html

Cumulus Clouds

The word cumulus comes from the Latin word for a heap or a pile. Cumulus clouds are puffy in appearance. They look like large cotton balls. Cumulus clouds usually form when warm, moist air is forced upward. As this air rises, it is cooled. If it is cooled below its dew - point temperature, condensation will occur. The size of a cumulus cloud depends on the force of the upward movement of air and the amount of moisture in the air. The largest cumulus clouds are caused by very strong upward movements of warm, moist air. The clouds that produce heavy thunderstorms in summer are a form of cumulus clouds called cumulonimbus. Cumulonimbus clouds may extend upward for hundreds of meters.

Stratus Clouds

The word stratus comes from the Latin word that means "to spread out." Stratus clouds are horizontal, layered clouds that stretch out across the sky like a blanket. Sometimes a layer of warm, moist air passes over a layer of cool air. Stratus clouds often form at the boundary where these layers meet. Where two such layers of air meet, the warm air is cooled. If the warm air is cooled below its dew point, the excess water vapor condenses to form a blanket - like layer of stratus clouds. If the layers of air are very large, the stratus clouds may extend for many kilometers across the sky.

Cirrus Clouds

Cirrus clouds are a third general type of cloud. The word cirrus comes from the Latin word for a tuft or curl of hair. Cirrus clouds are very wispy and feathery looking. They form only at high altitudes, about 7 km above the earth's surface. Cirrus clouds are composed of ice crystals and are so thin that sunlight can pass right through them.

Pic from Mrs. Magnus’s Cloud website: http://mal.sbo.hampton.k12.va.us/mangus/index.html

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