I have a lot of roses. A LOT. Too many. And while I’m not particularly fond of roses, I thought I could at least use them to make rose essential oil. The real recipes for it require distillation or something like that, so I took the “cheater” way and simply mixed in the bruised petals from one rose with 1/4 cup sunflower oil. I put it in a tightly lidded jar and rested it in a dark place for a week. Then I added another rose, and so forth for two more weeks. Finally, I squeezed the oil from the petals into a strainer and discarded the petals.
The results are not too great. What I have left is not rose oil, but a mixture of oil, solids (so fine that I cannot filter them out) and water (the moisture from the rose petals, I assume); it’s not completely emulsified. Most worryingly, the perfume barely smells of roses (or plants, I can’t quite tell). Now, the fault may be with my roses. Even though it looks like the rose bush next to our house threw up, the resulting roses are not very aromatic.
Oh well, I planted some lavender and perhaps next year I’ll have enough to attempt lavender oil.
Author: marga (Page 66 of 158)
FIRST THURSDAYS!
7pm • Zocalo Coffeehouse, 645 Bancroft (at Dutton), San Leandro
Wheelchair accessible
JULY 2 “Torturing Democracy” SCREENING
www.torturingdemocracy.org
Award-winning producer Sherry Jones presents a comprehensive documentarymore than 18 months in the makingthat examines America’s detention and interrogation practices in the “war on terror.”
“Please watch ‘Torturing Democracy.’ It isn’t easy to watch; but what so many innocent (and guilty) individuals were subjected to in your name was unimaginably harder. As readers know, I’ve been fixated on this since Abu Ghraib. But that documentary made me ill by forcing me again to absorb the enormity of what Bush and Cheney have doneand the urgent, urgent task of repairing the damage. If America is to recover, those responsible must be put on trial. Including the president.”
Andrew Sullivan, Atlantic Monthly.com
After the movie, international human rights lawyer/activist Margarita Lacabe, will talk about the United States’ obligation to prosecute torturers under international law.
—
SLCAN is a grassroots organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in San Leandro by ensuring quality education, smart growth, and an inclusive and equitable community. For more information, visit http://www.slcan.org.
Former School Board Member, lawyer and community activist Stephen Cassidy, has started a new blog on San Leandro matters. Go San Leandro contains/will contain news, opinions and calls for action on matters important to the community. Stephen has been at the forefront of the fight to save San Leandro Hospital, and many of the posts so far concern that issue.
So, if you are from San Leandro, check it out. And while you are at it, if you are not already a reader, check out San Leandro Bytes, the blog that my husband Mike keeps also on San Leandro matters.
The Maya is a general information book about, of course, the Maya, written by mayanist Michael D. Coe. The book was originally published in 1966, and is now in its seventh edition
I suspect this book is used as a textbook in classes that cover the Maya, but I found it a surprisingly easy and quick read (I finished the book in about a day). I liked the very opinionated writing style of the author – so rare now on serious scientists -, but I was frustrated about, all in all, how little information the book conferred. I come to the subject knowing almost nothing about the Maya, but with a degree in Ancient and Near Eastern History and Archaeology – which in reality meant Egyptian archaeology: I know next to nothing about other Near Eastern cultures, though once upon a time I could read Sumerian cuneiform legal texts with some ease. But while I’ve forgotten a lot about the ancient Egyptians, the book gave me the impression that I probably know more about them that Professor Coe, and probably all mayanists, know about their subject. It is understandable, Maya hieroglyphs have been decoded only in the last few decades and the texts that have survived are not only limited but they deal with limited subjects. On the other hand, trough their three thousand year history, the ancient Egyptians wrote about pretty much everything under the sun – I’m sure there are some ostraca grocery lists in some museum somewhere. But my point is that reading a book that conveys so little knowledge is quite frustrating.
I am sure that there are areas in which “our” knowledge of the Maya is quite extensive – their religion, for example. Unfortunately the book concentrated most in the possible/probable (but not certain) history of the Maya, and gave relatively little information about their culture. Perhaps the newer editions are better. I have a book on the daily life of the Maya that I’m going to read next (it’s probably just as old, if not older), perhaps it will give me a better picture of what their society was like.
And if not, there is always
Recent Comments