Trudy Myers's Blog, page 11

Saturday, Getting on the Ship

 Aftergoing to bed so early, I got up about 6, and John at about 7. When we went downto find some breakfast, the lobby restaurant wasn't open, and looked like itwas undergoing renovations or something, with a ladder and some tools in themiddle of the floor. Other guests told us there was a coffee shop down by theentrance, so we went down and got some breakfast sandwiches and drinks and tookthem to our room. Our phones worked, so John had a long call with a fellowKlingon while we waited to check out. He wanted to call another friend, butrealized he didn't have that friend's number. We checked out just before 11,and I sat in the lobby with our luggage while John went outside to takepictures. He came back about 11:15, and we moved out to the driveway, tryingnot to miss the taxi, which was due at 11:30. We found the taxi, the driver gotus to the dock just fine; it was a much shorter trip than from the airport.

We hadnever gotten luggage tags for the ship, so we had to go inside and find thetable set up just to deal with that problem. We discovered our cabin had beenchanged from 4005 to 8197, so we thought we had gotten an upgrade. Turning overour large suitcases, we could now check in, and we let them take a couplepictures before we got on the ship. Of course our cabin wasn't ready for usyet, so we found our muster station and checked in, went to the buffet forlunch and then to the Pink Champayne Bar for drinks, where a trio was playingHawaiian music.

About 3,they finally announced we could get to our cabins. Ours was hidden in a maze ofhallways in the aft of deck 8, and I almost walked past it. When we walked in,our hearts sank. This was not an upgrade! There were 2 bunkbeds attached to thewalls, each sticking into the room about 12 inches. The walkway on either sideof the bed was about 14 wide, so we had to contort ourselves to get in and outof bed. We asked for the main bed to be split in two, leaving a larger walkwaybetween them, but it wasn't done before we went to bed. Getting in and out wasa miserable as we had imagined.

Friday, Getting There

We were atit again, flying out in the wee hours of night to catch a cruise ship. Headedfor Hawaii! This was a little different, because we were flying in the daybefore the cruise started, in case we had a flight delay. I had booked us intoa hotel in the Waikiki section of Honolulu. Their website said they had ashuttle from the airport, a complimentary breakfast and a pool. I should havekept looking.

We went tobed on Thursday, about 6 pm, and on Friday, 4/21, I got up at 1:15 AM to getready. I woke John at 2:30. Everything was packed and in the car; all we neededto do was eat and take off. Easy Peasy. ExceptI forgot to water the houseplants and grab my refrigerated medicine, I was soeager to get going. Well, the best laid plans of mice, men and people going oncruises.

We got tothe parking lot about 4:15, but there was nobody there to check us in. Wewaited with 3 other groups of people. Apparently, there was only 1 personworking, doing both jobs, the clerical checking in and the shuttle driving.

We finallygot to the airport about 4:45, and there were long lines at TSA, despite theirsigns claiming it would only take 18 minutes to get through them. It took us morethan that to get to the first TSA agent, plus another 20 minutes or more to getthrough the machines. John and I got separated between that first agent and themachines, so I went ahead to the gate to wait for John. Well, I did pause at alittle store and picked up a couple pops and candy bars, because who knew if wewould be offered anything on the plane?

He got thereon time, with his shoes. Things went fairly smoothly, then. We were onSouthwest, and they don't have assigned seats, just your assigned boardinggroup. We were Group 8, the next to the last boarding group, but we managed tofind 2 seats together. We discovered our seats wouldn't recline, which made ithard to doze. And there was no wifi on this plane, so there was noentertainment. Shortly after take-off, the crew passed out pretzels and drinks.

After 3hours, we paused in Austin TX to let off some passengers. John and I changedseats to some that would recline. Then the plane filled up, and we were off toSan Diego. The gate we needed in San Diego was pretty close to the gate we camein at. We ate burgers and fries and found some seats to wait in. John noticedour flight was delayed by about half an hour. I called our hotel to let themknow we might get in late. They said don't worry about it; the desk was manneduntil midnight. (!) They also said not to worry about their shuttle from theairport, that a taxi would be cheaper, anyway. Then why advertise that they hada shuttle?

We finallygot on the plane for Honolulu in mid-afternoon, and the flight was uneventful.John was antsy, but couldn't sleep. We landed in early evening, got our luggageand found a taxi to the hotel. It was not what I expected. It had a circulardrive, but the drive was full of vehicles, and the taxi could barely pull infar enough to unload us. The lobby was hard to find, because of all the littlebusinesses between it and the drive, most of them not open at 6 pm. There wasno evening restaurant, just a small cafe that served breakfast and lunch, andit wasn't complimentary. We would have had to walk somewhere to find supper,but we were too tired. We went straight to our room and to bed about 7 pm.

There's a6 hour difference between Hawaii and Orlando, so we had been up and goingpretty much for 24 hours.

Neither Here Nor There

Well, I'mback, in more ways than one. In late April, we took a cruise around Hawaii onNorwegian's Pride of America. I took notes so I could tell you all about it.Before I could get those blogs written, we had a car accident that broke myright arm. No typing for me for several weeks. In the meantime, late in May, weflew to London to catch a cruise up through Scotland and the fjords of Norway.Even a broken arm couldn't keep me from that, but I didn't get any notes taken.And I already find my fond memories of these countries getting muddled in mymind, so I'm going to take these trips out of order and type/post the blog onScotland/Norway before I go back and do the ones about Hawaii. Yes, I can typeagain!

The tripto get to the cruise ship was full of stress and worry, but that seems to bepar for the course whenever we have to fly to the ship's port. We drove to theairport, parked our car, took the shuttle the rest of the way, checked our bag,got our boarding passes, got through TSA... That was a chore! If I went throughthe normal metal detector, my artificial knees would set it off, and I couldn'traise my right arm to go through the round metal detector. So they sent methrough the normal detector, and then I got a thorough pat-down before we couldgo on to our gate.

By theway, TSA is now posting how long it will take you to get through the line, butthat's just to get past the agent who studies your passport and boarding pass.You still have to get through the metal and explosives detectors.

Okay, thepat-down was done, and we went on to our gate, where we caught our flight toMontreal. Once there, we caught our over-night flight to London, where I hadbooked a night at one of the airport hotels. First, we wanted to recover fromthe flight, since we don't sleep well while flying. But also, we had to catch ashuttle from Heathrow to the Southhampton docks. Second, the shuttles pickedpeople up between 9:45 and 10:45 am, but because we got in at 9:30 am, I wasn'tsure we could collect our luggage and find our way to Terminal 4 by 10:45. Wedidn't, so it was a good thing I had booked our shuttle for the following day.

Afterwalking what seemed like miles in Heathrow, we gathered our luggage, askedquestions, had to go outside, take an elevator down to the underground level,walk long miles to get to the ticket station, take an elevator, get on theunderground to Terminal 4, get off and take an elevator up. Luckily, justoutside that elevator was a door with a sign that said, "To Terminal 4hotels", so that wasn't hard to find. We walked a few more miles to get tothe entrance to our hotel.

It was tooearly to check in, but we did go to the cafe and grab some lunch. By then, theyhad our room ready, so we went up and when we got to our room, we closed thecurtains and took a nap. Later, Hubby wanted to go and search for the placewhere the shuttle would pick us up, so we walked another mile or so to find theHilton. Having found it, we went back to our hotel, had supper and settled infor the night.

Theshuttle was supposed to pick us up at about 10:45. We got there about 9:30 andtried to pass the time by watching other people get picked up by their rides.Probably a bad idea, as by 10:30, Hubby was positive we had missed our ride.Finally, we gathered all our stuff and moved outside (It was chilly and windy.)Our shuttle finally arrived about 10:55, having picked other people up indowntown London before it came to get us. At least that gave Hubby people totalk to during the 1.5 hr trip to the ship, so he got a chance to calm down.

The tripstarted out a lot chillier than we expected. Our first full day on the ship,during which we were headed for Edinburgh, Hubby made the comment, "Ithink I'm coming down with a cold." And of course he did.

We had ashore excursion scheduled for every day except the last, because the shipwasn't getting into Tromso (Norway) until 7 pm. And we had to get up at 4 am toget to the airport. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The shoreexcursions were lots of fun. The first week or so, I was super protective of mybroken arm, constantly worried it would get bumped too hard, or I would falland do more damage. So I enjoyed the bus drives, looking out the windows, but Iwas too afraid to get off and explore Edinburgh Castle, because they said itwas crowded and we'd be walking on cobblestones. Eventually, I did become morerelaxed about my arm.

I didfall, a couple of times, but did no damage to my arm. Once when I was trying toclimb onto an antique street car. The steps were really steep, especially thetop one, and the tour guide was acting as my handhold, but the step was toodeep, and I went down onto my right knee. It took both the tour guide and Hubbyto get me back on my feet so I could find a seat. But no bleeding, so I wasfine. The 2nd time was in Dublin, but I'll get to that later.

TheSheffield Islands (Scotland) have stone rings similar to Stonehenge. TheShetland Islands (also Scotland) have Shetland ponies, and I think that's wherewe saw an archeological site of a Neolithic village on the beach. The homeswere built of stone slabs, and the furniture was made of stone, too. Plusassorted furs for the beds. I got off the bus for that and walked to the site,walked all around it. There was a Laird's house not far away that was open as amuseum, but as slow as I walk, I didn't figure I had time to go there, so Iwent back to the bus. This was the place where the tour guide lost one of ourgroup. The guide had said to get back to the bus by 11, and everybody hadexcept one. After looking for her for 10 minutes, the guide made arrangementsfor the other buses to keep an eye open for her, and then we left. A littleways down the road, she announced that one of the other buses had collected thewayward woman and she was safe.

Norway'sfjords are beautiful. The mountains are beautiful. At that time of year (earlyJune), the snows are melting, and the waterfalls and rivers are raging, whichis more interesting to see that 'stately and sedate'. The daily high was alwayspredicted to be 52F, but at least one day, it got up around 60F, so you neverquite knew if you would need a jacket or not. We had a great time, except forJohn's cold.

Now,remember how I said the trip there was stressful and worrisome? The trip backwas much much worse. We got up at 4am and went to the buffet for a continentalbreakfast, which consisted of not much. We were supposed to meet at the Aqualounge at 5am, and at 5:30, they would take us out to the shuttle. We got tothe Aqua about 5:05, and they were already hurrying people out. There were 2shuttles, and both of them were packed full. The one we got had no luggagecapacity, so our carryon had to ride inside with us.

We gotthrough Norway's TSA okay, which led us to Gate 32. There weren't enough chairsin the gate lobby for everybody to sit down, so they brought in folding chairs.The plane was supposed to take off at 8:35am. That's when the flight crew forthe charter flight arrived, however, so it was more like 10am before the planetook off. Naturally, it got into Dublin late, and then, the luggage took overan hour to arrive at the carousel. Consequently, by the time we had our luggagecollected, we had missed our flight to Philly. We trudged our way to theAmerican Airlines ticket counter to see what could be done. Us and about 100other people who had been on that charter flight.

Luckily,there was a cruise line representative there to help us with this problem! Overthe course of several hours, he saw that we all got booked on the next day'sflight, gave us bottles of water, sent us to the food court to grab some supper(and keep the receipts!), got us all booked into various hotels for the night,and arranged shuttles to get us to those hotels. It involved a lot more walkingto get to the shuttle, which was parked 3 or 4 blocks away... felt like a lotmore than that.

And now,the time I fell in Dublin; It was while I was getting off that shuttle at thehotel. I was on the stairs to exit, and somehow I lost my balance. I fellbackwards, against my hubby, who staggered, but didn't let me hit my head onthe driver's seat. So, no damage done, I got back up and got off the bus, andwe chatted with the driver for a moment, then went inside. Very nice hotel, butwe were exhausted and went to bed about 7pm.

Incomparison, the following day was a breeze, but it had its snags. We wereconcerned when the shuttle didn't pick us up until 10:30am. We'd been thinkingwe would need 4 hours to get through the airport, and the plane took off at1:55 pm. I needed help getting through the automatic kiosk, but it seemed a lotfaster than going through the regular line. Then the kiosk printed out only onepiece of paper, which said, "You have been selected for a Traveler's Survey".My helper told me to take it up to the bag check window, and they would helpme. The survey was apparently only 1 or 2 questions, but the guy's machinedidn't want to read our passports, so he had to enter the information manually.Finally, we got our boarding passes and could head for our gate, except wedidn't know what gate!

We gotthrough Ireland's TSA, complete with pat-down for me. Then we had to go throughthe US TSA, only when we found it, they sent us through a line that didn't haveanybody manning it, which was worrisome as well as a relief. Then we walked andwalked and walked until we finally found our gate, where we could sit down for20-30 minutes. The flight was full, of course, with all those left-overs fromthe day before. Hubby and I weren't sitting anywhere close to each other. Andthe entertainment wasn't working. I slept for about 1.5 hrs, and hubby read hisbook.

We got toPhilly and found our next gate. We had about 3 hours to wait. Eventually, weboarded that plane and started the last leg of our journey, to Orlando. Theplane would touch down about 10:05pm.

InOrlando, we gathered our luggage and said good-bye to the shipmates who hadmade the entire trip with us. We found the pick-up location for the parking lot'sshuttle, and called to let them know we were ready. This was about 10:55 pm. Wesaw lots of shuttles come and go, but not ours. At 11:20, we called them again.And several times after that, but they either didn't answer or hung up on us.Finally, about midnight, our shuttle arrived and was packed solid in no time.The driver was smiling and upbeat, as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Andwhen I went to the office to pay for the extra day that we were stuck inDublin, they didn't charge me $7, like for a full day; they charged me $10!

Anyway, wedrove home, and got here about 2am on Wednesday. Here it is Sunday, and we'restill recovering.

We reallylike cruising. It's the flying back and forth that drives us crazy.

The First Americans, Part 3

But thewestern coast was not the only available route for early colonists. An ice-freecorridor formed after 2 ice sheets that had met in the middle of the continentbegan to melt. At first, the meltwater formed vast lakes, but these eventuallydrained, leaving dry land. This corridor ran along the eastern flank of theRockies, from Alaska to the lower 48 states. It was originally believed to haveopened up 13,000 years ago, which fit the Clovis-First scenario, but ruled outit being available for earlier people.

A group ofscientists decided to take another look at this corridor, using new methods ofdating, and determined that the corridor formed at least 14,000 to 15,000 yearsago, possibly more. What's more, the corridor in northern Alberta was at least400 kilometers wide and no longer held any large lakes. Now, the corridor wasscoured by retreating ice and pierced by cold winds, so it would have seemed aformidable place to early travelers. But hunter-gatherers from Beringia mayhave decided to explore it after watching flocks of waterfowl head south in thefall and return in the spring. Food would have been scarce, but the explorerscould have hunted birds or larger game, such as mountain sheep, now believed tohave grazed in the Yukon and northern British Columbia.

Thetravelers may have taken along dogs. Siberian hunters first domesticated wolvesas long ago as 33,000 years. These would have made valuable hunting companionsand pack animals. A 1994 study revealed that dogs carrying 13 kilograms (28.7lbs) could travel as far as 27 kilometers a day, in the right conditions. Ifhunting failed, and starvation threatened, the migrants could have eaten someof their dogs. One scientist calculated the colonists could have reached thesouthern end of the corridor in only four months, traveling at 16 kilometers aday.

Back atButtermilk Creek in Texas, the scientists are still studying the tiny, delicatetools created and left by the pre-Clovis people, and may have found new cluesabout the origins of the Clovis people. 2,500 years after the pre-Clovis peopleknapped blades and bifaces, Clovis hunters used similar techniques across NorthAmerica to make massive, elongated blades, some reaching 21 cm (8.3 inches) ormore in length. It is possible the Clovis people were descended from earliermigrants coming through Beringia.

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar....

The First Americans, Part 2

TheClovis-First model says humans reached the Americas by trekking overland, butothers propose the earliest travelers arrived by sea, paddling small boatsalong the coast, from East Asia to southern Beringia and down the western coastof the Americas. Scientists first began thinking about this route in the late1970s, when they started examining geologic and pollen records to reconstructancient environments along Canada's western coast. Instead of the entirenorthwestern coast laying under thick ice, analyses of coastal bogs showed thata coniferous forest thrived on Washington's Olympic Peninsula 13,000 years ago,and that other green refuges dotted the coast. Early humans camping in thesespots would have found plenty of shellfish, salmon, waterfowl and caribou orother land animals grazing in the larger spots.

In fact,it is now known that much of the British Columbian coast was ice free at least16,000 years ago. Although they haven't found any preserved boats, they wereknown to humans at least 45,000 years ago when humans island-hopped from Asiato Australia. Still, finding campsites of these exploring mariners are hard tofind. This is because as the ice sheets melted, the sea level rose, drowningancient coastlines under meters of water. However, in March 2011, evidence ofearly seafarers was found on Santa Rosa Island, just off the southernCalifornia coast. Nearly 12,000 years ago, Paleo-American sailors crossed 10kilometers of open water to Santa Rosa, which would have required a boat. Birdbones and charcoal found at the site were dated to 11,800 years ago.

Thesetravelers had hunted Canada geese and cormorants as well as pinnipeds (sealsand sea lions). They also left behind distinctive technology, more than 50dainty stemmed points that may have been part of darts used for hunting. Theirdesign seemed very unlike the long, furrowed and sturdy-looking Clovisspearpoints. Very similar stemmed points were found scattered around thenorthern rim of the Pacific Ocean. The earliest came from the Korean peninsula,Japan and the Russian Far East, and were dated to around 15,000 years ago.Stemmed points found in Oregon were dated at 14,000 years old, and12,000-year-old points were found on the Channel Islands, in Baja Californiaand along coastal South America.

Even so,explorers of this rich coastal world were unlikely to have raced southward.They may have moved just a kilometer or so a year. They were moving intounpopulated lands, and had to maintain connections with people behind them inorder to have marriage partners available.

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar....

The First Americans, Part 1

Forseveral decades, archaeologists thought the first Americans were the Clovispeople, said to have reached the New World 13,000 years ago from northern Asiaby following Mammoths and other large prey across the Beringia Bridge. Supposedly,they journeyed rapidly overland from the Yukon to Alberta, leaving behind theirdistinctive stone tools across what is now the lower 48 states. But it has nowbeen established that humans reached the Americas thousands of years earlier.The evidence comes not only from archaeological finds, but also from geneticsand geology.

Forinstance, from a Texas creek bank, excavators discovered more than 19,000artifacts, some no larger than a thumbnail. One such artifact was once part ofan all-purpose cutting tool, like an ice age equivalent of a box cutter.Artifacts like these are pushing the history of humans in the New World backbeyond the Clovis people, since these tools were dated to 15,500 years ago.

Insouthern Chile, archaeologists found traces of early Americans who slept inhide-covered tents and ate seafood and wild potatoes 14,600 years ago. That waslong before the Clovis people appeared in North America. in Paisley Five MilePoint Caves in Oregon, another team found 14,400-year-old human fecescontaining seeds of desert parsley and other plants.

Over thepast decade, geneticists have been finding new clues where the first Americanscame from and when they left home by studying the DNA of indigenous peoples.This information strongly indicates the first Americans' ancestors came fromsouthern Siberia. Although this confirmed the suspected homeland, it alsoindicated that the New World colonists left their homeland between 25,000 and25,000 years ago. This would have been a difficult time to migrate, for hugeglaciers capped the mountain valleys of Asia, and massive ice sheets mantledmost of Canada, New England and several northern states. But that didn'tnecessarily stop the colonists.

The icesheets had lowered sea level by more than 100 meters, exposing continentalshelves. The newly revealed land of northeastern Asia and Alaska, plus adjacentregions in Siberia, Alaska and northern Canada, formed a landmass joining theOld World to the New known as Beringia.

The airthat swept over Beringia were dry and brought little snow to the area, thuspreventing the growth of ice sheets. It was an arid tundra grassland inhabitedby woolly mammoths, giant ground sloths, steppe bison, musk ox and caribou.Genetic studies suggest that sea lions likely inhabited the rocky islands thatstudded Beringia's south shore. So human migrants had their pick of hunting terrestrialmammals or seafaring ones.

The majorgenetic lineages of Natives Americans suggests that the earliest Americanspaused somewhere and evolved in isolation for thousands of years beforecontinuing on. Some 19,000 years ago, North America's ice sheets beganshrinking, creating 2 passable routes to the south. Several studies of thegeographical distribution of genetic diversity in indigenous Americans indicatethe earliest colonists arrived between 18,000 and 15,000 years ago, whichplaces them a pre-Clovis.

 

https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar....

Bread Recipes

About14,400 years ago, someone was baking pita bread in the Black Desert ofnortheastern Jordan. Researchers made this discovery by sampling the contentsof 2 stone fireplaces left at a small campsite by the Natufians, who werehunter gatherers. The charred remains suggest the Natufians gathered wildcereals and tubers to make flour for the bread. Bread was probably not a staplefood, but a rare treat. Researchers were surprised to find people making breadat least 4,000 years before the dawn of agriculture.

Meanwhile,at another Natufian site 150 miles away, another team analyzed residues on 3stone mortors and found evidence of beer being brewed from wild wheat andbarley 13,000 years ago.

Beer andBread! Life was good!

Anothersource says that to make the first bread, cereal grains were roasted, wateradded to make a 'grain paste', which was then cooked. This flatbread still hasa legacy in many parts of the world. Modern descendants include Mexico'stortillas, Indian chapatti, naan and roti, Armenian lavishes, Iranian sangaksand taboons, Scottish oatcakes and North American johnnycake.

Traces offlour have been found at Upper Paleolithic sites in Europe, which means flouris over 30,000 years old. Cereals were a part of a hunter-gatherer lifestyle,even though the majority of their food was animal protein and fats. Around10,000 years ago, during the Neolithic period, cereals and breads were eatenmore regularly. Wheat and barley were domesticated about this time and spreadfrom Southeast Asia to Europe, North Africa and the Indian subcontinent. Rice,maize, and sorghum may have been used to make bread in other parts of theworld.

Eventually,leavened bread was created by taking a chunk of day-old dough and adding waterand sugar to use as a 'sourdough starter', of sorts. For a lighter bread, thefoam from beer was collected and added to the dough. For places that drank winerather than beer, a mixture of grape must and flour paste worked in a similarmanner.

 

https://abreadaffair.com/bakery-vanco...

Archaeology, January-February 2019, pp 26-27, "TheFirst Bakers"

Nutmeg, an Ancient Spice

Nutmeg wasused in the Banda Islands (Indonesia) as long ago as 3500 years. Pottery from thatdate have  traces of nutmeg in them. It's not known if it wasused for its fruit, as a spice or for medicinal purposes, but NeolithicIndonesian communities were clearly using it for something.

TheBanda Islands consist of eleven small volcanic islands, and are part of thelarger Maluku Islands group. These islands were the only source of nutmeg andmace production until the mid-19th century.

Nutmeg isthe ground up seed of several tree species of the genus Myristica. Mace isanother spice produced by grinding up the seed covering. These trees are also acommercial source of nutmeg essential oil and nutmeg butter. Indonesia is themain producer of nutmeg and mace, as the true nutmeg tree is native there.

If nutmegis consumed in amounts exceeding the typical use as a spice, it may produceallergic reactions, dermatitis or have psychoactive effects. Although sometimesused in traditional medicine for various disorders, nutmeg is not used inmedicines today.

Nutmeg hasa distinctive pungent fragrance and a slightly sweet taste. It can be used toflavor baked goods, confections, puddings, potatoes, meats, sausages, sauces,vegetables and beverages such as eggnog.

Nutmegtrees are dioecious plants, which means individual plants are either male orfemale. The first harvest of nutmeg trees takes place 7-9 years after plantingand the trees reach full production after 20 years.

Nutmeg isused as a spice in many cuisines. In Indonesia, it is used in spicy soups, ingravy for meat dishes, and in certain European derived dishes. In India, it isused in many sweet, as well as savoury, dishes. Ground nutmeg is also smoked inIndia for a different flavor. In Europe, nutmeg and mace are used in potato andspinach dishes, in processed meat products, in soups, sauces, baked goods andrice pudding. The Dutch add nutmeg to such vegetables as Brussels sprouts,cauliflower and string beans, as well as to mulled cider, mulled wine, junket(also known as curds and whey) and eggnog. Nutmeg is a common spice for pumpkinpie. In the Caribbean, nutmeg is sprinkled on top of drinks such as theBushwacker, Painkiller, and Barbados rum punch.

The nutmegfruit can also be eaten. It is used to make jam, or is finely sliced, cookedwith sugar and crystallised to make a fragrant candy. Sliced nutmeg fruit ismade with a sugary syrup liquid or dry coated with sugar to make a dessert.Nutmeg rind can be blended or boiled to make iced nutmeg juice. In India, thisis used for juice, pickles and chutney.

Nutmegessential oil is obtained by steam distillation of ground nutmeg. It is used inperfumes and pharmaceuticals. The oil is colorless or light yellow, and smellsand tastes of nutmeg. It is used as flavoring in baked goods, syrups, beveragesand sweets. When used to replace ground nutmeg, it doesn't leave particles inthe food. The oil is also used in manufacturing toothpaste and cough syrups.

Nutmegbutter is obtained from the nut. It is a reddish-brown semisolid substance withthe taste and smell of nutmeg. About 75% of nutmeg butter can be turned into afatty acid. This can be used as a replacement for cocoa butter, can be mixedwith cottonseed or palm oil, and has applications as an industrial lubricant.

In thesixth century AD, nutmeg spread to India, then to Constantinople. By the 13thcentury, Arab traders knew the origin of nutmeg was the Indonesian islands, butkept the location a secret from European traders.

In August1511, Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Malacca on behalf of the king ofPortugal. At the time, Malacca was the hub of Asian trade. In November of thatyear, Albuquerque sent an expedition of 3 ships to find the Banda Islands.Those ships arrived in early 1512 and remained for about a month, buying andfilling their ships with nutmeg, mace and cloves. Although control of thistrade by the Portuguese was not possible, they participated without a footholdin the islands.

In 1621,the Dutch East India Company waged battle with the Bandanese to obtain amonopoly on nutmeg. It is estimated the Bandanese went from a population ofapproximately 15,000 people to 1,000 people.

TheBritish invaded and temporarily took control of the Banda Islands during theNapoleonic Wars. They busily transplanted nutmeg trees, complete with soil, toSri Lanka and Singapore and other places. From those, they also transplantedtrees, most notably to Zanzibar and Grenada. The Dutch eventually regainedcontrol of the Banda Islands, and kept it until World War II.

In 2019,142,000 tonnes of nutmeg were produced. Indonesia, Guatemala and India producedapproximately equal amounts, producing 85% of the global total.

Nutmegintoxication may occur with side effects such as delirium, anxiety, confusion,headaches, nausea, dizziness, dry mouth, eye irritation, and amnesia. It takesseveral hours to reach maximum effect and may last for several days. Nutmegoverdose rarely causes death, but can if combined with other drugs.

The scentof nutmeg may attract pets, but it can be poisonous to them.

I'm not ahuge fan of pumpkin pie, but I love a sprinkling of nutmeg in my eggnog. Whatabout you? Do you have a favorite dish that uses nutmeg?

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutmeg

Archeology, January/February 2019, page 25

Aurochs, the Mega-Cow

TheAurochs were around during the last ice age, although I seldom think of them asan ice age megafauna. 'Auroch' is German for "original ox" and ispronounced OR-ock.

Auroch isthe megafauna ancestor of all domesticated cattle. During its prime, a maleauroch stood about six feet high at the shoulder and weighed a ton, althoughother websites said they could have weighed 3,000 lbs. The species lived from2,000,000 to 500 years ago, inhabiting the plains of Eurasia and northernAfrica. There is no indication that they ever made it to the Americas. The lastauroch, a female, was killed in Poland in 1627.

Cavepaintings of Auroch from Lascaux in France have been dated to about 17,000years ago. Humans hunted them for food, and they also domesticated it, apast-time that eventually led to modern cows.

There wereactually 3 separate subspecies of auroch. Bosprimigenius primigenius is the best known subspecies, and is the onedepicted in the Lascaux cave paintings. It was native to Eurasia. Bos primigenius namadicus, or the IndianAurock, was domesticated a few thousand years ago into the Zebu cattle. TheNorth African Auroch (Bos primigeniusafricanus) is the most obscure of the subspecies, and is likely native tothe Middle East.

In the1920s, a pair of German zoo directors attempted to resurrect the Auroch byselective breeding of modern cows. The result was a herd of oversized oxenknown as Heck cattle. Hopes for the resurrection of the Auroch persist,although by using more advanced science than the Heck brothers used.

 

https://www.thoughtco.com/auroch-1093172

Woolly What?

I started wondering why there were only 2 animals that had once evolved into wooly renditions. Times were cold during the ice age. Surely there were other animals that made adaptations, too, in order to survive? And then I remembered, way back in my childhood, of hearing about another animal that was called 'woolly'.

The woolly caterpillar!

Quickly, I set out to find what information I could on this remaining ice age creature.

It is known by many names; woolly bear caterpillar, fuzzy bear caterpillar, woolly worm, and hedgehog caterpillar. But apparently, nobody calls it a woolly caterpillar! I can only guess that one of my childhood playmates shortened 'woolly bear caterpillar' into 'woolly caterpillar', or I did it myself, possibly without even realizing I had done it.

The woolly bear caterpillar is the larval form of the Isabella tiger moth. It has black fur at the front and back, with a band of reddish brown around the middle.

They can usually be found in the autumn, after they have stuffed themselves on a variety of grasses and weeds, including dandelion, nettles and plantain, and are then in search of a dark and sheltered spot where they can hibernate for the winter.

There are those who believe that the amount of black on the woolly bear in the autumn predicts how severe the coming winter will be. But the truth is that its coloring is dependent on how well it stuffed itself, its age, and the species (there are about 260 species of tiger moth).

The isabella tiger moth's larval form occurs in the United States, Greenland and Canada. It can be found in many cold regions, including the Arctic. The Arctic woolly bear caterpillar emerges from the egg in the fall. It spends the winter in its larval form, frozen solid. First, its heart stops beating, then its gut freezes, its blood, and finally the rest of the body. It survives by producing a cryoprotectant in its tissues. In the spring, it thaws, and resumes eating. It will go through 7 winters in the frozen state before it finally becomes a moth. As an adult moth, it has about 1 week to mate, lay eggs, and die.

It is not recommended to handle the woolly bear caterpillar because their sharp hairs may cause dermatitis in some people.

The larval form of the isabella tiger moth should not be confused with the larval forms of the Grammia incorrupta or the garden tiger moth, both of whom are also called woolly bear caterpillars.

Woollybear Caterpillar festivals are held in several locations in the fall: Vermillion, OH; Banner Elk, NC; Beattyville, KY; Oil City, PA; and Little Valley, NY.

Well, that was not what I expected. I was thinking an ice age megafauna, maybe 4 or 5 feet tall at the shoulder, able to provide a feast for dozens of humans at a time. Or maybe they would trample right over humans. Something that when it finally hatched, would produce an adult about the size of Mothra!

Still, that freezing in order to get through the winter, that's kind of neat. I'll have to remember that and work it into some story or other.

 

https://ccswoollybearcaterpillarbaum1...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyrrhar...

https://www.weather.gov/arx/woollybear