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#WeedWednesday Sublingual Medicine
July 19, 2017
— 1 Comment
There are a growing number of products being produced to specifically address the medical marijuana patient’s needs. By refining the plant in various ways the effects can be customized. Those who do not want to smoke have many good options. Our dispensary, Desert Bloom Re-Leaf Center, is constantly developing new ways to serve the patients. Our kitchen goddess, Juliana Desmond, works on finding new ways to deliver the benefits of cannabis to treat the conditions our patients present. She creates, then tests, the products for efficacy and shelf stability before they are sold on the market. It is a long and careful process she coordinates with our lab. She also works at the dispensary so she has direct knowledge of what is popular and most requested by our patients.
People of all ages and walks of life come to the dispensary for relief. As with all healing the patient must trust the provider. Our dispensary agents are trained to pay very close attention to the patient to establish a comfortable, yet clinical, relationship. By listening closely to the self diagnosis the patient gives the budtender now has many tools to try. We teach everyone to start with a very low dose and go slowly. We want to provide relief with the least amount of consumption and expense. By working with the patient to change dosage and or strain to customize the experience , the budtender’s knowledge and professionalism best serves the public. If you are looking for a wide variety of products at all price points, visit the knowledgeable staff at Desert Bloom.
#TeaTuesday Variety- Spice Of Life
July 18, 2017
— 1 Comment
White Strawberry Tea
Not so long ago I was very limited in the teas I consumed. I was a big fan of herbal, and fruit tea but had no love for green, white, or black teas. I had tried some but probably was brewing them incorrectly for maximum results. I probably became intrigued to expand my tea selection by tasting the samples that came with my regular Adagio orders. Reaching beyond my previous boundaries turned out to be a very good idea. Now I am into almost every variety and flavor. There is a place and time for each tea. They offer different benefits as well as flavors. If you want to expand your appreciation of tea, here are the kinds of tea made from the leaves of the Camellia Sinensis plant:
- Black tea includes the common English Breakfast, Earl Grey, and Dragon Pearls. Brew according to directions to avoid any bitter aftertaste.
- Oolong tea is available in a range of flavors due to a roasting process that brings out flavors in the product. By choosing a method of roasting that will take between 12 and 36 hours, the processor can create anything from green to floral to dark notes. Formosa, Ti Kuan Yin, Wuyi are Oolong teas
- Chai is a blend of tea and spices very popular in India. It is commonly served with milk. The tea can be of any variety and the spices are blended to taste. I love the honey bush and rooibos chais without caffeine.
- Pu-Erh tea is fermented then dried for a full bodied taste with no astringent aftertaste. This tea is smooth and nutty, available in several different flavors. It can be purchased in pearls, which look really beautiful when the unfold in your cup.
- Green tea’s superior antioxidant health benefits are a result of the processing of the leaves. Gunpowder is one of the most well known green teas. My favorite greens are the fruit flavored ones, which I enjoy over ice.
- White tea is the least processed of all the teas. Silver Needle and White Peony are well known examples of this delicate beverage that contains even more antioxidants than green tea. All the white teas make me very happy, especially in the summer. The light, refreshing taste is perfect for hot days. I am crazy for the White Strawberry and White Eternal Spring blends.
The herbal blends, rooibos, honey bush and fruit tisanes make up a group of caffeine free beverages I enjoy liberally. However, I am very pleased to have made the acquaintance of all of the teas on this list because it expands my possible choices. Life is discovery, and tea makes an excellent vehicle to learn more about the places tea is grown and the cultures created around this important beverage. Adagio offers sampler packs, which helped me find new excitement. I have also been very happy to buy some of the other customers’ signature blends. This is an option I have not used yet myself. It is yet another way to taste and share tea. If you like the way your custom blend tastes, you can ship it to your friends with your name and label on it as a gift. I hope you will explore the world of tea with me. It is a satisfying journey.
#SelfCareSunday Social Media Management
July 16, 2017
— 1 Comment
heard it through the grapevine
heard it through the grapevine
Social media has a way of consuming more time than anticipated. The phone is a silent thief vibrating in your pocket, distracting you from whatever you are doing. There are now special programs at hotels for folks who want to do a detox. The deal is that the front desk will keep your phone locked up for you while you try to go cold turkey. You pay a fee for this service. This example from 2009 is listed as a detox package for just $199 a day ( that is per person) at a fancy place just outside Washington, DC. They were probably pioneers in the growing market, and DC probably does generate a lot of social media anxiety.
The terem social media management is normally used to refer to the marketing of a business using the various platforms. What I mean is personal management and strategy. You don’t need an expert to help you design a strategy. You are the only person who knows how far social media has slipped into every aspect of your day. You are the only one who really can asses your need for “likes” and what that need represents. This is not a relationship with your phone, although it seems to be. This social media presence is a self image, crafted by you.
There are now businesses designing custom social media detox retreats. This is a high growth industry. Just like the opioid crisis, the social media addiction problem can be treated with mindfulness and meditation for a long term cure. Staying “clean” after one of these intentional cleanse periods will require a plan. But why wait until you need an expensive intervention? Now is an excellent time to find balance between life and digital devices.
My own strategy, which works pretty well, is to have no relationship with my phone. I don’t give out my cell phone number, and ignore my phone most of the time. I have a land line to talk to people, and I don’t text. I use the phone for GPS and to make calls when I travel. I sit at my desk (like now) to write or read on the laptop. I limit the desk time just because I am not the type who likes to sit for long periods of time. When I finish my tasks on the computer, which include a couple of platforms, I leave it behind while I move around and do the rest of my day. This keeps my focus on the task at hand, both at the desk (because I want to finish) and on the go. I occasionally get sucked in for short times, but basically this system creates a functional boundary. Have you ever thought about where your digital boundary is….or where you want it to be? Take care of your time, gentle reader…it is a terrible thing to waste.
#MemoirMonday Fishing With My Father
July 10, 2017
— 1 Comment
Dick on a family fishing trip
My father was a fisherman. This sport consumed his free time and a lot of his money. I think he inherited the love of fishing from his mom. It was mentioned in some early notes by my great-grandmother that Olga, my grandma, was an ace fisherwoman as a child. It was a family activity for multiple generations. We would go to lakes in Arkansas and Oklahoma when I was very young. After we moved to Pennsylvania I don’t really know where or if my dad went fishing. The Allegheny River near our home was way too polluted for fishing, and Lake Erie was on the way to completely ruined too. I think he just fished when he was down south visiting his parents.
Our family moved to Venezuela in 1963, to a rural part of the country. My father was the general manager for Mene Grande, aka Gulf Oil in the Eastern part of Venezuela. Maracaibo, in the west, had another operations manager. The companies built camps for their workers. Service companies like Halliburton had small camps, and sent their kids to school at the large camp, by agreement. My dad was the boss of all the people in my neighborhood and all the people we knew in other towns. I was a princess of petroleum. Inside the camp life was lavish. Outside life was primitive by the standards I knew in Pennsylvania.
One of the privileges my father enjoyed was being invited on fishing trips by service companies. We also had a yacht at our disposal in Puerto la Cruz, so my dad had his own deep sea fishing craft with a full crew. I liked the yacht part because I never had to fish. I was not really into it. I ate them, but that was about it. I got to water ski when my father was not trolling for fish in the Caribbean Sea. That was excellent.
We went into the jungle to a fishing camp owned by some service company on a jaunt to catch a fish called Pavón. It is large and free, and was very abundant in the Amazon Jungle. We flew in a WWII German plane with the owner/pilot. He was most certainly a Nazi who got out with his plane. It still had military style seating ..as in not much. You just get strapped to the side of the plane and bounce around in an open metal fuselage. I believe we were in Colombia, but there were no signs of statehood. There was a tiny trailer and an indigenous family of caretakers. It was the hottest place I had ever been in my life.
We set out in small boats, a couple of guys stood up in the boat and shot the crocodiles in the head when the approached our boats. The bloody and creepy memory is clear in my mind today..as is the amazing heat. Finally we landed and started casting lines from the shore. The Pavón were biting and we were catching them non-stop. A few Piranha were caught and set up on the bank, far from the water. They were snapping their awful jaws together rapidly an hour after they had been taken out of the river. They were scary as hell. I quit fishing after my first 15 fish or so. I walked back away from the shore. I spotted a black jaguar ahead of me walking perpendicular to my own path. I froze and was unable to scream for my adults who were close, but not visible. The majestic cat must have known I was there, but kept his eyes forward and walked on into the jungle. I quickly made it back to the guys with the guns and told them, but nobody thought it was a great idea to chase the cat.
Memory is an unreliable source of fact. I know I must have embellished this story in my mind a bit, but I am sure of the central elements. I remember the jaguar as a vivid spirit message that came to me because I had stopped fishing. I felt an odd blessing that came with the sheer fear of the moment. I am very glad I went fishing in the Amazon, but not because of the fishing. I had a destiny that included an exotic tropical wild animal crossing my path with no desire to harm me. I did some fishing as an adult, but always with a hand line. I am not a rod and reel person, nor am I greedy. I am pretty sure that the sport of fishing has something to do with feeling what is unseen. Do you fish, gentle reader? Literally or figuratively?
#WeedWednesday Welcome To Arizona
July 4, 2017
— 1 Comment
cannabis
cannabis
cannabis
cannabis
Arizona made medical marijuana legal in November, 2010 by enacting Prop 203, which won by a narrow margin. The health department of the state regulates and licenses dispensaries. The number of dispensary licenses issued is linked to the number of pharmacy licenses in the state. Prop 203 calls for no more than one dispensary license to be granted for every 10 pharmacy permits issued by the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy. As of 2010 when the law was passed, that equates to 124 dispensaries statewide. Patients who live more than 25 miles form a dispensary can apply to have a caregiver grow for them, or be their own caregiver. Many rural areas of the state are more than 25 miles from a dispensary, most of which are concentrated in the urban areas of Phoenix and Tucson.
In Nov 2016 Proposition 205 was defeated by the voters, 51.32% to 48.68%. Had it passed Arizona would have joined the adjoining states of Colorado, Nevada, and California in legalizing recreational marijuana. This makes Arizona a less well-funded state, and creates a tourism draw for the other three. The marijuana tourist tax dollars Arizona turned away will visit Las Vegas and have no remorse.
Canadian firms have started to invest significantly in the AZ market, buying dispensary management companies and making other large investments throughout the state. The cannabis business will grow at a slower rate than our adjoining legal states, but still contribute much to the economy under the current medical law. Most people think it will eventually be legal in all states soon. Investors and consultants are setting themselves up in business within the law and are also preparing for the future. New products and product lines are brought to market and management contracts are being signed. Weed is big business, a growth business. The expanding market will be served in new ways, yet to be discovered. This is an interesting segment to watch. What are the marijuana laws in your state, gentle reader?
cannabis
cannabis
cannabis
#TeaTuesday Dewey Cherry
July 4, 2017
— 1 Comment
Brewing Dewey Cherry
Nothing says summer more than the taste of ripe cherries. I get excited when the various kinds of cherries show up in the grocery store every year. They all make me happy, from the tart to the white Mt. Ranier. The fun of sucking them off the pit never fails to please me. I keep the pits in my mouth for a while because they have their own flavor. All the cherries we eat are imported from other places, so they are pricey by the time we buy them. There is one cherry I can count on all year to deliver that tangy special taste. That is my Dewey Cherry tea from Adagio. I am drinking it this week to accompany all the fruit we are enjoying.
I think it is a pretty good symbolic 4th of July drink because many Americans associate the holiday with George Washington. We may know little about his life, but we have all heard the story of his cherry tree. It is also red in color, so it brightens up the look of the party table. A dessert in itself, it naturally aligns with all fruit flavored sweets such as pie. The slight sharpness of the tart cherry cleanses the palette between samples of sticky sweet samples. It would be the perfect drink for a pie eating contest.
Serving this as a cocktail base leaves the options open. It would be delicious combined with whipped or black cherry vodka, or some rum. I like to make tea cocktails very weak in alcohol so they are drinkable and tasty, but not too psychoactive. I like to micro dose. You could add a splash of this tea to a Pimm’s Cup, designed to be consumed all day while watching tennis matches. The color and taste match well with this legendary beverage.
So, if you are watching Wimbledon today, or celebrating the American Independence (from those fabulous Brits) I can recommend the fantastic fruity flavor of Dewey Cherry to enhance your festivities. Enjoy it straight up or with a little shot of your favorite alcohol. Drink it in good health, gentle readers. Cheers!
Pimm’s Cup
#WeekendCoffeeShare Memoir Moments
July 1, 2017
— 8 Comments
raw borscht on ice
If we were having coffee this weekend I would invite you to drink iced tea while enjoying the last of my three blooming jasmine varieties. The yard is again scented with that sweet jasmine flavor that carries well in a breeze. You will want to observe it from the front window while we chat because the heat out there is harsh. Sit back and relax in the air conditioning while I pour your favorite iced tea. I also have two kinds of raw fermented borscht for you, which restores your electrolytes and adds probiotics to your diet. It is like a floating salad suspended in beet juice and kvass. It cools you and helps you keep balance in the heat. I also think it is yummy, but you can decide for yourself. The cucumber and dill will remind you of pickle juice.
If we were having iced tea this week I would tell you I decided to join Audible for a year because the subscription was discounted heavily. For $100 a year I have access to books and podcasts that make my new job a dream. I can do my job and listen to books without distraction. It is a wonderful two birds with one stone situation. I finished the book on biological biodiversity, then knocked off a book about writing by Jeff Goins, and have started The Power of Memoir, by Linda Joy Meyers. This book is inspirational to me because I have studied my family history for years, and written a few very short poems about the ancestors (who were poets themselves). I have wanted to write historical fiction, but never attempted it. Ms Meyers lays out all the steps needed to write a riveting memoir, some of which I have done, like the genealogy research. I was inspired by the book to use my grandmother as the subject this week of my short fiction in response to Sue Vincent’s Thursday prompt. I think I can apply what I am leaning from this generous and well written instruction to my own writing. It can unlock many stories for my future. I recommend the book to all writers, even if you do not plan to write a memoir. She covers technique we all need to remember.
The Power of Memoir
I began my weekly #WeedWednesday feature with a post in the lab at the grow where I work. The short, warm up, educational piece was well received by readers. It is fun and easy to do, and it informs me as well as the audience. There is so much advancement in the science of medical marijuana that I will have much material to cover on this subject. I plan to interview the experts about the plant varieties and all the ways we process the plant to create various therapies. There are new developments all the time, so I doubt that I will ever run out of material for that segment.
How did you spend the week? Have you made progress with your writing, or with your life? Have another glass of tea and fill me in on the details.
#WeekednCoffeeShare
Thanks for joining me today for tea and borscht. Stay cool, and preserve what you still have of your political cool. It looks like it will be needed for a long time in the US. Wishing all the sentient beings everywhere independence and time to savor it. Please visit our hostess, Emily, from Nerd in the Brain for more coffee and news. Read, write, comment, or just drink lots of digital coffee with us every weekend.
#WritePhoto Flights Of Fancy
June 29, 2017
— 15 Comments
flight of fancy
Her troubled mind had conjured up some frightening scenarios. She sat for hours wringing the hands that had once been so productive and accomplished. Her memory played cruel tricks on her as she tried to survive without her husband. Ernie had taken care of certain aspects of life that had always been a mystery to her. Although my grandparents ran a farm together, sharing the heavy work load, my grandmother was in the dark about the family finances. When she became a widow and could no longer stay alone at her farm it had been sold. Her life of relative freedom came to an end. She lived in institutions or at her children’s homes, never really settling. She missed independence even though she could barely manage daily tasks without a great deal of assistance. She disliked the feeling of being a houseguest, or even a child, of her son’s family. She had lost her matriarch status, and had to defer to her daughter-in-law. This life in suburban Pittsburgh was foreign, and cold. She rarely went out, and when she did she was fearful, even with her family. She lost her ability to relax. Anxiety was her only companion.
When the sun set she sat in the back yard in silence. This time to herself was spent every day engaging in bird watching. She had little sensitivity to human emotions, but was tuned into nature like a trance. She could feel the spirits of each bird soaring. Their playful flight brought a rush of feelings from her youth, from her most sorrowful, as well as her brightest times. She could sense that her own spirit was close to a threshold. She sometimes thought her spirit left her body and explored the sky above her for a while. As darkness fell the caregiver arrived to guide her into the building. Her lightness of being vanished as the door closed behind her. Perhaps tomorrow will be the day she finally takes off for eternity. She feels as if she has already spent an eternity here.
#writephoto
This fiction is written in response to this week’s photo prompt from Sue Vincent’s Echo. Join us each week to read, write, or submit your own take on the Thursday prompt.
#WeedWednesday CO2 Extraction
June 28, 2017
— 3 Comments
Welcome to the first edition of cannabis college. I plan to present a short informative post each Wednesday about the current state of development in the science of medical marijuana. Much has changed, and I anticipate more science based therapies will be developed using cannabis in the near future. I work at the Desert Bloom Re-Leaf Dispensary grow, where we grow indoor and outdoor crops. In the lab and kitchen we produce a wide range of products, which is expanding as new products are tested and developed for the patients. I am new on the job, and learning more every day. I know I am curious about all the varieties being grown and the products on the market. I hope to enlighten both myself and the gentle readers in this series on the science behind this growing industry. Patients now have amazing control of dosage and specific medicine for various conditions. I want to find out more about this, and share what I learn with you.
Justin McKenzie is one of our head growers, with years of experience in growing and processing cannabis. He was good enough to join me in the lab to answer some questions about CO2 extraction. This is the beginning process for many end products. Next we will cover butane extraction in the lab, then go to the kitchen to see what happens there. I am very curious about all the new ways to micro dose cuisine.
Juliana in the kitchen
Heritage Inn, Hospitality And History
June 27, 2017
— 1 Comment
rose garden
patio
patio
rose garden
The Heritage Inn in Snowflake, AZ is perfectly positioned in the middle of an historical neighborhood. Surrounded by restored buildings, the Inn stands out because of the flower gardens. The luscious rose collection welcomes guests at 161 Main Street. The ample shaded front porch is home to a couple of active humming bird feeders, vintage furniture, and charming outdoor art. One is instantly transported to a specific time. The decor throughout the inn reflects the historic legacy of this well restored home. Portraits of the original inhabitants and some traces of their story remind the visitor of the founding of this small town. We stayed in the Mary Maude Porter room, named for one of the first inhabitants of the home, which had been built in the 1890’s.
pioneer home
front porch of the inn
German baby for breakfast
Bob at breakfast
We went to Snowflake to escape the heat and go to a lavender farm that was having a festival. The heat followed us up the mountain, so the relief was not forthcoming from mother nature. We decided not to go out to the farm because it was just too hot to deliver what we wanted. Instead, we investigated the little town of Snowflake, then the adjacent town of Taylor, and checked in to the room a little early chill in the air conditioning. The weather was pleasant enough to take a stroll in the evening, and we walked around the museums and historic homes that were not open on Saturday. There is a good display in the small Heritage Park next to the inn that details the founding of the town and the families who developed area.
Our room had a French door that opened onto the patio, where a fountain decorated a lovely garden. Tables and chairs are placed for guests to use for relaxing, or for breakfast service. We chose to eat by the fountain in the morning, when the weather had cooled down a bit. Our fancy table setting and gourmet breakfast in the cool setting gave us what we had come to experience, a complete change of pace. When I travel I am looking or something different from day to day existence. The hosts of the Heritage Inn, JoAnne and Craig, give guests superior service in an elegant atmosphere of private, historical chic. We liked the feeling of elegant leisure, and plan to return when we know the weather will be cooler. Next time I will plan ahead and arrange to see the tour of the historical homes. The tiny town has much to offer the history buff, and the Heritage Inn offers superior accommodation from which to see it.
fountain patio
restored forge
history museum
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