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 Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 4:12 am
Nehanda carefully read over the Herbal entry she had just written. It was a short one, and hadn't taken much time to copy over from the notes they'd put together. She was pretty sure she'd gotten all the spelling right, but that was mainly because Foenix had been the one to actually write the notes out for her. She sat up in what would eventually become her workshop again, in a large puddle of sunlight that fell through the wide double windows. That was one definite improvement, she mused. Since the original windows and roof had been damaged by the volcano, Foenix had gone all out and installed the double windows and even a skylight. That way, her precious plants could get all the sunlight they needed, over on this side of the room. The other side, which stood primarily in shadow, would be reserved for those plants that needed little direct light. The girl, no longer quite a little child anymore, looked around the room. Over the past month, Foenix had spent a lot of time repeating something about silver linings in clouds. Nehanda hadn't really understood what her guardian meant, but thought it might have something to do with good stuff that came as a result of bad stuff. Was that it? After all, the workroom was now even better then before, and all because of a horrible disaster. She'd have to write that one down in her journal at some point. With a satisfied nod, Nehanda closed the Herbal and stood up. Maybe she could convince Foenix to stop work early that afternoon and go out to play on the beach. Quote: Frostwort [Helianthemum Canadense] is also known as Cistus, Frostweed, Frostplant, and Rock Rose.
The official name comes from the Greek helios (the sun) and anthemon (a flower). The genus differs from the Cistus in having imperfectly three-celled instead of five or ten-celled capsules. Two distinct varieties of the species are known, the early and late flowering forms. They grow in sandy soil, from 6 to 12 inches high, with upright stems, branching or almost without branches, leaves light or dark green, small and lanceolate, and flat, yellow flowers, solitary or in terminal clusters. The popular names spring from the peculiarity of thin, curved, ice-crystals projecting in early winter from fissures in the bark near the root. The taste is astringent, slightly aromatic and bitter. It has no odour.
Frostwort is used as an astringent, alterative and tonic. It has for long been used in secondary syphilis, diarrhoea, ulcerations, ophthalmia, and any conditions arising from a scrofulous constitution. Locally it is useful as a wash in prurigo and as a gargle in scarlatina, and in poultice form for scrofulous tumours and ulcers.
It is said that an oil helpful in cancer has been obtained from it.
It may be combined with Corydalis Formosa and Stillingia, in secondary syphilis, and the infusion may be used in chronic diarrhea and dysentery.
An overdose may produce nausea and vomiting.
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Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2006 7:30 am
"Nehanda, would you like to go over to the Centre later?" Foenix walked into the work room.
"Yeah, that'd be good." The girl stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth as she concentrated on the painstaking work in front of her. "But I gotta finish this firs'." Nehanda's braid was messily coiled at the nape of her neck, and strands fell wildly around her face. She was sweating as she carefully joined one piece of plant to another.
"Oh, are you grafting something?" Foenix stepped forward to watch in fascination. The last -and first!- time Nehanda had attempted a graft, she had done it in secret, as a surprise present for Foenix. It was such a delicate procedure. Yet Nehanda's hands did their careful work with a level of confidence that her guardian had not been expecting.
"Yup. It's a Valutine's Day flower. I'm startin' kinda late, but these might be ready in time to be valutine presents.
"What a great idea. What made you think of it?" Foenix reached out and softly touched the leaf of one of the grafts Nehanda had already completed.
Nehanda shrugged. "I 'member the party last year. People were giving those little cards out, with all the pink and red and the lacy stuff on them. But I can't make that stuff, so I thought I could make flowers instead. If I tried to make the little cards, they'd look like poop."
"Nehanda! That's . . ." Foenix trailed off and fought to contain her giggle. "Poop" wasn't actually a bad word, but . . . She settled for saying, "I'm sure they'd look better then that. But this is very clever."
"Okay." The Aerandir finished wrapping the final graft and added a tiny bit of soft wax to hold things securely. "I'm ready to go." As she turned to accompany her guardian down the steps, nehanda reached out and tugged the back of Foenix's shirt. "Could I get my ears pierced?"
"What? Where did that come from? No! You're still a little girl. We'll talk about it when you're older." Foenix shook her head, eyes wide, at the thought. Gads. Hoping to end the subject, she swiftly opened the door and headed outside.
"Oh, but . . ." Nehanda ran off down the path, trying to convince the older woman.
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:03 am
[ Message temporarily off-line ]
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Posted: Mon Feb 06, 2006 4:30 am
Quote: Dear Emiko and Blanche- Thank you so much for the plushy! It's very lovely, and Nehanda really seems to love it. She's included her own thank-you note as well. I'm sorry for not answering your previous letter, but, as you know, things were a bit up in the air for a while. Fortunately, Nehanda and I came through the earthquakes unharmed. Our house only suffered some cosmetic damages, for the most part. The only real damage was to Nehanda's gardens, which were completely destroyed. It was a real blow to her, but we're already working to re-plant, and I'm sure that they will be as good as new in a few months. Congratulations and welcome to Blanche! She sounds absolutely lovely. As to your fridge question, 'Handa actually preferred sunny spots and the warm water of the little pool I built for her. I think that these preferences are simply an extension of the prefences of the animals the Aerandir are based upon. I found that by researching equine and swan behavior, I knew largely what to expect from my own little girl. In any case, We really can't wait to meet the both of you in person. I think that I may have some free time coming up in a week or two. Perhaps we could come over to Ar'Idil and stay in one of the empty cabins, or in your Lodge. (Our Centre, which is like your lodge, has a few guest rooms, so I'm assuming there are similar quarters over on your island.) See you soon! ~Foenixfyre Foenix absently tucked a fall of her auburn hair back behind one ear as she read through her letter. It looked good, so she leaned back in her chair and called down the hall to Nehanda. "'Handa, got your thank-you letter ready?" "Yup!" Nehanda ran down the ahll waving a piece of paper. she thrust it at Foenix, then ran back down the hall for her new plushie. The little pony had quickly become her constant companion. Cran had tried to nibble on the plushie a few times, but had quickly been dissuaded from this endeavor.Foenix skimmed Nehanda's letter, and grinned. Well, the little girl's handwriting showed some improvement, at least . . .  "This looks great, hun. Let's go mail these!" "Yay!" Dragging the plushie along, Nehanda bounded down the hall and out the door, leaving a laughing Foenix to catch up.
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Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 1:29 pm
"Hey, sweetie. Is everything ready?" Foenix walked into Nehanda's workroom, and broke into a gasp. Nehanda was huddled over a table that contained several potted plants, all obviously of the same species. "Oh, hun, they all look so great! You even got them to flower on time!" The Aerandir shrugged, but smiled shyly. "I worked pretty hard on 'em. and I just got lucky that they bloomed. Guess I started 'bout the right time and stuff." She taped the last heart-shaped note to its pot, then straightened up. "So, we c'n take these 'round and give to ebryone?""You bet. Come on, I've got our wheelbarrow out front. We can load these up and deliver them!" 
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Posted: Tue Feb 14, 2006 2:19 pm
Foenix and Nehanda trod happily -if a bit tired- up the path to their house. They had delivered all of the Valentine's Day plant to their recipients, and it had only taken an hour or so. The auburn-tressed woman stopped and looked down at her charge. "Nehanda, do you think you can push the empty 'barrow around back by yourself? I want to check the mail." Nehanda nodded, the determination plain on her face. "I can do it! I'll be really careful.""Great. You're a really big help, sweetie." Foenix watched the girl shove the barrow slowly up toward their house, and grinned. It seemed like the little Aerandir was getting bigger and more independant by the day! With a small smile remaining on her face, she stepped up onto the porch and checked their message box. There was an envelope! Pulling it out, she grinned again. "Nehanda, we've received a Valentine's Day card from Pueblo and Fae!" 
As she opened the parcel, a sweet, sugary aroma wafted out of it. Inside was the work of little hands: almost like a sugar cookie, stiff paper was watercolored and glittered-ized, sparkling and shinning in the light. Feathery pink wings sprouted from each side of the heart and a decortive arrow pierced through the middle. It wasn't "perfect" but it definately looked as if some Aerandir took some time on it.
"Oooo. It's so pretty," Nehanda whispered."Yes, it certainly is. We'll have to thank Pueblo the next time that we see her." Foenix murmured. She then proceeded to usher the girl inside. After all, it was time for dinner.
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 4:55 am
"Nehanda!" Kylara walked in the door, holding a piece of paper she had found out on the porch. "It looks like you got another Valentine!"Nehanda ran out and grabbed at the paper. "Really? Let me see!" She thought she recognized the little face on the left side of the picture, and turned it over in search of a name. Sure enough, there was a little note written there. Quote: Deer 'Handa an Foenix, Happy Valintine's day! I luv the plant that you sent, it's reel pretty. We put it en the kichen window! Our garden is recked too, but Kami's helping me fix it again. I made you a picture wif the crayons Kami got me, since we dun't have any flowers growing yet. -Keanu + Kami "That's really nice of him. We haven't heard from them since the quakes. It's good to know they're doing okay." foenix walked out from the office, holding Nehanda's journal. "Sweetie, I was thinking that you might want to write a journal entry about the plants you made for Valentine's Day." Nehanda sighed, but reached for the book. "Yeah, I s'pose so. Can I sit outside?" At Foenix's nod, she accepted the pencil offered by her guardian and skipped out to sit on the porch.Quote: 2.16.06 Feenix seys I should make a jornal entree bout the plants I grafted to give people for Valuntine Day. That's the day where you tell peeple that you love them or like them. And you give peeple cards and lots of candy! I like the candy part. But I didnt wanna make cards, cause I dont draw so well. Peblo's reely good at drawing but I'm not so good. So I desided to grow plants for peeple! I thot about wat plant to grow, and I thot it wuld be fun to graft sumthing frum sum of my flowers that didnt get dead from the balcano. I picked my Vanilo orchid, and my Hibiscus geranioides. That's a little pink hibiscus. I grafted em using a whip graft. The orchid was the scion, sinse orchids are reely delicate. It can be hard to get em to bloom. That's why I used the hibiscus as the rootstock. They're good and grow reely well here on Cetalu. After I grafted the plants, I just tuk good care of em. They even got flowers just in time! So Feenix helped me carry the flowers round to everyone. Yay!
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Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2006 11:48 am
Foenix tucked the last saran-wrapped sandwich into her pack, and tucked the thermos of mint and lemon tea in next to it. Standing, she shrugged one strap of the pack over a shoulder. "'Handa, are you ready?"
"Almost!" came the reply. The Aerandir was upstairs, hurredly stuffing things into her own little pack. She picked up her new pony plushy, but put it back down. They were only going out for the day, after all. At her feet, Cran brushed around her legs, stopping every now and then to pounce on some bit of sunlight that trickled in through the blinds.
"Nehanda, come on! You don't need that much!" Foenix rolled her eyes and shook her head as she waited for her charge.
"I'm coming now!" Shoving one last botony book into her pack, Nehanda shoved her arms through the straps and straightened her wings to make everything more comfortable. She climbed down the ladder, and smiled impishly at Foenix. "Come on, let's go! What are you waiting for?"
"Cheeky little miss." Foenix grinned as she opened the door and ushered Nehanda and Cran out onto the porch. "Okay, lets see who we run into. Maybe we can make it into a regular picnic!"
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 6:54 am
Quote: 03.whenever . . .06 Hi, jornal! I gess mabe I shoulda wrote this last nite, but I was reely tired. Feenix an me went for a picnic yesterday! That woulda been fun, but it got lots better. We found Fae and Pueblo and Yasu and Osu, so we all went for a walk! And then we found this big piece of land. Feenix called it a Land Bridge. So, we went on it, and it took us all the way to the other iland! I only got to go ther wons befor. Ther was this big summer party, and Feenix an me went over on a ferry boat. But the Land Bridge was even better! There were some new grassy plants that I pulled up. I'm gunna look em up in my books later. But the very best past was wen we got to Ridil. I think that's wat the iland's called. There were all these new people, and I got to meet other Arandir! And then we had some lunch, and I made a good friend. Her name's Sanar, an we sent purpl wool over to help her become a kid! She likes to collect stuff. Mabe soon she can come over to play here, and see my plants. But then Pie came outta his jar. Oh, I almost forgot. Pie is Pueblo's brother. His name's reely Zanzibar, I think, but we call him Pie. And Osu's sister came outta her jar! I think her name's something like Sashikin, but that might be wrong, cause I can't member. And there was a wisp called Makai, and I gave him a feather so he can turn to a kid too! It was a reely fun day. I wanna do it again soon. ((RP lacated here and here.))
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2006 7:12 am
"Mrrr-grrmph!" Following this wordless noise of frustration, a crayon flew out of the office, snapping in half upon its collision with the wall.
"Nehanda?" Foenix stood up from the couch and craned her neck around the doorway to the office. "Is something wrong?" She had left the child happily attending to an herbal entry not thirty minutes before. How could something have made her so unhappy so quickly?
Nehanda looked up from the pad of paper she was hunched over. An open case of crayons attested to the souce of the broken one out in the hallway. She also had several of the Plant books Foenix had collected, and many crumpled-up pieces of paper.
"I want pictures!" she wailed.
"Um . . . okay. What do you want pictures for?" Foenix entered the room and sat down next to her charge, carefully edging the box of crayons out of Nehanda's reach. "Are you trying to draw your plants?"
"Yes," the little winged girl grumped. "I wanna make pictures to go wit my entries, so I can see what each plant looks like, ya know? But I can't cut up the books, and my drawings are all bad and sucky."
Foenix closed her eyes and sighed. "Do want my helP? I can draw pretty well."
"No! I wanna do it!" Nehanda grabbed up a random green crayon and the pad, and began to scribble again. Obviously, her bad mood was not helping; she bore down too hard and the paper tore. With a growl, the girl wadded up the paper, threw it away, and began again.
The auburn-tressed woman was quiet for a few minutes as she racked her brain for an answer. "Um . . . Nehanda, do the pictures of your plants have to be drawn? What if I had another way to get pictures of your plants?"
"What d'you mean?" Nehanda looked suspicious.
"I have a way you can put something ever better then a picture, and you can do it all on your own once I show you how. I just need to find some supplies. Can you wait thirty minutes?"
"I guess so."
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Posted: Thu Mar 23, 2006 2:13 pm
"Nehanda, where are you? I got everything we need . . ." Foenix trailed off as Nehanda dashed up onto the porch, a large grin on her face. "Where were you? I've been looking for you for an hour!"
Nehanda shrugged unapologetically. "I wanted more plants."
"Uh huh." With a sigh, Foenix sat down on the porch, where she had spread several piles of thick books, sheets of laminate, paper, and the already large number of snippings from various plants and herbs. "Have you ever heard of starting small? Flower pressing can be rather tedious. I don't know if we'll get to all of these today."
Now Nehanda frowned. "But I wanna do them all! Pressed stuff is pretty, and it's useful! I can put 'em in with my journal." Sitting down beside her guardian, the child picked up a sheet of laminate and folded it back and forth.
"Don't bend it," Foenix murmured absently. "But, yes, that's the idea. Since your drawing skills are-" She searched for a diplomatic way to put it . . .
"They suck."
"Language, Nehanda." Foenix spread her hands. "But I thought this would be the best answer to the problem. Ready to start?" At the girl's eager nod, she leaned over and grabbed up everything they'd need for the first pressing. "Okay. Now, we've got two sets of laminate here. First, we've got the big sheets, and then we've got the ones I divided into smaller squares. Let's start with something easy, like mint, since it's already pretty flat."
She put down a heavy volume from her encyclopedia set, followed by a small sheet of the laminate. "See, you want to arrange your plant in the middle of the page, like this. That way, it will be nice and centered, and you won't catch any of it in the edges. That could make the laminate come unstuck later." She picked up the sprig of freshly-plucked mint, and placed it in the middle. "Now we take the glue -and only use a teeny, tiny big, so it doesn't get really messy- and put that around the egdes of the laminate."
She did so, pausing briefly to poke Nehanda and make her giggle. "You look so serious, hun."
"This is neat!"
"Glad you think so. Now we'll take a second sheet of laminate and put it over the first. Make sure all the leaves are nice and flat before you rub everything together, got it? Now you can put a book on top to keep everything flat." She watched Nehanda place another thick volume on top of the newly-laminated mint sprig.
"That's all there is to it. We'll leave these to set for a few days, until the plant's dried out. Then we'll have lots of nicely pressed and laminated plants for your Herbal journal!"
"Thanks, Foenix! This is even better then a picture." Nehanda reached over to hug her guardian, then scampered off to chose her next plant.
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Posted: Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:52 am
Nehanda came into the office, trailing one hand along the oak panels of the walls. She liked the way they felt, so very smooth and cool. Foenix had supposedly paid a lot of money to have the panels installed over the old walls. She could remember peeking into the office to see her guardian sitting at the desk, grumbling over the bills from the installation. Nehanda didn't actually know what these bills were, so she didn't understand why they were so mean.
But bills were not the main thing on her mind just now. Nehanda wanted to check on her pressed flowers. Foenix had said that the first set they had prepared should be ready today! She was very eager to put them into her Herbal.
There were three stacks of heavy books lined up against the wall. They were supposed to squish her flowers flat, so that she could put them into her own book instead of mere pictures! The thought made Nehanda very excited.
She couldn't really remember what was where, so she just picked up a book at random. There, on top of the next book, were the double sheets of laminate, with . . . Nehanda frowned a bit and studied the plant. They looked a little different, all flat and pressed out and dreid like this one did. Nehanda decided that this first one must be Basil. She lowered her nose to the laminate, but could detect no sign of basil's destinctive odor.
Stepping back, she frowned at the pressing. She ran over her memory of everything they'd pressed. Yup, this one had to be Basil.
"Nehanda? Where are you? Let's check the- oh." Foenix stepped into the room and rolled her eyes. "I should have expected it. How do they look?"
"They're different."
"That's to be expected, hun. Plants usually turn different colors when they're dried. Remember how your herbs look after you've hung them up to dry? This is sort of like that. Want to look at the rest?"
Nehanda grinned. "Yeah!"
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:49 pm
((Backdated for April 1st, 2006 . . .))
Foenix stalked into her room with a grumble. "Gonna kill 'em."
Muttering to herself, she stripped off her soaking wet blouse and bra, and shoved clammy jeans down her thighs. "I swear, I'll rip their heads off."
It didn't take long to dry herself off, and she wiggled gratefully into clean, dry clothing.
Switching her mint tea with mind-blowing papper and ginger, that was one thing.
Putting prickly burrs into the toes of her shoes . . .
Glueing the edges of her scrap notebook together, that was kinda funny.
"Drown 'em. Boil 'em in oil, maybe."
But arranging that pail of water so that it tipped over her when she tried to exit the house, leaving her soaked and filthy . . .
This was simply unacceptable.
"I swear to the gods, if I ever find out who told Nehanda about April Fool's Day, I will make them suffer for the rest of their lives!"
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Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2006 7:57 pm
Foenix read over the letter she held in her hand yet again, and bit her lip. Glancing out the window, she caught sight of Nehanda working industriously in her garden. Despite the state of the soil, the little girl had been quite diligent in her work, and tender shoot had begun to sprout on their own. The auburn-tressed woman looked back down at the letter that had just been delivered. It meant that some major changes were about to hit their little household. Quote: Dear Foenix,
It's been such a long time since I've seen you both, it seems shameful! I'm sorry I haven't been over to see Nehanda or her garden but the recent events have left me a little more unhappy about coming outside - as if I wasn't bad enough before. I'm writing this now to ask if you would mind me taking Nehanda on a trip. I'm unsure how long it'd take and can't tell you where we'll be due to the sacred nature of the site, but I assure you she'll be in good hands.
The trip is an Aerandir 'rite of passage' which will hopefully end with Nehanda's movement onto the next stage of development. I think she'll particularly like the nature of the ceremony as she may be able to collect some new species for her plant collections.
I am to be her 'sponsor' for the ceremony which will take place - mainly as there is no one else suitable but I'm happy it worked out this way as I do care about Nehanda. A sponsor is akin to the human godparent or aunt figure - nothing sinister.
If all goes well, Pueblo shall be coming along on the trip too so it should be quite a fun time!
You needn't supply anything for the trip - its all taken care of - Nehanda should be at the Cetalu centre at around 7am tomorrow morning.
Acia Foenix bit her lip. This was what Nehanda had been working for. Children were supposed to grow up. but that didn't mean she couldn't worry. She had no idea where her little one was going, or what would happen. But if Acia and Aly felt that it was time . . . Walking over to the window, she pulled it open, and stuck her head out. "Nehanda, a letter's just arrived from Acia. It looks as though you'll be going on a little trip with her!" The Aerandir child shouted with excitement and jumped to her feet, and ran toward the house. Foenix shook her head and went to wipe up the dirt she knew Nehanda would forget to brush off.
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