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 Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 7:22 am
Outside, Nehanda frowned (if such a mobile expression was possible on her little swan's bill. There were little bugs crawling around on the leaves of some of her plants! she took a closer look at the bugs, lifting a hoof and allowing one to crawl onto it. Well, it didn't look like they were doing anything harmful . . .
Maybe she ought to go inside and get Foenix. Foenix could look the bugs up in one of her books.
*"Nehanda!* She looked up and over to where Kylara was sitting on the porch with Nahda and Spotty.
*We're all going over to the beach for a while. Foenix made us lunches and we want to go swimming.Why don't you come with us?*
Nehanda liked the idea of a swim, so she took a step toward the others. Pausing, she stopped to look over her shoulder. Maybe she should get Foenix to look at those bugs first . . .
*Foenix is working. She told us she needed some time to finish looking over a manuscript, so that's why we're heading out,* Kylara explained, hitching the lunch bag up higher on her shoulder. *She suggested we take you with us.*
Oh, well if that was the case, then Nehanda didn't want to disturb her guardian. Surely the bugs could wait. Leaving her plants behind, she trotted over toward the rest of the group. Besides, she hadn't been to the beach in a while!
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Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 7:20 pm
Foenix walked into her room, closed the door, and flopped on her bed, exhausted beyond belief. Who could have predicted that living out on this island would lead to such tiredness? With a moan for sore, aching muscles, she pushed herself up into a sitting position and reached for her journal. All of the kids were asleep, Nehanda, unusually, with Nahda. Foenix could make a quick journal entry, and collapse into happy sleep. Quote: 4.02.05 It's Saturday, and I've just returned from a Ballroom Competition on the mainland. That involved getting up at 4:30 am, and taking a boat over so that I could get there in time. And then, of course, there was the dancing all day . . . my feet really hurt. I've been pretty bad about making journal entries for the past week or so. I hang my head in shame. But nothing much of interest has happened, after the kitchen fire. I did win a Jivvin egg in an auction, and Kylara found herself an easter sprite egg, so our not-so-little family is enlarged by two. The kids went to the beach yesterday. I was busy working, and Nahda and Kylara were restless. So, I threw some food in a picnic basket and sent them swimming. They took some of the others, including Nehanda. As a result, I had a lovely several hours of blessed silence. Oh, thank gods for the silence. Well, they came back salty, wet, and all very happy. I'll confess that i'm surprised she likes the salt water, as I expected the swan in her to prefer the brackish water of the pond out front. She likes both. Go figure. Okay, I think I may be starting to babble. So, a quick Herbal Info, and then I'm for bed. Dodder [Cuscuta Europaea] Also known as Beggarweed, Hellweed, Strangle Tare, Scaldweed, and Devil's Guts, is a parasite, with branched, climbing cord-like and thread-like stems, no leaves and globular heads of small wax-like flowers.
The seeds germinate in the ground in the normal manner and throw up thready stems, which climb up adjoining plants and send out from their inner surfaces a number of small vesicles, which attach themselves to the bark of the plant on which they are twining. As soon as the young Dodder stems have firmly fixed themselves, the root from which they have at first drawn part of their nourishment withers away, and the Dodder, entirely losing its connection with the ground, lives completely on the sap of its 'host,' and participates of its nature.
Cuscuta Epithymum, the Lesser Dodder, is the species of Dodder that formerly was much used medicinally, and which is the commonest. It is parasitic on Thyme Heath, Milk Vetch, Potentilla and other small plants, but most abundant on Furze, which it often entirely conceals with its tangled masses of red, thread-like stems. The flowers are in dense, round heads, each flower small, light flesh-coloured and wax-like, the corolla bellshaped, four- to five-cleft. Soon after flowering, the stems turn dark brown and in winter disappear.
The Dodder which grows on Thyme, C. Epithemum, was often preferred to others.
The threads being boiled in water (preferably fresh gathered) with ginger and allspice produced a decoction used in urinary complaints, kidney, spleen and liver diseases for its laxative and hepatic action. It was considered useful in jaundice, as well as in sciatica and scorbutic complaints.
The juice of two Brazilian species of Dodder is given for hoarseness and spitting of blood and their powder applied to wounds, to hasten healing.
Both the Greater Dodder and the Lesser Dodder have been employed medicinally.
Culpepper tells us: 'All Dodders are under Saturn. We confess Thyme is of the hottest herb it usually grows upon, and therefore that which grows upon thyme is hotter than that which grows upon colder herbs; for it draws nourishment from what it grows upon, as well as from the earth where its root is, and thus you see old Saturn is wise enough to have two strings to his bow. This is accounted the most effectual for melancholy diseases, and to purge black or burnt color, which is the cause of many diseases of the head and brain, as also for the trembling of the heart, faintings, and swoonings. It is helpful in all diseases and griefs of the spleen and melancholy that arises from the windiness of the hypochondria. It purges also the reins or kidneys by urine; it openeth obstructions of the gall, whereby it profiteth them that have the jaundice; as also the leaves, the spleen; purging the veins of choleric and phlegmatic humours and cures children in agues, a little wormseed being added.
'The other Dodders participate of the nature of those plants whereon they grow: as that which hath been found growing upon Nettles in the west country, hath by experience been found very effectual to procure plenty of urine, where it hath been stopped or hindered.'
Many of its popular and local names testify to the bad reputation it had among farmers, such as Beggarweed, Hellweed, Strangle Tare, and Scaldweed, the latter from the scalded appearance it gives to bean crops. The name 'Devil's Guts' shows how much its strangling threads were detested. An old writer comments:
'Hellweed grows upon tares more abundantly in some places, where it destroyeth the pulse, or at least maketh it much worse, and is called of the country people Hellweed, because they know not how to destroy it.'
It was not only considered useful in jaundice but also in sciatica and scorbutic complaints. Gathered fresh and applied externally after being bruised, the plant has been found efficacious in dispersing scrofulous tumours. The whole plant, of whatever species, is very bitter, and an infusion acts as a brisk purge.
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 6:55 am
Quote: 4.4.05 I managed to get quite a lot done yesterday afternoon! the morning was spent, once again, off on the mainland, at the second day of the dance comp. Oh, my legs and feet still ache from that . . . But once I got back, I headed over to Rahujo's smithy, to see about finally getting the stove repaired. turns out that her blacksmith gifts don't work as well on iron, which is what the burners are made of, so I'll have to order those. I left a note for Aly over at the Center. But she's coming over some time this afternoon to fix at least the cosmetic damages, and that will be nice. I can't say that I enjoy having on wall of my kitchen covered in smoky burns. It smells aweful. Nehanda was happy to see Rahujo again, and got very excited when we started walking toward the Centre together. I think it was because she wanted to see Acia again. i swear, her hero-worship becomes worse and worse! I suppose i can't complain; the little dear could certainly have worse role models. But I should get up and pick things up around the main room. I hate looking like a slob in front of guests. (RP with Rahujo here.)
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Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 6:28 pm
Nehanda nosed her way into Foenix's office, and looked back over her haunches. Foenix was downstairs, playing with Kylara and the Jivvin sprites. She had to admit, the liked the newer one a lot. Chiru was pretty, and sweet, and very "with it," despite having hatched mere hours before. Nehanda was happy to have another creature her general size.
But at present, she wasn't interested in playing. She had more important things to deal with. Those bugs were still on her plants! Nehanda didn't really like bugs. Some were pretty tasty, but they scurried around, and tried to crawl into her feathers when she was working or playing outside. It didn't feel good to have bugs in her feathers.
She knew she could easily ask foenix for help. Even though she couldn't speak, Nehanda could get Foenix to come outside and look at the plants. Then Foenix would be able to look up the bugs in one of her many books, and she could figure out how to get rid of them!
But Nehanda didn't want Foenix's help. The last time she had asked someone for help, Nahda had set fire to the stove and Kylara had gotten burned. so she didn't want anyone to help her this time.
Nehanda thought that she could probably just look through all of the books until she found a picture of the bugs. After all, a lot of the books had pictures in them. After she found the picture, well . . . well, she hadn't gotten that far in her plan. But she'd figure something out.
She jumped up onto the desk and pulled a book out at random. It was really hard to maneuver the heavy book, and even harder to flip through the thin pages. She found it difficult to turn only one page with her beak or hooves.
It took a while, but she gradually worked her way through three books. none of them had any pictures of bugs! Only plants, and that wasn't any help! Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.
"Nehanda? where are you, sweetie? It's time for bed." Foenix's rich voice carried up from the main floor, and Nehanda pushed her latest book away with a sigh. Now that she thought about it, she was feeling really sleepy. She'd go to bed, and come up with a better way to kill the nasty bugs tomorrow.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 8:23 am
Foenix leaned far back in her chair and stretched out her back and neck. From this angle, she could just barely see nehanda, out working in her garden. Foenix wasn't entirely certain why, but the little gryphon was spending even more time then usual out there, poking, prodding, even petting her plants. To be honest, Foenix wasn't entirely sure that much attention was actually good for many of the more delicate herbs and such. But she was willing to stand back and allow Nehanda to make her own mistakes. it was the best way for the gryphon to learn. Sitting back straight, she looked between the two different piles of books on her desk. There was the pile needed for her paid job . . . and there was the pile needed for her Plant research, which she was really more in the mood for at present. She glanced guiltily at the first pile. It could wait for a little bit, right? Surely she could spend an hour or so reading about . . . what was she on right now? Oh, right. Echinacea. Well, hey. That was a pretty important and useful plant, right? She'd just quickly finish up her notes there, and then start working on the other stuff. Quote: Echinacea [Echinacea angustifolia] is also called Black Sampson, Coneflower, Niggerhead, Rudbeckia, and Brauneria pallida. The flowers are a rich purple and the florets are seated round a high cone; seeds, four-sided achenes. Root tapering, cylindrical, entire, slightly spiral, longitudinally furrowed; fracture short, fibrous; bark thin; wood, thick, in alternate porous, yellowish and black transverse wedges, and the rhizome has a circular pith. It has a faint aromatic smell, with a sweetish taste, leaving a tingling sensation in the mouth not unlike Aconitum napellus, but without its lasting numbing effect.
Echinacea increases bodily resistance to infection and is used for boils, erysipelas, septicaemia, cancer, syphilis and other impurities of the blood, its action being antiseptic. It has also useful properties as a strong alterative and aphrodisiac. As an injection, the extract has been used for haemorrhoids and a tincture of the fresh root has been found beneficial in diphtheria and putrid fevers.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 1:45 pm
Rahujo turned into the yard in front of Foenix's house, pushing a laden wheelbarrow of painting supplies - several tins of stove paint in different colours, and tins of emulsion for repairing the scorched wall, plus paintbrushes, tins, spirits and various other painting paraphenalia.
She set the wheelbarrow on the ground and walked up to the house's front door, giving it a gentle knock.
As well as the paint, she had a slim envelope in her pack for Foenix, from Alyosha. Rahujo had met the slim administrator when she'd been fetching the paint the day before.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 2:09 pm
The door was opened by a charming little winged girl. "Hi! You're Rahujo! You're going to fix our kitchen! Wheeee!" Jumping into the air, she used her little wings to fly toward the kitchen. "Foenix, the Aerandir lady is here!"
Upstairs, foenix poked her head out of her office at Nahda's call. Shaking her head at the vociferous child, she descended the ladder to greet their guest. "Thanks for coming over, Rahujo. Why don't you come on back to the kitchen?"
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 2:21 pm
Rahujo stepped back as the door opened and a small... somebody... greeted her. Slightly nonplussed by the outburst of enthusiasm and general genkiness, she had just raised her hand to say hello when the child flitted away from the door to call for Foenix.
Smiling and shaking her head, she greeted Foenix as she came into view, and stepped inside.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 2:32 pm
Broadening her smile of welcome, Foenix led the way back to the kitchen. "You'll have to excuse Nahda. If i didn't know better, I'd say that child injects sugar directly into her bloodstream. I've never seen anyone quite as . . . hyper. Of course, she was also the one to accidentally set the kitchen fire, which got her grounded for a full week."
As they walked through the main room, a purple-and-silver creature raised her head from the couch. *Afternoon,* greeted Kylara, foenix's Jivvin. *You must be Rahujo. I'll go let Nehanda know that you're here. She's been looking forward to your arrival. I think she's out in her gardens.*
With that, the Jivvin slinked off of the couch, leaving behind a teal-and-gold egg that glowed softly in the afternoon lighting.
Foenix couldn't help but grin. "i've got a rather large family. I hope you won't find everyone too overwhelming. Kylara was the one who put out the fire. She plays nanny for the rest when I'm busy. I don't know what I'd do without her."
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 2:43 pm
"Ah, I see." Rahujo raised an eyebrow at Nahda, and smiled at Kylara as she passed.
Rummaging in her cloth bag as she walked through the house, she eventually pulled out a small envelope and handed it to Foenix.
"Here, while I remember, this is from Alyosha."
Alyosha Dear Foenix, I have asked Rahujo to prepare a special item for Nehanda in honour of her hard work in the first few months of her life. She won't be able to use it quite yet, but I assure you that it will come in useful very soon. Alyosha PS: if anything unusual happens, don't be worried! I'll be at the Centre if you need to ask me anything.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 2:50 pm
Foenix accepted the note and skimmed it quickly. An item? She quirked her eyebrow at the adult Aerandir standing before her. Well, this could certainly proove to be interesting. She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted as a little ivory blur zipped in from the front door.
Nehanda had jumped out of her garden as soon as Kylara had called for her. Rahujo was here? Yay! She liked the calm adult a whole lot. Merping excitedly, she circled the human and Aerandir with swift beats of her wings.
"Hey there, sweetie." Foenix smiled up at her charge. "i think Rahujo here has a present for you. Would you like to see it?"
Nehanda responded by coming down to perch on the Aerandir's shoulder, craning her long, agile, neck around to nod.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 2:58 pm
Rahujo grinned at Nehanda, and scritched her affectionately. She pulled at the knot of her bundle, opening it enough to get one hand inside and withdraw a smaller, oddly-shaped, cloth-wrapped bundle from within.
"Here. I hope you like them."
She'd finished the bronze sickle and knife earlier that day, sanding and polishing the warm wooden handles to a smooth finish and riveting them to the blades with copper fittings. A network of shallow engraved lines ran across both blades, twisting through a series of knots and lines.
Rahujo unwrapped the bundle for inspection, holding the large palm of her right hand flat with the sickle and knife easily resting on it.
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 3:08 pm
"Oh, how lovely," Foenix murmured appreciatively.
Brushing Rahujo's face softly with a wing, Nehanda merped her own thanks. The tools were so pretty. And she knew they would be just perfect for tending her beloved plants.
Foenix reached out with one inquisitive finger to stroke the engravings. "You must have put a lot of work into these, Rahujo. I don't think I've ever seen anything both so useful and so elegant."
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 3:16 pm
((Gah, I lost track of the time! I've got to go in about 15 minutes. I'll be back in a few hours.))
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Posted: Fri Apr 08, 2005 3:19 pm
The next stage!
As Rahujo held up the tools to the gryphon perched upon her shoulders, Nehanda craned forward curiously, prodding at the tools with her bill. The
knife made a dull 'ting' as she tapped it, but as she touched the sickle her dark eyes became round, and she jerked back, her expression as surprised as one with an immobile bill could be.
Nothing happened for a couple of seconds, so she gingerly reached forward again and ...
... disappeared.
Where Nehanda had been perched, floated a glowing blue mass, reminiscent of the gryphon's form immediately after leaving her birth-jar. It pulsed slightly, a thin blue tendril trailing towards the sickle held in Rahujo's outstretched hand.
Rahujo blinked as the weight was suddenly lifted off her shoulder. A soft blue light shadowed the tools she was holding, and she turned to look at what had been Nehanda...As Rahujo turned her head, the amorphous blue mass slowly coalesced, features appearing and solidifying, until a face was visible, with closed eyes and a serene expression. Hair, arms, ears, and more delicate features gradually faded into view.
(( biggrin In order for Nehanda to progress beyond the wisp stage, I'd like you to collect the following items and bring them to me: A crysanthemum flower Two ribbons Several herbal potions And a couple of beads You may get these by buying them from minishops, from other people drawing or creating them for you, or by drawing, creating or photographing them yourself (although no more than one item should be supplied by yourself.) This stage will last a minimum of a week. -- Alyosha ))
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