Salt & Progress on Reading Goals

I finished my expanded reading goal of 28 books last Thursday. I can't help myself, I've picked up another book.

A friend and I were going to go out to the local annual fair.  When she heard how I sounded this morning she suggested I stay home instead and have a good rest.  I seem to be coming down with congestion in the chest. I took her advice and it gave me a chance to begin a slow read of my new book.

The new book I've had on my shelves for a long while. It is called, Salt by Mark Kurlansky. It is a book all about the history of salt and how it has shaped civilization. 

Did you know that wars have been fought over salt; that salt has been used for currency, or that in 1930, Ghandi initiated a salt march to overthrow British rule in India? I also found it interesting that "sal" is the Latin word for salt and that our "sal-ary" derives from the word "sal" because soldiers used to be paid in salt. The word "sal-ad" also derives from the word "sal" because at one time, salad was made of vegetables flavoured with salt or a salt based dressing.  I've only just started the book but already it sounds very interesting.

Most of us use salt on a daily basis. North American table salt tends to be heavily processed,  stripped of its trace minerals and enhanced with anti-caking chemicals like aluminum to make it easier to shake from your salt shaker.  In fact, salt is crucial to your health but many of us use overly refined salt and  too much of it. In recent years, the governments in North America have been creating awareness of the danger of too much salt, warning that amongst other ailments, too much salt contributes to high blood pressure.  Consequently, many of us have cut down on our table and cooking salt, eliminated it or replaced it with herbs or what we think are healthier versions of salt.

I switched to "sea salt" years ago.  I put the words "sea" and "salt" in quotation marks because really, all salt comes from the sea.  Once salt water evaporates you are left with salt. The real difference comes in the processing of the salt and what is subtracted from, or added to it.  For more information on the difference between table salt and sea salt, please read here if interested.

First, I tried Himalayan Sea Salt and I also bought one of the Himalayan salt lamps) to counteract the positive ions created by the computer and television). This type of salt is sold in health food stores here and is very expensive so I switched to a refined Greek sea salt called Kalas, made by the largest producer of sea salt in Greece.  I've moved on again to another type of sea salt from an ancient sea bed in Utah, called Real Salt.  It is an unrefined salt containing over 60 trace minerals. I can't say it has made a huge difference in how I feel or in the swelling of my extremities but I'll stick with it because I believe the lack of processing and the presence of 60 trace minerals has to be good.

What about you dear reader? Do you also still use regular iodized table salt or have you made a change?

My Lodgings in Lanoraie - Images of Le Belle Province Pt. 4

On my recent travels to Quebec and the eastern USA, I mostly stayed in motels and hotels.  But in the small town of Lanoraie I got to stay in a charming old house.

It has a plaque showing the original owner of the house. 

When you are in the house, you know you are in an old house, at least by Canadian standards.  The house is primarily made of wood and has fairly low ceilings and a very narrow stairwell to the attic where there are two large bedrooms.  There is also a bedroom on the main level as well as a living room, kitchen, dining room, office and bathroom. I think there was also a basement but this would likely have been an addition to the house when it was moved from it's original location to it's present one

 in Lanoraie.

I slept in the attic.  There were two beds in my room. The bed in the photo below is made of wood but I  chose to sleep in the antique metal bed which I did not capture in a photo.

I did get several photos of the various nooks and crannies in the room.

 There were beautiful prints all over the room and many things to draw the eye.

 I thought this little bedside table with the "rabbit lamp"was cute.

 There were lots of books too in every little area where there could possibly be a small bookshelf.

 I had a wonderful sleep which I very much needed.  But the night was all too short as we went to sleep very late and had to leave very early in the morning.

However before we started on our journey, we had breakfast in the dining room.

The house has been modernized with the necessary conveniences but the room sizes and ceiling heights have remained more or less the same.

A view into the kitchen from the dining room.

The grandfather clock.

 

The office and television area. 

 I didn't get a good photo of the living room area or any of the other bedrooms and bathroom.

This historic house was featured in some kind of  exhibition along with 3 others historic houses in the towns of Lanoraie and Lavaltrie.

I really enjoyed my night in this historic house. Apparently while I slept, I was oblivious to the pounding rain, thunder claps and lightening. I had the windows open in  the bedroom for a cross breeze and it was such a welcome relief to have a breeze to help me sleep through the humidity of the summer.

Joining in with Our World Tuesday.

You can find some of my other travel posts on Quebec in the Blog Archive to the right of the screen. I also have some posts on New York from this trip. More to come.