Macro Flowers, October 7, 2011

If you've been following my blog posts on macro flowers you will know that I often take photos as I go on short walks in my neighbourhood.  I don't have a big garden and I don't seem to have a green thumb either. It's probably because I spend so little time cultivating what I plant.  Some day I hope to take up gardening a little more seriously.  In the meantime, I'm fortunate that I live in a city of avid gardeners and I don't have to go far to enjoy flowering plants.

In one of my walks, I took these photos of the delightful little bush with small, white flowers. I was enthralled by the centre of the flower which if you examine it closely looks a lot like the daisies I featured in this post.

My hand wasn't steady enough for the first macro shot.

This shot is a little better. At least you can make out the intricate pattern. Isn't it lovely?

Hummus & Veg

Yesterday (Wednesday)  I made some vegetable juice for lunch and had a pasta stir fry with lots of vegetables and shrimp for dinner. It was great but I was so full.  Today that juice really worked on me to cleanse my system.  So today I made juice again but I reversed the order of meals and opted to have juice for dinner.  Instead of my usual and savoured coffee, I had several cups of green tea.

I had my regular lunch and tonight I had a green juice instead of the fennel I talked about yesterday. I made spinach juice with some cauliflower and a small amount of apple for sweetner. I also added some water and some green powder (full of spirulina and such like). It was good with the apple otherwise it would have tasted like alfalfa (I know what tastes like as mom used to make a health potion when I was a child and it had alfalfa powder in it).

My spinach - cauliflower and apple juice.

Yesterday I boiled up some chick peas to have on hand for when I want to make hummus.  So tonight I made hummus and had that with some veggies, whole wheat pita warmed up in the oven and of course my green juice.

I was feeling very tired today. It seems that almost everyone I speak with near or far has some kind of early cold bug. I got mine last week. My acupuncture doctor even told me today that her pup has a "doggy cold". I didn't know dogs get a cold but she says it is phlegm in his chest and she is treating him like she treats her human patients.  Giving him herbs to expel the mucus.

I suppose it is the change of weather and seasons that is making people sick. Hopefully the greens will help me keep my immune system strong. I noticed I got over the little cold I had last week and it hardly bothered me at all.

A sample of my dinner.

Hummus is a popular dish that originated in the Middle East. It is a spread, dip, or paste made of chickpeas and tahini that is usually eaten with pita or any other flat bread, often during breakfast. It has a texture and consistency similar with peanut butter. This Middle Eastern favorite is widely used in countries like Syria, Israel, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and Lebanon. Its popularity is rooted not only from its delicious taste but also from its great nutritional value.


The nutritional benefits of hummus can be gleaned from each of its ingredients. The primary ingredient, chickpeas are very healthy because they do not contain any cholesterol or saturated fats. They are also rich in protein. This makes hummus a favorite among vegetarians. Chickpeas are also known to be effective in preventing build up of cholesterol in the blood vessels. Apart from that, it can maintain correct blood sugar levels. So chickpeas are a perfect food for my health issues.  Olive oil is a healthy fat and can help regulate cholesterol and protect the heart from various diseases. Garlic and lemon juice are great antioxidants and help strengthen the immune system and help fight bacteria and viruses. Tahini is full of fat and calories but you don't need much if you use it in your hummus.  I don't generally use tahini in my hummus because it is just one more ingredient I have to have on hand and I wouldn't use it very often.  My recipe for hummus is therefore, "tahini free".

Ingredients for hummus

- chick peas cooked
- liquid from the stored chick peas
- one small red pepper
- cloves of garlic to taste
- lemon juice to taste
- olive oil not too much, just enough to make it a bit smooth
- a bit of salt to taste


Whip all this up in a blender or food processor. I add the olive oil slowly at the end so I don't add too much and I add the salt at the end too.  Perhaps you don't even want or need any salt in your hummus. Taste it first and see.  I added the red pepper because I like red peppers and it adds a slightly deeper colour.

I boil up dried chick peas most of the time rather than buy them canned. After I cook them I store them in the refrigerator in a covered container with a bit of water.  I use some of that water in the hummus mixture when I process them.

My hummus was all right but I rushed to make it so I can have dinner before 8 p.m. and I need to work on getting the right balance of garlic and lemon juice.  The consistency was perfect and went well with my warmed up pita.


Try it and let me know how you like it :-)

Healthy Juicing

There was a time when I was a juicer, always making juice fresh from vegetables and fruits. Somehow I got out of the habit and I've been meaning to get back to it. At least now and then it would be nice to have freshly made juice with no additives or preservatives.

I reconstructed this after I made my drink, lol. So the tomatos, the carrot and the apple are a bit bigger than what I actually used. But you can see how small the beets are.

Wednesday I made up my own concoction consisting of:

- 2 small to medium tomatoes
- 2 small beets (or a medium one)
- 1 celery stalk
- 1 small carrot
- 1 small apple
- 2 stalks/leaves of kale

After I drank this I was very full as that is a lot of veggies to eat and an apple on top of it!  Even though the beet was very small the juice was a beautiful, deep red colour and tasted delicious.

Sorry I didn't think to take a photo before I drank it!

Beets are very good for you. They have:

• Vitamins: Beetroots are a good source of folic acid and vitamin C. It also contains small amounts of vitamins B1, B2, B3, and vitamin A in the form of beta-carotene.
  
• Minerals: Rich in calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, and sodium. Also, smaller amounts of iron, zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium.
  
• Amino Acids: While raw beets are mostly water and carbohydrate, they also contain small amounts of all the amino acids (protein).
  
• Calories: One 2" (5cm) beetroot contains 35 calories.
  
• Antioxidants: Its carotenoids and flavanoids can help reduce the oxidation of LDL cholesterol which could lead to damaged artery walls and ultimately heart attacks and strokes. 

Kale is also a nutrition packed vegetable. Kale contains beta carotene, vitamin K, vitamin C, lutein, zeaxanthin (a carotenoid similar to lutein), calcium and fiber. A sulfur-containing phytonutrient in kale called sulforaphane is believed to have powerful anti-cancer, anti-diabetic and anti-microbial properties and is released when the leaves are chopped or chewed, or blended. 

Kale also contains powerful antioxidants that help protect against certain cancers such as ovarian cancer. Kale is an excellent green to use for detox smoothies as it has cleansing properties. The nutrients in kale help protect against cataracts while promoting healthy lungs, cardiovascular health and boosts the immune system. Kale has anti-inflammatory properties making it an excellent food for those with rheumatoid arthritis.

Since I have a few health issues, I look for ways to eat kale and beets and more veggies in general.  For about a year now I've been doing well eating kale in soups and stir frys. I've been wanting to use it in juicing too.  As for beets, I really don't eat them that often as they take too much time to cook and they stain the pots. Even the smaller ones need a lot of cooking and I try to conserve the electrical energy due to the high cost of electricity.  This is why juicing is a good alternative. The beets don't  need to be cooked in advance. They just go into my juicer after washing.

All the other produce is good for you too. Next time I'm going to make kale, apple and fennel juice. I'm not a big fan of fennel but I try to eat it now and then.  I'm especially heartened to learn that fennel has so many wonderful benefits.

I used fennel late last week in a dish with pork and other veggies. This left over fennel needs to be used soon so into the juicer it will go.

Fennel contains many minerals and vitamins: vitamin C, fibers, manganese, potasium, magnesium, calcium, iron, vitamin B3 etc. The vitamin C from the bulb of the plant is antibacterian and very useful to the immune system. The fennel bulb is an important source of fibers which help reduce the cholesterol level. Also, the fibers from this herb can prevent intestinal cancer owing to the fact that they can eliminate toxins and cancerous substances from intestines. The herb is rich in potassium - an essential mineral which helps decrease the high blood pressure that can cause a heart attack.
All these benefits certainly make it much more enticing to eat and juicing will make it even easier.

I will say that my blood sugar levels are still more elevated than they should be despite all  my efforts at reducing sugars in the food. I guess I am one of those people that needs more drastic interventions. My doctor will likely put me on another medication when I see her in a few weeks.In the meantime, I will continue to make more changes in the diet, eat more veggies and now that my leg has improved a bit, I can exercise again. Even a bit of exercise will help a lot. I'm just reintroducing juicing and I will need to be careful there too because of the diabetes.  But I think getting more vegetables into the diet will be a good thing. I remember when I juiced before, I felt much healthier then.

Post Script:  I read afterwards that diabetics need to be careful of their sugar levels when juicing (I knew that ;-).  I also read that vegetables that grow above ground (tomatoes, kale, celery) have fewer sugars than vegetables that grow below the ground (beets, carrots) (I didn't know that).  So if you are diabetic like me, don't use too much carrot in your juice or make too many fruit juices.  Next time I will add only a small portion of carrot to my fennel, beet and kale juice and probably skip the apple. I do want to get the benefits of the carrot too but not the high sugar levels.

I Miss You

Yesterday as I lay on the table waiting for the technician to wrap my legs up in air compression "gizmos", I thought of you.

Many years have already passed since you left us for your immortal home. I think about you often but mostly now instead of grief and sadness, I thank God you are no longer here to suffer and that you aren't in pain anymore.

But now and then I think of you and I miss you. Like now. I'm alone in this room and in these rare moments of time where I just lie and try to relax, thoughts come to me unbidden. I've made a point in these moments to thank God and to praise him for everything he has done for me; for the life he has given me, for the way he has sustained me, for the joys and the tribulations, and even for my body which despite it's problems, he has given me. I'm learning to be thankful for everything. But sometimes, other thoughts do come in.  I've had a lot of time over the past month to just lie down several times a week for an hour at a time each time I get a leg treatment.  It is at these times that I think deep thoughts about many things. Yesterday I thought of you.

I thought of your daughter who has done so well despite her missing you. I tell her how much you love her and how you look down on her from Heaven. It brings her so much comfort when I say 'mommy is in Heaven and she looks down on you. She is flying around with the angels".  At that point, she always, repeats "angels?" and I say "Yes, mommy is with the angels. Some day we will see her again when we die but we have to wait. It isn't time yet." She seems to understand now. She knows you are still with us though she cannot see you. In the early years she would say "Mommy come back now." and she would cry and plead.  She thought you had been away in Heaven for too long.  It was heartbreaking to hear that. I know she is still very sad at times and I imagine that she cries at night when she is alone.  I pray for her always and show her as much love and fun as possible. We all do our parts to try and bring joy to her and keep her spirits uplifted and she seems to be happy and contented.

Right now she misses her one and only brother who has come here to live and go to university. She will be happy this weekend when she sees him because he is going to visit both her and "grandma". They will be so happy to see him.  You would be so proud of him. He has been working for years now in addition to going to college locally. Now he has decided to pursue a degree at university in the big city, he says he is determined to make me proud of him.  If you were here, he would tell you that he is determined to make you proud of him. He has a lot of talents that the Lord has given Him and so I pray for his success in life and for things to go smoothly despite the challenges of student life.

I started out by saying how much I miss you and then I got into telling you the news of your children.  I know how much you loved them and how concerned you were about their future. I just want you to know they are okay though they both miss you still. How can I blame them when I miss you still?

When I think about you I think about your ready smile and how your face lit up the entire room with your beautiful face and loving spirit. I realize now how patient you had to be to raise your children, especially one with special needs.  You did the best you could and for that I am so thankful and proud of you.

I miss your laugh. I miss the way we would joke about the difficulties or bad news we would get.  We knew that God would help us and sustain us and we had to hang on to that in the storms of life through mom's illness and yours.  Our Maker gave us so much laughter and joy despite our tribulations and since you are no longer here it doesn't seem like we laugh nearly as much.  I miss the way you would call mom every day and bring her joy. You would be happy to know that mom now has help and people to look after her health.  Though she (and we) had a very rough ride of things, things seem to be calmer now. She is looking forward to things again.  I miss the way you and I got so close. I miss the holiday I wanted to take you  on to Hawaii. I really wanted you to enjoy that trip and we were so, so close to going. I imagine in Heaven, the scenery and the beauty made up for not seeing Hawaii here on earth.  I miss your hugs.  Besides me, you are the only one who really gave a good hug and didn't mind a good hug.  I miss the family celebrations we were not able to have with you. We just celebrated mom's 75th with a small dinner and cake.

I want to tell you again that I love you and that the memories of your sweet presence blesses me still.  Sis, I don't feel sad about you most days because I know there is no pain, no tears, no suffering where you are. That is just so awesome. Though I tell your daughter that you are looking down on us to bring her comfort, the truth is that I do not really believe that.  If you were looking down on us you might feel the pain or involvement in this world and that is not what Heaven is. In Heaven you do not have the concerns of this world anymore and for that I can rejoice.

Photo credit: Jonah at Missions of Hope

I know we will see each other again some day after we put off these mortal bodies. I don't know just exactly how we will relate to each other in Heaven because we will all be sons and daughters of God there.  Whatever it is, I'm sure it will be glorious. God has promised a wonderful place and I believe it.  Love sis.

Good News out of Kenya

I read this article at www.allAfrica.com news today. It is welcome news indeed.  I applaud the Kenyan government for this vision to help keep the country in food security. I hope they have the fortitude to see it through to completion and moreover, that the plan meets with success.  I've been hearing about the plan for awhile but haven't actually read anything official until now.

In my own work with farmers to help them plant and fertilizer their fields, I know that it can get very expensive for a subsistence farmer.  So I was happy to hear that part of the plan involves making seeds and fertilizers available to farmers at an affordable price. I just hope that farmers can afford the price.  Inflation has been so high in Kenya over the last two years and virtually all necessities have doubled or tripled in cost, while the Kenyan currency has lost a lot of strength on the world market.

My own photo of the Perkarra Irrigation Project near Marigat. See the fields are green in this dry and arid place.

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ABOUT 1.2million hectares will be irrigated in the next five years as part of the government plan to eradicate drought-related hunger in the country, President Kibaki has said.

Speaking during the official opening of the 2011 Nairobi International Trade Fair on Friday, President Kibaki said this will reduce the country's reliance on rain-fed agriculture and guarantee the country food security. "I am directing the ministry of Water and Irrigation, the ministry of Agriculture and the Treasury to put in place adequate measures that will ensure that this is achieved," Kibaki said.

He said the government is committed to support the continued growth of the agricultural sector. "We are determined to see the transformation of this sector from one that mainly focuses on subsistence to commercial and market-oriented," said Kibaki. He added that infrastructure such as transport and energy plays an important role in agriculture and therefore the government had in the last seven years embarked on an ambitious road construction progamme.

Kibaki urged crop and livestock farmers to increase their production and benefit from the enhanced access to markets and improved distribution networks. In 2010 agriculture registered a growth of about 6 percent which is the highest achieved in the country in four years. The growth was fueled by the rise in the production of tea,cereals,sugar and coffee.

He noted that Kenya's food production has declined over the last few years due to several factors like drought,escalating food and fuel prices as well as high cost of farm inputs like fertilisers. He assured Kenyans that some measures had been set in place to mitigate the impact of increasing food prices. "The government has waived import duty on maize and wheat for a period of six months with effect from July this year," Kibaki said.

He added that the government had put in places measures to ensure that key agricultural inputs are available to farmers at an affordable price. "The ministry of Agriculture has a stock of about 40,000 metric tones of assorted fertiliser and adequate seeds for the next short rains,"Kibaki said. Present at the function was Vice President Kalonzo Musyoka, minister for Agriculture Sally Kosgei among others.

Kalonzo urged the participants,exhibitors and farmers to take advantage of the trade fair to enhance food security in the country as well as earn the country foreign exchange and reduce the rate of inflation. 360 exhibitors were present in the trade fair to exchange their products including China, France, South Africa, Nigeria, Sudan, Israel, Uganda among others. Kosgei urged the government to subsidise seeds and fertilisers inputs to help smallscale farmers afford the cost.

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