Echinacea

They're a little bit past it, but I still love these flowers. Echinacea is meant to boost the immune system and help lessen the severity of colds. I don't know how herbalists make the tincture and I always wonder how the discovery was made. I picture somebody deep in the jungle staring at a plant and wondering..."hummm. I wonder if this would boost my immune system or kill me?"

We have a blanket from a Highland woolen mill which is, if I recall, an ancient Buchanan. I bought it because I loved the colors and not because I had any affiliation with Buchanans, ancient or modern! It lived in a cupboard for many years because I didn't really know what to do with it, but several years ago I put it on the tv room couch partly to brighten up a dark room but also to protect it from dogs who like to sleep on it. It has the advantage of not really showing dog hair, but the disadvantage of not being something one would just throw in the washing machine.

I consulted with my coffee mates this morning about how to go about cleaning my ancient tartan wool blanket and dry cleaning was suggested. that seemed counter productive to me so I went to work on it with a dog hair brush. When that seemed to be too much work for too little result, I decided to take a chance on putting it in the washing machine on cold. It fared just fine and is three shades lighter, but just loosened the dog hair so that it now looks like it has a fur coat. It dried in no time in the sun and I gave a vigorous shake which got rid of quite a bit more, but I've decided that if I want to enjoy it I'll just put it back on the couch at this point. 

If anybody else is crazy enough to put their wool blanket on a couch the dog sleeps on, and has found a way to remove the dog hair do let me know. At least it's clean dog hair....

Dana and Jim flew to Chicago on Wednesday and Dana sent the picture in extras...a sculpture called 'The Bean' in front of the Art Institute, (next to the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam my favorite art museum). I love the way the clouds are reflected in its surface.