Tag: Beautiful

When the air turns crisp and the scent of burning leaves fills the air, we prepare for the coming winter by "putting by" food, cleaning up our gardens, and decorating our homes with the bounty.

Preparing both our larders and our gardens for winter are customs that go way back in time, but the decorating of our front lawns is a relatively modern practice. After diligent research, I was unable to nd any denite timeline for the custom of using bales of straw, corn sheaves, mums, and various rural-type items in our home decorating. However, the age-old ritual of decorating the churches with baskets of harvest bounty is probably the origin of the idea. Of course, Halloween is part of the season, so many folks include carved pumpkins, gourds, and squash in these charming displays.

The Amazon lily is a tropical bulb that produces clusters of fragrant, star-shaped white flowers up to three times a year. Although hardy only in tropical regions, it is an excellent houseplant that can add beauty to interiorscapes anywhere in the world.

Not all nuclear reactors are built alike. Power plant designs can vary in their fuels, coolants and configurations, a fact beautifully illustrated by a series of reactor wall charts originally published in issues of Nuclear Engineering International during the 1970s and 1980s.

Since then, the charts have been lovingly collected by Ronald Knief, a nuclear engineer at Sandia National Laboratory. Recently, he completed his collection with help from the Idaho National Laboratory library and began to digitize the drawings. The first eight out of more than 100 have now been permanently archived online by the University of New Mexico libraries.

For many people, winter means gray, cold days and much pining for warmer weather. However, not only can you grow some interesting plants in winter, here is one that will grow and bloom for you in winter! You won't have to worry about it in summer because it will be dormant then! Read on for more about this wonder . . .

The humble northern cranberry has been associated with Thanksgiving and turkey since 1620. It is said that Native Americans first taught the hungry Pilgrims how to eat this acidic berry. Now cranberry sauce is a important part of Christmas in English-speaking countries everywhere, as well as a necessary part of Canadian and American Thanksgivings. Cranberries have been touted recently with having innumerable health benefits. To me, cranberries are a local industry and a delicious easy-to-make side dish.