PLANTAS AMIGAS EN TU CASA - FITOTERAPIA

Hola mis queridos amigos. ¿Os gustan las plantas? ¿Tenéis alguna en casa? Hoy os voy a dar ideas de plantas para tener en casa o en vuestro jardín o vivero que además de bonitas, son beneficiosas para todos nosotros.

Info: Revista Cuerpomente  /  Jordi Cebrián, periodista y especialista en Fitoterapia.

Fotos: Elhuertourbano  /  Agromática  /  Cocinista.es  /  wikipedia  /  fitoterapia.net  /  Arbolapp  /  Granavida

FITOTERAPIA  -  PLANTAS AMIGAS EN TU CASA

Las plantas embellecen nuestro hogar, pero también lo purifican, nos libran de insectos y algunas nos ofrecen su potencial curativo.

Pasear a la sombra de un bosque tupido, absorber las fragancias de una floresta o de un matorral lleno de plantas aromáticas o caminar por una playa al borde  de un oleaje tranquilo es una necesidad que todos experimentamos en algún momento.  Está suficientemente documentado que el contacto con la naturaleza nos beneficia tanto a nivel físico como emocional.

*UN HOGAR MÁS VITAL.  Podemos tratar de reproducir los beneficios que nos aportan las plantas en la naturaleza en nuestras propias casas, ya sea en el jardín, si tenemos la suerte de disponer de él, en una terraza, un balcón o incluso, en el interior de la vivienda, eligiendo en cada caso la planta más adecuada.  Los elementos florales y vegetales actúan de barrera natural contra los agentes contaminantes e incluso contra el ruido ambiental.  Además, al elevar los índices de humedad, contribuyen a que no se nos resequen las mucosas de las vías respiratorias y se reduce el riesgo de infección.

*EL VERDE QUE EQUILIBRA.  Las plantas pueden purificar el ambiente afectado por el humo o el polvo y depurar el aire que respiramos.  Algunas especies, como las labiadas, tienen una gran capacidad para ahuyentar a los insectos y evitar picaduras.  Las plantas embellecen la casa y nos hacen compañía, pero además obtenemos de ellas diferentes condimentos alimenticios y remedios que podemos aplicar en forma de infusiones, jarabes, lavados o vaporizaciones.

SALVIA. Una fragancia muy medicinal.

*Dónde se encuentra: En la Europa mediterránea. En suelos calcáreos secos y soleados.

*Partes que usamos: Las ramas con las flores y las hojas.

*Cuáles son sus propiedades: Digestivas, antioxidantes, antiinflamatorias y astringentes.

*A quién conviene:  Alivia los dolores gastrointestinales y menstruales; regula el ciclo femenino y es útil para tratar problemas de la boca y faringitis.

*Cómo se utiliza: La infusión, depurada, en enjuagues  y colutorios para infecciones bucales. En la cocina como condimento para guisos y para aliñar aceitunas.

*Dónde plantarla: En parterres sobre rocalla y jardineras.  Regar 2 veces a la semana en floración.

CEBOLLINO.  Un ajo suave para condimentar.

*Dónde se encuentra: Por toda Europa, incluido el norte de la Península Ibérica.

*Partes que usamos: Los tallos frescos.

*Propiedades: Es una buena fuente de Vitamina A, B y del grupo C así como de sales minerales, en especial, calcio, magnesio y fósforo.

*A quién conviene: Ideal para situaciones de debilidad, fatiga, estrés o falta de apetito.

*Cómo se utiliza: Fresco en ensalada, en sopas y cremas vegetales y en diferentes guisos veganos y vegetarianos. También para aromatizar aceites y vinagres. 

*Dónde plantarlo: En parterres o jardineras, evitando un exceso de insolación. Resistente al frío.

ALBAHACA.  Protagonista de la salsa pesto.

*Dónde se encuentra: Originaria de la India, es muy cultivada en toda Europa, en sembrados, huertos y viveros medicinales.

*Partes que usamos: Las hojas, flores y tallos tiernos.  Aromática y de sabor intenso.

*Propiedades: Digestiva, carminativa, antiséptica y analgésica-

*A quién conviene: Para indigestiones, inapetencia, tos irritativa y parásitos intestinales. Externamente para heridas, eccemas, dolores y contracturas.

*Cómo se utiliza: En ensaladas y para condimentar guisos, pizzas, pasta y legumbres.  Protagonista de la salsa pesto.

*Dónde plantarla: en cualquier maceta.  Necesita sustratos bien drenados, con abono orgánico. Debe resguardarse del viento.

HIERBALUISA.  Calmante y muy aromática.

*Dónde se encuentra: Originaria de Sudamérica, llegó a Europa tras las expediciones transoceánicas.

*Partes que usamos: Las hojas y las inflorescencias.

*Propiedades: Digestiva, antiespasmódica, carminativa, antihistamínica y sedante suave.

*Conveniente: Para aliviar dispepsias, gases, falta de apetito, náuseas y vómitos.  Para calmar cefaleas, estados nerviosos y en problemas de la piel, como urticarias o granos.

*Cómo se utiliza: En infusión, además de balsámica es deliciosa por su sabor cítrico intenso.  También en lavados para la piel.

*Dónde plantarla: En tiestos o jardineras, al sol o semisombra. Regar con frecuencia en verano.

GRANADO.  Refrescante y antiparasitario.

*Dónde se encuentra: Originario de Irán, su cultivo se ha extendido por todo el Mediterráneo.

*Partes que usamos: Los frutos con sus semillas, la corteza del fruto y la corteza de la raíz.

*Propiedades: Depurativo, diurético, tónico circulatorio y antiinflamatorio de la mucosa digestiva.

*Adecuado para: Los remedios con la corteza se destinan a combatir los parásitos intestinales. También para tratar diarreas estacionales.

*Cómo se utiliza: Como fruta fresca o en ensalada. Como mineralizante en jarabe de los frutos.

*Dónde plantarlo:  En el jardín, como arbusto barrera o en tiestos grandes al sol o semisombra.

MARK TWAIN. THE FATHER OF AMERICAN LITERATURE - MARK TWAIN. EL PADRE DE LA LITERATURA AMERICANA

Hi my dear friends. Today we are going to know a bit more about Mark Twain,  considered "The father of American literature". It is for sure you have read some of his books such as "The adventures of Huckleberry Finn", or "The adventures of Tom Sawyer" among many others. I hope you'll enjoy this post!

Hola mis queridos amigos. Hoy vamos a saber un poquito más sobre Mark Twain considerado "El padre de la literatura americana". Seguramente que habéis leído alguno de su libros tales como "Las aventuras de Huckelberry Finn" o "Las aventuras de Tom Sawyer" entre otros muchos.  ¡Espero que disfrutéis esta publicación!

Info: from Speak Up magazine.

Photos: Wikipedia  /  Simon&Schuster.UK.  /  Vermont.Public  /  Penguin.Libros  /  Librería.Berlín  /  Facebook (2)  /  The.waterways.Journal

MARK TWAIN  -  THE FATHER OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

"A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words in a book or a newspaper the resulting effect is physical as well as spiritual, and electrically prompt."

"Always do right.  This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest."

Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhome Clemens on 30 November 1835.  Considered the father of American literature, his masterful use of vernacular speech, biting wit, ferocious social satire, and deep understanding of human nature revolutionised the world of fiction in the US.  His was the critical voice of a rapidly-changing nation in a period he himself called "The Gilded Age".

MISSISSIPPI AS A SYMBOL

Born in Mississippi in the village of Florida, Twain grew up in the bustling town of Hannibal on the Mississippi River.  Steamboats, a slave-owning society and the adventures of childhood along the riverbanks would colour his imagination indelibly.

Twain hated school and dreamt about of becoming a riverboat pilot.  His first job, however, was as a printer's apprentice and typesetter, which "helped him figure out how words go together."  Finally, after a two-year training period, he became a Mississippi River pilot.  The Mississippi was the central symbol of his literary work.  The main artery of the slavery business: one million men, women and children were transported down the river for sale on steamboats from 1820 to 1860.

ACCLAIM AS A WRITER

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Twain served briefly as a Confederate soldier.  He then headed west in the 1861 Gold Rush, before working as a miner and finally a journalist.  With writing, he found his calling. He adopted the pen name "Mark Twain", riverboat slang meaning "two fathoms of safe water".

His career breakthrough came in 1865 with a short story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", about a man who loved to bet on animals.  It established his reputation as a master storyteller with a gift for regional accents.  More fame came with two travel books,  "The Innocents Abroad" (1869) and "Roughing It" (1872).  Twain used funny, irreverent observation to mock the stuffiness of old European culture and the ignorance of American tourists.

THE GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL

Twain then published the two novels which would make him famous. In "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876), a coming-of-age tale, he captured the nostalgic, romantic, light-hearted spirit, and imagination of his boyhood.  Tom is a mischievous but good-hearted orphan who shares adventures with his best friend Huckelberry Finn.  Its sequel, "Adventures of Huckelberry Finn" (1884) cemented Twain's place in literary history.  A runaway boy and an escaped slave travel down the Mississippi, looking for freedom, in a novel tackling the harsh reality of America's original sin, SLAVERY.

TRAGEDIES

Twain regularly invested in new technology.  Disaster struck in 1894, when a failed investment in the Paige Compositor, a complex typesetting machine, left him bankrupt.  Suffering from depression and anxiety, he decided to pay off his debts with a worldwide lecture tour in 1895-1896.  Delighting audiences with his quick wit and eloquence, he became an international celebrity.  He returned to the US with his wealth and public reputation restored.

In his private life, however, Twain suffered a series of family tragedies.  He and his wife Livy lost their son, Langdon, at just nineteen months, in 1872.  Susy, his favourite daughter, died aged twenty-four in 1896 from spinal meningitis.  His wife died in 1904, followed by their youngest daughter Jean, an epileptic, in 1909. Only Clara, his middle daughter, outlived him.

AN IMMEASURABLE IMPACT

These terrible events, together with disillusionment regarding human nature, imperialism,  religion, and institutional greed, filled the writer with bitter anger.  His final works were dark and cynical.  He died just four months after Jean.

Twain's impact on American literature and culture is immeasurable.  Ernest Hemingway famously said that "all modern American literature comes from Huckelberry Finn".  Twain was the first major American author to successfully use vernacular language.  He democratised American literature by demonstrating that regional voices could describe and confront the country's most serious moral issues.  He also entertained millions, using his wonderful sense of humour as a weapon against injustice.

A FIGHTER AGAINST INJUSTICE

Mark Twain fought against slavery all his life.  He was shocked when his own parents ordered the whipping of Jennie, the black slave who had nursed him and his siblings, for insubordination.  The "woman was almost like one of the family,"  Twain wrote.  Jennie then demanded to be sold. 

Twain's attitude towards American Indians changed from racist prejudice during his time in the West to later empathy and anti-imperialist anger as he recognised the terrible impact of European and American colonisation.  Twain's  friend William Dean Howells described the writer as having "an indignant sense of right and wrong, a scorn of all affectation and pretence, an ardent of meanness and injustice".

The writer loved modern technology and inventions.  He was one of the first Americans to have a telephone at home.  The inventor Thomas Edison visited Twain at his Connecticut home in 1909 and made the only known film of the writer, dressed in his iconic white suite, with his daughters Clara and Jean.  He adored his family, and the deaths of his wife and three of his children almost destroyed him.  His wife Livy (Olivia), the daughter of a New York coal baron, was fundamental to his success, brilliantly editing his work.

The author's outsized personality helped to make him famous.  He made his unruly hair an important part of his public persona, laughing at it at times.  He delighted in publicity and was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists and European royalty.  But he was also a friend to his neighbours, especially the local farmers.

Twain was born just after the appearance of Halley's Comet in 1835.  He died one day after the comet was at its closest to the sun in 1910.  Predicting this coincidence, Twain himself wrote:"The Almighty has said, no doubt:"Now, here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together."

GLOSSARY

MASTERFUL: magistral  /  BITING: incisivo  /  WIT: ingenio  /  GILDED AGE: Edad Dorada  /  BUSTLING: bulliciosa  /  STEAMBOAT: barco de vapor  /  TYPESETTER: tipógrafo  /  TO FIGURE OUT: averiguar  /  TO BREAK OUT: estallar  /  GOLD RUSH: la fiebre del oro  /  PEN NAME: pseudónimo  /  SLANG: jerga  /  FATHOM: braza  /  BREAKTHROUGH: éxito decisivo  /  TO MOCK ridiculizar  /  STUFFINESS:rigidez  /  COMING-OF-AGE TALE: relato de iniciación  /  LIGHT-HEARTED: desenfadado.  /  MISCHIEVOUS:travieso  /  TO TACKLE: abordar  /  TO COME UPON: encontrarse con  /  PROMPT:inmediato  /  TO OUTLIVE: sobrevivir a  /  GREED: codicia  /  WHIPPING: flagelación  /  SIBLINGS:hermanos  /  SCORN:desprecio  /  PRETENCE:afectación  /  MEANNESS:mezquindad  /  OUTSIZED:extraordinario  /  UNRULY:rebelde  /  PERSONA:imagen pública  /  ALMIGHTY:poderoso  /  FREAKS: rarezas  /  

THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS - EL LIBRO GUINNESS DE LOS RECORDS

Hi my dear friends. Have you ever got a record? Do you know what The Guinness Book of Records is? I'm sure both!!! Today  you are going to see the origin of such a peculiar Book. I hope you'll like it!

Hola mis queridos amigos. ¿Alguna vez habéis conseguido un récord? ¿Sabéis qué es el Libro Guinness de los Récords? ¡Estoy segura de que las dos cosas!  Hoy vamos a ver el origen de este Libro tan peculiar. ¡Espero que os guste!

Info: from Speak Up magazine

Photos: wikipedia  /  Guinness.world.records  /  Facebook  /  Reddit  /  Spot.ph  /  Reader's.digest

THE GUINNESS BOOK OF RECORDS.  GROUNDBREAKING FEATS

The book of Guinness World Records has been sparking curiosity around the globe since 1955.  That year, the first edition was released in the summer, and by Christmas it had already become Britain's number one bestseller.

BREWED IN IRELAND

The Managing Director of the renowned Guinness Brewery in Ireland kept finding himself in situations where, when he tried to figure out which one of two was faster, for instance, he had nowhere to go to find out.  He had no way to check which, who or what was beating a record.  He imagined that people everywhere must be having the same issue and concluded that a guide with definitive answers could supply this demand.

A LOVE OF FACTS

Chris Chataway, a record-breaking athlete, who was also an employee at the Guinness Park Royal Brewery in London, recommended twins Norris and Ross McWhirter as the perfect candidates to compile a book on world records.  What made them ideal for the job was their love of facts: they had been working as sports journalists since 1950, and ran an agency supplying facts and figures to Fleet Street newspapers.  The McWhirters were commissioned to create  The Guinness Book of Records.

This book has gone on to establish itself as a universally-recognised authority on record-breaking achievement.  Published in more than a hundred countries and in twenty-five languages, it is one of the highest-selling books ever, with over three million copies sold each year.

DEFYING THE (DIGITAL) TIMES

With the dominant role of social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram or X (formerly) known as Twitter, the current digital landscape begs the question:  is there still a place for a physical book like that of the Guinness World Records?  Perhaps there is, as its role lies precisely in differentiating itself from the more volatile relativism of social media by providing a fixed, solid account of verified facts.

Moreover, the book offers a range of inspiring stories for a public that might want to steer away from digital platforms.  It can be a gift in which children can find inspiration to achieve any feat, or a pastime for elderly people looking to a record-breakers for inspiration and reassurance that it's never too late.

GLOSSARY

TO SPARK: provocar  /  TO RELEASE: publicar  /  RENOWNED: famoso  /  BREWERY: cervecera  /  TO FIGURE OUT: resolver  /  ISSUE: problema  /  TO COMMISSION: encargar  /  ACHIEVEMENT: logro  /  FORMERLY: anteriormente  /  TO BEG THE QUESTION: provocar la pregunta  /  TO LIE: yacer  /  ACCOUNT: informe  /  MOREOVER: además  /  TO STEER AWAY: alejarse  /  FEAT: hito  /  REASSURANCE: confirmación  /  

  

BOROUGH MARKET, LONDON - FOODIE PARADISE / BOROUGH MARKET, LONDRES - EL PARAÍSO DE LOS GOURMETS

Hi my dear friends. Are you fond of street food markets? Today we are going to visit one of the most famous markets in London, Borough Market. 

Hola mis queridos amigos. ¿Sois aficionados a los mercados de comida callejera? Hoy vamos a visitar uno de los más famosos mercados de Londres, Borough Market.

Info; from Speak Up magazine.

Photos: Borough.Market  /  London.City.Calling  /  CK.TRavels  /  London.Museum  /  A.lady.in.London  /  Yuzu.Private.Dining.

FOODIE PARADISE  -  BOROUGH MARKET

Borough Market in South London is a foodie paradise.  Over a hundred traders sell high-quality produce and serve up dishes from all over the world.  They range from typical British fare and gourmet foods such as oysters, to Mexican tacos.  Spanish tapas, Chinese baos and Italian gelato.  Famous for their excellent street food, some traders have appeared on "MasterChef", while others have won BBC Food and Farming Awards.  The market's small artisan producers are known for their sustainable practices and their products often cannot be found anywhere else.

ONE THOUSAND YEARS

Borough Market's history dates back a millennium.  When London Bridge was built in the year 990, traders sold their wares on the route into the City.  Southwark, on the south side of the River Thames, was considered an undesirable place, where crime flourished.  In around 1270, traders were banned from setting up stalls on the bridge, but the market continued to prosper.  Southwark was incorporated into London and, by 1756, it was overcrowded with traders, merchants, taverns and brothels.  Parliament threatened to close it down, so the market relocated to a new spot off the High Street, where it remains today.

HIGH QUALITY

A railway viaduct was built through the middle of the market a century later, but the market, rather than having its business disrupted, became a centre for wholesale produce.  Until the late 1990s, it was mainly a fruit and vegetable market.  Then supermarkets became a threat to its existence.  Borough Market transformed itself once again, this time as a retail market for high-quality food.

ONE THOUSAND YEARS MORE

Borough Market today is a charity, existing for the benefit of the community.  Thanks to a historic arrangement, its income is still used to reduce the tax rates of the residents of St. Saviours in Southwark.

Nestled between the railway arches at the foot of a cathedral , its unique location and gourmet food attract millions of visitors a year.  However, the market is not just a tourist attraction.  Locals drop in for their weekly grocery shopping and workers come for lunch.  Schoolchildren visit to learn about fresh produce and chefs come to discover new products.  With a long history of reinventing itself, Borough Market is likely to be around for another thousand years.

GLOSSARY

PRODUCE: productos  /  FARE: alimentos  /  WARES: mercancías  /  TO BAN: prohibir  /  STALLS: puestos  /  OVERCROWDED: abarrotado  /  BROTHELS: burdeles  /  OFF THE STREET: cerca de la calle  /  WHOLESALE:  al por mayor  /  RETAIL MARKET: mercado minorista  /  ARRANGEMENT: acuerdo  /  NESTLED: enclavado  /  TO DROP IN: dejarse caer  /