Just a few favorite things.

From Wikipedia, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (from left to right, top to bottom): Great Pyramid of Giza, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Temple of Artemis at Epheseus, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Mausoleum of Maussollos, Colossus of Rhodes and the Lighthouse of Alexandria as depicted by 16th-century Dutch artist Marten Heemskerk.

These were the first "Seven Wonders of the World". There has been much argument and proclamation of what the new wonders should be and why. There are engineering wonders, natural wonders, beautiful wonders, and so on. Most of these things are in far away places that most people can only dream about visiting.




I got to thinking about; what would we (Us local folks.) choose as our wonders? I guess that a Redwood Tree would have to be a given, because it was actually was listed as a wonder of the world at one time.





The rest of "My Wonders" would probably be a little strange to most folks, in fact, some folks won't even recognise what I'm talking about. I wouldn't call these my private wonders, because I'm always willing to share.





The Quince would be way up their on my wonders of the world. The Quince is from Mesopotamia, also Persia, the area of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys.





It was thought that the quince might be the forbidden fruit in the Garden Of Eden. But, if Adam bit into it, he would have been immediately sorry, for they are very astringent, they are difficult to spit out, the best way is to scoop it out of your mouth with a finger, and rinse with water.





The smell of the quince is very seductive, it has a delicious odor that only a quince can have. Once it is cooked with sugar, the juice becomes quite edible. My mother makes the most delicious quince jelly. There are many recipes to make quince edible. Some go back to the beginning of time. A Roman cookbook of Apicius gives recipes for stewing quince with honey. One or two Quince trees were always found in the Old-timers orchards.


Another of my passions is the smell of what we sometimes wrongly called Tar Weed, and sometimes rightly called Vinegar Weed. It grows in the Grassland around the edge of Manzanita brush, It gets on your shoes and socks and gives of a very pungent vinegar like smell, only it smells good to me like a sweet vinegar scented perfume. I often stop and pick some and crush it in my hand just to smell it. Any time that you hike around the dry hills of Southern Humboldt or Northern Mendocino you're going to come home with your socks smelling like that.


Another similar plant that I like is the Pennyroyal Mint. The picture looks kinda like it but it grows much tighter together. It's probably all spread out and open like that to show it's anatomy, but it doesn't look right. The picture is about actual size. It grows around the edges of vernal ponds and blooms very profusely in the fall of the year. It also has a pungent odor, but it smells more pepperminty. I could always tell were my uncles went hunting when they came home by what they smelled like. If it was a long hunt, they would smell like everything, including B.O.



Same as Vinegar Weed I like to crush it in my hand just to sniff it. Strangely I never tasted it, as is often my habit. I found out later in life that it was called "Indian Abortion Weed". It will cause a woman to loose her baby if she eats or drinks it as a tea. It is also apparently harmful to the liver. I wonder why I didn't taste it? Lucky I guess.

I have a lot more North Coast wonders that I will add on the bottom of this blog, until everyone gets bored. Nominate your own favorite sight, smell, or thing if you like, but it has to have something to do with the North Coast!