The three pronged leaf in the pic, which looks like an ostrich's footprint, is from the sassafras tree. I love sassafras tea made from the bark of this tree. It has a rich, sweet taste that is very different from other teas. I'm a big tea drinker anyways and liked sassafras tea before most other teas in my childhood. I used to collect various teas and at one time had about 26 different kinds, including several from Europe. It was really interesting finding out the subtle differences in them. In addition, the artwork on the boxes were intriguing and sometimes they would have other languages on them, too.
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It's been a busy month, as the first holiday craft show is only a couple weeks away. Because of the worsen pain in my leg, I'm only doing 2 shows this season. The first is on Nov. 2nd & 3rd at St. Bernadette's school. That was my best show last year, so I'm hoping for similar results this year. Because of the evening hours on Friday, my sister got the day off so that she can drive me to the show, since I can't see well enough to drive at night. The show normally just had daytime hours, but the organizer is trying something new this year. I'm hoping that they go back to just having the show on Saturday, so that I don't have to worry about transportation again. Anyways, I'm doing all sorts of things to get ready & am spending less time online.
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Last week the U.S. celebrated Columbus Day, marking the explorer's "discovering" of America. When I was younger and found out that Columbus actually brought slavery, disease and genocide to this continent, I was shocked at the idea of celebrating such a person.
But, in my more innocent days, in elementary school the day always involved an art project of using construction paper to make a scene of a masted sailing ship over which waxed paper was glued to resemble a ship in a bottle. It was a clever idea, but we were never given adequate time for it. My ships always were short of sails and lacked the details that would've pleased me. We were never given extra time to finish and gluing the waxed paper was mandatory, because one year I tried to talk the teacher into letting me finish it at home, but she refused. Sigh. Such barriers to perfection.
I wonder if kids still do something like that? Or if people even know what waxed paper is? There's a roll in the cupboard, which I use occasionally, but I don't think it's as familiar to people as it used to be. It's main use was wrapping lunchbox sandwiches, but I think people use plastic bags now, instead. That whole line of thought makes me feel a million years old....
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The heat was finally turned on in my building last Thursday, the 11th. Way past time for it, as it had been quite cold for weeks. There were several night with frost. I found out that the law is that the heat must be on if the temperature outside reaches a certain level, which it certainly had. Evidently, places which disobey this law can be cited for a misdemeanor. I really wish they would cite the company which owns my building, since they do this every year. Might make them reconsider their delays.