Return of the Caftan?

December 2, 2014

...er for Portlandia parody. Reaction to the caftan post fell into two camps. Baby Boomers chastised my Generation X cynicism and noted that caftans are comfortable and practical. Others thought the idea is as ridiculous as, well, hosting a shoe making workshop and grinding your own flour. In Facebook, someone posted the picture above of Yves Saint Laurent rocking a caftan and “mandals”. The caftan is from the Middle East and is still part of the the...

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Ghee for the skin

Mrs. Homegrown

January 30, 2015

Body Care, Herbal Medicine

11 Comments

Baby Krishna stealing ghee Ghee, a form of clarified butter, is a well known cooking fat. What is less known in the West is that it is also used for skin care and as medicine in Ayurveda. In fact, it’s basically a panacea in Ayurveda. I’m no expert in Ayurveda, but it is interesting to know that it has such a long track record in India as a topical treatment. What I have discovered so far is pretty neat. It is in the nature of ghee to sink into t...

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Book Review: My Side of the Mountain

Mrs. Homegrown

November 30, 2012

Reviews

21 Comments

...her a letter to say thank-you. * * * An excerpt. Sam’s first day with his baby hawk, Frightful: The food put the bird to sleep I watched her eyelids close from the bottom up, and her head quiver. The fuzzy body rocked, the tail spread to steady it, and the little duck hawk almost sighed as she sank into the leaves, sleep. I had lots of time. I was going to wait for the man to leave. So I stared at my bird, the beautiful details of the new feather...

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Bird’s Nest

Mrs. Homegrown

July 7, 2015

Animals, Thoughtstylings

8 Comments

.... Anyone have any guesses about what kind of bird made this nest? The bowl is about 3 inches (7.5 cm) across. ETA: I’ve been looking at this great page of bird nests–it’s heaven for the bird nest enthusiast. So many types of nests! Wee little eggs! Baby birds! One bird even made its nest in a sweatshirt hanging on a laundry line. (That’ll teach you to bring in your laundry promptly): http://www.thebirdersreport.com/egg-and-nest-identification And...

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Alternatives to the Funeral Industrial Complex

Mr. Homegrown

November 29, 2012

Thoughtstylings

45 Comments

...movement. The monks won their court case. And I have a feeling that as the baby boomer generation begins to grasp its own mortality, we’ll begin to see more changes. Either that or the funeral industry will start marketing fake green burials (they probably have already). What prompted this rant was a comment from a Root Simple reader asking if I knew of any green burials in Southern California. I don’t. If any of you know of any alternative funera...

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