Welcome to Iowa City! Let's go pick blueberries!
"It seems that was how the whole thing started, because of the cold of the blueberries."
-the Dalai Lama, as quoted in The Wisdom of Forgiveness
Wednesday morning, back in Phoenix: you know it's going to be a hot one when its 100F at 8:30 am. I broke out my two secret weapons for beating the heat, a happy mind and an insulated bottle full of ice water, and took off. In traditional Chinese and apparently Tibetan medicine, some foods are seen as "hot", while others are "cold", and various conditions or sicknesses can be caused, exacerbated, and/or cured by certain combinations of hot or cold edibles.
Blueberries, at least according to the Dalai Lama, are cold, cold, cold, which made me think fondly back a few days to our blueberry picking trip just outside of Iowa City. I can't say the blueberries made me colder, but it made me happy to pick them with the fam and then eat them to excess later, so in that sense they were "cooling" both coming and going to work Wednesday. It hit 114F by ride time Wednesday, so I needed as many happy memories of blueberry picking, plus ice water, that I could muster.
-the Dalai Lama, as quoted in The Wisdom of Forgiveness
Wednesday morning, back in Phoenix: you know it's going to be a hot one when its 100F at 8:30 am. I broke out my two secret weapons for beating the heat, a happy mind and an insulated bottle full of ice water, and took off. In traditional Chinese and apparently Tibetan medicine, some foods are seen as "hot", while others are "cold", and various conditions or sicknesses can be caused, exacerbated, and/or cured by certain combinations of hot or cold edibles.
Blueberries, at least according to the Dalai Lama, are cold, cold, cold, which made me think fondly back a few days to our blueberry picking trip just outside of Iowa City. I can't say the blueberries made me colder, but it made me happy to pick them with the fam and then eat them to excess later, so in that sense they were "cooling" both coming and going to work Wednesday. It hit 114F by ride time Wednesday, so I needed as many happy memories of blueberry picking, plus ice water, that I could muster.
The older Alpha daughter starts to accumulate picked berries
The blueberry patch
That's one cool bush
The younger Alpha daughter. She carefully planned this outfit to go
well with blueberry picking. I think she succeeded.
The babies above the blueberry weigh station were hungry, but all I had to offer
was blueberries, and I didn't think that was advisable. I briefly considered, then ruled out,
eating, and then regurgitating, some worms for them. Not because I wouldn't do it for them,
but because I'm uncertain that worms regurgitated from a human digestive system
would be salubrious for little birds. Besides, I believe worms are considered "hot",
and that was the last thing I needed.
and that was the last thing I needed.
That's it, the first Iowa post. Pretty cool, huh? Even hotter on Thursday back at the ranch here in Phoenix, though. Perhaps I will push the thermal envelope from both ends and pack some iced blueberry juice. Stay cool. Get up. Go ride.
Bluberries are yum!
ReplyDeleteUh, what's with the Filter Queen?
I LOVE blueberries more than any other fruit. Unfortunately, they're on my "banned list" as long as I'm stuck on this blood thinning medication. :-(
ReplyDeleteFresh blueberries right off the bush: now at the top of my list. I'll try to go back there regularly to do it again, so yummy they were! SteveA I don't know what the duration of your thinner regime is, but I am sending sooner-rather-than-later wishes your way so you can eat more blueberries in peace.
ReplyDeletelimom not only is the Filter Queen a remarkable piece of machinery that has performed its assigned duties for decades, but also I read somewhere on teh interwebz that some guy thinks we should treat our bicycles just like our home maintenance equipment: not as much-loved treasures to be polished, fawned over and upgraded to excess. So by way of encouraging dialog between parties of opposing views, I put that little thumbnail up, although I didn't think anyone would really notice, so props to you for seeing it.
Ah, I get it.
ReplyDeleteThe ole 'tool not a jewel' thing.
I only fawn over one bike.
The others have dust all over them.
Just like my vacuum cleaner.
Speaking of blueberries, I think I needs me some blueberry muffins!