Volcanic plume

 

We have a really active volcano in Iceland, churning out plumes and flames for several months now. Near Grindavik is the region that was hot, where a volcano has been erupting. It especially moved again a dew days ago. Sending out invisible clouds of sulphur dioxide that travelled down south across the British Isles, France and Germany. It is like the raging fire giants with Surtr and his dazzling beautiful wife Sinmara with her red and glowing features.

Sulphur dioxide or SO2 is harmful and always avoid going out during such a cloud. The effects can cause itching sore eyes, coughing, wheezing, vomiting, stomach pains, headaches, fatigue and visual problems. It can be quite dangerous to people with asthma and heart problems. Most vulnerable are the elderly, babies and children. Those who inhale too much SO2 would have side effects and become ill with symptoms of bronchitis, cancer, respiratory problems and infection.  

For further visuals of the volcano: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaIn65HFFk8  

More details at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMn_o4cW5_Q

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Smashing eggs

 

There is an old childhood friend who recently brought something interesting to my attention. She said that when she was a kid, her mum made her toasted soldiers with a boiled egg for breakfast, and then her mum told her to smash up the empty egg shell after eating to stop witches causing trouble in the house. So she asked everyone else if they too had a similar belief, and on Facebook a vast number of people shared that they had similar. They also grew up being told to smash egg shells to stop witches. Apparently witches used those egg shells to store their magic inside. My friend has always been an eccentric character, and we went to school together. Just like her, she's now living in a gorgeous Victorian gothic house with her husband and kids. So we were all exchanging the stories with the egg smashing ritual. It turns out is very common especially in the South.

I learned that this egg smashing thing is a very old tradition that comes from fishing communities. People believed crushing empty eggshells after a meal would prevent witches using them to sail off and sink fishing boats. This was what sailors have been doing, empty egg smashing for centuries! The tradition goes right back to the Roman Empire. I added my discovery to the Fb chat and her post got smashed. My friend's lively sweet natured discussion of egg smashing was gone, replaced with a mean warning from Facebook telling her off for breaking their rules. This seems unfair when it was only a friendly discussion of childhood rituals. Perhaps when it became deeper about folklore and witchcraft maybe it scared the whiskey brigade. 

Besides, coincidence or not, the same day I went out later and found a smashed egg on the footpath. No, honestly everyone, I didn't do it.  Then the following day, there were two more smashed eggs on the same place. Someone did this to be messy, a prank, or a mischievous goblin at it again!

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Overview of the past week

 There is the birth of a tropical storm. They've given it a name, Ernesto, which is Spanish for "earnest" and also it means "serious." It can be regarded as an aggressive being, which would be symbolised with a dinosaur, dragon or even a Kaiju, any form destructive large creature that looks terrible. 

In a time with the Summer heatwave and the phase of a waxing crescent, there is also the Perseid Meteor shower events. The stars have been active too as both Jupiter and Mars appear at view within the House of Taurus. Jupiter is the god of thunder as well as the king of the Heavens, and Mars is the god of war. All in all a big major influence, so there should be a time of masculine anger. This doesn't last but we can expect them to be around between the 9th and 18th August. 

On July 29th 2024 was a massive solar flare that was recorded. It was a strong type with code R3. For more details and graphics on this visit NOAA link page.

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Poppy, August flower

The poppy and the gladiolus are celebrated flowers of August. Both flowers are the birth flowers of those born in the month of August. It's often twos and I've been focusing on one, although I give a little info on the secondary flower. Gladiolus is also called a "star lily" and very much a Summer garden flower. They come in tall vibrant colours and is really a subtropical and Mediterranean plant. Poppies are native grown flowers to many countries north and south. 

Poppies can grow all over fields, meadows, glens, even on edges of houses, cracks in pavement, sides of roads and wasteland sites. These little blooms are a pleasant sight to see in rough areas. They can grow in urban areas naturally, even at industrial complexes and on rough terrain. 

Mostly associated with the colour red, poppies can come in a lot of vibrant Summer colours from orange, yellow, pink, even blue. Poppies are of the family Papaveroideae that consists of many varieties of poppies. They can appear from Spring and throughout Summer, even growing until Autumn. Poppy seeds are rich in energy such as calcium, and helps give a course of protein. Poppies are used in cooking and medicine. Also a certain type of exotic poppy is a source of bread seed or opium, which is an illegal class A drug. While all poppies have a small amount of narcotics, the opium poppy is the troublemaker in the flower family.

Historically there's been a lot of aggro and war over this poppy. The two violent Opium Wars during the 19th century is an example. Lets go far back in time to ancient Greece. Hippocrates the "father of medicine" (460 BCE) found the opium poppy as a treatment of many diseases, especially in women although he wasn't in favour of using it for recreational drug habits. Alexander the Great spread opium around India and Persia. Opium poppies were not really known during the Dark Ages although Medieval Europeans who sailed to China stumbled upon opium users. Opium appeared in Europe in the 1500's, at the time of Reformation. 

After this, opium was used in medicines and as a lifestyle drug! So much so that it influenced many poets, writers, artists, thinkers, ect. Even children's fiction such as "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll and "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L Frank Baum have surrealism defined by opium poppies. 

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