National Orange Blossom Day is observed annually on June 27th. This day is set aside to enjoy Orange Blossoms for their aesthetic beauty. Orange blossoms have been used in culinary dishes, desserts, and teas worldwide. They add a slight citrus flavor to any dish!
Fragrant orange blossoms offer multiple health benefits when prepared correctly to make a tea or orange blossom water. Some of the advantages may include improved sleep, reduced anxiety and improved circulation.
Not surprisingly, the orange blossom is Florida’s state flower. Not only do the flowers result in the sweet as sunshine orange fruit, but thanks to the pollinating bees, we also get to enjoy a unique honey with a faintly orange flavor a delightful treat. The blossom’s scent goes into making perfumes and other fragrances for the home.
National Camping Month in June is an excellent time to pack up your gear and experience nature.
Whether you like roughing it or prefer to have a few modern conveniences when heading out to the trail, it’s important to keep a few things in mind.
1. Make sure you have plenty of freshwater or a freshwater source. 2. Take a first aid kit and that it is stocked. 3. Pack waterproof matches. 4. Take non-perishable food such as granola bars, jerky, peanut butter, chocolate bars, and dried fruits, especially if you are not taking a cooler. 5. Pack fruits, vegetables, and meats separately and keep chilled in a cooler. 6. Include sunblock, even for cloudy days. 7. Rain gear, jackets, and blankets are necessary for cooler weather.
Around the country, there are a variety of campsites available. The more modern campsite includes showers and recreational facilities. These often include water hookups and parking pads for RVs and campers and cabins to rent as well as more primitive sites with no electrical hookups designed for tent usage. Other parks only allow primitive camping and require everything you pack into the park to be packed out. So, seriously consider your needs if you are hiking into the park for your stay. These are not for the glampers.
HOW TO OBSERVE #NationalCampingMonth
Gather family and friends, don’t forget the s’mores supply and go camping! Nature is calling and there are so many ways to enjoy a weekend or even more camping. Use #NationalCampingMonth to show us how you camp.
National Gardening Day on April 14th encourages gardeners and would-be gardeners to pick up a shovel, plant some seeds, and kick off a beautiful year of homegrown bounty.
Whether you want to grow vegetables, fruit, flowers, houseplants, or anything in between, National Gardening Day celebrates a satisfying pastime that you will enjoy for decades.
Growing your own food also provides fresh and natural nourishment for your family and saves you time and money at the grocery store.
As many gardeners know, the benefits of gardening come from more than the produce. Spending time in the garden also provides physical activity and an opportunity to join with nature.
The day is a call to action to get out and grow flower or vegetable gardens. No matter how you garden, plant in the ground, in containers, in straw bales or in a square foot gardening box. Just garden!
NATIONAL GARDENING DAY HISTORY
Cool Springs Press, an imprint of The Quarto Group, founded National Gardening Day on April 14 to celebrate gardening and to encourage home gardeners and students to learn more about how to garden.
About Cool Springs Press
Celebrating over twenty-five years of inspiring gardeners, Cool Springs Press is a leading publisher of best-selling gardening books with titles that cover all facets of plant cultivation and gardening techniques, both indoors and out.
Green thumbs are not required to learn to garden. Attend gardening seminars to gain knowledge. Read up about the plants that thrive in your zone. Start with some easy plants to grow such as: Radishes, Lettuce, Potatoes. We always do Tomatoes, Herbs, Zinnias, Pansies, and Marigolds.
HOW TO OBSERVE NATIONAL GARDENING DAY
There are many ways that you can celebrate the day, including:
Find the right book, guide or resource for your needs at Cool Springs Press, county extension service, the local bookstore or library.
Look for a community garden in your area.
Organize a seed and perennial plant swap with neighbors and friends.
Join a garden club. There isn’t one near? Start one!
Visit your local nursery or garden center—you will be amazed and excited by all the beautiful options
Visit Quarto Homes on Facebook and Instagram for more gardening information
While you’re gardening, be sure to share your experience with others on social media using #NationalGardeningDay, #garden and #gardening.
March 5th is also known as National Absinthe Day. This day is for those who are 21 years or older to celebrate a drink called absinthe.
Often mistaken for a liqueur, it is truly a spirit because it isn’t sweetened. It belongs to the vodkas, gins, and whiskeys when categorizing absinthe.
The spirit is made by infusing wormwood, fennel, anise, and other herbs into alcohol through distillation. Pierre Ordinaire, a French doctor, is credited with the creation of absinthe. He developed and prescribed the elixir in the early 19th century as a cure for many illnesses.
It has a strong licorice flavor to it and has a high alcohol content. The spirit is often served with ice, a sugar cube placed on a slotted spoon over the glass, and water poured over the sugar.
Also known as the Green Fairy, the Green Goddess, or the Green Lady, the drink was popular with artists and writers. It was also once rumored to have hallucinogenic effects. Just as it was gaining popularity, as the century was coming to a close, its reputation took some severe blows.
Many blamed the Green Lady for causing madness, seizures, and low morality, among other ills of society. One of the final blows was a scandal in 1905 involving a French laborer who had spent the day drinking. His drink of choice was absinthe. Later that day, he murdered his children and pregnant wife.
France banned the drink, and other countries soon followed. In the United States and around the world, the ban has since been lifted.
Studies have proven there is nothing hallucinogenic about the drink. Absinthe does have a higher alcohol content than other spirits, so keeping that in mind is important to drink responsibly.
There is a cameo appearance in TNT’s hit series The Alienist season 2. When our lead character Lazlo Crysler seeks a second opinion from another alienist. It caught my attention due to the ritual with sugar cubes as shown in the scene.
This is a gothic crime drama not for the faint of heart or the squeamish. It gives a more detailed account of catching criminals, as both profiling and forensic sciences are being invented. Its popularity has a season 3 renewal in its future, as it paves the way for how we fight modern criminality, as seen on shows like Criminal Minds, and CSI.
NATIONAL ABSINTHE DAY HISTORY
Why March 5th? It’s a nod to Pernod, and the day the approval of their final label for Pernod Fils Absinthe became official in 2013.
National Gardening Exercise Day is observed each year on June 6 and encourages us to maximize the benefits we reap from gardening by adding some stretches and a few extra steps or squats.
Gardening on its own is therapeutic, builds muscles and burns calories. Some of the gardening activities that are excellent for working your muscles and for burning calories include weeding, digging, spading, planting, pruning, mowing, raking, and walking.
Many of us do not realize the amount of healthy exercise that we can get while working outside in the garden. It involves a lot of walking back and forth as well as bending up and down along with other things. Being out in the fresh air and sunshine are also an added benefit. Incorporating stretching into a gardening routine may help to prevent injury, much like it does for any athletic endeavor. Adding those squats will contribute to building or maintaining muscle, and extra steps may make gardening more aerobic if it increases the heart rate. Gardening and exercise are excellent stress relievers, too!
Other suggestions to get the most exercise out of your gardening:
Start slowly. Just like any new workout program, small steps.
Use the right and left hands equally. When raking or shoveling, switch hands every 5-10 minutes to give each side a good workout.
Make sure to breathe. Deep, cleansing breaths bring oxygen to those working muscles.
Lift with your legs! When lifting, bend your knees. Don’t lift with your back.
Pull those weeds, plant some seeds and get your muscles moving! Your garden will look great, and you will feel fantastic, too! Show us how you celebrate by using #GardeningExerciseDay on social media.
