A Tea for Two

Because it's so easy to make, I decided to include  this simple recipe  for ginger tea in my blog.   This recipe is illustrated  in the Pregnancy section of my reference book*.  It said the tea can help fight nausea.

Ingredients:
- A small chunk of fresh ginger
- Two to three cups of water 

•    Peel the fresh ginger and cut into 3 to 6 slices.
•    Simmer in a small sauce pan with water for 3 to 5 minutes.
•    Strain the liquid into a pitcher.
•    Drink  the liquid as a tea throughout the day.

-  Ayee 

*  Chinese Herbal Secrets, 1999 Edition by Stefan Chmelik

Mother knows the best.

Sometimes last week in Yellowstone National Park, a black bear with her cubs was seen chasing tourists on a bridge in the iconic park.  Maybe it was as the ABC News suggested.  Because her cubs were older, their dear mom did not bother unleashing her motherly instinct to protect the young. In this incident, thanks to that mama bear's good sense, the "chase" ended without anyone got hurt.

In additional to many other wildlife, we all know Yellowstone is a bear country.  The bears there are known for their keen sense choosing a particular-make car to break in.  Conflict between the beasts and men therefore is not an uncommon occurrence there.  Inconceivably, a few inconsiderate tourists would visit the bear country outside their vehicles.  Many of them  would  not  even follow the park ranger's instruction and risk the life of their own and possibly many others without their thinking cap on

Talking about thinking caps!   During the same time of this bear incident, there was a 15-year-old Taiwanese girl got gored by a wooly bison! Perhaps she was too close to this seemingly docile animal.   -  Ayee

To Question or Not to Question

I may have heard it wrong.

A few days I was at a veterinarian office picking up some medication for our little pussy cat.  While waiting to be waited on, I heard a fellow patron  before me asking why her bill was so high.   Her kitty's night out got  herself a very nasty lick from a neighborhood raccoon.    And it would cost  $282 plus change  to keep the kitty well.

And I cannot  believe what came next.  After the cat owner's questioning, another staff decided to recheck this  higher than expected bill and told the cat owner indeed there was a mistake in the bill.  Instead it should be  around $160 some dollars.  

Normally, I do not always ask or check the bills that were being  presented to me for payment.  But from what I witnessed at the pet hospital that day, perhaps the time has come that I should be more diligent on questioning or checking the bills before I pay them.  -  Ayee

Birds in the Bottle

A few days ago, there was a picture in the news paper* that spoke badly of  the people who involved in this shenanigan for a few bucks.   According to the notes  below the picture, someone got caught at the airport for smuggling 22 endangered white cockatoos from Indonesia.   The smuggler stuffed the live contra bands in plastic water bottles.

I do not know if these beautiful birds had survived the ordeal.  But it is hard to fathom why someone would conceive such heinous and inhumane means to transport these beautiful  birds.    It looks like the smuggler of these exotic beings failed to see there are already thousands of tropical birds for sale in the pet shops around us.  So  there is really no need to bring in more  wild birds to glut the market.

At any rate, I am so pleased to see the culprit got caught for committing such cruelty on animals.  I certainly hope the penalty in this case will be severe enough to deter others to harm innocent wild life. -  Ayee

*The Globe and Mail, page A3,  May 6th, 2015