For over a century, the du Pont family operated a black powder mill in Wilmington, Delaware, where more than 300 workers combined saltpeter, charcoal and sulfur to create the explosive powder used in mining and construction—and munitions during wartime.  It was dangerous work, and during the years the mills operated, from 1802 to 1921, there were 288 accidental blasts, which killed 228 people, mainly workers.  The most powerful came on a foggy afternoon in October 1890, when over 100,000 pounds of black powder detonated, collapsing seven buildings.  The shocks were felt as far away as Philadelphia.  Twelve people died.  The du Pont family also lived right on the site, practically on top of the refinery, in a house called Eleutherian Mills.  Louise du Pont, 13 years old in 1890, lived at another family home, Winterthur, two miles away.  The 1890 blast damaged Eleutherian Mills so severely that the du Pont family moved out.  After another explosion further wrecked the site in 1920, the company moved its powder operations, establishing sites in New Jersey and elsewhere.  Louise’s father purchased the home and mill property from the company and gave it to her, and she took possession of the estate in 1923.  Here, Louise and her husband, Francis B. “Frank” Crowninshield, built the only garden in the world that includes fanciful Italianate structures amid industrial refinery ruins, all in a place where so many people died.  As the Crowninshields built their garden, the mill’s tunnels morphed into lush hidden grottoes, foundations became pools, and arches rose from the powder yard’s wreckage.  Margo Rabb  See graphics at https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/abandoned-industrial-ruin-garden-wilmington-dupont-crowninshield-180981544/   

Oaxaca is a state of roughly 4 million people.  And while its central city of colorful colonial-style buildings and mountainous terrain is the most well-known, more than half of the population lives in one of the state’s 10,523 rural villages along its green valleys, arid deserts, foggy mountains, and tropical coasts.  The wild herbs and naturally organic fruits and vegetables found in the state’s many microclimates are everyday staples of the country’s thriving Indigenous populations that continue to shape the state’s diverse cuisine and culture today.  In fact, 16 of Mexico’s total 68 recognized Indigenous groups are based in Oaxaca.  Some groups, like Los Mixes, who are proudly known in Oaxaca as Los Jamas Conquistados, were never conquered by Spain, and their food ways remain untouched by the European ingredients that weave through so much of Mexican cooking.  Bricia Lopez and Javier Cabral   Read much more and see pictures at https://www.eater.com/22929351/what-is-oaxacan-food-cuisine-mexican   

cloudberry, (Rubus chamaemorus), also called salmonberry, yellowberry, bakeapple, bakeberry, malka, or baked apple berry, creeping herbaceous plant in the rose family (Rosaceae), native to the Arctic and subarctic regions of the north temperate zone, and its edible raspberry-like fruit.  Eskimos and Sami collect the sweet juicy fruits in autumn to freeze for winter food.  In markets of northern Scandinavia, cloudberries are sold for use in preserves, tarts, and other confections.  They are also made into a liqueur.  https://www.britannica.com/plant/cloudberry    

Wellingtonia; Giant/Sierra/California Redwood   Tall growing evergreen conifer, with dark green foliage on down swept branches.  The bark is red in colour, having a unique spongy characteristic.  Cones are small and hard, to 4cm long.  The Wellingtonia trees at Compton Verney were mostly planted in the second half of the 19^th century.  This tree species originates from a relatively small area in California, and although John Matthew brought the first seed back to Scotland, its introduction is largely credited to Cornish plant hunter William Lobb who brought seed back to England on behalf of Veitch Nurseries in 1853.  The trees were initially given the name Wellingtonia gigantea, which was in reference to the Duke of Wellington who passed away in 1852, although this name was botanically incorrect and was corrected to Sequoiadendron giganteum some years later following much debate and re-classification.  However, that first name has held, and in the U.K. least it continues to be commonly called Wellingtonia.  See pictures at https://www.comptonverney.org.uk/tree-facts-wellingtonia-at-compton-verney/   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2646  March 20, 2023