PEPPER

We're really bad at remembering to bring our camera with us. It's just a fact of life.

This last Monday we decided to take advantage of no-work for Jared and no-coldness outside. We drove up to the mountains with our picnic-y things in tow. We arrived at South Fork park, the very place that Jared proposed to me. (Aww.) No one else was there when we arrived. It was all ours! Only a few people came and went during the time that we were there, but they all went off on their own ventures and left us alone. It was be-yoo-tee-ful! Everything was so green. The temperature was just right, with a slight breeze in the air. Oh my goodness, I couldn't stand it. We ate our picnic-y things and Jared read the beginning of The Magicians Nephew to me. It was perfection. Then we walked around and went on a (very) miniature hike. The perfect day! But, like I said earlier, we never remember to bring our camera. For that reason, I have illustrated that day for you:

(click to see it larger)

Beautiful, right?

I just started up a digital scrapbooking site. It's in the very early beginning stages, so don't judge me too harshly! I'm going to be getting more things up pretty soon. I'm very excited, though.

See it here: http://tweebits.blogspot.com

And last but not least (or is it?) -- I learned something very interesting about pepper today. Pepper is good for you!

Black pepper or Piper nigrum, is a vine of the family Piperaceae that flowers into a fruit and is dried, harvested, and sold as peppercorns. Long used as an Ayurvedic medicine, an Indian book of medicine dating back to the fifth century cites pepper as a healing agent for a variety of illnesses: earache, liver problems, lung disease, indigestion, constipation, diarrhea, tooth decay, and even sunburn.

Piperine, the major alkaloid contained in black pepper, seems to be the main jumpstart to your overall health by making the nutrients in foods more available to the body’s resources. Piperine helps induce the enzymes throughout the body, resulting in better nutrients entering and dispersing as needed in the bloodstream. By stripping down cells to their best possible components, the compound piperine inhibits metabolism of nutritional substances.

Piperine simulates the enzymes of the pancreas that breakdown proteins as part of the body’s digestive system, enhancing the capacity for digestion and reducing the food timeline inside the body. Besides helping the digestive track, piperine helps increase endorphins in the brain producing joy and acting as a natural anti-depressant, decreasing stomach ulcers, increasing brain functions and stopping pain and asthma symptoms. Piperine is even said to be highly effective in fighting cancers of the colon.

Neato.