MY MAGIC WORLD OF HEAVEN

Image courtesy: GT1976 / wikimedia commons            If you like birds and do not like to see them shut up in cages, you can still have the pleasure of watching them live in their natural state by setting up a bird-table for them. Bird tables are a wonderful way to feed the birds.        To make a bird-table you need a long pole which is driven into the ground near a tree or shrubbery. Next you get a small box with low sides and nail it to the top of the pole to form a flat, horizontal surface for the birds to land and perch on. Some barbed wire wound round the bottom of the pole will stop cats from climbing up to the table. Image courtesy:  Karelj / wikimedia commons          What sort of food should be put on a bird-table? Breadcrumbs are not enough. There are two menus, one for birds that eat seeds and another for birds that eat insects. For the seed-eaters you need millet, barley, rice and breadcrumbs. For the insect-eaters you must have fat or minced meat, margar

                Cedar oil is an essential oil which the ancient peoples used to embalm dead bodies. It was also once used to coat books to preserve them from insects and damp. It has a pleasing scent.                   The oil is produced by distilling it from the African cedar and is an essential oil, that is one that gives a plant, flower or fruit its distinctive odour or flavour. These oils are used for the scenting or flavouring of numerous products, such as perfumes, cosmetics and soaps. cedar of lebanon   (Image courtesy: Yhabbouche / wikimedia commons)                     The African cedar grows in the north of that continent, especially on the Atlas Mountains. It is a very imposing conifer that bears many leaves and grows to a height of more than 40 meters. It closely resembles the more famous cedar of Lebanon which was also highly prized by the ancient peoples.              Cedar wood is soft and rich in resin. It can be worked easily and is used extensivel

Datura stramonium    (Image courtesy: TeunSpaans / wikimedia commons )             Stramonium, or the jimson weed is also known as 'the devil's grass'. The plant got this name because its poison seems to drive the victim made as if he were possessed by the devil.           The tropane alkaloids in the plant can also cause serious distortion of the eyesight. Ingestion of jimson weed induces delirium, blurred vision, drying of mouth, tachycardia, hyperthermia, mydriasis, and amnesia. Symptoms of jimson weed intoxication may last 24 to 48 hours. In small doses, however, these poisons can be used to treat certain illnesses.           Stramonium found in certain drugs is extracted from the leaves of this plant. It acts as a sedative and eases nerve and rheumatic pains. Stramonium leaves are also used to make special cigarettes for the treatment of asthma. The seeds of the plant provide an oil which is used in lotion to be rubbed on the body. 

                Hornbill   (Image courtesy: wikimedia commons )                    Like the toucan, the hornbill has an extremely large beak. The beak is different because it continues above the bird's head to form a sort of knob that looks like a helmet. There are forty five different species of hornbills, with loud, croaking voices and flapping wings. Their strong beaks can break the shells of the hardest nuts, but they will also eat fruits, insects and small animals.                   Most hornbills build their nests in a hollow tree. The male bird imprisons the female inside her nest by walling her in with dried mud while she hatches the eggs and cares for the young until they can fly. He leaves a small slit in the mud wall and through this he feeds his mate during the whole period she is sitting on the eggs (the female of small species lay up to six eggs and incubates them for 25 days). Female hornbills remain trapped inside the nest for three to five months.