IT'S MUFFIN DAY!~!

With two of my favorite springtime fruits in season I just had to make Rhubarb Strawberry Streussel muffins.  These are some of the 24 I baked today and although they don't look like much from this vantage point trust me they are heavenly up close and personal. You can try the Scratch & Sniff test  but I can't make any promises that it would work.....
Some of these will make an appearance at my next afternoon tea.

I had a tea party a few weeks ago and my guests were served among other things, Apple Spice Muffins.

My friends wouldn't appreciate it if I posted their faces so I had to drastically crop the picture but be assured that all nine of the ladies brought their appetites and their heads with them.

GERMANY: NEW E-COLI STRAIN KILLS 18

The E. coli epidemic in Europe is caused by a new, highly infectious and toxic strain of bacteria that carries genes giving it resistance to a few classes of antibiotics, Chinese scientists who analyzed the organism said.
The scientists at the Beijing Genomics Institute, who are collaborating with Germany's University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, completed sequencing the genome of the bacterium in three days after receiving its DNA samples.
"This E. coli is a new strain of bacteria that is highly infectious and toxic," said the scientists at the Beijing Genomics Institute in Shenzhen city in southern China.
They said in a press release on Thursday the bacterium was closely related to another E. coli strain, called EAEC 55989, which was previously isolated in central Africa and known to cause serious diarrhea.
Authorities are still hunting for the source of the new bacteria, which is believed to have contaminated raw vegetables. The E.coli outbreak has so far killed at least 18 people and made more than 1,500 others ill in eight European countries and in the USA after 3 people returned from Europe with the strain.
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, one of the largest hospitals in Hamburg, treated many of the infected patients from north Germany and found they did not respond to some of the antibiotics used, the Chinese scientists said.
"The analysis further showed that this deadly bacterium carries several antibiotic resistant genes, including resistance to aminoglycoside, macrolides and Beta-lactam antibiotics: all of which makes antibiotic treatment extremely difficult," the scientists said.
This new strain of also bore the hallmarks of other E. coli strains that are known to cause symptoms such as bloody diarrhea, or hemorrhagic colitis, and hemolytic-uremic syndrome, which affects the kidneys.
E.coli can be passed from person to person but experts say there was no evidence this was happening in any significant numbers in this outbreak.
Health experts are recommending strict hygiene measures such as hand washing and thorough cleaning and cooking of food.
The sequences of this new E. coli strain have been uploaded to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (SRA No: SRA037315.1) and are also available for download at:
ftp://ftp.genomics.org.cn/pub/Ecoli_TY-2482

IN THE PINK

Picture taking is so much fun this time of the year as the trees now are approaching the top of their bloom with trees of white, light pink, dark pink and lilac colors everywhere.  So with rain ahead I did manage to get out and shoot a few in between my busy Thursday morning, my afternoon nap and having friends in at 7 PM.  I was already tucked in bed and reading when I remembered I forgot to do this and because I love y'all I climbed out of bed and shared these two lovelies with you, as is, straight out of the camera (aka SOOC).... I learned that term from Pioneer Woman Photography when she had a contest all about SOOC....no photoshop, just straight out of the camera :) 

FLOWERS FROM MY YARD

I'm reminiscing about my yard I once enjoyed very much.  The peonies always brightened my day.

I loved my pink tree every spring.

Daisies around the bird bath use to wave in the breeze.

Baby's breath in someone else's yard but so pretty.



THE THIRD HORSMAN IS RIDING

Although many may be surprised by the following dire predictions by Oxfam it comes as no surprise to those who are aware that the four horsemen have been riding since 1914, the black horse representing the growing global problem of famine.



Oxfam called on Tuesday for an overhaul of the world's food system, warning that in a couple of decades, millions more people would be gripped by hunger due to population growth and climate-hit harvests.

A "broken food system" means that the price of some staples will more than double by 2030, battering the world's poorest people, who spend up to 80 percent of their income on food, the British-based aid group predicted.

"The food system is buckling under intense pressure from climate change, ecological degradation, population growth, rising energy prices, rising demand for meat and dairy products and competition for land from biofuels, industry, and urbanization," Oxfam said in a report.

It added: "The international community is sleepwalking into an unprecedented and avoidable human development reversal."

Noting that some 900 million people experience hunger today, Oxfam said the tally of misery could rise still further when a "perfect storm" struck a few decades from now.

By 2050, the world's population was expected to rise by a third, from 6.9 billion today to 9.1 billion. Demand for food would rise even higher, by 70 percent, as more prosperous economies demanded more calories.

But by this time, climate change will have started to bite, with drought, flood and storms affecting crop yields that, after the "green revolution" of the 1960s, had already begun to flatline in the early 1990s.

The price of staple foods such as corn, also known as maize, which has already hit record peaks, will more than double in the next 20 years, it predicted.



One it was apparently sunny!  This looks more like a fall picture than a spring one but is rather interesting with lots of textures and hints of color.



This falls under the category of Ugly Lawn Ornaments or What The Heck Were You Thinking???

A friend sent this to me a few days ago to announce the return of the American Goldfinch and there are a lot of them and they are hungry!  The yellow is so beautiful contrasting with the black and little bit of white.

IT'S PUNDAY

"Doc, I can't stop singing The Green, Green Grass of Home."
"That sounds like Tom Jones Syndrome."
"Is it common?"
"Well, It's Not Unusual."

Make today a great day whether in the rain or the sun, work or play.