a most wonderful day

Today I got up, ran salt water through my nose to clear out the toxic sludge, made a banana/walnut pancake and tea for breakfast, finshed my third harry potter book, the last ten pages of omnivores delimma (finally), and went back to bed for a nap. It was glorious. Got back up, rented a movie "O homem que copiava," made dinner, and talked to GW.  I have been a terrible patient lately and finally took it easy today to recover from being sick.  The notorious hacking, turbuculosis type rachel cough is trying to take hold and I'm doing everything I can to ward it off from taking up permanent residence.  

This week I was not taking care of myself, but went on a really great field trip with my plant geography class to Santa Catarina (the state just to the south of Paraná, my

 state). 

The geology, terrain, and climate is much different. We went first to the high mountains with squishy,

 moist soil before heading to lower altitudes where the araucaria live

 (the tall upside-down umbrella trees with tufts on the end). It used to be completely forested in araucaria, but thanks

 popular demand, it's mostly cattle pasture now with disperse patches of forest. 

We did get to visit an award winning araucaria tree on a local's private property. It was over 400 years old.  So far one of my favorite trips.