Happy St. Gertrude's day!

Seems like it's a meme, now!
No, I don't wear green or orange today, 'cos I aint Irish.
(I don't identify as 'Christian', either but that doesn't bother me.)
My lineage is almost 1/2 Polish (with a Swedish great-great-great-grandmother in there somewhere), some French Canadian, some Welsh, and about 1/4 German.

About St. Gertrude of Nivelles-- she's a patroness of travellers and gardeners; you plant peas and potatoes on her feast day.
http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=3563
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06533c.htm

She's depicted with a mouse on her staff, and is sometimes considered the patron saint of cats.

Squee!

Medieval apothecary garden found in Scotland-- thanks, Karen Larsdatter for posting this!

http://larsdatter.com/wordpress/?p=137
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/39Chemists39-for-medieval-Scots-is.3884316.jp

More about the dig site:
http://archaeologynews.multiply.com/journal/item/231
http://www.btinternet.com/~ian.borthwick/LADAS/prog/01_soutra.html
http://www.redorbit.com/news/health/234047/getting_to_the_roots_of_soutras_old_cures/

If you're in England, or at Yale: apparently copies of the reports of the
Soutra Hospital Archaeoethnopharmacological Research Project
The ... report on researches into the medieval hospital at Soutra can be obtained...