History and Women

One of the most fascinating aspects that continually draws me into the medieval era, is the mystery and antiquity of castles. Of course, living in western Canada affords little opportunity to see castles first hand. The closest I can come to experiencing a medieval castle is visiting the Banff Springs Hotel. It has a medieval theme throughout and even a wonderful great hall. I love castles, everything about them. I think that's why I'm always writing in the medieval era - it was vastly different, more violent, crueler. This opens up a realm of opportunities for heros to stand out. Here is a fascinating article I found about medieval castles and how they were built. I give the author credits at the bottom of the article. Enjoy! Medieval Castles were structures that changed dramatically over the centuries of the Middle Ages. These changes were brought about by many factors like changes in warfare and the influences of different cultures. Here is a brief history of how the Med

The Story of Chocolate It would be quite unthinkable to even attempt to produce good chocolates without knowing the fabulous history of chocolate which dates back to the 10th century. The Aztecs were the first to start working with cacao beans. At that time their God, Quetzalcoatl, was the Gardener of Paradise, which explains why cacao beans were used as their form of currency. At this stage they served no culinary purpose whatsoever, and it was only on observing the monkeys that the Aztecs started to become interested in the culinary properties of the cacao tree fruit. To begin with only the pulp of the tree was used and it was not until later on that the beans themselves started to be consumed. We do not know who actually had the idea to roast the beans and then grind them into a paste, but whoever it was had hit on something fantastic. This mixture of cocoa and spices was to bring happiness to a whole population. That is until the day a strange vessel sailed into their harbours. Whe