quote

"From December to March, there are for many of us three gardens -
the garden outdoors,
the garden of pots and bowls in the house,
and the garden of the mind's eye."
- Katherine S. White

guide for worm ranch dudes and dudettes

I was just Googling around and ran across this informative, handy, colorful brochure about vermiculture offered online by Metro Vancouver. Good for handouts if you are spreading the word...
http://www.metrovancouver.org/about/publications/Publications/wormcompostbrochure.pdf

quote

The other day I was following a Google trail to learn of a timeless African folktale concerning a wise and tricky spider which is very similar to the trickster wisdom stories in several other ancient cultures in diverse parts of the world, and I ran across this sentence you may enjoy.

The traditional Ashanti way of beginning tales is so: "We do not really mean, we do not really mean that what we are about to say is true. A story, a story; let it come, let it go" and traditionally we finish thus: "This is my story which I have related. If it be sweet, or if it be not sweet, take some elsewhere, and let some come back to me."

Sweet.

quote

"Time is an herb that cures all disease."

- Benjamin Franklin

Spoken as if "herbs" were commonly accepted as a medicine in Ben's era, which they were.

NOTE for those who may have been wondering, especially after all of those made up quotations about freedom and so on that were exposed as fraudulent during the last election cycle... about whether I've sourced all of these quotes in a properly scholarly manner. Sadly, no. I just run across neat thoughts everywhere, and like a crow that pecks up shiny objects, I take them home to my nest. If they shine for you, use them at your own risk.

What is an herb?

"If you can cook with it; garnish a salad with it; soothe a burn or scratch with it; make a tea from it; soak in the tub with it; perfume your sheets with it; kill a bug with it; make a potpourri, sachet, wreath, or something else good smelling with it; weave, dye, or spin something with it; scour pots or wash with it; worm your pet with it; formulate oils and lotions to beautify your body with it; cast a spell with it; or make abig mess involving a glue gun, wheat stalks and raffia with it --- it's an herb."

- Rob Proctor and David Macke, from Herbs in the Garden

Outlier resistance. after a conversation with Sharron

How are you on the intellectual property debate? When is some piece of knowledge - a dead author's work long after his immediate heirs have died, a folktale from Africa passed down through American slavery and copyrighted by Disney, even the genetic code for a fruit fly or a staple crop or a human - private and not shareable? Something to think deep thoughts about.
I love my conversations with Sharron.
We were discussing this the other day.

Sooo, I'm having an internal debate as I write...

I do want to share this (following) haiku with you, even though Tina threatens to bounce off her Yahoo Group anyone, no exceptions, who copies and publishes anything posted in the group. The group and its participants are a reservoir of good herbal conversation that ferments into a wonderful, independently published magazine, devoted to herbs, called The Essential Herbal.
If you Google The Essential Herbal you will be directed to Tina's website and blog.
Anyway, I'm hoping she takes this as a compliment - and an ad, a recommendation, pointing out to you that you really should subscribe to the Yahoo group (go to Yahoo, get an account, and search for The Essential Herbal) and subscribe to receive the magazine.
I'm expecting my copy to land in my mailbox any day now, can't wait!
So, here's the haiku that got me thinking about all of this, written by the other half of the sister team, Maryanne. I think it is lovely.

Pristinely, softly,
the snow covers the earth.
The world seems to sleep.

Cotton covered trees.
I live inside a snow globe,
silent and peaceful.

We learn patience now.
Slowing down and snuggling up.
Love it while it lasts.

Soon enough we'll see
the world awaken to green.
All unfurls with Spring.

Maryanne
http://www.lancastersoaps.com
http://www.torchsongstudio.com

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"The ordinary world is already enchanted. The enchanted world is not a fantasy or a hope for the future; it is real, and it is now. What keeps us from seeing the enchanted world - really, now - is the Dead World story we tell ourselves and each other. We soak up this story unconsciously as we grow up. It comes from a narrow, poverty-stricken vision that our world is made only of lifeless matter. This story was invented over the past few centuries in the name of science."

- Jeremy W. Hayward, from Letters to Vanessa

an internet classic for catalog addicted gardeners

I first read this website ten years ago when it was on members dot tripod... If you like reading plant catalogs, have fun... then go read the link at the bottom of the page - Plant Delights, for a really good catalog.
http://www.shadydealsnursery.com/

quote

"Technology is, of course, a two-edged sword; it can be the means of understanding the wholeness of man and nature or of destroying it."

- Eugene Odum, from Fundamentals of Ecology

quote

"Nature cannot be ordered about, except by obeying her."

- Sir Francis Bacon

quote

"The sun, with all of those planets revolving around it and dependent upon it,can still ripen bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do."

- Galileo

quote

"How can those who do not garden, who have no lot in the great fraternity of those who watch the changing year as it affects the earth and its growth, how can they keep warm their hearts in winter?"
- Francis King

quote

"Progress is simply the price we have to pay if we are determined to continue losing our sanity."

- Ben Maudlin

Some useful advice to counterbalance all of my whining

Since I mentioned having taught a class on green cleaning in that entry about having lost my cement Buddha attachment, it's probably a good time to show one of the best cleaning tips I came up with in all of the time that I spent researching the subject. Oven cleaning - the recipe is at the end of the post.

I offered the class along with three other herbally inspired classes through our local community education program and got very little response. Although maybe in the time that's passed since then, people have become more receptive to the idea of cleaning with nature, instead of killing nature in order to meet a Madison Avenue generated perception of cleanliness. And I also presented the class to the GCHS Spring Herb Symposium a couple of years ago as well, as well as a shortened version presented as an herb study to the GCHS during the following year where it was well received.

But it wasn't just something I did as an challenge for my volunteer commitment to educating the my small circle of the world about practical living with the useful plants known as herbs. I first got into green cleaning when I cleaned house for a friend who was an Executive's wife while she went out and got a real job. Her standards were like something you'd see in Architecture Digest... her favorite magazine, and since her kids were the light of her life, she wanted to go as natural as possible.

We used to walk together in the mornings, and discuss the way the world was being poisoned... NO, let me write that in the active voice... we used to discuss the way we are involuntarily being sold into poisoning our world. And so when the job presented itself, for a year I cleaned a beautiful house with completely green cleansers. And did she buy anything particularly expensive and rare to use as cleaning agents? No. I used white vinegar, Bon Ami, soap, baking soda, borax, and Barkeeper's Friend.

Anyway, background done, let me tell you about cleaning your oven. About 10 or so years ago I bought one of those so called self cleaning ovens, but the first time I used it, I had to leave the house. There is something in that coating, combined with the high temperature, that just affected me horribly.

The next time a pan of lasagna boiled over I tried the green method, and it worked like a charm. Here it is:

Green Oven Cleaning

1. Try to catch the spill as soon after it happens as possible. Scoop it up with a spatula.
2. While the oven is still hot, sprinkle the mess with a good amount of baking soda, or a mixture of equal parts baking soda and borax.
3. In a spray bottle, combine water and a small amount of liquid soap (maybe 1/4 cup soap per 2 or three cups of water)- I recommend using Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap. Use this spray to spray the baking soda.

4. Allow it to work overnight. The next morning you can just about wipe the burned, oily, or sticky mess away with a dish rag. No harsh chemicals like the aerosol foamy stuff we used to gag on in the old days. No invisible gaseous vapor to wonder about breathing. you can use this method in the winter when the windows need to stay closed. And if you use peppermint soap, it even smells nice when you're done.

quote

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."
- Cicero

watch what you say about, Ahem, social media

Oh, Bubbie, within an hour of posting that entry about not "sharing" on FB, my monitor went out. Co-inky-dink? Woooo... ain't life funny?

I'm now posting from my new laptop ... waiting for my IT guy to bring me a new monitor (he just got a new shipment, by chance) ... and I still haven't figured out how to get into my main mailbox, being an old lady with few technical skills.
But it does give me an opening to talk about website and blog "comments". I read plenty of other blogs, but must admit I rarely leave comments. I'd have to go from the RSS reader to the blog, then write the secret word as it appears to get past the spam filter, and then think of something original to say. Too much volunteer work and you may know how I feel about that.

I do appreciate comments, so I guess it makes me a bit hypocritical. And as much as I appreciate your comments, replying is even more work, so I usually either decide I need to check out a new link or something I've bookmarked, or I get up and let the cat out ... but please, don't feel I haven't read the comments... I really do like the feeling that someone out there is reading.

Someone, anyone, except those gosh durn persistent "Anonymous-es". Here's the low down: if you send a comment as "Anonymous" your message goes right into my spam file. But I still end up sifting through the replica watch, Viagra, and broken English hacker practice entries, just to find your missive. I encourage you to leave a name, even if a pseudonym, if it's not too much trouble.

ordinary perception needs some polishing now and then

This quote is for an acquaintance of the ignorant sort who commented that I must be a Buddhist (after a conversation about a disturbing forwarded email concerning Mr. Obama and reforming the health insurance system that I debunked with Snopes), because I talk about loving the earth, and being (OMG! shockingly!) green. Like when I taught that class on green cleaning. (Sheeeeesh) I didn't know whether to be insulted or flattered. I sometimes am completely flummoxed by the way Right Wing Christians treat other mortals. I can't imagine a Buddhist presuming in such a manner.

"In the Buddhist tradition, mandalas are objects of meditation with a specific purpose: to transform our ordinary perception of the world into a pure perception of the buddha nature which permeates all phenomena."
- from Mandala: The Architecture of Enlightenment

I was once "attached" to the cement Buddha in that photo above. I'd found him on a rare outing to some nursery in the middle of nowhere - he was sitting in an old yard full of abandoned cement yard ornaments, half hidden in long grass and weeds and the place just happened to be open as we were driving past. Something made me ask to stop, and Herb actually did, for once. It was karma, or kismet, whatever they call that, when you find something you should have.
My middle son, who never wants anything, and is the very hardest person to find a gift for, actually pointed it out on a visit home, and I gave it to him when he graduated. I don't even know if he bothered to take it to Massachusetts with him. And he sent me a cute "Cat Buddha" one Christmas, but that is an indoor prop.
I now have a cement Foo Dog that guards my door, but the attachment is missing. Was that the point?

quote

"Anticipation is one of the joys of gardening and if you look you can find signs of each season long before the calendar confirm it."
- Nancy Goodwin

quote

"Therefore all seasons shall be sweet to thee
Whether the summer clothe the general earth
With greenness, or the redbreast sit and sing
Betwixt the tufts of snow on the bare branch."
- Frost at Midnight by S.T. Coleridge

my FB work-around

Did you ever read something really good, say from the Organic Consumer's Association website, and hit the "Share on FB" button, then wait forever for FB to tell you there was a problem? That never happens with the middle of the road corporate sites, does it. Just askin'.
For example, here is a nice explanation of why several years ago I quit answering questions for the Master Gardener hotline and help desk. After a lot of wrangling with my conscience I simply could not go on ethically recommending products that I feel may be injurious to the "seventh generation".
But this morning, when I tried to "share" this Monsatan bashing OGA link on FB... ::crickets::

So, from the same list serve I wrote about previously, here is the very link (note how old this research is!) that FB couldn't or wouldn't "share":
http://www.organicconsumers.org/monsanto/roundup080805.cfm
More discussion from the list-serve:
"Here is documented biological hazard:
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/GMCropsFacingMeltdown.php
this link has numerous reference links. Health Hazards abound:
http://d.wanfangdata.com.cn/NSTLQK_NSTL_QK9046959.aspx
For a combo look check out
http://www.mindfully.org/Pesticide/Roundup-Glyphosate-Factsheet-Cox.htm
The USDA is considering a proposal to de regulate Glyphospate (Roundup)Tolerant Alfalfa.
The public comment period ends today.

(And FB isn't the social networking site that is owned by Rupert "FAUX News" Murdoch! I'd expect censorship over there!)