Happy 2012!

Hope everyone had a fun New Year's eve! :)  Thought I'd start the new year off here with a cute story from the BBC, how a woman in Sweden found her lost wedding ring 16 years later, in a most peculiar (and gardening-related) way!


Find out here!  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-16374283

Happy New Year!

Old Christmas Trees & Just for Fun

If you're not waiting, like me, for "Second Christmas" to roll around (Ukrainians and other ethnic groups still celebrate Christmas on January 7th), you can donate your old Christmas tree (tinsel-free, as always) to Hope for Wildlife. They will use them as habitats and cage buffers for their little and big creatures alike.  If you don't live in the Halifax area, contact your local wildlife refuge and see if they could use this gift as well!  Read more on the CBC.

And also from the CBC today, the top 10 list of ridiculous 9-1-1 calls received from the Chatham-Kent police department in southern Ontario.  Warning: they're pretty ridiculous!  Enjoy!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and that 2012 will be a great year for you all!

Flying Ant Day

Apparently, it's not just me that calls it that, according to Wikipedia, it's actually the informal name given to what I witnessed today - the day that the queen ants emerge and take to the skies, with some male counterparts, to mate with members from other colonies, and found a new one.

I saw many of them resting in the sparse grasses above their colony in our backyard, trying to figure out how to use these wing-thingies on their backs. Many crawled on the ground occasionally taking off for short hops in the sky, only to fall back down, or fluttering their wings, shaking them out without taking off. Some hovered in small swarms over nearby treetops. It's very interesting to watch.

No less interesting was the larger-than-normal number of our friends in the sky, dragonflies. Always glad to see them as they eat mosquitoes and the like, but today they were doing amazing aerial acrobatics as they attempted to feast on the new flying snacks that had appeared. I had two flying side by side, heading right for my face, and like some sort of air show, they both diverged at the last second in a sweeping arc, over and up. Beautiful, really!

I'm no big fan of ants, but still, I gotta give them a salute and a "good luck" in their crazy journey - imagine, a being that lives almost exclusively underground, growing wings and taking to the skies to find a new place to live!

Fascinating Glimpse underneath the Harbour

REALLY interesting article on what lies beneath the waves of our Halifax Harbour. Included were WWII tanks, and a shipment of 1960s Volvos. Who the heck knew that? Great article, and apparently the gentleman the reporter interviewed has a book out:

Read the article from the Herald here. It's really cool!

Hair Decorations: the next Level

Dazzling photo gallery on Mainichi: tsumami kanzashi, or traditional women's hair ornaments made of tiny folded silk pieces. Absolutely amazing craftsmanship. And some of the ideas he's come up with are just astonishing - cut open watermelon, a shrimp, fir boughs with acorns - just abounding in creativity.

Be sure to check it out! They have photos of the finished product, as well as some images of the process, and a short interview with the craftsman. link

Happy Canada Day!

I can't resist good design!

I saw this at work today, and HAD to get one myself and give it my own tiny financial support.



It's called a "Wishbone" soap dish, and I wasn't surprised to see on the packaging that this design was the winner of the Umbra-Pratt Design Competition. It is a fantastic looking design, and if I guess right, it'll be wonderfully functional, too. Instead of like many soapdishes, this one won't have a sloppy mess underneath, because the air will be able to dry most of the bottom of the soap, through the "ribs" of the fish. Very cool!

www.umbra.com

Stoats 'n' Stuff

Dave had a ferret several years ago. Her name was Jessica, and she was the sweetest little thing. If you want an entertaining pet, get a ferret. Unlike kittens, who keep their playfulness while young, but often grow lackadaisical when older (like Baby Boy, who prefers to just roll over and get a belly rub rather than chase a string), ferrets stay just as active and crazy when they're in old age as they were when they were young.

I remember seeing a video of wild cousins of the ferrets sitting together out in the wild, then one of them darting over and giving a young bear (minding his own business eating berries in a field) a bite on the butt! Then the ferrets ran off, chortling and bouncing away like it had been the best joke in the world. That's a ferret mentality for you: fun first, think of the consequences later. The bear was annoyed, but didn't chase them for long. :)

Stoats are also wild cousins of the ferret, and this really cute video shows him gamboling about in a garden in the UK. It's pretty hilarious!

Molly Has A Problem

Heard a noise amongst our collection of empty boxes (kept around in prep for our eventual move). Peeked inside a box tucked inside another box, and found Molly cat.



As has been sadly seen many, many times on CuteOverload.com, Molly definitely needs boxhab.

She's addicted to boxes.

Oh, she thinks she's okay - note the defiant look on her face...but we all can see she has a problem.

Poor Molly...

Garden Gnome Globetrotter

Garden Gnomes. Some people love 'em, some hate 'em. Some people hate them enough to steal them from other people's gardens, just so they don't have to look at them. I'm sure that Eve Stuart-Kelso thought that's what had happened to her gnome when he went missing. But a few months later, he re-appeared on her doorstep, complete with a photo album detailing his world tour! Seriously! BBC did a great report on it, check it out here.

Hilarious!

Today's "Stew" - Good-Bye Cakes

I read the Stew last night, and by the time I was done, my eyes were tearing I was laughing so hard. Jeff Houck did a great piece on memorable Good-Bye cakes - memorable for all the wrong reasons. If you need a laugh, head over there now. OMG.

The Anthropologist in me is tickled pink!

(For those of you who don't know, I majored in Anthro in university, so there actually is an anthropologist lurking around in me somewhere...)

A tribe of people in South America have been photographed who have NEVER had contact with the outside world! We don't even know what they call themselves! They've never even seen a plane before! (Ergo, the red warpaint they're wearing, upon seeing the plane fly low overhead for the second time in a few hours). Can you imagine what would be going through their minds right now? Pretty much, "What the heck is that thing in the air???", and "Let's defend ourselves!".

Apparently their habitat is going to be endangered by encroaching logging in the Amazon rainforest, and these photos were released to give yet another reason to put the kibosh on deforestation in that region.

Part of me wants to run right in there and study the heck out of these people, and learn more about how indigenous people adapt to their environment (teaching us how we likely lived ourselves thousands of years ago). But the other part of me wants to leave them pristine, and unaware of the outside world - because once contact is made, it's made. There's no going back. They would be forever changed by the experience - if they survived it.

The BBC has tons of info on this fascinating discovery. Here's the main article, here's the amazing group of photos of the tribe from the air, and here's a great little article on what we can deduce about their way of life from the photos taken.

Another reason to visit (or live in) Kyoto

Not just because of the beautiful scenery, and the lovely feel of traditional Japan - Kyoto's another great place to go, because when the riverside cafes open up for the summer, you just might get a maiko (apprentice geisha) serving you a drink! How cool would that be! There just aren't that many geisha (comparatively speaking) these days, and it's a pretty rare opportunity to see one up close for the general public.

Want to get a glimpse into a geisha's day? Mainichi did a photo journal special on geisha recently, check it out here.

A well-rested cow produces more milk

And what gives better rest: sleeping on a straw bed, or a waterbed? Apparently, Saskatchewan farmer Mel Foth has found that indeed, a waterbed is preferred not only by people, but by his cows! Moo-cows spend half their day lying down, and getting to rest on a waterbed prevents them from getting "bed" sores, and helps them rest better - thereby making more (and I would guess, better tasting) milk! A happy cow is a productive cow! And one really productive cow takes up less resources than 5 low-production ones, which is good for the environment.

And the stalls are easier to clean, too!

Read more on the CBC.

When Spring Stink is Shared

I laugh, because it's not happening to me. Okay, I laughed a LOT, but I bet the affected people in Western Europe aren't laughing.

Farmers in countries like Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands are spreading a winter's worth of manure on their fields - Dutch farmers are forbidden from doing so during the winter, so they had to wait until now to do it. However, because of SO MANY farmers doing it all at once, there was a massive quantity of stinky smell created. And thanks to weather patterns and strong winds, poor old London, England is now reeking of cow poo.

Kinda reminds you of how interconnected countries are - the environment doesn't respect national borders. :)

And I'm still laughing.

I'm sorry! :)

Read the full story here.

Spring Phlox

As I noted last year, there are some gorgeous displays of spring phlox in Japan. This year is no exception! Mainichi had this great aerial photo today of a large phlox display in Hitsujiyama Park, Saitama Prefecture.

Ah spring... :)

Remembering Loved Ones in the Future

Well, the future is now. This is a fascinating development in the funeral industry in Japan - maybe it'll catch on elsewhere too! Using a bar code hidden in the tombstone of a loved one, visitors can use their cell phone to access select photos, text and other files relating to the deceased. Instead of visiting a cold, impersonal stone, family members can see photos capturing happy family memories, and read biographical notes. It's a great way to preserve the life and times of loved ones. And think what a wonderful boon this sort of info would be to professional and hobbyist genealogists!

It's really expensive right now (about $10,000 USD), but it's a fascinating idea for new ways to preserve our past for future generations.

I first learned about this on Mainichi this morning, and found the full story on Reuters. So interesting!

Woah...first recorded sounds of a human voice

Wow. There's been a discovery of a recording of a human voice from 1860 (1860!!!!) in a French patent office. The oldest known recording of a voice - and there was no way to play it back until now!!! It was recorded on a soot-covered piece of paper, but until modern scanning and computer tech came about, there was no way to recover the sound traced into the paper. It's amazing, really, to think about people creating a device to record sound, knowing they'd have no way to play it back, but doing it anyway.

It's a wonderful piece of history. My favorite aspect of anthropology (my major in University) was linguistics, and I still have a soft spot for it. Sound recordings really aid in the study of languages and how they change: and although this clip is of a well-known song, and not common speech, it's still really interesting. A piece of the past coming alive.

Read the CBC article to learn how all this came about, here.

Listen to the recording here, it's creepy, but amazing.

Pickles with a message

In the States, Rabbi Mendy Margolin is doing a traveling show teaching congregations how to make Kosher pickles. The people learn the ins and outs of making something Kosher, a little about their Jewish heritage, and at the end of it, get some great pickles to take home.

And during this class, the congregation's Rabbi got in a pickle suit and danced around. Now that's the sort of dedication to pickles I can't help but admire!

I copied the story from the Herald this morning, my link is here. The article includes instructions on making your own Kosher pickles!

BeanDreams 2008: If I were a rich (wo)man...

Dee dee dee dee dee dee dum...sorry, got lost in a Fiddler on the Roof moment...

I was making out my list of potential purchases from Vesey's the other day, and I thought, "Hey, why don't I just go hog wild, and make a list of stuff I wish I could get!"

Of course, if I were REALLY rich, I'd buy everything, and a farm to grow it on. :) I'm a total gardening fiend at heart. But for now, I must budget, so I can't go hog wild, heh heh.

Oh, and a note before we begin: the links are to the Canadian version of the catalogue, with Canadian Dollar prices. If you want to order from the US, you have to go to the front page and choose the US version of the catalogue, (or click on the link underneath the Vesey's name in the top left hand corner) and search for the product names through there.

Stuff 'n' Such

• The Climbing Cage - an incredible expanding and collapsing spiral that anything trailing would love to grow up! From Sweet Peas to Tomatoes, this looks like a super-cool and compact way to grow your trailing favorites!

• Palm Peeler - a cool vegetable peeler that you slip on your fingers that fits in the palm of your hand! As a person who has troubles with regular peelers (I never learned to peel towards myself, so I always make a mess), this looks like it would be pretty darn handy.

• Mezzaluna with Cutting Board Herb growers would love this little gem, a double bladed herb mincer. Looks really easy to use (read: ergonomic)!

• Foxgloves 'Grip' & Tub Trugs: Gotta have a matching set of a durable/flexible lugging bucket & comfortable water-resistant gardening gloves - in hot pink! Oh yeah!!

• Soil pH Meter and/or Soil Testing Kit - good tools for organic gardeners, so you know how your soil is doing. (Now I just have to find out what to do once I've got the results. My soil needs more nitrogren, now what? I'm sure it's online somewhere... :))

• Earthworm Castings - yes, it's worm poop. But apparently worm poop is a great soil enricher!

• Garden Inoculant : for beans and peas (including sweet peas) it is bacteria that provides nitrogen around the seed, which it needs to get a great start in life. Supposed to make beans and peas grow bigger, faster. Never used it but wanted to try it for years. :)

For Birds (they love to eat the seeds at the end of the season):

• Polka Dot Bachelor's Buttons, my all time favorite flower - I love how they look, and I love how fast they germinate & grow!

• Purple Majesty, Annual Millet

• Hyssop

Fun Veggies

• kohlrabi, a funky looking relative of the cabbage. I'd love to taste it for myself and see what it's like! This pic was one I took at Agrifest a few years back - it looks like a space vegetable or something!

• Papaya Pear Squash - a fun looking alternative to zucchini - supposed to be good in stir fry!

• Tumbling Tom Tomato - sweet little tomatoes you can grow in a pot or hanging pot on your patio. Sounds easier to cover if we get early frosts, as we sometimes do in this area.

So that's just some of my favorites! They have a lot of cool stuff, be sure to check it out! :)