Natural wonders...

As I look out my window and see bare trees or, worse, nearly bare trees - kinda like that friend you have who refuses to admit he's bald and just shave the rest already - I thought I would take today to remind myself (and anyone else who needs the help) that even though winter is fast approaching, nature is not always so bleak.

There is no place better to start in triumphing over bleakness than Iraq. The New York Times posted an article last week on the elaborate gardens emerging in the war-torn state as peace creeps forward. Prior to the war, the citizens were fond of topiary gardens and beautiful plants and flowers. When war came, people were unable to expand those gardens but still took refuge there for some normalcy. Now they are venturing back out to the nurseries again to turn their brown and blasted neighborhoods green.

The Times' City Room blog had a post late last month on rooftop gardens and vertical farms in US cities. In places like Chicago and Detroit, there are plenty of vacant lots and spaces for urban farms and community gardens, but in New York City space is at a premium. Buildings like churches and schools are employing architecture and landscaping firms to develop these new green spaces. An environmental group is quoted in the article saying there has been a 35 percent increase of green roofs in the US, around six to 10 million square feet total.

Not to be outdone, the NYT political blog also has gotten into the sustainable act with a post on the homemade honey on the South Lawn of the White House. For the first time in the history of the United States (which I find hard to believe as there was a large amount of time people who inhabited the WH "ate local" because there wasn't a choice about it), a hive of bees is being kept at the Executive Mansion. The inaugural harvest amounted to 134 pounds of fresh honey - far outstripping the beekeeper's original estimate of 30 pounds. The honey even made it into the shortbread cookies that were part of the Halloween giveaways to the trick-or-treaters last weekend.

(Image courtesy of the New York Times)

The business (and benefits) of gardening...

Recently my friend and I were discussing the "joys" of working at a small company. We talked about the positives - getting a half day on the whim of the boss - and the negatives - suffering with slow servers and crappy Internet connections. Malcolm Gladwell points out in his book "The Tipping Point" that companies are best suited to top out at 150 employees. Anything larger becomes unwieldy and impersonal. I agree with this and definitely see more advantages in working for smaller organizations. One of those advantages is the ability to connect with your co-workers.

I'm a person who values relationships with people over those with things, and the Wall Street Journal had a story in the small business section on how vegetable gardens are boosting morale. Someone in the article mentions how the gardens are starting to leech the "water cooler effect" from the indoors, with employees bonding while working in the soil. There is also the added perk of getting fresh veggies.

School gardens do the exact same thing for the students. WHIOTV.com posted a local story about Ruskin PK-8 School in Dayton, Ohio which has started a school-based community garden. The kids raised money to start the garden by reading, and they and their parents and teachers pitch in to plant, weed and harvest the produce. Students there don't just learn about science while getting down and dirty with carrots and radishes, they also learn about the value of eating fresh foods and, since the harvest goes to a local ministry, they learn about the power of giving. 

This past week, Aug. 23-29, was National Organic Gardening week. And two English companies do not believe city-dwellers should be excluded from the fun. Omlet and Bidgiemire Pig Company have each adjusted traditional farming methods to allow urbanites to keep bees and pigs, respectively. Both hobbies are becoming all the rage since folks have been bitten with the desire to know where their food comes from. 

NYT's Green, Inc. blog highlights Omlet's Beehaus, an up-to-date hive which could produce up to 44 pounds of fresh honey each year and help stem the decline of bee populations. According to the Daily Mail, Bidgiemire constructs, for lack of a better term, pig coops for backyard keeping. The company has seen a 40 percent increase in orders in the last year. People in England apparently want to to return to self-sufficiency and see the benefit in home-raised meat. I am personally not sure I could raise pigs without getting attached. Chickens I would have an easier time with since I only want them for the eggs. I actually do want to have chickens, but I'm fairly certain my apartment complex is not zone for livestock...

(Photo courtesy of The Daily Mail)

New to you...

I actually thought that phrase was fairly clever when whatever TV station unveiled it as a way to palatably serve up repeats. I didn't have a whole lot of time to watch TV in my old job, and I didn't have a TIVO or DVR (still don't actually), so I missed a lot of episodes of my shows. To get sidetracked, yes, I am aware my parents have TIVO and I don't, but my rationale is that I really won't get to the old episodes by the time the new ones come around again, so I might as well just wait for the season to come out on Netflix. 

Anyway, I'm aware that most of you have far more to do at work than read my little old blog, so you may have missed some stories I've posted in the past. Now, I'm not actually re-posting those articles, but I have found follow ups in the papers on the original stories that I thought I would link to. I personally enjoy finding out "where they are now" so I thought you might too.

In my post entitled "It's a Small World," I had a story on Henry Allingham, who was Great Britain's oldest living WWI vet after he celebrated his 113th birthday. Yahoo! News has now reported he has become the world's oldest man after the previous title holder passed away. Allingham has seen three centuries turn, six monarchs and has five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, 14 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great-grandchild. 

In a similar vein (and this is actually new to you), a Ukrainian family separated by World War II was set to be reunited by the Red Cross two weeks ago according to the Citizen in Laconia, N.H. The siblings had been separated first by foster care then again by the Nazis. All are in their late 80's and early 90's and were looking forward to the reunion.

My post last week called "Mmmmmmm...," was food-centered mainly because I am. : ) I have absolutely no idea what sparked it, but about six months ago I completely changed my diet to fresh, seasonal foods. The day after I posted on that topic, I found a story on msnbc.com about the White House's vegetable garden. Mrs. Obama invited the elementary school students who helped plant the garden back to the mansion to help harvest what they sowed. The kids were then invited to help prepare and then share in a meal created from and consisting of the produce from the garden. 

MSNBC.com also had a lovely little story that caught my eye. The headline was "Lottery winner plans to grow better carrots". How can you not click on that? It seems the 74 year-old lotto winner in the UK is an amateur gardener who has never been able to grow carrots in a part of his garden. With part of the $41 million prize, Brian Caswell is going to hire a professional to sort it out. How cute is that?

(Photo credit: www.citizen.com)