SNIPPETS FROM THE WORLD AND OTHER PLACES.....

So often I read something and make a mental note to write something about it on the blog.....and then along comes another bit of information and more ideas and so on until they start falling off the page! Here are a few recent ones I have found.... None of them offer steps for a rain dance, however. And the stupid water minister still doesn't understand the difference between growing food and growing a lawn.... I have been looking at New Zealand real estate again....cool and green, with rivers so thunderous they block out the world.

• The Gippsland Friends of Future Generations blog has a post about the NSW government's buy back of second fridges. Every fridge, with a capacity of at least 250 litres, taken out of circulation will save 1 tonne of greenhouse gas emissions each year.....read more and other interesting stuff on their blog.

 

• I subscribe to the newsletter of the Biological Farmers of Australia. At www.bfa.com.au you can read archives of the newsletters. This month's newsletter highlights the dangers of chemicals  used in fabric and clothing manufacture. An excerpt reads:

Chemicals used in clothing could include PFO’s (Perfluorooctanesulfonic acid) – a key ingredient in fabric protectors and found in some impregnation agents for textiles and apparel.

It was deemed persistent, bio-accumulative and toxic to mammals by the OECD in 2002, a view supported by the EU's Scientific Committee on Health and Environmental Risks (SCHER) in 2005.

It is very difficult or almost impossible to know what goes into our clothes and it is one of the things that worries me with so many people, including my children, often wearing black. The darker and stronger the colour the more dying chemicals are needed and the more fade-resistant the colour the more dye-fixing chemicals are needed to keep it that way.

The newsletter has a link to REACH which is the Regulation for Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals. It entered into force on 1^st June 2007 to streamline and improve the former legislative framework on chemicals of the European Union (EU).

• I also subscribe to the New Internationalist newsletter which is currently highlighting the problems faced by Indian cotton farmers and their slow but steady revolution of returning to organic production....here is an excerpt and some links to follow to learn more...

While you sleep peacefully tonight a cotton farmer in Vidarbha, a region in the eastern part of Maharashtra State in India, is likely to commit suicide.

And tomorrow another three farmers will die, most likely by drinking some of the expensive pesticide that has helped push them into financial ruin and despair.

The families left behind are condemned to a life of appalling poverty; often the life of an Indian widow is worse than death.

... Hope

In Andhra Pradesh State, next door to Maharashtra, a quiet revolution is under way. Every day more farmers are joining the Chetna Organic Farmers Association and converting to growing organic cotton. That's a huge step forward. The farmers no longer have to buy expensive chemical fertilizers and pesticides. They certainly don't buy genetically modified seeds. And growing organically is labour-intensive; it promotes more rural employment, exactly where it's needed.

Also, the Chetna Organic Farmers Association is a registered Fairtrade supplier, so the farmers are guaranteed a price that reflects the cost of production, plus a surcharge that helps provide education and hope.

... Your role

If you buy organic Fair Trade cotton bedding, nighties, pyjamas, towels and tshirts from our shop they're all sourced from the Chetna Organic Farmers Association

The "before" story -The Conventional Trap

The "after" story -Growing Back to Organic

 

• BREAZE.... Ballarat Renewable Energy And Zero Emissions have great initiatives like this solar hot water rebate system for members.

Ballarat Renewable Energy and Zero Emissions (BREAZE) is a non-profit grassroots organisation, which has come about because members of the Ballarat community want to demonstrate that individual and community-based actions can make a difference in our response to climate change.

Just goes to show what you can do with a group of people who get on with doing something and don't wait for governments. There is a lot to read on this site and I think they should be applauded for their efforts.

See you on Wednesday at the Botanic Gardens.

AN EXHIBITION IN MELBOURNE

I read about this exhibition on Balcony of Dreams, in Melbourne, where Cecilia lives. It sounds very interesting...

Plant Matter Neo-Eden Melbourne, by the Taiwanese artist Hsu Su-chen

The exhibition is on until the 13th December, 11-5pm Wednesday to Saturday.
Its at Domain House, just opposite the National Herbarium, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

ART IN NATURE

This afternoon I went for a walk from my place up the track behind the Mt Osmond golf course, towards Eagle on the Hill. I have walked this route a thousand times over the years and I always see something different. There are magnificent views, first of the city to the coast, then to Mt Lofty and, further around along the ridge, you can see down to Glenelg, on one side, and across the face of Waterfall Gully and along the hills to the northeast, on the other. In winter when it is green it is beautiful walking amongst the gum trees and sometimes there is an icy wind that seems to come from the snowy mountains, thousands of miles away. But this time of the year, the grass is dry and brown and the breeze is just lovely and cool and it is good to be able to sit in the shade of a tree and contemplate the world..... keeping an eye out for snakes, of course!

The landscape of the Adelaide Hills is dominated by the gum tree... around here it is mostly the South Australian blue gum...... and because they are evergreen, it is the same all year round. But look at what I found today, under a copse of young gum trees along the path.....

Sometimes when the old leaves fall they are reddish like this..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But I have never seen gum tree leaves look like these!

These are like water colour paintings and so purple... I promise I have not done a thing to the photos....

I wouldn't have believed they were real if I hadn't seen them myself.

FERN AVE COMMUNITY GARDEN LEASE

Chook just sent me this email which states that there is a proposal to substantially increase the lease for the Fern Ave Community Garden area by the Unley Council.

 Please fill in the online Community Consultation form, saying positive things about the garden (you could mention the environmental & social benefits) and suggest a low annual rent or none at all.

Click here: http://www.unley.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=1467#e1879

The review finishes tomorrow!

BABIES ARE SO BEAUTIFUL.....

Of course Chook's baby Rebecca is gorgeous but I am talking about the birth of new fruit that occurs all year round at my mother's place. I took these photos last Thursday and there are more fruit appearing every week, all year round.

Baby mangos by the  hundred...

....and figs...

....and nashis....more than ever before

 

There are also the baby apricots, plums, lemons, oranges, nectarines, peaches, pears and several varieties of apples. 

 

Granny Smith apples...

.....moorpark apricots...

...and twin mangos....cute

 

And at my place....here are some ripe boysenberries.....must be THE most difficult things to photograph...but the easiest things to grow and best to eat.....all warm and black and squishy, straight off the canes.

 

And look who came sauntering into our garden today..... an echidna! It seems to have walked straight through the mesh I put on the gate to keep the chooks out of the pool area..... another job to do.....but worth it to have this gorgeous creature visit us. No wonder the chooks were acting a bit odd!

STORIES FROM THE AIR

Over the 6 weeks of my travels I passed through 11 airports and so caught 11 planes......and one thing is for sure airports ain't airports and planes ain't planes and airlines ain't airlines....and as the ad on TV used to say "Oils ain't oils!"

Sometimes I just sat in the airport, waiting for a connection, and watched the crowds....and crowds there were, compared to Australian airports. At the Washington Dulles Airport the-man-at-the-podium made announcements about flights coming and going from gate 24, every few minutes, and each was like a 30 second act from a live comedy festival. He had that barely comprehendible accent (to me!) of some black Americans and I had to really concentrate to understand the fast speech, in case it was something I needed to know about my flight. The gate lounge was full of Americans.....I could tell because of their size and the volume of their conversations...and I suddenly felt very alien, so was glad of the entertainment coming from the podium.

One of his announcements was...."Ladies and gentlemen, if your name is Margaret or John Cameron, for flight 365 to Dallas, Texas then I am here to inform you that you have missed your plane and there ain't nothin' you can do 'cause that's it taxi-ing past the window! You are too late and shouldn't have had that last drink at the bar!" And another..."If you are waiting for flight 987 to New York then get over here to gate 24A, door 3.....not door 2.....that's for folk headin' to Alabama...why they'd wanna go there who knows .....so I reckon you better make sure you go to door 3 unless you want to get fried 'cause its hot in Alabama today!" He seemed to have lots of reasons why you wouldn't want to go to various American cities. Mostly they had bad weather or he had some relative there that you wouldn't want to meet!

Then there was an announcement I didn't believe until someone explained it to me later...."Anyone want a free trip to Miami for the weekend? Over at the podium at gate 26 they are looking for 2 people who wanna go tomorrow and come back Sunday....free hotel and all flights.... go see the man waving over there". Well, would you have believed that? Evidently they need a certain number of passengers or they have to cancel the flights and this one needed 2 more.....but all the people in this part of the airport were already going somewhere....still, I suppose they could have rung a friend and told them or something....seems to me they should have been advertising it out in the public area!

Twice on short legs, I ended up in the very back seat of the plane. This has its ups and downs...so to speak. Once, in America, it was horrendously noisy...and I wrote a post while on that flight, stating how dreadful it was. But, although the rest of the plane was full, I had the 2 seats to myself and the stewardess sat on a little fold-down seat and chatted (or rather, shouted) to me,  telling me about her flight schedules and how often she gets home etc, which was nice. The other time was the flight from Sydney to Melbourne and I was in seat 57F.....the last seat on the plane. The Steward was chatting up the 3 young women in front of me who were off to Melbourne for a weekend of shopping..... and he gave them extra drinks and sandwiches for lunch the next day! But the bonus for me was that he started by serving me first.....and I was starving....when actually he was supposed to start at the front. He had been an electrician but changed careers only 6 months before...... I couldn't hear why..... and he was enjoying it so far......anyway, the flight was very turbulent .....I mean VERY, especially as we approached Melbourne and it was bad enough not being able to see out a window, but then when we landed, albeit very roughly, those who could see, actually clapped.....at least I was sitting beside an emergency exit! I have never been on such a rough flight and with the plane swaying around after landing, like in a show ride! Probably best I was in a seat with no outside view, just happily eating my lunch!

One of the most annoying things about some airports is the lack of clocks. Can you believe that some airports have no clocks at all. When you are changing time zones and catching connections you need to know the time. No wonder those people in Washington missed the plane! I would check my luggage in and they would say....your flight boards at gate 51 at 3pm......and I would have to ask what the time is now because my watch would have some other time from a previous day.....and every so often have to ask someone what time it is or, do as I did in Washington, just go to the gate and wait until they called my flight for boarding....crazy and stupid and a terrible oversight not to have clocks in all airports.

Some airports have huge distances to walk and it seemed I always needed to board at the gate furthest from where I checked in my luggage. Some have those horizontal escalators that you walk on.....I thought they were great because if you were tired you could just stand there and if you wanted the exercise you could walk....and walk.....and walk. In Seattle, there is an underground electric train that goes every 2 minutes and whisks you off to somewhere near where you need to end up. In Singapore, there is natural light coming in from above and a wall of indoor tropical plants along the corridors so it is very beautiful and I would have missed my flight looking at all the colourful foliage and flowers if I had stopped to look at it all....  Heathrow (London) could do with a long look at the Singapore airport! Actually, everywhere should take a look at Singapore, where they focus on the amenity for the people, first.

One thing Terminal 1 at Heathrow does better than all the rest is coffee lounges, with comfortable couches, coffee tables and a nice, quiet atmosphere especially compared to the noisy, plastic, American airports I visited. There was even a powerpoint for my laptop....a nice touch....

The strangest and cheapest flight I went on was from Bergerac Airport in France to the Midlands Airport, in the UK. The only charge was for the taxes which amounted to something like AU$20....but there was catch! From the minute you boarded the plane until the moment you left the plane you were bombarded with sales talk and special deals on ......anything.....from holidays to watches.....and there were raffles and scratchy tickets and chances to spend, and to win, non-stop.... RyanAir.....very cheap but don't fly with them if you need peace and quiet! AU$20 is an incredibly cheap way to get across the channel, though.

I was very surprised when I approached the plane, across the tarmac, to take me from Seattle to Vancouver.....it had propellers....and only 50 seats. We bounced our way across the clouds to Vancouver, at quite a low altitude but arrived safely, in 45 minutes but it took over an hour to make my way through immigration..... mine was not the only flight arriving at this time.

The best planes I went on were invariably owned by Canada Air and the most comfortable and quietest was a Boeing 777, with a powerpoint for my laptop....luckily I had it with me in my hand luggage this time....and also luckily the plane was only 1/3 full so I had 3, second to front row seats to myself. Nice, especially when I was hungry and because I was at the front I didn't have to wait for a hundred or so other people to be served first! Tip....always take an apple and some nuts....it is embarrassing to have to ask for food in the middle of the night!

A SCENTED GARDEN

 

This time of the year there are soft scents wafting about in my garden, intensified by the heat of a day like today. The first time I notice them for the year I turn to where they are coming from and smile at the appropriate plant.....sometimes hiding its first flush of delicate flowers as if shy and feeling they may have been forgotten, amid the brash colours of other flowers in the garden. This is the philadelphus that I am talking about.....or evergreen mock orange, at left, hanging its small, white, beautifully scented flowers under its leaves, almost going unnoticed until there are enough of them to send their perfume down the path to the front door.

 

I also have the deciduous philadelphus, at right, with is stunningly beautiful, pristine white  flowers held upright in bunches, amid the dark green leaves, but having much less scent.

 

 

I was going to write that these are my favourite perfumed plants but I cannot! I think the philadelphus are amongst my favourites.....but there are also the scents of the flowers of various citrus trees that are so fresh and invigorating that maybe they would claim my first prize. Lemon blossom, at left, is number one in my citrus list.....so good it makes me close my eyes when I breathe it in....or maybe that is to avoid the bees who also love it!

 

But I also absolutely love the powerful but elusive scent of the dendrobium orchids, that only give off perfume from the flowers when the temperature is over 18C, in August or early September.....just an hour or 2 here and there....I keep them inside then so I don't miss the moment.

Honeysuckle takes the prize for the first of the spring perfumes to come to my garden and probably for the one that lasts the longest too. We have a honeysuckle hedge which is a delight to brush past on the way to the clothes line. I know roses are wonderful too and I enjoy them in other people's gardens but I don't have them here. Somehow I have never got on well with roses, nor they with me.

Down by the pool we have a dry climate garden bed...with plants with silver foliage and things that need very little water or care. Today, in the hot sunshine, I noticed the curry bushes were giving off their pungent savoury aroma......quite unusual for a plant but a smell of summer, to me. The aroma comes from the leaves and there are other plants that have scented leaves too, the most obvious being herbs.....rosemary, mints, lemon verbena, oregano, thyme etc. Then there are the scented geraniums.... lemon, cinnamon,etc and sages like pineapple and chocolate. There is nothing more delightful that brushing past the pineapple sage that Barb gave me, on a hot summer's day and almost tasting pineapple, ever so briefly....then it is gone.....and you wonder if you imagined it.....

 

Another of my favourites is the Flinders Ranges wattle that flowers for many months, beginning in autumn and going on through winter, but it only has a scent on sunny days, it seems to me. It is the smell of the Australian bush... at least, it is of the bush where I used to holiday. I cannot conjure up its smell.....unlike the citrus or other sweet scents....so every year I relish the days when I can visit my best specimen in flower, on the way to the letter box.