{ gathering home }

Traveling the Back Roads and Memories from an Earlier Time.

(With toddler in hand, a mother discovers nearby adventures and then, the children grow up!)

Even though last April I found myself in Paris with a slew of teens on another performance tour (more later), I haven’t blogged about that yet, but keep thinking of the past when my children were so little and open to the mysteries of the natural world.  I’ve always been passionate about exploring nature and traveling the back roads to uncover secrets never before seen – at least by my eyes!  Not an easy feat with toddlers!!  So, in order to satisfy my need for adventure, I began in my own backyard, so to speak. There’s a pond at the end of my street and the hike there is doable for wee ones.  Once there, my girls and I discovered frogs and dragonflies, wild flowers and --  lying flat on our backs -- those same things and more in the clouds.

Conservation International Announces 2009 "Great Turtle Race"

Conservation International (CI) today announced the launch of the "Great Turtle Race," a virtual "race" that follows 11 leatherback sea turtles (Dermochelys coriacea) on an epic journey from feeding areas in chilly waters off Canada's Atlantic coast to breeding areas in the warm tropical waters of the Caribbean. Launched today, race fans can see the action online at GreatTurtleRace.org, created along with NationalGeographic.com, which puts the spotlight on one of today's most iconic animal species and what can be done to protect them.

As the turtles ride the waves to be the first to reach the finish line by April 29, they will be cheered on by celebrity sponsors including rock bands Pearl Jam and R.E.M., and ‘coached' by Olympic swimmers Amanda Beard, Aaron Peirsol, Janet Evans, Jason Lezak, Cullen Jones and Eric Shanteau, who will also provide race commentary. NBC announcer and Olympic athlete Rowdy Gaines, "The Voice of Swimming," will serve as official commentator and will be "calling" the race in daily online updates issued by CI. The eclectic group of Great Turtle Race supporters also includes surfers, schools, sea turtle biologists and nongovernmental groups.

"The magic of the Great Turtle Race is that it puts actual data from migrating sea turtles into a captivating, fun-filled format that draws attention to important biological research and inspires people to act on behalf of ocean conservation," said Conservation International Vice President Roderic Mast.

(Photo credit -Roderic Mast/CI)

                           Earth Day DVDs on Sale (ad)

A Third of US Bird Species in Danger, New Report Shows

Birds are a priceless part of the American heritage.  Beautiful, entertaining and  economically & eco important.  They also reflect the health of our environment. A new "State of the Birds" report was released this week and reveals troubling declines of bird populations during the past 40 years—a warning signal of the failing health of our ecosystems.  At the same time, evidence is noted that strategic land management and conservation action can reverse declines of birds. The report calls attention to the collective efforts needed to protect nature’s resources forthe benefit of all people and wildlife. You can listen to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar's March 19 press conference and download a copy of the full report here.    

Will Bamboo Save the Planet??

Bamboo could prove to be more important than a food supply for giant pandas. It's widely considered to be the world's fastest-growing woody plant and therefore could become a key component in helping to lift thousands of people in the developing world out of poverty.  According to the International Network for Bamboo and Rattan (INBAR), as many as 1.5 billion people around the globe currently "depend in some way on bamboo and rattan".  Several organizations are now investigating on how growing bamboo in economically deprived areas can increase the income of the residents, small-scale farmers in particular. View this interesting CNN report for more..

Thanks to FranklyGreen.com for alerting us !! 

Natural Herbicide is Safe and Biodegradable

Phydura™ is a non-selective herbicide made from natural, biodegradable ingredients: soybean oil, clove oil and vinegar for herbaceous broadleaf and grass weeds including:

Garlic Mustard
Burdock
Dandelion
Clover
Crabgrass
Queen Ann's Lace
Pigweed
Velvet Leaf
Ragweed
Quack Grass
Leafy Spurge and more!

If you're looking to prepare for more gardens and less lawn, this may be the way to go.
Phydura sells for about $17 per gallon and can be found here and here.

Backyard Habitat

The National Wildlife Federation recently certified my garden/yard as a “Backyard Habitat”. I don’t know why I waited so long to apply. I’ve always had wild flowers, a water source (a bird bath or shallow bowl is plenty – a pond or stream is better), shelter, and food. And I never use pesticides. But recently, after visiting several local “habitat” yards, I was inspired to go for certification and I'll proudly display my NWF sign as an inspiration to others.

To go along with the NWF sign, I ordered a sign that reads “Pesticide-Free Zone”.

For those of you looking to start a wildflower garden for the bees and birds, I highly recommend Prairie Moon -- the best source for native plant seed (and plants) I can find.

Below are some photos taken on the day of the Backyard Habitat tours. Thanks to all who opened their yards for the tours!

Permaculture -- Moving Beyond Organics

Organic is undoubtedly the way to go. But how do we sustain the land's ability to support the growing movement toward organic -- well -- everything? The answer is permaculture and while it can be described as farming and gardening with a focus on the relationships between animals, plants, insects, soil, water and habitat -- and how to use these relationships to create synergistic, self-supporting ecosystems, it is better explained in the video clip at the end of this post, by author Michael Pollan.

The Great Sunflower Project

This organization is working to track honeybee pollination across the country. Contact them here for free sunflower seeds for your home garden (or provide your own) and watch twice a month to see how long it takes a bee to visit.

While you're at it, take a look at the Haagen-Dazs interactive bee meadow; you can learn lots about bees and even create your own digital version of a bee -- a me bee!

Bee Happy

North American Honey Bee (Apis millifera)

It began early on a mid-spring day, this love affair with the bees. We were sitting on our screened back porch when my husband noticed insect activity in the sky above our backyard. It turned out to be an incredible swarm of bees. They seemed frenzied and that made me curious. At the same time that my husband noticed the swarm, we heard a squeak and a scurrying sound coming from the garage roof or maybe it was in the vicinity of the Wisteria that grows behind the garage. We wondered what had made the noise but we were distracted and our attention quickly returned to the bees. As I watched, I noticed the bees were forming a clump on the outside of one of our silver maple trees. “A tertiary hive!” I announced. It was something I had read about years before. I watched for as long as my schedule would allow and then continued intermittently throughout the next half hour or so. My husband wondered what we should do about the bees. I wondered the same. If they remained as they were, could they survive? There was already plenty of bad luck going around in honeybee land -- mites have been a big problem, but now Colony Collapse Disorder seems to be the main culprit (although no one knows for sure). I suspect that environmental poisons may play a role in this issue, but there are just so many suspects threatening the future of these fuzzy little humming musicians. I didn’t want to add to the downfall of the honeybees by interfering in this hive’s particular struggle to regain some lost ground. I adopted a “let’s just wait and see” approach.

Another Use for Amazing Vinegar

I got the following email from a local environmental activist:

I am a big fan of vinegar, as it seems to have endless uses that do not harm the environment, and I have seen how it works magic on the weeds that spring up from the cracks in our patio. So, this spring, at the first sign of the wily poison ivy vine, I poured some undiluted vinegar on it. I checked on it two days later, and to my utter elation, the poison ivy was DEAD! I used a piece of newspaper to pull the rest of the vine out as best I could. Now, nearly two weeks later, the vine shows no new growth. If it pops up again (as poison ivy tends to do), I simply will break out the vinegar again!

I would expect that a good dousing by a spray gun of vinegar would result similarly to a larger patch. Poison ivy grows rampantly in this area, much to everyone's itchy chagrin, so I figured other people might benefit from my "discovery".

Amazing! No Poison Needed . . .