November beans

Hey - I don't have to write "October Garden", and have blog entry each month that encapsulates the whole month, like a religious order! Here is my blog post for November 7, after midnight.

Today was a great gardening day. I am extremely lazy and unmotivated by nature, but Shane and I went to go look at my giant bean plants which were falling over. After a moment, we got sucked in. He said I should just remove them (I hadn't supported them properly at all) - and I agreed, as they were getting broken which was very not favourable to my OCD side. Then I also remembered that I hated beans anyways. I decided the kids could pick the beans, remembering how good it was for us to always experience that sort of thing.

I didn't know that bean plants have the most luxurious soft beds!

The beans had a strong pea plant like smell. The kids thoroughly enjoyed the task, and ripping out bean plants turned into them shelling them, and I wanting to fix a slat that broke of my raised garden. Shane saw the ridiculous way I was going to fix it, and the garden party was on - as he took over. It was so cool! Ended up bringing up the would-be wasted extra grass clippings to spread around the garden as mulch (not too close to the plants), especially the potatoes. I really got into it - and the garden didn't release me for some time, needing mint plants pulled that had fungus on them, etc etc.


Shane fixed up a fan blade I put up attempting to turn it into a windmill - turned it into a real windmill that would easily fly round in the wind. When we finished, it felt really good energy - like we had done something good. I am going to heap compost next, on potato plants - so they keep growing up in mounds that are easy to unearth (apparently), and now I can transplant my tomato babies into the fixed raised garden bed. (After I get some new compost - with my $5 a hessian sack deal with the local soil place.)



Repaired raised garden in the back awaiting tomato seedlings.

The mangrove people in Stillwater

There was a really magic day in Stillwater. I was feeling down - I decided to go on a walk with Troy and Luke. It started to rain, but we went out anyways in raincoats.

The coastline looked so cool, like illustrations of tufts of land I once saw in a children's book that I haven't been able to find again.



As I drew closer to the mangroves, I could almost see little people.

I wanted to paint the mangroves with the little Mangrove People who live right here.

When it rains, and noone is around, sometimes that is the best time for a walk. It is the time the spirits are strongest.

Moss graffiti or garden decor

Spotted on do the green thing, Anna Garforth's beautiful use of it:
http://www.dothegreenthing.com/blog/grow_your_own_graffiti

Original tutorial is here:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Moss-Graffiti/


RECIPE
Several clumps of moss
1 pot of natural yoghurt or 12oz buttermilk (experiment to see which works best)
1/2 tsp of sugar
blender
Plastic pot (with a lid)
Paint brush
Spray mist-er
- If growing you're moss inside you will also need a seed tray containing compost


1 - Horticulturist's of the past came up with a brilliant recipe to encourage the growth of moss to age and add interest to their garden designs, this recipe can be used as an an environmentally friendly alternative to spray paint. The success of the recipe itself can be very hit and miss and is very much dependent upon choosing exactly the right location and weather conditions; moss thrives in the damp and can most often be found growing near to a leaky drainpipe or rain-soaked wall. If you have difficulty finding the right climate in which to grow your moss, grow it indoors (where it can be frequently spray-misted with water) and transplant it outdoors as soon as it has begun to grow.

2 - Moss can often be found growing in damp areas, between the cracks in paving stones, on drainpipe covers or, in this example, near to a riverbank.


3 - Gather several clumps of moss in a bag and take them to a place where you can easily wash them


4 - Carefully clean the moss of as much mud as possible.


5 - Place some of the moss, the buttermilk (or yoghurt) and sugar into a blender and start to mix. This must be done in small phases as the moss can easily get caught in the blades of blender. Keep blending until you have a green milkshake with the texture of a thick smoothie. Pour the mixture into a plastic container.


6 - Paint your chosen design onto your chosen location or (if growing indoors) on top of a flattened layer of compost in a seed tray.


7 - Ensure that your moss design is kept moist by spray-misting it with water regularly. After a few weeks the moss should start to re-constitute and grow.


8 - If growing moss indoors transfer it to a suitable location (where it is likely to be kept damp) outdoors. Return regularly to the location and see its progress, spray-misting it if it starts to dry out.

13-Year-Old Makes Solar Power Breakthrough by Harnessing the Fibonacci Sequence - spotted on Inhabitat.com

by Andrew Michler, 08/19/11.

Spotted on http://inhabitat.com/13-year-old-makes-solar-power-breakthrough-by-harnessing-the-fibonacci-sequence/

QUOTH:While most 13-year-olds spend their free time playing video games or cruising Facebook, one 7th grader was trekking through the woods uncovering a mystery of science. After studying how trees branch in a very specific way, Aidan Dwyer created a solar cell tree that produces 20-50% more power than a uniform array of photovoltaic panels. His impressive results show that using a specific formula for distributing solar cells can drastically improve energy generation. The study earned Aidan a provisional U.S patent - it's a rare find in the field of technology and a fantastic example of how biomimicry can drastically improve design.

Aidan Dwyer took a hike through the trees last winter and took notice of patterns in the mangle of branches. His studies into how they branch in very specific ways lead him to a central guiding formula, the Fibonacci sequence. Take a number, add it to the number before it in a sequence like 1+1=2 then 2+1=3 then 3+2=5, 8, 13, 21 and so on a very specific pattern emerges.

It turns out that the pattern and its corresponding ratios are reflected in nature all the time, and Aidan’s keen observation of how trees branch according to the formula lead him to test the theory. First he measured tree branches by how often they branch and at what degree from each other.

To see why they branch this way he built a small solar array using the Fibonacci formula, stepping cells at specific intervals and heights. He then compared the energy output with identical cells set in a row.
Aidan reports the results: “The Fibonacci tree design performed better than the flat-panel model. The tree design made 20% more electricity and collected 2 1/2 more hours of sunlight during the day."

"But the most interesting results were in December, when the Sun was at its lowest point in the sky. The tree design made 50% more electricity, and the collection time of sunlight was up to 50% longer!"

His work is certainly piquing the interest of the solar industry, and even more impressively he is demonstrating the power of biomimicry -- a concept that many see as the pinnacle of good design, but one that thus far has been exceptionally difficult to achieve. Way to go!


ENDQUOTE

Occupy Wall Street - Chris Hedges Shuts Down CBC's Kevin O'Leary

Obama clip on CBC: "I think it expresses the frustrations the American people feel, that we have the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country, all across mainstream, and, yet, we are still seeing the same folks who acted irresponsibly trying to fight effortts to crack down on abusive practices that got us in this problem in the first place."

A polished female presenter speaks, the label Lang & O'Leary Exchange soon appearing in a graphic.

Presenter: "That was President Obama commenting on the growing frustration being expressed by the Occupy Wall Street movement protesters. That movement is spreading to cities across the United States, and across the border to Canada starting next week. Chris Hedges is a Pullitzer Prize winning reporter and author, and participant at the Occupy Wall Street rally at New York last week and in Washington today. He joins us from our Washington Bureau."

Graphics read "Toronto" on her box, "Washington" on his.

"So Mr. Hedges, you were a participant in this protest? How would you describe your role in this movement?"

Chris Hedges - a graphic reads, Author, "The world as it is": "I'm not an organizer, I'm speaking tonight at the rally in Washington, and I've given interviews and participated in events in New York."

Interviewer box suddenly pops back featuring male instead of earlier female questioner. His tone of voice is highly suggestive.

Kevin O'Leary: "So what exactly is everyone complaining about, and is - also, can you give me a sense of how much momentum this movement has, because it looks pretty nothing whatever so far, a few guys, guitars, no-one knows what they want, they can't even name the name of the firms they are protesting against, very weak, low budget."

Chris Hedges: "I wouldn't agree with that assessment at all. They pulled thousands of people into the street last night, and here in Washington when everyone marched past the Bank of America, then knew, they were shouting, 'Shame, shame, shame', they know the names of these firms and they know what these firms have done; not only to the American economy but to the global economy and to the criminal class who runs them."

Female presenter, sounding patient: "Well, Kevin made this point of, you know, nobody knows what they want. What do you think of that? I mean we know that this is a very diverse group, there are many different agendas at play, what is the sense you have of what this movement would like to see happen?"

Chris Hedges, clearly: "Well they know precisely what they want. They want to reverse the corporate coup that's taken place in the United States, and rendered the citizenry impotent, and they won't stop until that happens. And frankly, if we don't break the back of corporations, we're all finished anyways, since they're rapidly trashing the eco-system on which the human species depends for survival."

"This is literally, a fight, for life. It's that grave, it's that serious. Corporations on federal capitalism is as Karl Marx understood is a revolutionary force, it commodifies everything, human beings, the natural world, which it exploits for profit, until exhaustion or collapse..."

Artist's Gypsy Wagon (from the Flying Tortoise)

Spotted at http://theflyingtortoise.blogspot.com/2011/10/artists-gypsy-wagon.html

The Flying Tortoise is a blogger who lives the nomadic life in his caravan, around New Zealand. He often posts about other gypsies.

Wandering Book Artists Peter and Donna are from Northern California and travel the US in their wonderfully whimsical sixteen foot gypsy wagon. They've been together since 1976 when they were craftspeople working at Renaissance Fairs. Making paper, doing letterpress printing, bookbinding and creating beautiful unique books affords them a good life on the road. They love living in their small space,to them it's a mixture of a boat and a caravan. And, it's like living in a fairy tale..." - The Flying Tortoise

"Beware of being co-opted" - Saifedean Ammous to Occupy Wall Street protesters on RT's Keiser Report

Skip to 12:47 of video below to see Max Keiser of RT's Keiser Report (198) interview Doctor Saifedean Ammous, in Beirut, Lebanon. Saifedean Ammous is a visiting scholar at the Centre for Capitalism and Society at Columbia University / a lecturer in Economics at the Lebanese American University / and has written a piece called "Mubarak's Odious Debts.


Interesting words I heard mentioned in this report were "corporatism" versus "capitalism".

When talking about the Occupy Wall Street protest, Doctor Ammous expressed concerns that the movement would be co-opted back into the mainstream, as in the past, the anti-war movement (Iraq war) was strong at first in America - e.g. Obama came in on that tide, but the movement was co-opted back into the mainstream by the time he was in power. When pressed to summarize his message for protesters, Doctor Saifedean Ammous finally said "Beware of being co-opted."

Then, over on "crazy channel" last night (corporate propaganda channel Fox & Friends), they were raving about how much money the Occupy Wall Street protesters had amassed - apparently they had $700,000 dollars in a bank account. And someone on Fox & Friends had seen a protester walking around with a Starbucks coffee, which devalidated the entire movement since Starbucks is a corporation. The "Friends" were in a fervour suggesting that the only reason behind the uprising was the profits - which is ridiculous.

A few days ago as well, I saw their biased "news reporting" of the protest when they chose to only show two photos. One was of a meth addict lying under a tarp, and the other was of a man showing several onlookers how to get out of handcuffs, including a young boy (looked about 12). They made alot of the two photos that they had managed to get of the diverse gathering, saying "So, the protesters are meth addicts and criminals..."

I am shocked that anyone could think this passes as news, but looking at it psychologically, I think the channel is revealing how afraid they (the corporations) are, as Fox & Friends serves the corporations' needs. People are actually rising up, it's out of their control - and the "Friends" are in a panic.

Nonnie

PS - You can follow "saifedean" on Twitter. I am!