i love bees !

this is a great story....i love the idea of promoting the Pollinator Pathway and will be looking for ways to do this....hmmmm and of course i will be sitting in my garden watching and photographing bees.........

Native bees play bigger role as honeybees decline
Native pollinators such as bumblebees are gaining new appreciation as European honeybees, the pollination mainstay of commercial agriculture, continue to struggle.
By Linda V. Mapes
Seattle Times staff reporter

.........In recognition of the pollinator problem, Congress in the 2008 farm bill included cost sharing to encourage farmers to plant some of their land just for bugs, to diversify the nation's pollinator portfolio with more native bees and other beneficial insects.

The adage proves true: Build it, and they will come. Sarah Bergmann got a $6,000 grant from the city of Seattle last year to transform the parking strip in her Central District neighborhood into what she dubs a Pollinator Pathway, planted with the help of 50 neighbors last November.

Once a desert of grass with a few maples, the 108-foot-long, 12-foot-wide strip today blooms with plants selected to attract pollinators. It's buzzing with life that has spilled over to plantings all around the neighborhood. An orange trumpet vine festooning a fence out back is mobbed with bees too busy to bother anyone, some stacked two to a flower.

full article

today in the garden

the question "will this pieris survive?"....the answer is no. but there is a birdhouse ready to recieve tenants in the spring and a new pieris will go in where i can watch the bee show in early spring. also almost ready to start actual construction on the solarium aka covered porch. i am also concentrating on opening up harvest..ie narrower beds, more room under trees. also planting more harvest on the side where neighbors took out all their trees, giving me morning sun.

a must see movie...A River Of Waste

not for the faint-hearted ....this movie shocked, angered, and had me sobbing in my swivel rocker. i was left with our report card on our industrial food chain and deep shame for the legacy we are passing to those who come after. i will urge our congress critters to immediately adopt European standards for our industrial food production. shitting in the air, land and water is no way to leave planet earth for our kids and their kids and their kids....hope the Cree Prophecy is not our destiny.

wake up america....

A River Of Waste - Laurels - Synopsis - Trailer


SYNOPSIS A heart-stopping new documentary, A River Of Waste exposes a huge health and environmental scandal in our modern industrial system of meat and poultry production. The damage documented in today's factory farms far exceeds the damage that was depicted in Upton Sinclair's novel, The Jungle, a book written over 100 years ago. Some scientists have gone so far as to call the condemned current factory farm practices as "mini Chernobyls."
The European Union stands virtually alone in establishing strong health and environmental standards for the industry. In the U.S and elsewhere, the meat and poultry industry is dominated by dangerous uses of arsenic, antibiotics, growth hormones and by the dumping of massive amounts of sewage in fragile waterways and environments. The film documents the vast catastrophic impact on the environment and public health as well as focuses on individual lives damaged and destroyed.
As one observer noted, if terrorists did this, we would be up in arms, but when it is a fortune 500 company, it is just "business as usual."
In 1906, public outrage at the scandal exposed by Sinclair led to major reforms thatcleaned up a corrupt and dangerous system. It is the hope of the filmmakers to mobilize a similar public outcry for reform.

Moving Forward as the Majority: AM 1090 forum

The panel is Thom Hartmann, Mike Malloy, Stephanie Miller, Bill Press, and Ron Reagan (most of them were at last year's forum). Former Seattle Times chief political reporter David Postman is moderating.

We had a great time. I have been listening to many of these folks since 2004. My sister was kind enough to come along and she doesn't usually listen to progressive talkers. It's always fun to be with like minded folks.




Including one who remembered her birth certificate.

Llandover Woods in Seattle

i had the pleasure of walking the trail in this amazing open space that came a silly milimeter close to high end development and instead it now remains a pristine legacy for those who come after...wow!