Earth Hour 2008 is a success

We “outed” the lights at 8pm for this years Earth Hour and watched a great movie called “Remember the Titans”. The movie is based on the story of the 1971 football team in T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia,. “The Titans”, overcome racial differences and achieved some form of unity as [...]

Future Shack instead of Future Shock

The focus is back on housing again!
The discussion is about how to get anyone hit by a foreclosure “out of trouble”. Perceptions of “too much change in too short a period of time“, or Future Shock underlie the reporting. Headlines about how shocked “Families flock to foreclosure fairs”and about how Homeownership Preservation Forums might [...]

Garden Trains?

Barbara Blossom Ashmun said “Some people like to fish just to be out on the water and unwind. For me, gardening is a chance to be out in the sun, the drizzle, the breeze, and just be. No thoughts, no worries, no plans, no regrets”. (Get into garden zone and chill out)
I must admit [...]

Got Butterflies?

We had our wonderful grand children visiting us over Easter. They love bug watching so much that having them around brought the magic of the insect world back into focus for me.  Their fascination with any kind of bug never waned for a minute. They noticed every single insect that flew by us from [...]

Slainte- a toast to your health

We attended the St Patrick’s Day parade in Donegal Town in Ireland in 2006.
Some of the floats in the parade had graphic representations of leprechauns sitting beside pots of gold at the end of rainbows. These were to remind us that if you ever can get to the end of a rainbow you might find [...]

Home grown tomato wins Oscar!

If your favorite food could win an Oscar, what would be its acceptance speech?
This is just one of the questions EARTH DINNER cards use to spark stories and memories of the foods and people we love, and perhaps to inspire new thinking about the foods we choose everyday.
Our Home Grown Food Network tomatoes would [...]

Homeless in an Anxious Age

The profound nature of the problem which homeless people face is exemplified by the fact that they sleep in makeshift cardboard shelters at night, and in the morning their shelters are swept away by cleanup crews with dumpsters and water hoses.
Electroland and its designers focused on the homeless problem and came up with a design [...]

Pro-poor City Planning can be Proper City Planning

Pro-poor City Planning can be Proper City Planning:
The controversy over Tent City in Ontario, California grows. The Los Angeles Times ran a detailed story about it. Tent City began as a City of Ontario project to create a “sanctuary where the homeless could eat, sleep and live without fear of harassment”. Now the [...]

Growing Desert Perennial Tomatoes and Peppers: Supporting Vegetable Plants with Recyclables

Growing Desert Perennial Tomatoes and Peppers: Supporting Vegetable Plants with Recyclables
Brenda Barnes, Home Grown Food Network President
March 9, 2008
Yesterday I was doing some cleaning in our enclosed porch that we made into an indoor-outdoor dining room. I came across half of a large white metal bird cage that had been covered [...]

Growing Perennial Tomatoes in the Desert, Part 3

Growing Perennial Tomatoes in the Desert, Part 3:
Ontogeny Recapitulates Phylogeny
Brenda Barnes, Home Grown Food Network President
March 8, 2008
The past few days we have harvested two or three tomatoes a day and eaten them right afterwards. Some right then after washing, like apples. Some cut up in salad. None cooked—they are [...]