Bad News for the Bees and Humans

It has been reported that this year (2013) has seen the worst bee die-off in 40 years, the beekeepers have seen that they have lost more than 50% of their bees in 2012--2013 winter. Honey bees contribute to more than $15 billion dollar in the US economy, and are responsible for producing one out of every three bites of food that we eat. Without them -- nuts, squashes, berries, most fruits, cucumbers -- almost most of the fruits and vegetables that we enjoy will become obsolete.

Scientists are predicting that such huge number of bees are dying due to the use of a very common neurotoxic pesticide known as neonicotinoids, or neonics. American Bird Conservancy reports that they are also harming birds. European Food Safety Authority has labelled neonics as harming bees. Neonics is produced by Bayers and is the fastest growing and widely-used insecticide in the world. They are used to pre-treat almost all the seeds and trees that are sold in the US (unless they are organic); they are used in flea-medicines of dogs and cats, lawns, fertilizers and agriculture. The neurotoxic gets into the system of the seed and plants and spread through the system to every root, stem, leaves, tubers, every nook and crany of the plants. They do not go away by washing the plant or the fruits and vegetables produced by such plants because the toxic is in the system. Many European countries are imposing a ban on this insecticide, and they are soon seeing a bee recovery.

The above picture is taken by me, the bees visiting my sunflowers in 2012. I hope those bees are alive. With all the development in science and technology, life is seriously becoming a hassle in this century. We are already becoming solitary creatures busy with our facebook, laptop, cell-phone and all the gadgets. We are working longer, suffering from stress and trauma much more, eating and drinking bad, inhaling polluted air. On top of all these, no longer I can walk into a nursery and buy my plants and seeds unless they are organic (and it is not easy to get organically grown seeds and plants at least in the nurseries around here). I always need to have my antennae up, thinking constantly will the seeds have some kind of toxic treatment, will the plants be healthy?

More information and details can be found here: http://www.foe.org/news/blog/2013-03-worst-bee-die-off-in-40-years

Just Imagine Them in Your Garden

To have them in personal garden, the gardener needs to have at least some couple of acres of lands. But, they will be such magical features to visit and sit under its canopy, read and imagine. Children will enjoy them most, and perhaps will develop a strong sense of imagination as it is everything in words of Albert Einstein, "Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life's coming attractions. Imagination is more important than knowledge."

This first picture and the information is obtained from SAVE TREES SAVE EARTH, a facebook page about which more information can be obtained HERE; or click on this link, https://www.facebook.com/savetreestosaveearth

This mind-blowing tree is located in Washington’s Olympic National Forest about five miles north of Kaloloch lodge just off highway 101.

Don’t let the understated "Big Cedar Tree" moniker lead you to bypass this treasure. There are lots of "big" redcedars in the park, but this one has enough gnarly character to be the oldest Ent (Treebeard) in Lord of the Rings the Two Towers. The tree is also called the Kalaloch Cedar. Latitude/Longitude 48° 05.83' N 123° 24.36' W. It is among the most widespread trees in the Pacific Northwest, and is associated with Douglas-fir and western hemlock in most places where it grows. In addition to growing in lush forests, western redcedar is also a riparian tree, and grows in many forested swamps and streambanks in its range. The tree is shade-tolerant, and able to reproduce under dense shade. Western redcedar is also known (mainly in the American horticultural trade) as Giant Arborvitae. The name western redcedar is also sometimes split into three words as 'Western Red Cedar', though this can cause confusion, as it is not a cedar.

By the way, the girl in the above picture is not me. The second picture comes from Knowledge of Today. There website is located HERE; or click on the link http://www.knowledgeoftoday.org/

The Dragon Blood Tree, is a Dragon Tree native to the Socotra archipelago in the Indian Ocean. It is so called due to the red sap that the trees produce.

I am sharing all these information about trees because I am fascinated with trees. So, I hope to visit and see each of these unique trees in my lifetime. Do you know about other unique trees? Please let me know. 

This World Has No Hope

Okay, I know this is a garden blog. But, why am I into gardening, spending long hours in the sun which is turning my soft fair skin into rough, wrinkled skins? Why am I on my knees and hands weeding out the weeds, digging and tilling soils, playing with earthworms and doing all the housekeeping in my garden? It's not because I want to become healthy as gardening is one of the best exercise; I can join one of the infinite exercise, gym, clubs and yoga places around my house; we also have a treadmill in the house. I am not gardening myself because I can't afford all those landscape companies. I am not trying to show off but we are very well-established with highest degrees of education one can get. If we want, we can ask those landscaping and other such companies to come to our house everyday and fix everything in the garden.

I am into gardening because I care about our beautiful world and the awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping natural beauty she provides to us. So, taking care of my garden, by composting, planting, I feel like I am taking care of my mother world who just provides for us but does not demand anything back from us. It is the only and little thing that I can do for.

I am into gardening because I am extremely concerned about the natural world, climate and environment. Everything is messed up there. Weather patterns are becoming erratic; some places are becoming very dry and hot; some are becoming extremely cold; some are becoming mild; drought, flood, violent storms are becoming common; species are vanishing at an alarming rate. Deforestation is rampant (only 20% of Madagascar's original forest is left. ONLY 20%. Madagascar, like any islands, have a unique ecosystem which is not found anywhere in the world. Out of that ecosystem, only 20% left!!). Craze about exotic animals are on the rise; the exotic animals are then let out in the nature; result -- they become invasive species and kill the native animals (think about the impact of Burmese python in Florida). Animals are slaughtered left and right because of their meat, Chinese medicine and to satisfy the human greed (example: huge tracts of primeval forests in Indonesia are cut down to grow palm for palm oil production; huge tracts of Amazonian rain-forest cleared to supply us with lumber and to grow soybean). Concern about climate and weather should become a topic of NATIONAL SECURITY because they are affecting the gulf-stream. If the gulf-stream shuts down, the whole of the USA will turn into Arctic; NYC will get covered with glaciers; NO, I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT FANTASY HOLLYWOOD MOVIES. I am into mathematics research, and many of my colleagues predict that using scientific, mathematical models. If temperature keep on rising, the glaciers will start melting fast. All the places located by oceans will go under-water; the geography of the world will change. About 500 million people in the Indian sub-continent will get affected if the glaciers of the Himalayas melt.

I hear people saying that all these climate/weather changes have happened before also. True, they have happened. But, never at such a fast, unprecedented rate. So, out of all these concerns, I do gardening. I plant trees, plant native trees and flowers; think about what to feed the birds; think about what to plant and do so that bees and butterflies and other insects have a chance to survive at least in my garden. I try to grow vegetables to minimize carbon foot-print. Again, I hope that my doing all these, I am respecting nature, becoming part of her and doing something for our Earth.

But, then these BLOODY people appear on the scene. What the F***?? Meet tea-party, southern congressman Paul Broun.



He is a DOCTOR. He can eventually become a SENATOR!!! Read about him here . "He began his political career as a volunteer lobbyist for Safari Club International, working on the big game hunting group's efforts to oppose gun-control measures.

"

HE SHOT A LION IN AFRICAN SAFARI AND ATE THE MEAT OF THE LION!! "Broun, a medical doctor, told the political newspaper Roll Call in 2010 that his big kill came in Zimbabwe.'After eating this animal, the natives called me Boss Shumba, which means Boss Lion,' he boasted.'They’d never seen a guy come and actually eat a lion.'But the lawmaker said he preferred the warthog he once hunted, saying, 'it’s actually pork.'"

"In September 2012 he spoke at the Liberty Baptist Church Sportsman's Banquet in Hartwell, Georgia, insisting that 'all that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of Hell. And it's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who were taught that from understanding that they need a savior.''You see, there are a lot of scientific data that I've found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth,' Broun continued, speaking in front of a wall covered with finished taxidermy projects 'I don't believe that the Earth's but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That's what the Bible says.'"

All the above italicized statements are from that DailyMail link. 

Now, I don't care about him or whatever he says or whatever he does. There are all sorts of people like him in this world. But, I am aghast that such people can GET ELECTED, BECOME CONGRESSMAN AND THEN EVENTUALLY A SENATOR. They are then going to sit in D. C. and make rules!!!! 

WHAT'S WRONG WITH US HUMAN SPECIES????? Shall I faint, ignore or just become a sage, go to Himalaya, meditate and forget about the human race?? Well, I told you in the beginning that this is a garden blog and not a place for political rhetoric. But, I cannot help myself as these topics are deep in my heart. How can one kill such a majestic looking creature like lion? Lions are also endangered. Anytime they can get into the extinct species list. And, how can a doctor say that evolution is rubbish; earth is 9,000 years old? What sort of people to go to these types of doctors?? A village witch-doctor is much better than this Paul Broun; after all they are not pretentious as he is!! He is enjoying all the benefits of modern life which are products of science and technology, and then he is going against science. If he is so much against science, then why didn't he go to Africa on a simple boat, walked all the way to the safari and used bows and arrows to kill the lion? Of course, he didn't do that as he killed the lion sitting in the safari-jeep and using a gun. WHAT A BLOODY, BASTARD JERK HE IS!! No, I am not going to apologize for my offensive language. I want to use more bad words to describe him, but unfortunately I don't know about them.