A DIFFERENT GARDEN SYSTEM

     I've been reading an interesting book by Suzanne Simard called Finding the Mother Tree. Suzanne was taking forestry and wanted to find a better way to plant trees on a clear cut. Suzanne's premise was that trees communicate and support one another. She created dozens of experiments and tests to show that trees do share and that nutrients pass from tree to tree. Therefore, certain trees and shrubs should be left to support the new seedlings. In other words foresters should not weed or spray other species. Foresters want trees that will grow and mature in a short time. 

    Foresters were not interested in Suzanne's new idea so she had a difficult time promoting her ideas. 

    She found that some trees need less nutrients at a certain time while others need more. She was able to prove that what was in one tree was later found in another tree. Some plants with deep roots spend the night bringing up water to the surface where other plants use the water in the day time. . 

    What really caught my eye is when she wandered off and used her forestry ideas to plant her vegetable garden. She made plate sized mounds and planted 5 or six different varieties of seeds in each mound thinking that the different varieties would support each other. Her garden was a series of small hills with a number of plants sown in each hill. Her garden thrived. 

   We can also go back to aboriginal gardens and find that they planted an number of seeds together in a hill.

    It's good that we have people like Suzanne who are willing to work hard and show us new ideas, 

WILDFIRES

      With climate change and population increase wild fires have become more common and much more dangerous.  People live in areas that were once uninhabited. Access to wild areas is much easier as roads have been built into remote areas.

      In Alberta, we all remember the destruction of much of Fort MacMurray. A wild fire rapidly approached Fort MacMurray and much of the city was destroyed. Most of the population had to evacuate. They had to stay away from the community as much of the infrastructure was destroyed. Many homes were destroyed. 

   I have told you that I live less than a kilometer from a forested area. A heavily treed ravine is less than a km from my house. Underbrush is thick. Many trees are old. There are also grassy areas. So it's an area that could easily catch fire and spread and burn rapidly. Right now it is extremely dry here.

   This week it happened. There were two wild fires set. One fire burned about an acre. If the fire hadn't been spotted, it could have spread very quickly into the subdivision. It was difficult for the fire crew to get at the fire as it was across a creak where there were steep embankments. 

   So once again I'm reminded of the risks of wild fire here. 

   This time we were protected by fire fighters. Next time we may not be quite so lucky. 

MUSIC

      I enjoy listening to music. I'm not at all musical. I don't play an instrument or sing. However , I do appreciate listening to music. 

     Because I like listening to music is the reason why I was somewhat distressed when I couldn't find out how to fix my ear buds. I learned that you have to look at all volume buttons. 

    I listen to a lot of Austrian folk music. Most of their music has vocals. They play a mixture of accordion, saxophone, tuba and any horn . Sometimes there's a guitar. Some of it seems like the friends got together and just have fun. Sometimes it's family groups. 

   Then I accidentally discovered South African folk music. The instrument I like to listen to is the concertina. You very seldom hear the concertina. After that their music is basically guitar. It's the standard band with rhythm, bass and lead guitar. Quite often the have a banjo. There is very little vocal in their music. My doctor is South African so every time I see him we talk about music. 

    This music comes on you tube and you have an account made by you tube from examples of music I listen to. 

   Who knows where I'll go next. I like harpsicord . I may find some harpsicord music. 

   I also found two brothers (twins) who play the baritone sax. They're awesome. 

   In the car , I have the radio tuned to a classical music station.

   I just don't have enough time in a day to listen to all the music I would like to hear . 

LONGER DAYS AND SHORTER NIGHTS

     Every year about this time I write a similar post. I tell about our longer days and how it influences plant growth. I've been reading posts for about three months telling about blooms and seeing all kinds of plants that are flowering.

     So now it's my turn to tell about growth and development of plants here. 

     First, daylight yesterday was 14 hours and 58 minutes. The sun rose at 6:01  and set at 9:03. When we get the longer hours of sunlight plants grow and develop very rapidly. The leaves on native plants are ready to come out. That's just in time for songbirds to nest. The leaves provide protection and food. 

   Today I planted corn but in pots in case it freezes. I have transplanted tomatoes into bigger pots. I won't put the tomatoes in the garden until June 8. The bluebells have bloomed and are now shutting down as they go dormant about Aug.1. Some of my friends have planted lettuce and radish as they are regarded as cold crops. 

    As a young person we could play baseball until 10:00 PM. As an Arctic person we could be active 24 hours a day and a lot of us tried it. 

   So I will enjoy the short, vigorous growing season we have.

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN FOR SENIORS

      I heard a very interesting interview on the CBC the Current this morning.

      A woman had been working on industrial design. She began to see that many of the things that were designed were far from senior friendly. She tried to influence fellow designers to put seniors on the agenda. Other designers were not interested.

   She decided to learn more about design and seniors so that she could influence her fellow designers.

    She had herself made into and 85 year old woman. The face took 3 hours to prepare. She had plugs in her ears for poor hearing. She had contacts that were partly opaque so that he vision was limited. I forget what they did to her legs to make her walking difficult. Style of clothing was considered. 

   Then she tried to live her life. It was difficult and challenging. Mobility is a great problem for seniors. On the streets people were impatient to get around her. People complained about her holding up traffic in the airport. People pushed and shoved to get her out of the way. Stairs, sidewalks and railings were a problem. Signs were a challenge. 

    So donning this costume over a series of years she learned more about what experiences seniors had. She also had more ammunition to try and persuade other designers to keep seniors in mind. 

    The world still isn't senior friendly but it has improved.

   This project reminds me of a book I read many years ago. BLACK LIKE ME  I enjoyed the book and got an idea of what some challenges might be  for black people.

   The book was severely criticized but I think it did open up some eyes. 

END OF THE ELECTION

     The Canadian election is over. Most of the commentators and analysers have gone home by now. I don't spend much time listening to all the paid wise men making comments. 

     So sometime in the evening I get to know a few of the broad issues and that's enough for me whether I like the results or not. 

    The Liberal party won the most seats but not a majority of seats so they cannot freely pass legislation unless a smaller party votes with them. The PC party came in second. Their leader lost his parliamentary seat . I did not like the PC leader and I think many Canadians did not like him. I thought he would be divisive for the country. 

    The liberal party spoke of unity for the country. I hope they can achieve some of it. If a few people want to take their ball and go home that's fine. We are allowed to express our own opinions

    So now the government has to get down to work.

    We have to look at elections as a whole. There are good things and bad things that happen. And then people have their individual opinions about things. Sometimes there are periods where they don't get much done and make political maneuvers to prevent legislation from passing. 

    Many people may not be familiar with a parliamentary system. The party with the most seats forms the government and presents legislation which the whole parliament debates. At the end of discussion a vote is held. If the governing party has  majority the legislation is passed. The Prime minister is the leader of the majority party. The leaders of the parties are chosen by the party. The only time people get to vote for the prime minister is in his own district. 

CANADIAN ELECTION

      Tomorrow is the federal election in Canada. 

      It's been an interesting story compared to many elections here. Our elections tend to be  little boring.   We have three main parties and a number of small parties to make things interesting. We usually have the liberal party govern for a few years and then we change to the Conservative Party of Canada. 

     This time we've had the liberal party for about 8 years. The leader became shop worn and was not liked by the public or his party. The CP's went up in the polls. If an election was held in January, the CP's would have won by a landslide.

      Suddenly the unpopular Liberal leader resigned and in a few weeks the liberal party went up in the polls. Cp party disappeared in the polling and the liberal party regained it's status as the leader. The Cp party is in the same situation as the liberals a few months ago. they have a leader who is not very popular. 

     So tomorrow we will find out who gets to lead our government. 

     What I've found is that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation spread around. One does not know what is close to the truth.