Tree Frog Bed

A spot of green inside a day lilly attracted my attention and when I looked closer, I found this tree frog nicely nestled in the flower!

Seeds of Spring

Spring has been playing peek-a-boo here in Iowa for several weeks - now we see it and now we don't. Yesterday morning we woke up to an inch of snow on the ground, which, thankfully, was all gone by end of day. But it was such a lovely way to say goodbye to winter. My first pepper seedlings are up - and they are already late, while most of the broccoli and cabbage seeds aren't even started. I pruned fruit trees and grapevines last weekend (also late)and the grapevines are bleeding under today's sunny warmth. But I seem to be marching right in step with Spring this year - a burst of spring-time activity then nothing more for the next week. Or perhaps there is another reason for my tardiness.

Since we've starting fall-planting winter and early spring crops in cold-frames, I don't get the early spring bug to get something in the ground as soon as it there is some chance of the poor things not freezing to death. We have bushels of scrumptiously tender lettuce, or at least we did until someone forgot to open the cold frames one sunny day last week and toasted a bunch of the leaves. There is also spinach that is 6 inches tall already and a lettucy mustard that is growing right out of the top of the cold frame and getting ready to send up a flowering stalk. All this green bounty before even first tip of an asparagus stalk is even thinking of tentatively peaking up out of the mulch. Everyone at work is saying how anxious they are for spring to start. But I feel sort of balanced here on the edge between late winter and early spring - torn between wanting spring to come and savoring the 'its-almost-here' feeling. Just so we are all on the same page - I am not talking about calendar spring - I am talking about the real thing signaled by the feel and smell of the air, the awakening of things green and fragrant and the strength and quality of the sunlight. While I long for it, I also want it to come slowly, because once it really gets going, it goes by so fast. I wish I could 'freeze frame' through spring so I could more thoroughly and deeply enjoy each phase - each blossom and each little leaf breaking bud - before moving to the next frame and the next round of flowers and leaves opening to the world. It all happens so fast and there is so little time to see it, much less fully enjoy each phase. One weekend walk and I can see the trees with a slight greenish hue that signals the opening buds and by next weekend, the trees are a wall of green. Each moment is perfect and beautiful and so fleeting, but the next moment is just as precious and its arrival distracts me from the loss of the previous one. Then suddenly its summer with all of its own vibrant beauty - but oh how I love the progression of spring and how I wish I could hang on and savor each bit of it. So I am content - balanced where I am in enjoyment of springs teasing appearance and dissapearance. But I sure wish I wasn't so far behind in my gardening work!

Cows Producing Human Milk? Really???

This article gives meaning to the recently coined word - Frankenfoods. I mean really?

China Daily March 23, 2011
Genetically modified (GM) dairy products that are similar to human milk will appear on the Chinese market in two years, an expert in biotechnology has predicted.
Li Ning, a scientist from the Chinese Academy of Engineering and director of the State Key Laboratories for AgroBiotechnology at China Agricultural University, said progress in the field is well under way.
Li said Chinese scientists have successfully created a herd of more than 200 cows that is capable of producing milk that contains the characteristics of human milk.
He said the technology is at the cutting edge worldwide and will ensure "healthy protein contained in human milk is affordable for ordinary consumers".

Seeds

Its almost time to start some seeds - which brings to mind just how precious is this natural process of saving seeds from year to year and relying on the abundance in each little seed when it comes time to harvest. A simple process, an centuries-old process, a process we take for granted because it is the very essence of nature's productivity. One that is threatened more and more each day, and as hard as it is for me to imagine that this should be the case, the USDA has triple-slapped me with that reality in the last few weeks. First with the deregulation of alfalfa, followed by sugar beets and then yet another GE corn - this one for ethanol production. I can rant at length at the stupidity of these decisions, produce evidence by the wheelbarrow full of the dangers, lies and greed of the biotech seed companies. But it is is to find this information and very easy to quickly be convinced - but still the GE seeds march into our fields and into our food. But, what really galls me, what scares me more than menacing parades of GE fruits, vegetables, grains and trees is the single-minded underlying goal of these companies - OWNERSHIP OF THE WORLDS FOOD SUPPLY. Yes I am shouting, how can I not? If that doesn't scare the hell out of you, what will? The world's top 3 seed companies (Monsanto, Syngenta, Dupont) already own nearly half of the world's seed supply. Patenting seeds, throwing farmers in jail for saving their own seed, developing GE that spread into non-GE and organic crops and destroy them are all tactics used by these companies to own our food supply. The miracle of the seed is a natural phenonmen and is not to be owned by a company bent on making huge profits. Seeds are owned by us all, they are integral to our lives, health and livelihood. They are not property - they are life encapsulated in a tiny pellet. They can no more be owned than our own human genes can be owned - oops they are patenting these too now. Hold onto to your jeans and genes and to your seeds. Do not, DO NOT give away our futures to Monsanto.