I'm just glad it's Friday and our little planet is still alive and.....well.....

I'll celebrate by planting some things when I get home...a daily celebration of late. vgkg

We are going to have a little ceremony at the farm, a short one because of orders to be filled and plans to plant a mess of bulbs, corms and rhizomes for Summer and Fall flowering period.

Nice Earth pic, Althea. Greetings to all those still lurking and posting at GW/NN.

greetings;
I think I shall honour the volunteer efforts of plant ecologist Teresa Magee today.
http://www.peak.org/~mageet/tkm/ecolenv.htm#Ecol

Here is a link that might be useful: ecolenv link

I'm going to spend the day thinking about new and novel ways to extract fossil fuels for a profit and getting paid handsomely for it.

I really like the way the lights on the dark side outline the countries...hey aint that part of the problem(s)!? Regardless very nice photo and I like looking at it and it seems like a fancy marble yet so frail and so powerful all at once. Happy earth day to all.

I cleaned out the goat yard today. Made new gardens and others larger. I planted 5 pounds of wild flowers seeds (native Maine ones of course) in the meadow at my inlaws today.

I harvested about 10 lbs of dandelion greens and roots. I hope to roast the roots for tea and either eat or compost the greens. SOme of those roots were over one inch in diameter, amazing plants.

I cut back the rugosa rose hedge about 10 feet long, the leaves were just started to break bud.

Its too early to plant much else of anything here.

I'll share the herbs of the earth in a peace pipe with you all tonight at the earth day gathering in cyber space. Cheers, Sue

My celebration was called on account of inclement weather. I eneded up moving my azalea inside and covering tender plants with leaves during a windy rainstorm to protect them from last nights frost.

Hope vgkg & Marshall had better luck with planting.

Thanks for the link Pickwick. Unfortunately none of the three links I tried worked.

LOL Monte.

Sue, I thought the Dark Sky people would also be keenly aware of how well lit Europe appears on the picture.

I didnt realize I was A dark sky type. The image above doesnt seem to offer much dark skies.

Happy Earth Day a week late Althea and everyone! Better late than never. In the Philadelphia area They released a picture of a river otter swimming in the Schuylkill river in the center of town at nine oclock march 20 2005! He wasn't put there he swam there So the head of the water department said that is proof that the river is healthy since he probably was looking for fish. We have had a beluga whale here for a while now in the Delaware where the oil slick was now That is probably not good since he should be in the Saint Larwence with his podBut of course the big story is the ghost bird of Arkansas! When I heard about that I started to cry!! Sarah

Here is a link that might be useful: river otter in Philadelphia

Thanks Sarah. I heard about the Ivorybill on NPR last night. Isn't that amazing?

Here is a link that might be useful: nytimes - Ivorybill Woodpecker

Yeah, I was real excited too. Makes you think about the resilience of nature despite all the inroads of civilization. What else is lurking out there? I'd like to stumble across a lost stand of Chestnut Trees - another extinct giant of the old hardwood forest.

Yes, this opens the door to other possibilities.

Here's a fun aside about former S.Carolina State (Senator?) Alex Sanders and his belief in the existence of the Ivorybilled Woodpecker.

Here is a link that might be useful: no hoax

Althea that's adorable! King Turtle there was someone last year or the year before on the Pennsylvania garden web That was telling us about her project she was growing them to release in the woods. Sarah

Here is a link that might be useful: American Chestnut Foundation

Thanks Sara, I've been following the efforts of the Chestnut Foundation and keep my hopes up that they will succeed in re-establishing some stands. Right now the success rate is not that great - most seedlings don't survive to maturity and the attempts to cross with the resistant European Chestnut are in early stages.

This tree once dominated hardwood forests in the east, its wood which was fast-growing, straight, and rot-resistant was used by early settlers for buildings, rail fences, and even railroad ties. The nut fall was substantial, was an important food source for people and animals and was considered one of the sweetest ever (remember chestnuts roasting by an open fire?). Some biologists have noted that the large consistent mast fall from this tree supported an abundance of wildlife that we won't ever see again even in virgin forests.

Gaylord Nelson, founder of Earth Day and champion of environmental protection died yesterday.

R.I.P.

Here is a link that might be useful: nytimes obituary

Yes, a great man of his times and my former senator. I worked on his re-election campaign in a periphery fashion while I was at the U of Wisconsin.

Yes I heard that on sunday. What a shame I wish there were more like him. thanks for the link Althea. Sarah