Category: Environment

Spring 2023

The Cedar Journal March 31, 2023

The calendar tells me it is Spring 2023, but when I am still busy with three to four layers of clothes on, I do wonder if it will ever really arrive!

Now, my friends in Minnesota have been sending me pictures of piles of snow. Maybe I shouldn’t complain…

My friend in Northern Minnesota sent me this picture this week! *Picture taken and*©️ *K. Parker*

Really, it hasn’t been all that bad. I see my daffodils blooming out front from my office window. A beautiful mix I purchased last fall from a local dealer through an English website (crazy that I couldn’t just bike the 4 km last fall to pick these up in person and save delivery costs!). I digress..

Weeds seem to have no issues with the weather! Weeding is the best therapy I know to improve any situation.

Fellow gardeners, these are not weeds! This is rye grain! It likes the cool weather.

My garden is greening up ever so slowly. I even have a small onion sprout peeking out of the straw bale. The brave little onion! I almost biked home to knit a small sweater for it to protect it from the cold biting wind.

This is my protection of my early greenhouse plants that found a home in my straw bales. Not sure if any of this worked as I placed it yesterday in gale force winds and today we have rain…

As I was thinking of that poor onion and trying to get some work done for when the Spring season finally comes along, a huge gust of wind blew my electric bike over! Now, what escaped my mouth went straight to the universe that I was not pleased! I have had it! Now a damaged, new electric bike is sitting in our shed waiting for the bike repairman to return from vacation.

Change is never easy. Mother Nature also seems to be having a hard time with the changing of seasons.

How can I encourage her to move along?

“Hello Mother Nature! I am ready to shed my layers of clothes. I am ready to plant all those seeds from all those beautiful plants you have on this Earth. I am ready to let Father Sun burn my skin when I am tilling the soil. Please bring me Spring and not four seasons in 15 minutes.”

Not sure that she reads my blog, so maybe my readers can pass the message along in your own voices and she will bring us all some Spring normal weather.

Thanks in advance to all that help!😊

Environment

January Carrots

The Cedar Journal January 8, 2023

Starting 2023 with fresh carrots from my garden. Not sure if I should celebrate this accomplishment, we really shouldn’t have carrots this time of year, and yet, here they are.

Survivors of the December frost, some from the ones I planted from seed in August in the clay soil, the others from my straw bale seeded carrots.

These welcoming small jewels from my garden remind me that nature is much smarter than us humans. Always adjusting, always adapting to constantly changing situations in order to survive and thrive.

Environment

A Mushroom Vacation

The Cedar Journal October 27, 2022

Thank goodness that we experienced a natural mushroom vacation and not one that has been threatened for weeks by the terrorist state of Russia!

I didn’t need to go on vacation to study the types of mushrooms that can pop out of decomposing materials, my straw garden has produced many types in the last 10 weeks of gardening.

*** Disclaimer- I am not a mushroom expert and do not collect mushrooms to eat! Never eat mushrooms from the wild unless you have been trained in what is eatable.***

A sort of fungi that grows out of my straw bale garden.

For whatever reason this straw bale has a variety of different mushrooms.

But this canoe vacation took us took us to two different Dutch National Parks (De Weerribben and Dwingelderveld) it was interesting to find so many different mushroom varieties.

The temperatures have been unbelievable warm for late October. Ranging from 15-20 C! Making it very nice for our canoe paddles and for our hiking in the forests.

These look like a perfect a Halloween prop.

This type we found around a standing stump.

These looked like alien life forms coming out of the ground

The morning mist helped give these mushrooms a glossy look.

These are huge! I used my hand for perspective.

This one was peeking out of the leaf forest mulch.

This sort was hard to spot in the leaf litter and had the most delicate stem.

We really enjoyed our mushroom sightings. I was so taken by all the different kinds that I purchased a identification book at the park visitor center.

Taking time to slow down and really see what is in the forest was a nice vacation activity.

Environment

Wordless Wednesday

The Cedar Journal October 5, 2022

Hummm…A Farming July

The Cedar Journal July 29, 2022

As my regular followers know the Hummm file never knows what the universe will throw our way, this month was full of such surprises.

Let’s start with this…

Was at the grocery and found this new toilet paper. Wonder what they are making the comparison. Is it less crappy than other TP? Or is this the option to use when you have choices to make and just wish for a less crappy one? Congratulations you sold me! I laughed out loud and placed several packages in my basket.

Not much Hummm…in this photo, just Namekagon on the water for a paddle. But getting to the lake and back takes us through the Green Heart Land (farming country) of The Netherlands where we noticed the following.

Hummm…What a cool celebration, is it like a National holiday? Nope the Dutch flag is upside down… this is farm country and the upside down flag is the protest symbol of the farmers.

We then had our own farming moments of the summer as we finally were called and offered a garden plot close where we live. Late in the summer to start a garden but we got to work and within a week we have cleaned out the weeds, hauled in 26 bales of straw, built a processing table, and started amending the nearly dead soil.

That has gotten some raised eyes from neighboring plots but hopefully by next Spring we will have things going towards raising all our own veggies. Since I don’t like to weed and have a bad back the straw bale garden method should be a win/win for adding nutrients to the very poor soil and not having to bend or be on my knees pulling weeds.

Hummm… if you are wondering what this entire straw bale thing is… it comes from my home state of Minnesota. You can listen to a podcast all about it here …

148-Gardening in Straw Bales: An Easy & Inexpensive Solution to Make Growing Food More Accessible for All

Then it was hot! So hot here we broke records.

Hummm…the heat didn’t stop these people from having a great BBQ at Adult Care Facility. Just look at those 80 somethings go with the dance line!!!

Hummm… what can I buy on ESTY, how about cotton from the USA! No way! Yes! A 1/4 lb of handpicked cotton from North Carolina arrived in the mail. With the seed. Could our readers see a future Hummm of a cotton farmer in The Netherlands? Let’s see if Fox News could get that as wrong as how they explained the farmer protests. 😳🙄👩‍🌾👩‍🌾👩‍🌾

The truth is out there and people should not get on the conspiracy bandwagon without all the right information!!! The environmental laws were placed into law here in The Netherlands years ago to help control the CO2 emissions.

Some of the smaller farmers who didn’t and still don’t have the capital to make the upgrades could be forced out of business.

That sucks if you are a farmer or a consumer of farm products (like that is anyone who likes to eat!).

The fact is the climate is changing, and all people on this planet have to make changes to help everyone, not just one nation or one culture or be fearful of what others have or don’t have!

I do feel that the farming community here in The Netherlands was unfairly targeted when the laws were made. There are many large corporations and businesses that place toxic chemicals into the air here and around the world each and everyday and are not held to the same standards. I do not think the way of protest should ever be the destruction of property (that goes for anyone! Even the farmers). Peaceful protests with constructive helpful diplomacy will make for a better future.

Hummm… what is the

way forward?