A Spade, A Hoe & A Piece of Fertile Ground

Following from my previous post "One Billion Trees" I thought I'd really ought to take my own advice and start planting. No point preaching something if I wasn't prepared to do it myself.
The slight hitch is that I live in an apartment and there are only are two 2.5 m by 1.7 m balconies. Not a lot of space for a tree. Sorry, let me rephrase that, not enough space for ANOTHER tree.

With a faithful & sturdy four-foot something Privet standing solidly out on the back balcony and a graceful weeping Japanese Maple ( just budding and about to sprout leaves) on the front balcony, I think we were close to hitting our weight quota. So I've decided the best thing to do is to plant grasses and flowers instead.


You know, one of the most wonderful things about living in a place with four seasons is the pace of things. That you get to see things change quickly. You see plants grow from tiny pinhead sized seeds to five-foot tall Honeysuckle climbers with coral orange flowers. Then, in a few months, they fruit and you get to harvest the seeds. To start all over again next year.
Can't really do this within the time frame of a year in the tropics. But, I digress....

The thing I can do at this time and in this space, is to plant grasses and flowers. To grow green leaves to help feed the planet with oxygen whilst taking away the carbon dioxide and to feed the human spirit with the bursting colour and beauty of flower and foliage. And then plant trees wherever I can, whenever I can.

Last year, I'd harvested the seeds of sunny Californian Poppies, blood red Poppies, purple Geraniums, Vanilla scented Heliotropes and really tall grasses, whose species I don't know. But they looked so densely bushy with those tall gorgeous flower heads, I couldn't help but pick up the seeds from the paths during an autumn walk at the The Van Dusen Gardens in Vancouver.

Let us hope they grow up and grow well.
And as they sprout and grow, I will water them, feed them, hope for enough sun and clement weather. And I'll take heart from a song I remember John Denver singing on Sesame Street so many years ago. It's called The Garden Song and I believe it goes like this...(click on this link to hear the melody)

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row
Someone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
'Til the rain comes tumbling down

Pulling weeds and pickin' stones
Man is made from dreams and bones
Feel the need to grow my own
'Cause the time is close at hand
Grain for grain, sun and rain
Find my way in nature's chain
To my body and my brain
To the music from the land

Plant your rows straight and long
Thicker than with pray'r and song
Mother Earth will make you strong
If you give her love and care
Old crow watchin' hungrily
From his perch in yonder tree
In my garden I'm as free
As that feathered thief up there

Inch by inch, row by row
Gonna make this garden grow
All it takes is a rake and a hoe
And a piece of fertile ground
Inch by inch, row by row
Someone bless these seeds I sow
Someone warm them from below
'Til the rain comes tumbling down

'Til the rain comes tumbling down

One Billion Trees

I turned on the radio in the middle of a BBC interview last week. Owen Bennett-Jones was on with his programme called The Interview. Had no idea who he was talking to or what it was about until I heard "Plant a Billion Trees". Now that caught my imagination. It turned out to be an interview with Wangari Maathai, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and environmental activist whom I'd never heard of (shows you the depth of my general knowledge!). There was something down-to-earth and compelling about the way she spoke. I listened on and was happy.

Following is the BBC's website's write up on that interview. Click on the link is you want to hear the full audio version.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/noscript.shtml?/radio/aod/wservice_aod.shtml?wservice/theinterview

	Wangari Maathai is the first African woman to win the Nobel peace prize">
	Environmentalist and politician Wangari Maathai

"Dig a hole and plant a tree!"

Wangari Maathai is an environmental activist, a Kenyan government minister, a Nobel peace prize winner. Her despair at the chronic deforestation evident in her home country, when she returned after 15 years abroad, led to a simple act: she began to plant trees.

To date she has helped local women plant over 35 million trees in Kenya and she is challenging the global community to plant a billion trees by the end of this year.

The connections she has made between deforestation, hunger and political unrest have brought her powerful enemies as well as international acclaim; of Daniel Arap Moy, the former Kenyan President, she says:

"He sure didn't like me much, did he!"

I've always believed that one of the simplest thing a person could do to help the planet remove the CO2 in the atmosphere and lower global temperatures was as easy as to plant a tree. And if you only have a balcony or a window, then plant flowers, herbs or shrubs. Just plant something. Anything.

I guess I'm not the only one who thinks that way.

“The symbolism – and the substantive significance – of planting a tree has universal power in every culture and every society on Earth, and it is a way for individual men, women and children to participate in creating solutions for the environmental crisis.”
Al Gore, Earth in the Balance

Much of the inspiration comes, I'm sure, from the book (and later Oscar winning animation) titled The Man Who Planted Trees.
The story about a shepherd who revives a desolate ecosystem of a secluded valley by single-handedly planting a forest over a thirty year period. And what did he do?....why he planted 100 acorns a day.

Wangari Maathai has an organisation called the Green Belt Movement working in conjunction with UNEP, the United Nations Environmental Programme to get people all over the world to pledge and then plant at least one billion trees in 2007.

If you'd like to get involved, go to the UNEP's Plant a Billion Tree website by clicking on this link
http://www.unep.org/billiontreecampaign/index.asp

There is a space on the on the top right hand corner that tells you the target, how many people have pledged to plant and how many have already planted trees. Currently the tally stands at 1,819,898,686 pledged and 1,008,033,579 trees planted.
Looks like we've hit the mark. But several million more can only help rather than hurt.

It's a really comprehensive site with links to organisations around the world involved in tree planting and even has technical instructions on how to successfully plant your own tree.

	"If you are thinking a year ahead, sow a seed. If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree." Chinese poet, 500 BC
	"The best friend on Earth of man is the tree. When we use the tree respectfully and economically, we have one of the greatest resources of the Earth." Frank Lloyd Wright
	"They are beautiful in their peace; they are wise in their silence. They will stand after we are dust. They teach us, and we tend them." Galeain ip Altiem MacDunelmor
	"Though a tree grows so high, the falling leaves return to the root. " Malay proverb
	"A society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in." Greek proverb
	"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree." Martin Luther
	"The great French Marshall Lyautey once asked his gardener to plant a tree. The gardener objected that the tree was slow growing and would not reach maturity for 100 years. The Marshall replied, 'In that case, there is no time to lose; plant it this afternoon!'" John F. Kennedy
	"Trees are poems that Earth writes upon the sky. We fell them down and turn them into paper, that we may record our emptiness." Kahlil Gibran
	"A tree is our most intimate contact with nature." George Nakashima, woodworker
	"A tree uses what comes its way to nurture itself. By sinking its roots deeply into the earth, by accepting the rain that flows towards it, by reaching out to the sun, the tree perfects its character and becomes great. ... Absorb, absorb, absorb. That is the secret of the tree." Deng Ming-Dao, Everyday Tao
	"Plant trees. They give us two of the most crucial elements for our survival: oxygen and books. " A. Whitney Brown
	"To me, nature is sacred; trees are my temples and forests are my cathedrals." Mikhail Gorbachev
	"God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools. " John Muir
	"The forest is a peculiar organism of unlimited kindness and benevolence that makes no demands for its sustenance and extends generously the products of its life and activity; it affords protection to all beings." Buddhist Sutra
	"People who will not sustain trees will soon live in a world which cannot sustain people. " Bryce Nelson
	"Reforesting the earth is possible, given a human touch." Sandra Postel and Lori Heise, Worldwatch Institute

Showcase of Neat Recycled Paper thingy-ma-jigs

I've been patient and quicked- fingered enough to nab an Etsy treasury.

Just doing a little to give some exposure to recycled paper products.
These crafters have wonderful things apart from what I've shown here.

Story Tale Design just starting out on etsy and has lovely stuff.

A snapshot version of it is here


But if you want to see a better and infinitely clearer version just click on this link.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury.php?id=1174744985841U94376

Just remember the treasury is an ephemeral thing...will only last till Sunday noon-ish.
So, get clicking !

How to Make Paper

The Materials

* Deckle (or any square frame with a wire/plastic mesh stretched across it)
*Mould ( another square frame of the same size of the sieve)
* A pair of stiff boards slightly larger than the sieve
* Smooth drying cloths slightly larger than the sieve
* A sponge
* A blender
* A tub or basin large enough to fit the sieve
* 50g or so of waste paper


The Method

1. Shred the waste paper and soak for at least 4 hours. Soak overnight if you plan to make paper the next morning.

2. Place a handful of shredded paper into the blender and fill with water to make up 1 litre.






3. Blend for about 15 seconds or until the pulp looks like wet cotton wool. Pour the pulp into the tub. Repeat until all the paper is used up. Add 2 more litres of water into the tub.



4. Place the mould over the deckle with the netting in between them. Dip the furthest end of the frame into the pulp mix. Level into a horizontal position. Make sure the frames are deep enough for the mould to be just covered with pulp.






5. Lift the frames from the mix keeping it level. The remove the mould and let the excess water drain.
6. Place a drying cloth over the pulp. Flip the deckle onto one of the stiff boards with the cloth beneath the pulp.











7. Use the sponge to draw out the excess water from the pulp. Gently knock the deckle netting to dislodge the pulp as you slowly lift up the sieve.







8. Repeat steps 4-7. Pile each finished sheet, separated by a drying cloth,on top of each other until you've used up all the pulp.





9. Place the second board on top of the finished pile. Place any heavy object on the top board to squeeze the excess water out. You could try standing on the pile if you want to feel more involved in the process :)







Paper Pointers

Some ideas to help make your new found skill more colourful, varied and fun


* Before you throw away the bottle with that last bit of perfume, add some water into the bottle and then pour the solution into your pulp. This nicely scents your paper.


* Stale potpourri, shredded and pulped with the paper will not only add scent but colour and texture to your papers.


* Should you want to be able to use markers or fountain pens on your paper remember that you first have to size the dried paper. This is easily done by lightly painting or spraying each sheet with gelatin or starch and then letting the sheet dry. Ballpoint pens, however, are fine on unsized paper.

Going Green Bananas

Funny how life moves in cycles. About 15 years ago I started a little eco company in Singapore called Green Bananas that made a paper making kit for people to recycle their own paper at home. Green because I wanted people to know it's environmental bent but more likely because I was totally green to the cutthroat world of business and Bananas because everyone thought I was crazy to give up a good and stable job for what? An unlikely little paper making kit that may not even have a market.

We did sell about 1,000 kits during the 2 or so years the little Green Bananas was out there doing paper making demos; giving magazine, TV & paper interviews encouraging people to start recycling paper in their own homes (in those days, Singapore had no recycling system for anything. Things have changed now though) and even holding a handmade paper art exhibition called, you guess it, Paper * People * Planet.






Back then I had quit my well-paying
job as a writer for a Interior design magazine and put all my meagre savings into designing, manufacturing and marketing a simple paper making kit that made A4 paper.

It had everything you needed to make paper (apart from the blender) and packaged, quite charmingly in a jute bag.

How I managed to wrangle my friends & family to help out in it's publicity and sales I have no idea. I just stand in

grateful awe that they did. We had quite a ride with it. I am willing to bet that at least 50 friends and family still remember how to make their own paper today. And if they've forgotten and would like to teach their children, the next post will help them along their way.

And this is was the purposely unintimadating instruction leaflet that came with the kit.

And now, here I sit years later, writing a blog on the beautiful diversity of handmade & recycled paper. On how people can use this humble medium of paper to help make this planet a bit better, by art & by recycling, for those who live in it now. And also for the children who will come after.

Greening the earth seemed so possible then.

And so it it still is. It must be.

Because if not now, then WHEN?

And if not me, then WHO?