“If Candlemas is bright and clear
There’ll be two winters in the year.”
A Scottish cuplet
There’ll be two winters in the year.”
A Scottish cuplet
February 2nd is the Christian feast of Candlemas and it’s also Groundhog Day across Canada. In Ontario, Wiarton Willie, who lives up in Bruce County, is the celebrity groundhog for the day. If it is a sunny day and Willie sees his shadow, our winter will continue for at least another 6 weeks. If Willie doesn’t see his shadow, we can expect an early spring. It’s said that Willie “has consistently delivered accurate predictions (90%!) on the remaining course of winter”. (http://www.brucepenisula.org/willie.html)Every year, there is a Winter Festival in Wiarton in anticipation of Willie’s weather forecast. But, Ontario is not the only province to celebrate the oracular little fellow. In Manitoba, there is Brandon Bob, Alberta has Balzac Billy and Schubenacadie Sam lives in Nova Scotia. (http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/groundhogday/)
This Week’s Suggestion:
Let’s find a small container, a bowl, a plate, a box - something we like. Put it at the centre of the table we eat at, or on the table near our bed, or at the front door. Leave it empty for a day or two. Then, when we go out this week, while paying attention to the world around us – the trees, the wild creatures, pebbles, the sky with it’s ever-changing moods, the wind, the scent of life, or other people, let our eyes be drawn to something small. We’ll pick it up, bring it home and place it in our small container. Ever day, just before eating, on waking and going to sleep, or coming and going from the house, we’ll take a moment to look closely at the object, a little gift, a tiny treasure. When the week is done, we’ll return it to where it was found. This is something we may want to do every week.
Getting To Know Our Neighbours:
How do trees survive the freezing temperatures of winter in our northern climates?
Because of plant growth regulators, which are mostly tree hormones, the trees respond to the amount and length of sunlight and the nutrients and water availability in the soil. These regulators inform the trees when it’s time to grow, gather nutrients and energy, and when to become dormant. Dormancy is like sleep for the trees, a time to rest.
In spring, with the increasing hours of light and the strength of the sun, the plant growth regulators tell the trees to wake up and commence the warm weather growth spurt, growing leaves and stretching their tips upwards and branches outwards. As summer arrives, the trees are well into their growing phase while collecting and storing energy. In late summer as the sunlight weakens and the days shorten, the plant growth regulators send signals to the trees to stop growing and producing leaves. By autumn, the trees are storing energy and nutrients in preparation for the next spring’s growth spurt. With winter, the trees go into full dormancy in order to protect their buds, branches and tender roots just below the frost and snow. (http://gardenline.usak.ca/misc/dormancy.html)
SOMETIME
Sometimes
if you move carefully
through the forest
breathing
like the ones
in the old stories
who could cross
a shimmering bed of dry leaves
without a sound,
you come
to a place
whose only task
is to trouble you
with tiny
but frightening requests
conceived out of nowhere
but in this place
beginning to lead everywhere.
Requests to stop what
you are doing right now,
and
to stop what you
are becoming
while you do it,
questions
that can make
or unmake
a life,
questions
that have patiently
waited for you,
questions
questions
that have no right
to go away.
David Whyte
David Whyte
A Fact Or Two:
Plastic is everywhere. Just look around. Can you find a surface without plastic on it? We could say we live in “surround-plastic”. Here are some facts on the plastic products we use.
· A toothbrush is composed of 11 cubic centimetres of plastic (not counting the brush). If 27 million people across Canada throw away three toothbrushes this year, this would create the equivalent of a plastic rope the thickness of your little finger that stretched all the way from Toronto to Tokyo.
· Worldwide some 2.7 million tons (2.4 million metric tons) of plastic are used to bottle water each year, according to EPI. (Environmental Products Inc.)
· Making bottles to meet Americans' demand for bottled water requires more than 1.5 million barrels of oil annually, enough to fuel some 100,000 U.S. cars for a year. (EPI)
· The plastic most commonly used is polyethylene terepthalate (PET), which is derived from crude oil.
· Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every HOUR.
· An estimated 14 billions pounds of trash, much of it plastic, is dumped into the world’s oceans every year.
· The worldwide fishing industry dumps an estimated 150,000 tons of plastic into the oceans
every year, including packaging, plastic nets, lines and buoys.
· Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the oceans kill as many as 1 million sea creatures every year.
· Nearly every piece of plastic EVER made still exists today.
· Plastic debris in the environment can take between 400 and 1,000,000 years to degrade.
(http://cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2009/foreverplastic/facts/html)
(http://www.greenfeet.net/newsletter/quick-facts-on-plastic-pollution.shtml)
What Can We Do?
Become aware of all the plastic in you life.
Recycle -Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.
Special fleece-like fabrics used in clothes and blankets can be made out of plastic bottles.
Recycled plastic can be used to make things like trash cans, park benches, playground equipment, decks and kayaks.
Refuse to use plastic bags when shopping.
Use re-useable non-plastic water bottles.
Avoid foods that use a large amount of plastic packaging.
· Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the oceans kill as many as 1 million sea creatures every year.
· Nearly every piece of plastic EVER made still exists today.
· Plastic debris in the environment can take between 400 and 1,000,000 years to degrade.
(http://cbc.ca/documentaries/doczone/2009/foreverplastic/facts/html)
(http://www.greenfeet.net/newsletter/quick-facts-on-plastic-pollution.shtml)
What Can We Do?
Become aware of all the plastic in you life.
Recycle -Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.
Special fleece-like fabrics used in clothes and blankets can be made out of plastic bottles.
Recycled plastic can be used to make things like trash cans, park benches, playground equipment, decks and kayaks.
Refuse to use plastic bags when shopping.
Use re-useable non-plastic water bottles.
Avoid foods that use a large amount of plastic packaging.
Media:
Websites:
Art and Nature with Alan Wolpert
Paintings of Disappearing Rainforests
One Earth
CBC Documentary Series: Forever Plastic
Look for the full moon on Monday, February 9th. Some names for the February full moon are: Budding Moon, Little Famine Moon, Moon of the Racoon, Moon of Ice and Snow Moon.
Next week, Gabe will be tell us about his experiences on Vancouver Island this past summer and contrast them to his new home in downtown Toronto for the February Guest Writer Posting.
And, Sue from the Maritimes sent in old photographs of 1911, when Niagara Falls completely froze over. She wrote, "Makes you wonder just HOW COLD and HOW LONG it was that cold!!"
And we think we are experiencing a hard winter now in Canada...
Until next week,
Earth Family First
maureen
(most photos from Google Images)
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