Blue Snow Garden

Werner Heisenberg, a german nobel prize winner said:

“Natural science does not simply describe and explain nature; it is a part of the interplay between nature and ourselves… What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.”

It has come to my senses how important it is to interpret nature correctly. For a wrong interpretation can mean natural disaster for mankind. From my daily research, I have been inspired by some Taoist teaching on how to interpret Nature and some friends have pointed me in the right direction. I can only share these with you at the moment:

How is Nature linked with Taoism? At the end of Chapter 25 of Tao:

Humans follow the laws of Earth
Earth follows the laws of Heaven
Heaven follows the laws of Tao
Tao follows the laws of Nature

I know that was too deep for you, but anyway…

Some benefits you could earn by interpreting Nature correctly (according to Taoism):

• being more composed and more at ease in various situations;
• being able to handle challenges and difficulties with less effort and achieving better results;
• experiencing greater power and clarity in all areas of life.

More on this when I have become more enlightened. Peace be with all living beings.

There’s a new search engine out there that plants 2 trees for every search you make.

It’s called Ecocho.com.

Now I feel a lot better searching knowing they’ll plant some trees…

So should we all stop using the other search engines?

Working hard to pull the leaves together…

Nice male cicada found on the night of the post-conference at ICBES 2009, Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. It has a hollow abdomen that acts as a so called resonating chamber.

Also met a fantastic nature blogger; Dr Doug Taron who blogs on Gossamer Tapestry. More info on this person can be found here and here.

Doug and I at the Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve, Perak.

“When we were very young, my brother and I could not yet divorce our ardor for butterflies from our desire to flatten them in Riker mounts and hang them on the wall.  We threw away our killling jar not because we wished to stop causing pain–crushing an ant or a cockroach, which presumably had a nervous system similar to a tiger swallowtail, stirred few qualms–but because, unlike Alfred Russel Wallace, we grew uneasy with the pleasure it gave us.”

Inspired by Bug Girl’s Blog.

Reminds me that I have recently emptied and threw away my mole-cricket see-through container which gives them no freedom and little food.

Theodore Roosevolt, was known more than just the ex-President of the United States.. he was a true naturalist and have always been seen as an epitome of protection of the great wilderness. Let’s all be reminded again by his wisdom:

There is a delight in the hardy life of the open. There are no words that can tell the hidden spirit of the wilderness, that can reveal its mystery, its melancholy and its charm. The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased; and not impaired in value. Conservation means development as much as it does protection.

Do everyone of us have the passion within to save mother nature? Why are our children nowadays lacking of such vigor? How can we revive those moments we had with nature that gave us the so true and pure satisfaction? Are we too late to find back the meaning of our existence with mother nature?

There’s an easy way to count or calculate your ecological footprint online… with the help of WWF’s Ecological Footprint Calculator.

See how much damage I am doing in one year:

I'm a bad person!

See who else might beat you in this competition:

Oh, so I'm not a European but I live like one?

And what’s the real sustainable standard:

Yikes! I'm far behind Mother Nature's sustainable standards!

And after a few pledges (like not using air-conditioner in the car, closing the lids while cooking, etc), I would be saving…

I am saving my planet!

Cool! But we all have a long way to go to be truly responsible to our planet….

There’s another version of the ecological footprint calculator at http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/

Ecological Footprint Calculator by WWF

Also found another version where you can create your own avatar throughout the quiz… http://www.wwf.org.au/footprint/calculator/

Neat...

Okay, enjoy and hope you are sustainable and work towards reducing your ecological or carbon footprint !

We plant 2 kinds of cocoa in my forest-like garden. They take quite some time to grow and ripe…

This is a common green coloured cocoa:

Unripe green cocoa

This is another species of cocoa that is red in colour:

Unripe red cocoa

I think in many parts of the world, there are extreme heat waves, droughts and a declining snowpack that is caused by climate change or global warming. This could inadvertently cause a large reduction in our water resources. By reducing water consumption and water supplies for other uses is helpful for gardeners to deal with the drastic climate change happening at the moment.

Well, I can suggest a few things that gardeners can do to conserve water (probably, most of you already knew these):

1. Put mulch in your garden beds – this helps conserve water and moderates the temperatures in the soil. Mulch easily breaks down, and also provides nutrients to the soil, therefore reducing the need for fertilizers. Always try to use organic mulches made from leaves, grass or wood chips.

Wood Chips

2. Install some rain barrels – rain barrels can collect plenty of rainwater for use during the dry season. Other than saving up water, one obvious reason to collect rainwater is to save money.

A Rain Barrel

3. Adjust watering times or schedule – If you water your garden early in the morning or late in the evening, you can significantly reduce the amount of water that will evaporate away.

4. Use drip irrigation – This method has been proven effective. Installing a drip irrigation system or using soaker hoses are highly efficiently ways to water your garden compared to the normal sprinklers.

Drip Irrigation

5. Practice xeriscaping – this is a technique to landscaping that minimizes outdoor water usage while maintaining soil integrity through the use of native, drought-tolerant plants. Use of mulch is encouraged with this method.

The Desert Lavender can be a nice Xeriscape plant.

Hope you enjoyed my tips… and especially these lovely Lavenders.

Black & White Moth

Found this guy in the house yesterday.. This moth has nice black and white patterns… and a bushy tail too.