not having travelled abroad for a longer distance than to Penang in  the last 3 years, the chance to travel to the Middle East  I could not pass up and  accompanied  Matthias on a biz trip to Israel over Chinese New Year.

we spent a few days on our own and visited an old friend from Hong Kong who moved to Jerusalem 3 years ago.

the images are from the Baha’i Gardens in Haifa, smack in the center of the City, starting from the German Quarters right up the Carmel Mountain. they are beautiful, but for the most part not accessible for non-believers.

but the memory of the gardens, indeed almost all parts of the country  we traveled through, pale in comparison to the lingering and deep impression Jerusalem left us with!

what a remarkable place of shared human history, the gateway from the origin of us, emigrating from the African continent on to Europe and Asia, birthplace of quiet some man-made gods, lost cultures and empires – a place fought over for thousand and thousand of years and ongoing still…

our brilliant guide, the historian Eran Tearosh, ended his day tour for us in Jerusalem’s Old City with these wise words:  “in neither the Bible, the Koran, the Torah  or any other religious book or historical document have we ever found proof that any of these gods ever existed. but today, we have walked many hours  over and through the living history of what really matters – the believe!”

[Show as slideshow]

now I am revisiting  the book: “a people’s history of the world” by Chris Harman and my interest in history of all kind is revived…

best wishes for your “growing success” and a great future of personal gastronomy!

http://www.ted.com/talks/roger_doiron_my_subversive_garden_plot.html

                                           es guets Neuis!

I have patented my own planting system (a huge improvement in keeping plants healthy and alive!) and designed an entire plant pot series for in- and outdoor use around it.

my conviction and resolve to only consider producing on demand, in a fully sustainable manner and with natural and recyclable materials has not allowed me to find a manufacturer so far.

I found quiet a few potential buyers/customer (commercial nurseries in Europe and the USA) and lots of clients and friends supporting the idea… but attempting a similar approach like Ritta and friends might really be a good idea!

contact me to know more and to collaborate!

here the link to Ritta’s ted-talk

http://www.ted.com/talks/britta_riley_a_garden_in_my_apartment.html

Matthias and I spent last Sunday afternoon in the Sungei Buloh Wetland and were forced to take shelter from a massive downpour in one of the observation huts – which turned out to be a fantastically rewarding wait!

two otters swam up close, waddled up and underneath the floorboards of the hut, presenting us with a unique and beautiful close-up encounter: we watched them through the spacing in the floor and they looked straight up at us! they were cute (and smelly) and seemed not all disturbed by us!

occasionally, accessing the main road needs to be postponed for an hour or two and meetings and errands simply have to be cancelled or re-schedulded…which is really fine with me –  in fact, I love the “slow life”, the freedom to adjust daily activities to nature’s rhythm.

it allows me to read (a lot!), learn and discover new things every day, explore and understand issues and connections. the National Library has a spectacular selection on just about everything , online news platforms and forums and the occasional TV documentary make being held hostage by bad weather a really interesting time!

watched two interesting, informative and worthwhile Ted videos on our brains today :

http://www.ted.com/talks/iain_mcgilchrist_the_divided_brain.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_wolpert_the_real_reason_for_brains.html

now, it just started to pour again –  time to go back to reading…

if you need to be sure your imminent trip is a dry one… a good site to check up on the weather in Singapore and Johor:

http://www.weather.gov.sg/wip/c/portal/layout?p_l_id=PUB.1023.5

unless you are a plant lover, especially herbs such as rosemary, lavender and basil, you might not have heard of this great herb grower and man.

he died early this year, aged 69. In 1999, he was diagnosed with early onset of Alzheimer’s disease, he was only 57 then.

he was once called the best “rosemaryologist” in the US. he dedicated a gold-edged leave variety to his wife, Joyce DeBaggio, but he could suddenly not remember the name of the plant he grew so successfully and loved the most.

he has written books on his love and knowledge of plants: “Growing herbs from seed, cutting and root”, “Basil, an herb lover’s guide” and with Arthur Tucker “The big book of Herbs”.

but he also wrote incredibly touching and educational books on his disease: “Loosing my mind – an Intimate look at life with Alzheimer’s” and “When it get’s dark”.

I recently read “Loosing my mind” where he goes back and forth between his past memories, the painful present and add lots of information on the disease and medical research.

quote

The diagnosis, with little or no workable therapies to stop it, was a sentence of death as surely as birth, but more immediate.

I am running after thoughts all day. Ideas evaporate like snowflakes on a hot tin roof. A few years ago I felt as normal and was as sharp mentally as my thirty-five year old son. Now, I can’t remember his age or do the math in my head to figure it out. My mind is starting to break down. I have to wait like a hunter to capture a thought, it is tough work all day but it often flits away before I can put it on paper.

I want to cry and I do, but it is a peculiar sound, like a man choking to death. I want to scream but it won’t come. Where did my voice go?

As I sit in the waiting room for the doctor, I realize I am here at the edge of failure and of hope.

I have grown plants, herbs, and vegetables mostly, since I was six and for the last twenty –five years commercially. As a job, this activity allowed me a close look at the life and death of other species.

My prolonged contact with plant life has provided me with an insight on the similar life and death of my own.

We scream louder.

unquote

“”This book definitely has it all: edible walls, rooftop gardens, imaginative containers, veg gardening in window boxes, hydroponic systems, small back yards and community gardens.

In Carrot City: Creating Places for Urban Agriculture (Monacelli Press, 2011), authors Mark Gorgolewski, June Komisar and Joe Nasr clearly demonstrate that you don’t have to go way outside the city to grow and/or find excellent local produce.

It’s likely the most comprehensive survey to date of the “locavore movement” that’s persuading chefs, educators, designers and homeowners that there are benefits to growing food close to home — it promotes good health and also reduces the carbon footprint.

The book features ongoing projects that are visually striking and that promote the concept of “everyday urban agriculture.”

As the authors put it, “For urban agriculture to gain wide acceptance and generate enthusiasm, the design of buildings and the garden spaces around them that incorporate edible landscaping and space for small livestock must be aesthetically pleasing.”

Designers, they argue, “are uniquely positioned to make a difference.”

What’s truly exciting is the idea that blighted urban areas can be transformed into productive and attractive sites.

You’ll be convinced when you read about the Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson Community Garden in the borough of Queens in New York or the Edible Schoolyard in Brooklyn.

The Carrot Green Roof in Toronto includes space for community activities as well as vegetable and herb gardens, rainwater harvesting and composting systems, and a community kitchen where cooking demonstrations are held.

Atop the Gary Corner Youth Center on Chicago’s South Side, there an 8000+ square foot green roof where education and food production go hand in hand.

At the back of the book, there’s a how-to section illustrating some of the techniques and systems you might want to consider for urban agriculture.

When you see the “plans” for redesigning the urban home, for entire urban communities that are self-supporting, you’ll want to get on board as well.”"

following  the news on the “not so free” markets (as if a free market had ever existed) is a rather “unsettling  read”, to say the least.

I waiver between a fatalistic “acceptance” of the unavoidable bankruptcies and national defaults and a frantic analysis and search for “escape options and solutions”.

and admittedly, the equally absurd hope that it will simply “solve itself” – nothing unifies people more than shared misery, and this prospect seems the most certain of them all.

having grown up and into the most prosperous time in human evolution (according to most economists and politicians) poverty and hunger are as abstract to me as most financial products  invented in recent gilded times.

the one thing we can do is getting off the bench and start producing part of our own food to supplement our daily diets.

working the soil and tending the plants will not eliminate worries  but calm the mind and refresh perspectives.

A few herbs in beautiful containers, a bean producing, colorful flowering vine along a sunny corridor, joining a community garden project and putting in a few hours every week maintaining the plot are just a few options to consider.

gardening is relaxing and a simple, pure pastime. it teaches us respect for weather and its impact (since we are also the very ones dramatically influencing it to great dismay and destruction).

it should also make us acutely  aware of the most influential resource for any life on earth: water!

and who knows, there might be a time in not such a distant future, when food production is not an option to spend your spare time with but an existential one.

in reference to the image above (from “The Leichtag Family Healing Garden” at the Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, California, USA) resting on a bench and reading is way up there on my most favorite list of enjoyments.

“Small is Beautiful – Economics as if people mattered” by E.F.  Schumacher and “The Age of Absurdity” by Michael Foley  - both worth  re-reading in times like these (and any other, frankly).

I have again read very interesting and disturbing books… “When the rivers run dry – water, the defining crisis of the 21^st century” by Fred Pearce (the author of “Confessions of an eco-sinner” and “The last Generation” amongst others) and “annoying – the science of what bugs us” – a greatly enlightening read about my own irritability…so much for bio-chemical reactions…

I am truly happy to see that so many neighborhood gardens spring up all over the Island, in housing estates, in between built up areas and in our little corner of Singapore, every available space on the sidewalks is converted into ornamental and, to my great pleasure, edible kitchen gardens!

People start producing their own food, from planting simple herbs to smaller fruit trees and vegetable vines, this truly is fantastic to see – whether the reason are the steadily increasing food prices or simply the joy of seeing plants grow, tending to them and harvesting their own fruits of love and labour, is unsubstantial.

Working the soil, turning non-descript walkways and front yards into blooming, colorful and productive spaces is a truly positive development!

A movement all over the world which has clearly caught on here, too!

enjoying the beautiful weather, my sister’s visit (the second in my 22 years of living abroad) and taking care of my small garden space kept me off my computer and writing… and I will extend that and make the most of the ample sunshine but promise to use the next “bad” weather spell to catch up a bit on activities indoors…

in the meantime:

happy summer holidays!