After last week’s post we seemed to have stirred the pot. Do we dare have some fun and do it again? We are still recovering from a host of comments so we best just keep it to the fun stuff… new plants… and then we’ll finish by giving that big old pot another stir to end a very brief update.
(Late Addition… AAAck… upcoming events has a hiccup – we are open every Saturday 10am – 2pm for plant sales)
New Additions
Our Yellowhorns have arrived (aka, Chinese macadamia or Chinese flowering chestnut). Neither a chestnut nor a macadamia, but beautiful showy edible small seed tree great for places that are dry and can accept a tree that matures to 12-20 feet tall. Deciduous, leafy bush or small in habit, bearing reddish-brown branches. It grows well on rocky slopes on hillsides, and is drought tolerant. It prefers acidic dry soil and does not do well in wet locations.
Also the Russian almonds (Prunus tenella) are back. A small shrub, very showy with bitter almonds, though supposedly this stock has been bred to be less so. We can only confirm the claims of edibility as this year our own plants will be fruiting for the first time. We’ll let you know. Soaking and roasted will neutralize the cyanic acid content.
The Buartnuts and Heartnuts have arrived… 2-3 feet tall and a couple years old. These are walnuts that are blight resistant, have good oil content and are easier to shell than black walnuts.
One last Veteran Peach and Mission Almond and only a couple Apricots left. Surprisingly once again the plum trees have been vanishing, despite having stock that was meant to cover a couple years of inventory… yikes.
Paw paws are doing great, showing their leaf buds.
Greening Up
Oh so late for everything but so exciting to see things green up. Perhaps even our provincial Legislative Assembly will green up too.
Despite the greening of the season, we are getting really tired of so many people supporting a political party as if it was some religion. It’s not. A political party is at it’s core a collection of policies guided by principles to address different problems of civilization (local and global). These policies make up the party platform.
Ann sure wishes everyone would discuss policies rather than political parties. As individuals we can agree with some policies and disagree with other policies from the same party. (See a great response to this at the end by KM)
What issues are important to you and what are the party platforms on those issues? Then we could all have an intelligent discussion on the pros and cons of different policies. Ann finds this NDP vs Green vs Liberal thing very superficial and actually quite disturbing… it just leads to fighting and no rational debate on some really important topics.
And the fear thing… strategic voting is fear based, it is about voting against something rather than for something, and it is usually spawned by polls. Those same polls that have failed to predict what occurred in Alberta, or the last BC election or even that fiasco across the border. People are taking actions, called “strategic” using hugely invalid data to guide their choices. We scratch our head. Emotional rather than rational.
So for those in BC, do something different for a change… see which party has principles that align with yours… whose policies you agree with… and vote for them… or vote for the representative that works hard for your area. To vote strategically (with poor info) is to be a follower – to vote for what you want is to be a leader.
So that just about stirs the pot… we end with a comment by KM who posted on Ann’s FB page… an intelligent and thoughtful response.
Do not look at policy, it is flimsy and follows the whim of the leader and changes to garner support and power. Most parties are quick to change their policy once elected to suit their needs and to follow the money of corporations. I have recently become a passionate Green supporter based on Principles. The Green Party principles are based on Ecological Wisdom, Sustainability, Non-violence, Social Justice, Participatory Democracy and Respect of Diversity. These are not just the principles of the BC Greens or the even the Federal Greens, these are the principles of every Green party in over 90 countries around the world. The Green party in Chile is fighting to gain a foothold to bring Participatory Democracy to their country. The Rwandan green party is striving to bring Non-violence to their country. The Austrian an Dutch Greens are striving for Sustainability. It is the Principles that set all policy for any party to create and follow. Their policy will never stray outside of those bounds. That is why they were created, that is what they are trying to promote. It is an honourable and just way to conduct your party in politics. The Green party in BC and Federally have demonstrated time and again, that they are trying to improve the very nature of politics. Whether it be Elizabeth May with her immediate transparency on all her spending or Andrew Weaver turning down two large corporate donations from big energy companies and then declaring there will be no donations either corporate or union. I see the Greens as trying to make politics better, not popular policy. No other party is based on Principles, they will all just make popular policy to get the votes. Until we vote for a better system, we will keep going around on this policy merry go round. Respectfully, yours (KM)
Cheers,
Gord and Ann
The Living Building Challenge
Eco-Sense 
The trouble is that in BC in this election, based on the actual votes cast in each riding in 2013, it is very clear that the seats likely to go to Greens on Tuesday are currently held by the NDP. Of the 87 seats, the NDP had 35 and the Greens one. Forty-four seats are needed to form a majority so the NDP would need to hold onto all their seats and win nine more. Not easy. The prospect of the Greens holding balance of power in a minority NDP government is exciting but unlikely. The prospect of the Greens holding balance of power in a minority Christy Clark government is a lot less exciting. The prospect of another four years of a Christy Clark majority government is downright depressing, not to mention catastrophic from an environmental perspective.
My riding split three ways in the last election. Gary Holman, NDP, received 163 votes more than the Liberal candidate and 379 more than Adam Olsen, the Green candidate. Speaking of principles, Gary is principled to a fault (I know because I have worked with him on various environmental causes for over fifteen years). He is also the critic for parliamentary reform and is committed to bringing in proportional representation. Electing the Green candidate in my riding—thereby losing our best chance for proportional representation and increasing the likelihood of another Christy Clark government—makes no sense this time around. Think about it.
Disagree? We will find out on Tuesday.
Thanks for your thoughts Elizabeth. Every riding is different for sure. The most important thing is for people to get out and vote.
Oh absolutely agree! In the U.S. People become so passionate about a political party, even if they don’t agree with what the candidate believes (which is how we got stuck with Trump🤦🏻♀️). Republicans voted for the republican candidate, even if he was an idiot. Now, a lot of them are left feeling betrayed and dismayed by what he’s been doing. Unfortunately, our Green Party candidate wasn’t very strong either and our democratic favorite, Bernie Sanders was unable to beat the strong Democratic Party’s push for Hillary Clinton. Why can’t we all just get along?!
I really wish we could do away with political parties altogether and just vote rationally and intelligently on candidates that MAKE SENSE! Honestly, if we get corporate greed out of politics, decrease politicians’ salaries by half and limit their stay in office across the board, they might actually start working FOR THE PEOPLE, like they’re supposed to.