Category: Environment

Good Ecology And Conservation And BioLists

Our Global Environment

This article is to introduce you to Dr Cedric Woods, PhD, and his BioLists and NatureWise websites.

Today is St Patrick’s Day, 2017, and a wonderful sunny day it is too, here in Dunedin.

I decided to take a bus trip to Portobello, out on the Peninsula.  This is a gorgeous drive along the sea shore, which reminds me very much of Waiheke Island in all its former glory, before the island got vamped up by the greater Auckland Council, and was almost denuded of all its roadside plants and healthful weeds.

Kerbsides all over the country, and around the world, are so often sprayed heavily with what I guess is RoundUp/glyphosate, which is mainly to blame for the disappearance of many old garden plants and valuable weeds. This poison has been declared as ‘a probable cause of cancer’ by WHO, World Health Organization.

I believe that Waiheke is not currently using glyphosate/RoundUp on kerbsides, but nevertheless, much of Waiheke’s former beauty has been lost with the commercialization of Waiheke as a tourist destination.

These days, native plants are everywhere in abundance on Waiheke, which is a good thing, but these do not have the wonderful colour and variations of size and texture which we had before, and all the self-sown fruit trees which grew along the roadsides have been plucked out.

A good thing to be planting natives, but these have no colour except green and brown.  And so we also need the loveliness of things such as flowering magnolias, camelias, rhododendrons, oak, beech, silver birch, and fruiting trees to colour up the green and brown gardenscapes which New Zealand councils seem to be encouraging everywhere.

Anyhow, today’s was a lovely trip.  At Portobello, nature is abundant, with many varieties of English trees and exotics still to be found, growing in gardens and on the roadsides.

I bought a very nice pie for $4.00, which I had time to eat by the sea-shore, seagulls and sand all steaming in the sun, before the bus headed back to Dunedin.

On the way home, I met a very interesting Irish gentleman, a Mr Cedric Woods, PhD, who was on his way to join his wife in town, where they planned to celebrate St Patrick’s day in the traditional  way. We very soon began to talk enthusiastically about the state of the world and what we could do about it.  We both thought Angela Merkel is on the right track, leading Europe and the rest of the world at the moment, in terms of conservation and political, or social and humanitarian issues.

Mr Cedric Woods is a scientist who has the website www.BioLists.com  Cedric has worked in Libya, in Ireland, and many other places around the world.

He also has a site called [email protected]

I was so impressed by Cedric’s world-view, humanitarian approach to life and environment, I promised to put up a wee post about him and his work today, so that people may find his sites and hear what he has to say.  He has some interesting and sound ideas on how to fix many of the worls’s problems.

Mr Wood’s card reads ‘Today’s good Taxonomy is tomorrow’s good Ecology and Conservation’. I have not yet had time to explore his websites, but he apparently has listed every known plant on his BioLists website.

.

Growing Heritage Apple Trees From Cuttings

Health And Healing

Every organic garden should have at least one good apple tree, I believe. Apples are very beneficial to the health.  An apple a day keeps the doctor away, the old saying goes.

Heritage apples have been shown to be much higher in nutrients than modern-day apples which are  grown mainly to appeal to the eye, rather than for their healthful aspects.  Heritage apples contain plenty of those antioxidants and phytochemicals which have been proven for their ability in helping  prevent diseases such as cancer and arthritis.

There is, thankfully, a trend now for people to procure heritage apple trees, which are very old varieties, for their garden orchards.

Putting down cuttings is a way in which you can propagate your own trees from an old variety of apple tree.  The method may not always work, but there is a good chance that you may get one or two lucky strikes from the cutting method of propagation.

The good thing about the cutting method is that the newly grown tree will be true to type and will produce the same kind of fruit as the original tree.

Some varieties of apple respond better to the cutting method than others.  I have had wonderful success from an unknown old tree in the Waikato which had smallish but sweet apples, similar to a Cox’s Orange.  Lately, I have managed to grow one cutting out of several I took from my daughter’s Dunedin orchard.  This apple tree is quite old and gnarly, but is overloaded with beautiful big apples every year which stew up into a lovely creamy sweet pulp, and also make good eating apples too.  I am looking forward to when it will begin to fruit.

I took most of my cuttings in the spring-time, just before the apples began to produce their new leaves.  However, I have still had results from taking cuttings at Christmas time in New Zealand, when the apple tree had very young leaves on it.

The secret is to not let the new budding shoots dry out, or the new green leaves, if they have sprouted. So put your cuttings in a dampish place where they will get the sun for only a short time of the day. Right alongside a compost bin on the shadier side is an excellent place. The nutrients from the compost infiltrate the soil around the bin, and these nutrients help the cuttings to grow roots. Make sure to water the area where the cuttings have been planted so that the soil does not dry out.

Take cuttings around 18 inches to 2 feet long.  Bury half of the length of the cutting in the ground.

Pushing the cuttings in at an angle amongst other leafy garden plants such as comfrey, which offer some shade as well as nutrients to the upcoming young apple tree can help the cutting to take root. Remember, again, to water enough so that the soil does not dry out.

I have found the occasional drink of watered down coffee grounds to be helpful in growing apple trees from cuttings. The high nitrogen content in coffee may be why this helps new growth.

Even if you think none have taken, try to leave the cuttings in until the following spring, when you might be surprised. Some cuttings will be obviously dead by the end of the summer, and you can remove those ones, but leave in those cuttings which still show promise, even though they may not be showing new leaves. Sometimes, the plant is busy building a root system below ground, even when it has not managed to sprout new leaves. You will know when springs comes whether it has made the grade or not.

Apples can help prevent constipation, acidity of the stomach, help digestion, help prevent arthritis, cancer and many other diseases.

See Merrilyn’s Song ‘Marianne, Let Us Be’ on Youtube:

Chocolate Brownie Recipe Which Hedgehogs And Children Love

Chocolate Brownie Recipe, Guaranteed To Attract Hedgehogs Into Your Garden

My Grandchildren love these Chocolate Brownie cookies as well:

3/4 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

2 Tablespoons dark brown sugar

3/4 cup S.R.flour

5 Tablespoons Cocoa powder

2 free-range eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup chopped nuts or peanut butter

2 Tablespoons of yellow cornmeal
2 Tablespoons of shredded coconut

Melt the butter a little and add the sugar and cocoa powder.

Add the eggs, peanuts or peanut butter, and vanilla – stir in well.

Add the eggs and vanilla – stir in well.

Add the flour and cornmeal.

Mix altogether.

Grease an oven tray with butter or oil.

Make balls of the dough, and flatten out with fingers or a fork on the tray. You may need to sprinkle some cornmeal or flour over the dough so that the dough does not stick to your fingers when you form the balls.

Bake at 180 degrees C for around 10 minutes.  Turn down the oven after about 5 minutes so they do not burn. You can tell when they are cooked, as the most delicious cookie aroma will permeate the air when they are ready.

When you bring out the tray, slide a fish slice or spatula under each cookie, and put on a wire tray to cool.

Once properly cooled, you can put them into a glass jar with screwtop lid, or an air-tight plastic container.

Environment:

Hedgehogs Are Endangered In New Zealand

Hedgehogs are a wonderful asset to any garden, in my opinion.  They eat all the slugs and snails which would otherwise eat your vegetables and delicate flowers.

In the United Kingdom, environmentalists are working to save the hedgehog, whose forraging areas are rapidly being depleted, with people culling out gardens and having walls built around their properties which do not allow hedgehogs to visit. The poor hedgehog is having a rough time of it, with fewer good places to live and forage for food.

In the UK, the protectors of hedgehogs are encouraging people to grow hedges, and make little holes in walls and fences where hedgehogs can enter into the garden.

I am sure the UK people will be promoting organic gardening without the use of toxic pesticides and herbicides which have the potential to kill or sicken hedgehogs, birds, cats and dogs. Snail and slug poison is especially bad for hedgehogs, and birds too.

I heard a radio announcer talking on Radio NZ recently, who said that hedgehogs were NOT friends of ours, because of their threat to NZ wildlife, and especially to the Kiwi, the highly prized national icon.  A ridiculous and short-sighted view, I think.

It has been decided by MAF in New Zealand that hedghogs, as well as cats and dogs, present a threat to Kiwi.  Because they might eat the odd Kiwi egg, it has been decided to kill every hedgehog in New Zealand.

Then the discussion on hedgehogs in New Zealand drew in a scientist/researcher from Massey University, who said that DOGS are the biggest threat of all to Kiwi in New Zealand. Do we want to kill dogs because of their threat to wildlife?

MAF are not interested in destroying every dog in New Zealand, though dogs be the biggest threat to Kiwi, but they want to destroy every living hedgehog.  It just does not make sense.

Well, I have been looking after the hedgehogs in my area for a while now.  I have discovered their very favourite food:  Chocolate Brownies. They can smell the rich chocolate of my chocolate brownies from way down the road, which literally gets them running towards my place, and the big fry-pan which I put their food into.

See Merrilyn’s song ‘Marianne, Let Us Be’ on Youtube:

 

 

 

Global Amnesia Cause Probably RoundUp Glyphosate Formaldehyde

Toxic Herbicides

Temporary Global Amnesia Probably Caused By Glyphosate In RoundUp, and Formaldehyde In Dye and Cosmetics.

Memory Loss as well as asthma, could be linked to environmental poisons. The proliferation of glyphosate, in RoundUp, around our local environments is no doubt causing health problems for many people.  These health problems, I am sure, are often misdiagnosed, or misunderstood as to their simple cause.

A quote from the ‘Otago Daily Times’, Friday 10th February, 2017::

‘Any frontal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always ready to defend their most precious possession, their ignorance.’  Thus spake Hendrik Willem van Loon, a Dutch-American journalist and lecturer (1882-1944).

I am frequently reminded of this idea, as I go about my business trying to educate people as to the extremely harmful effects of toxic herbicides and pesticides-insecticides.  Many people still wish to believe that their asthma, hay-fever or sinus problems, are entirely due to pollen, and the time of year known as the ‘hay-fever’ season.

Meanwhile, hundreds of bees die after a deluge of poison spray was distributed around the outlying areas of Dunedin.  The destruction of the natural environment is plain for all to see, but still, people do not make the connection between massive spraying programmes, which usually occur over the summer period, and their ill-health. They can walk for miles on country roads which have been sprayed heavily with toxic stuff, and afterward still blame their ‘hay-fever’ on flying pollen.

We have been brain-washed.  We have been conditioned into accepting the eye-sore of sprayed verges, and the bad consequences to health and environment are conveniently overlooked by our brains. People seem to be blind to the toxic, yellowed and dying grasses and herbs on each side of the road, and do not consider that the spray which has killed the grasses will also kill insects, bees, birds, and ultimately affect our own health and the health of our pets.

I have been taking regular long walks with a neighbour who knows the Dunedin area well.  Wonderful walks they are, when they are not spoilt by toxic herbicides such as Round-Up.  Unfortunately, these country roads have been sprayed heavily since around Christmas time, 2016. Last week, on Thursday 9th February 2017, we went to do another country walk up near the Brockville reservoir, but I had to turn back because of the spray which still smelt strongly, and which had killed off miles of grass, as far as we could see, down the hill, along both sides of the roadway.

I thought it was prudent to decline this walking experience, since I had become very ill a couple of weeks ago, with excruciating chest pain around the left lung, after walking for an hour and a half down roads which were ALL sprayed heavily with what I guess was Monsanto’s glyphosate-containing Round-Up herbicide. This walk had resulted in sudden water in the middle ear, which came on the same night after exposure to the spray. A couple of days later, chest pain was so severe, and breathing was so alarmingly difficult, that I worried I might have asthma, and would have to go to hospital for some oxygen.

Fortunately, Homeopathic Bryonia and Ferr phos came to the rescue, along with large doses of Vitamin C, bedrest and a hot-water bottle over the chest.

I really did not want another hospital visit:  On New Year’s Eve, 2016, I was taken to Dunedin Hospital  after suddenly collapsing from some mysterious cause.  There, I was treated very well and very kindly by all staff, thoroughly examined, with blood tests, X-Rays, brain scan – the works.  Nothing could be found which could be the cause of this ‘Temporary Global Amnesia’ which had struck me down.

I am fairly sure now what the main cause was -it was, and is, the RoundUp spraying which has been happening around Dunedin and its outskirts.  We had taken several long walks down country roads which had been sprayed about this time.

The other, secondary, cause which I suspect is formaldehyde which was in the new lip-stick I had been wearing each day for around a month or more, and in the new socks I had been wearing.

These brand new, Chinese-made, black socks I had been wearing still smelt strongly of dye after they had been washed.  It was not at all sensible to be wearing these suspect socks, as I knew that cheap Chinese dyed fabrics often had formaldehyde traces far beyond that which was considered  acceptable by our health authorities.  But still I wore them, because I was in a hurry that day.

I had to go to Mosgiel:  on the way over there on the bus, and coming back, I saw many work-people spraying and culling out weeds and plants along the motorway’s edge.

I began to feel very strange and sick in Mosgiel.  By the time I had gone back home, taking two buses to reach there, still wearing the dubious new black-dyed socks, as well as the new lip-stick, I was nearing collapse.  My memory failed me, and all I could see at one stage was white light.

At the hospital, I was worried I had left my teeth somewhere. I remember telling the ambulance man I had lost them.  ‘Never mind, we will find them’, he said with great assurance.

After something to eat and drink, and a comfortable bed to lie in, my memory seemed to restore itself. I remembered I had not lost my teeth at all, because I had not worn false teeth for years.  Formaldehyde and other toxins in the plastic denture had caused problems with nerves and memory in the past, so I had thrown them away. I told this to the good doctor who commented on the lip-stick “But you didn’t forget your lip-stick’, he said, looking at my lips which I had just smeared over with the new lip-stick again.  As if lip-stick could disguise the fact I had no teeth.  Very funny, really.

‘Do you believe in God?’ he asked.  I said ‘yes’.  ‘Well – all tests are normal.  I think God is trying to tell you something’, he said, gazing at my painted lips.

I considered the lipstick and how I had thought it probably unsafe the first time I had used it. It had caused a burning sensation on the lips, but with a cold taste which I suspected was formaldehyde. I had foolishly continued to use it.

I remembered also how my health had been affected each time the council sprayed RoundUp-glyphosate around the town, including our gardens and doorways in Morrinsville.  It always caused a myriad of symptoms, often appearing as if I had the flu, but the most alarming thing was that it affected my brain.  I would get these sudden lapses of memory, with white light flashing, and feel that I was about to collapse.  This feeling was reminiscent of being overdosed with formaldehyde, which happened when I had peritonitis at the age of five years.

Medical science had only recently discovered the antiseptic qualities of formaldehyde around 1955-56, when my life was saved by an urgent operation on the appendix.

Hospitals had gone overboard on the use of formaldehyde.  A glass of it lay on the table beside each  hospital bed, and in the glass was kept the thermometer.  The hospital staff used to come around regularly to take my temperature, just as I was recovering from the effects of the formaldehyde from the last temperature reading.  They would simply take the thermometer out of the glass, shake it a bit, and put it straight into your mouth.  Then I would see the white light, and I would be out-to-it for goodness knows how long.

I tried battling the hospital staff to refuse the thermometer being stuck into my mouth, as I knew it was the stuff in the glass which was making me pass out and lose my memory and bearings.  But to no avail.  They knew the effect of the formaldehyde, I am sure, and so with a bit more effort on their part, with the thermometer thrust in my mouth, they would have me silenced for a few hours again.

I have a clear memory of just how distressed I was after the experience of formaldehyde poisoning at the hospital. My mother used carbon tetrachloride as a dry cleaner.  This smelt so remarkably like the formaldehyde in the glass by the bed at the hospital.  She only needed to take off the cap, or even take down the bottle of carbon tetrachloride, and I would scream, terrified, and run outside to escape being suffocated by the fumes.

So, I am more sensitive than most people to harmful, toxic chemicals such as glyphosate, RoundUp and formaldehyde, but I believe everybody suffers some sort of ill health as a result of exposure to these poisons. In some people, annoying hay-fever or sinus trouble could be evident, but in others, cancer, asthma, arthritis, and other degenerative disease could eventuate if one experiences  continual or regular exposure to harmful toxic chemicals and sprays.

WHO, World Health Organization, have declared glyphosate in RoundUp, marketed by Monsanto, to be a probable cause of cancer.  I believe, as well as cancer and candida problems,  it is a probable cause of many types of brain malfunction, including memory loss, arthritis, bone problems, and nervous system diseases such as multiple sclerosis, and Parkinson’s.

 

Toxic Weedkiller Sprayed All Around Dunedin Reservoir Jan 2017

Toxic Herbicide A Danger To Health

Well, toxic herbicide such as RoundUp, which contains the especially harmful glyphosate, is bad in any measure for the environment and for the health.

But for a city reservoir to be poisoned all around the perimeter of the reservoir, to about three metres away from the water’s edge, is outrageous.

New Zealand is fast losing its clean green reputation.

I went for a walk with a friend yesterday. Wednesday the 25th January, 2017, from Brockville down to Concord. This is a fantastic walk, with many beautiful trees on the ridge, and wonderful views down to the coast.  However:

It was appalling to see the extent of the spraying around the reservoir, and also to witness the dying grass on both sides of the road, almost in a continuous line from Brockville down to Concord.  The reservoir was heavily sprayed, and so were the drains on the side of the road.  These drains run down to feed a stream at the bottom of the hill. So the water running down into this stream will be poisoned for several weeks, after which the council or their contractors will probably pour poison around the place all over again.

My guess is that Monsanto’s RoundUp was the herbicide used:  This is still the most widely used herbicide in New Zealand, to my knowledge.  It is very bad stuff – it has been banned in many parts of Europe, and environmentalists hope to get a complete ban on this poison before very long.

World Health Organization have indicated that glyphosate probably causes cancer. My experience indicates that it affects the digestive system, because it upsets the intestinal flora, which causes  candida overgrowth and consequent bowel problems.  It also causes skin troubles such as eczema, and excites the nervous system in an unfavourable way.  It is probably a contributing factor in people succumbing to diseases such as multiple scleroses, and Parkinson’s.

Exposure to glyphosate can also can affect the memory and cognitive functions in my experience.

Glyphosate and other toxic chemicals used in herbicides and pesticides have a harmful effect on our bees and other pollinating insects, as well as birds and animals too.

In my previous post, I wrote about dozens of bumble bees dying on the road and pavement at Kaikorai Valley.  This is not far away from the poisoned reservoir and the roads and drains which I witnessed today. Nicotinoid pesticides are well known for their bee-killing potential.  But glyphosate in commonly used RoundUp, a Monsanto product, also can kill insects and bees, especially when it is used in such large quantities over many kilometres of ground.

Hundreds of bumble bees, honey bees and other insects must have died in the massive spraying programme which has recently been implemented in our area. No wonder that our beehives are dying of bee colony collapse disorder.

And no wonder so many people get sick from strange viruses.  We will have this poison in our water supply for sure, after the reservoir area was sprayed. The wind carries spray particles near and far.  We all get affected one way or another.

I am going to return to the Dunedin Brockville dam tomorrow to take photos.  I will put some of these up on this page very soon.

Note:  Several people in my housing complex have had chest troubles in the past week or more. We live with a kilometre or so of the area which has been heavily sprayed. One old lady went into hospital with pneumonia.  Another has had flu-like sort of symptoms which have not developed into a real flu, but which have persisted nevertheless. I had a slight cough over the past week. After walking down these sprayed roads for an hour or so, I developed severe ear trouble by nightfall, with fluid in both ears. A severe pain began in my chest on the left side.  I took homeopathic Bryonia and Ferr phos in several doses, which has helped.  I visited the sprayed reservoir yesterday to take photos, after which a flu-like condition has manifested, with a lot of fluid on the chest.