Earth Day and Arbor Day, 2021

Flowering crabapple in bloom

This year we are combining our Earth Day and Arbor Day issues to talk about deforestation and reforestation. You may want to revisit our 2019 Earth Day and 2020 Earth Day issues, and our 2020 Arbor Day issue, as well.

We live in the high country of western Colorado, where we are acutely aware of climate change, having lived through several consecutive years of drought. Summer temperatures continue to climb and will likely continue to do so for years, even decades.  Some climatologists have warned us that this coming August may be the hottest one on record, with many days above 94 degrees.

 

 

Such temperatures can be devastating to both people and animals. The number of deaths from heat exhaustion and heat stroke are likely to go up sharply.  They are particularly dangerous for the elderly and for children with respiratory problems.

Are catches like this a thing of the past?

 

Both livestock and native animals will suffer.  Many animals, particularly mammals and birds, are raising families at this time and mortality rates for them are already high.  In some cases. entire species maybe wiped out. High temperatures, especially combined with low water levels, threaten native fish populations as well.  In some places stream flows are shrinking so much that officials are calling for limits on fishing or even years when there may be no fishing at all.

Last year we saw the three most severe wildfires in state history. There is no longer a "fire season".  Major fires can — and do — happen year around. In their wake come landslides and more frequent and severe avalanches.  Without protective ground cover, the land will not hold snow-melt or spring rains, often causing flash flooding down-stream.

 

Native mule deer (print by Annake)

Here in Colorado, the large areas where whole stretches of forest died from beetle-kill some years ago have posed even more problems.  A decision was made over large areas neither to clear-cut nor to cut patches or lanes of dead trees and replant with aspen or young evergreens that are immune to the beetles.  This has led to both large, unsightly areas of dead trees along major highways and also loss of habitat for many native animals.

 

Except for water birds, almost all native birds — from songbirds to raptors — are dependent upon trees for food, shelter, nesting places, etc.  Clear-cutting of large areas of native forest interrupts birds' migration patterns, breeding seasons, number of broods, survival of offspring, and general health of the populations.  Some birds can, given time, adjust to living in towns and cities, but most cannot.  The barn owl,  for example,  can be found in barn lofts and other relatively undisturbed places as well as in the wild, but it has had centuries in which to make that adjustment. Other species are running out of time.

Rocky Mountain Goat (print by Annake)

Oddly enough,  the wood of the dead trees is extremely attractive and is much in demand for architectural panels and other uses. Now, it might seem simple to clear-cut the areas and use the money for the sale of the wood to pay for new plantings, but that may not be such a good idea. Clear-cut areas of 40 acres or more often suffer from erosion and over-use.  There would be no shelter for the small, newly-planted trees.  A slower approach with smaller clearings may be more successful, particularly where the land is relatively steep.  Planting aspen first might give a better chance for successful reforestation. Quick-growing but relatively short-lived, the aspen could act as  "nurse trees" for the young evergreens while creating beautiful autumn scenes to attract viewers.  Another suggestion that has merit is to choose young evergreen species from places like New Mexico and Arizona, which are already adapted to hotter and drier climates.  By the time the trees mature, the climate is likely to have become even hotter and drier.  Experts from many fields need to cooperate to design good plans for these areas.

Click here to download

Earth Day will be celebrated on April 22nd, 2021, in 170 different countries. The poster to the left is available as a free download from the U.S. government website, https://share.america.gov/.  There is also an official Earth Day 2021 poster available at https://www.earthday.org/, by Brazilian artist Speto, which is being sold for fund raising.

 

The theme for this year is "RESTORE OUR EARTH!" First and foremost, discussion will be about the disappearance of the planet's tropical rain forests.

Tropical rain forests are found on both sides of the Equator, usually between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. They are rapidly disappearing due to clear-cutting for farms and ranches, as well as simply for money. Let me try to put this in perspective. One and a half acres of trees are cut down every second. That means 36 football fields worth of trees are cut every minute. Multiply that by the minutes in an hour and the hours in a day and you can see how enormous the problem is. Twenty percent of the world's oxygen is generated by rain forest trees.  About 20,000 species of rain forest plants are expected to disappear in the next 25 years. When you consider that at least a quarter of our current cancer-fighting drugs, as well as other medicines, come from the rain forests of the Amazon, that is a very significant fact. Deforestation also disrupts the water cycle. Trees absorb groundwater and release it back into the atmosphere through the process of transpiration from their leaves. That water is pure and clean, making the air good to breathe.

 

Endangered Species, a few of many

If you are concerned, as you know we are, for endangered species of animals, just think of this: the existing rain forests cover only about 7 per cent of the earth's surface. But they contain more than HALF of the earth's species. Just this morning I read an article about how illegal poaching of elephants for their ivory tusks, combined with the loss of habitat from deforestation, are pushing the African elephants closer and closer to extinction.  And that is just one species among many.

Much of the deforested trees are used for the making of paper.  The greatest consumers of that paper are from North America, Europe, and Japan. None of these areas have rain forests of their own. The average U.S. household may get as much as 40 pounds of "junk mail" every year.  That makes recycling and reuse a "must" for most of us.

Free stickers/stamps available from the Arbor Day Foundation

"In Times of Uncertainty, Plant a Tree."

Dan Lambe, President, Arbor Day Foundation

The official date for Arbor Day 2021 is April 30, 2021.  Ordinarily there would be a special theme with special activities to honor the occasion. But this is not an ordinary year. The pandemic has made many activities difficult or impossible.  Arbor Day started in the U.S. in the state of Nebraska and became a country-wide celebration. It has now spread to many other nations around the world.  Each state may have its own designated Arbor Day. The dates vary greatly from Florida to Alaska, depending upon the dates when young trees can safely be planted. Free trees which are appropriate for a region are available from the Arbor Day Foundation.

Here are some suggestions for activities which individuals, families, or small groups, following the Covid rules, might do to celebrate the occasion:

• Plan a hike or bike ride to a park or forest are to study and admire the trees. Stay on the designated paths. take a bag along and pack out any trash that you come across. Enjoy and appreciate the trees.
• Make a poster, take a photograph, draw or paint a picture of a particular tree. Check out our post, "Trees in Art and Design," to give you some ideas.
• Read the poem "Trees" by Joyce Kilmer, or write a poem, rap, or song about forests or a particular tree.
• Search for online lessons about trees, forestry, what to do (and all the things that you should NOT do) if you are lost, injured, or stranded in a forest.
• Learn how to understand, interpret, and count tree rings.
• Join and/or contribute to a group fighting for the survival and recovery of the rain forests. The Arbor Day Foundation and EarthDay.org are great places to start; plus, they have their own lists of activities that you can add to this one.
  

What does he do who plants a tree
He plants for sap and leaf and wood,
In love of home and loyalty,
And far-cast thought of civic good
His blessing on the neighborhood.
                                             Charles Lathrop Pack

To the trees!

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Using Annake's Garden's "Extras"

J. D. and I originally started our "Extras" section (see tab in the menu above) to encourage older people to learn how to keep doing art and crafts even though their eyes and hands, like mine, have lost some clarity and dexterity, and also to encourage newcomers to try new techniques. Then came the pandemic. We found ourselves adding suggestions for dealing with small children, guiding the "’tweens" to learn things at their own pace and look for more, and devising self-teaching units for teens who like to learn on their own or with a group they choose as co-learners. Some of you have already taken advantage of what we have posted and we intend to keep adding to the "Extras" and organizing them to make them readily available.

We realize that there are many of you who will find yourself staying home and supervising children of all ages over the coming weeks and months. This will be new territory for many of you, especially dads, grandpas, and older brothers who may be taking courses of their own. Using our most recent previous post, we are using this current post to demonstrate teaching a topic at many levels, starting with small children. Please bear with us and follow through the age-level examples. You cannot teach a three-year-old the way you coached that after-school soccer team.

If you read our Extras, you probably have noticed that I often suggest teaching children of various ages with simple themes and equipment.  We just did a post about butterflies and moths. That set me to thinking about various things that could be taught to children at various levels of development, starting with teaching very young children with the aid of paper butterflies. The butterflies use simple materials and are easy to make. I have included some outline patterns at the end of this section to get you started. You can begin with very young children and progress to teach more complex ideas as the children grow older. At the end of this discussion I will make some suggestions for older children and also suggest how teens can turn the subject into a self-teaching unit for science, creative writing, etc.

TEACHING WITH PAPER BUTTERFLIES

Prepare yourself:

Make a note of the facts you know about butterflies and do a search for additional information. Children will ask questions — lots and lots of questions. Treat them seriously because they are serious to the children. If you don't know the answer, tell them so and promise to find out. Keep your promise. Breaking promises to children is destructive to your relationship with them. Don't worry that they will think you don't know everything about everything. They will come to that conclusion on their own. And a few years from now, they will conclude that you don't know anything about anything that they are passionate about.

Prepare your materials:

You will need:
    a pencil
    paper (Colored construction paper, gift wrap, colorful magazine  pictures)
    scissors (sharp-pointed for you, put away afterward; blunt-pointed for them)
    tape, paste, or glue
    popsicle or ice cream bar sticks
    patterns for several butterflies
Nice to have:
    a pipe cleaner for each butterfly (cut them in half if you like)
    glitter (Yes, gentlemen, you need to master glitter as well)
    a hole-punch to make holes in the wings or make "dots" to glue on
    clear plastic if you want clear or partially-clear wings

Don't worry. You will need this stuff again and again. Have a place to store it and make participating in clean-up a part of each lesson.

 What to do:

Click here to download

Cut out two butterfly shapes the same size. For older children, make sure the two shapes are from different papers so that you can demonstrate how the wings look different when the butterflies are flying and when they are at rest.

To make antennae, use two small pieces of paper or bend a pipe cleaner in half. curl the ends of the pipe cleaner so there are no sharp ends.

Decorate the butterfly wings.

If you want wings that are partially clear, cut "windows" in the same place on both sets of wings. Glue clear plastic on the backs of the butterflies.
Cut off any plastic that shows past the edges of the butterflies.

Glue the butterfly bodies to the popsicle stick. You may want to do this one at a time and let them dry completely before you attach the other side. If you are using antennae, glue them to the back of the top butterfly before you attach it to the popsicle stick.

When a butterfly is dry, wave the stick through the air to make sure everything is firmly attached.

Teaching with your butterflies:

Start with simple ideas. Butterflies are very small animals. We should not touch them because we could hurt them. If one comes and sits on us, we should be very quiet and not move until the butterfly flies away. Butterflies fly by flapping their wings.  (Put your hands up, thumbs together and demonstrate flapping. Have the children try to copy you.) When the butterfly needs to rest or sleep, it sits on a plant and holds its wings together. (Hands up, palms together, children copy.) With your paper butterflies, show that the butterflies fronts and backs are different. Let each child choose a butterfly and name it. Let the children "fly" their butterflies around the room for a few minutes, then bring them to be put away. Go through the routine of flapping the next session. Ask the children questions to see if they remember what they learned before. Then teach a couple of new concepts.  It is nice to have a story as follow-up.

If your local library is currently open, find out what children's picture books and storybooks about butterflies and caterpillars are available or can be ordered for you. If you have more than two children, who can sit on either side of you while you read, have them sit in a semicircle in front of you. Show them the cover of the book and then tell them the title. After you read each page, turn it so that all the children can see it and give them time to look. Children will have favorites and want to hear them over and over. Don't show how bored you may be, and don't ‘cheat’ by leaving out parts. They will know! And if you do it again, you will lose a little bit of their trust.

There are literally thousands of pictures of butterflies and short videos about them on line. If it is winter or you are in an area where the children are not likely to see butterflies, these are a good alternative.

You can teach any simple idea with some version of this technique. Don't try to teach too many new things in one day and remember that repetition is the way small children learn. Praise progress; correct gently. Correct quietly, but firmly if the child is doing something dangerous or destructive. You are now officially on your own.  Good luck. There is always the next time to do better.
  

The "’Tweens" —  Grades 4 Through 8

Starting at about 4th grade, children will, if encouraged, begin to find out things on their own. Competition plays a part in this. Timed quizzes and JEOPARDY-type games become popular, especially if grades are not involved. Continuing with our butterfly theme, here are some suggestions for further study, both in and out of class. The work can be individual or group-oriented. The complexity of the questions and the language for the suggested topics can be adjusted to the age level.

1. Butterflies are insects. In the next 5 minutes, write down a list of as many insects as you can think of. (Students make their lists. Teacher writes them on a poster or chalkboard.) Were there any that weren't insects? Cross them off. Ask the students to choose 3 insects from the list and find out 3 unusual or startling facts about them by (give a time limit.) Some students will go much further than the assignment. Share all information.

2. Over millions of years, many flowering plants have formed a partnership with butterflies and other animals. A butterfly visits a flower. It unrolls its long proboscis, a tube-like mouth-part, to drink a sweet, sugary fluid called nectar from the flower. This does not hurt the flower. The flower made the nectar for just this purpose. Often there are lines or spots on the flower to show the butterfly how to find the nectar. While the butterfly moves around, it picks up pollen which sticks to its body. When it flies to another flower, some of the pollen rubs off. This helps the flower.

Research to find the answers to these questions:
    What is pollen and why does the flower need it moved to another flower?
    What kind of light can the butterfly see that we cannot?
    How do flowers make sure that the butterfly picks up some pollen?
    What other animals pollinate flowers? Name one that is not an insect.
    What is cross-pollination and why is it important?

3. Butterflies and moths go through 4 different stages in their lives. They are egg, caterpillar (also called larva), pupa and adult. The process is called metamorphosis, which means "changing shape process". A 4-stage process of change is called complete metamorphosis. Fewer than 4 stages are sometimes called incomplete metamorphosis. For example, a frog goes through 3 stages: egg, tadpole, frog. The caterpillar hatches out of the egg, eats as much as it can, grows so much that it has to shed its skin several times (a process called molting). Then it hangs its body, usually by the tail, on a twig or branch and appears to go to sleep. Its body hardens as a stiff covering forms over it. A moth usually spins a tough silk covering, called a cocoon, for itself and often does this underground. But in either case the body changes completely, so that, when it comes out of the little shell or cocoon it leaves behind, it is a butterfly or a moth. Read about butterfly or moth metamorphosis and draw a picture of the 4 stages.

4. You may want to know why animals and plants have those strange looking scientific names. Think of it this way: the common name "butterfly" is not the same in many other languages — 300 of them to be exact!  Here are just a few of those names for butterfly and their countries: sommerfugl (Denmark), papillion (France), psyche (Greece), chouchou (Japan), farfalla (Italy), lubalaba (West Africa), mariposa (Spain), parpar (Israel). Imagine trying to translate the name of the Tiger Swallowtail butterfly into 300 different languages!  When an animal or plant has one scientific name, scientists from every one of those countries will recognize it and be able to write or talk to scientists in other countries about it. Just for fun, why don't you write a new name for "butterfly" and share it with the class?

5. Teach students the form for writing a haiku. Have them cut a butterfly shape from paper and write or print their haiku on it. Then have them incorporate their butterfly into a poster, paper sculpture, mobile or other art form.  Make a display of all the projects.

6. More ideas:

    Silk thread is made by silkworm moth caterpillars. This is a huge industry. Some older students may want to research it. CAUTION: They may not like what they find.

    The Painted Lady butterfly is found on all the continents except South America and Antarctica. Some students may like the Painted Lady Migration Project. Potential for map studies and figuring large distances.

     Moths have been around for about 200 million years. What do fossils tell us about the Earth at that time? Butterflies appeared about 50 million years ago. What might have been happening to make them become active in daylight?

     Many butterflies and moths are endangered by climate change, deforestation, loss of habitat and loss of food plants. Some may have already become extinct. What can we do to help protect them?

How Teens Can Do a Self-Teaching Unit That They Won't get In School

Teens:  self-teaching units are completely directed by you. There is nothing to be turned in and there are no grades. The units provide information on a subject and suggest activities, but you are in control of which ones you find interesting and challenging. You work at your own speed and select what is most interesting to you. You may work alone or contact friends or fellow students who might like to join you in the study, in person or online. The results of your research can be converted into essays, term papers, speeches, 3-dimensional constructions or other projects if those interest you and further your traditional education.

Currently there are two complete units in our Extras — a botany unit on the history of trees, and one on being an archaeologist. I'm going to "walk you through" a zoology unit suggested by our previous post. There is also a series of our posts on Color, combining several sciences and visual art. Below are the first four in the series, which you can find in our Archives. The fifth installment, which concerns the appearance and development of eyes over millions of years and the impact of color on living organisms today, is slated for late September.

August 14, 2019: Spectral Light And Structural Light; All About Color, Part I
September 24, 2019: Pigments And Palettes; All About Color, Part II
February 10, 2020: The Non-Colors And Metallics; All About Color, Part III
June 28, 2020: The "Escenses" of Color; All about Color, Part VI

In order to make our previous post the basis of a self-teaching unit, first read the directions for the 'Tweens above, and write down investigations that you could carry much further, making note of any scientific terms for follow-up. Then go to the bottom of this page and select "Older Posts". The first one will be our article: "Butterflies, Moths, and Words: Entomology & Etymology". Read it and consider how you would proceed if you chose to study that subject. We will continue to add more units on sciences and the arts as time permits, so check back occasionally. J.D. and I wish you the very best of luck in your studies.

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

That's a Good Question!: Summer 2020 Q & A

Some of Annake's aids

Ordinarily I do seasonal Question and Answer posts, but I haven't kept to that schedule lately. I apologize for that. Having been through a bad flu epidemic when I was in graduate school many years ago, I got worried when the first news of sickness in China appeared in January. I feared that such a large and populous country with so many connections around the word would not be able to confine the epidemic, so we began making long-range plans immediately. When it became evident that the virus was spreading quickly from country to country, we redoubled our efforts. Because I am high-risk, I have been in self-quarantine for about two weeks longer than most of you. I thought that if isolation is difficult for me — when I work from home all the time —- it must be doubly difficult for those who are unused to it. So J.D. and I decided that, along with our planned posts we would create the EXTRAS section of the blog (see the tab on the menu bar above) and fill it with all sorts of things from photo essays to how-to articles and free patterns to teaching units. We have put up a number of these items and plan to do more until mid-summer. Since most of these questions center on topics in our recent post about easing eye and hand problems for older needleworkers, J.D. suggested that we show some of the devices (shown above) that I personally use.

Do you do quickpoint from charts, or on painted canvas?

Click here to download

Either or both, plus other choices as well. I prefer to work from charts because I make my own. By the time I put symbols on graph paper, I have a pretty clear mental picture of what I hope to accomplish. If you are working from a chart in a needlework book or magazine, there are some things to consider. The chart was probably designed for a specific project with well-defined dimensions. If you are doing quickpoint, which is larger than tent stitch and regular cross-stitch, you will need to count squares carefully to figure out just how large your finished project will be. (I add an extra inch all the way around, just in case.)  Most of the charts I put into these posts are meant to be used for a large variety of sizes and colors. but let me give you one that is a little less variable. Because this is a specific butterfly rather than a generalized one, the colors need to be followed closely. You will still need to count squares as described above for the figure to work on the background you have selected.

If you are working on a painted canvas, start in a corner and work a 10-stitch square of the stitch you plan to use  (be ready to take the stitches out if you need to) to see if you will be able to put in the smaller details of the design. 
I buy painted canvases when I can get a bargain, but I paint out the design and replace it with one of my own, either painted on the canvas or outlined on it. You need to examine the canvas carefully because some, especially ones made for kits,  are just starched cotton and don't hold up well.

Monk's cloth

If you are used to working on even-weave fabric like Aida, you can use several easier alternatives. One is monks' cloth, which has easy-on-the-eyes squares, but it requires a lot of preparation. It needs to be pre-shrunk. Then you need to bind the edges or at least put 2 rows of machine stitching around the edges. When I do use it, I back it with non-woven interfacing, which I work through, and use it for something that doesn't get a lot of wear. On the other hand, if you can find a good quality decorator burlap, you can use it just like Aida and get some lovely surface effects with crewel, tapestry, or novelty yarns.

What is wrong with using printed gingham?

Printed vs. woven gingham

I can show you with the two examples in the picture. The fabric on the left is printed gingham.  It is folded so that both the top surface and the bottom one are showing.  Notice how the design doesn't look the same on the wrong side?  There is no guarantee the cloth was printed so that each square wound up with the same thread count or that your cross-stitches will come out the same size. Now look at the woven gingham on the right. See how the squares are the same on both sides of the fabric? This is true whether you are using baby-check, standard quarter-inch check, or one of the  "jumbo" checks. Your stitches will be the same size and will line up properly both horizontally and vertically. The woven gingham is a little more expensive, but is well worth it.

Love the Bear and the Bee. Does it have a title? And are you going to make any more "Close Encounters" pictures?

The things that fit nicely into my typed scripts don't always fit as nicely when J.D. sets the format for publication. The title was too long for the caption, so he left it off. It is "What Kind of Flower Are You?"  The titles are designed to be said by either one of the pair of animals to the other. I try to do one a year, but — as with everything right now — I am running a bit behind. I am almost ready to do the color cartoon stage of the design. Did you know that the word "cartoon" originally meant the complicated chart for a tapestry weaving? I use the term for the stage when I make a full-sized color rendering to trace permanently on my canvas. I may also graph some of the finer details. Since you know how the titles are chosen, I will give you a hint about the two animals — one a mammal and the other not — coming up next.  The title is "Want to Race?"

You mentioned  'Window Wonders' when you were showing tracing a pattern against a sunny window. What are they and what do you do with them?

Some materials for making Window Wonders

They aren't a form of needlework, but they are pretty and fun to do. I make them for craft shows, usually in three graduated parts, featuring a hummingbird, a butterfly, and a flower, but I have done colorful frogs, dragonflies, small tropical fish, and more. I draw my own pictures, but it is easy to trace them from photographs and drawings. You will need an embroidery hoop (wooden or plastic) with a screw adjustment for each individual picture. I usually make a set of three with a 3-inch, a 4-inch, and a 5-inch hoop, but that varies. I use both circular and oval hoops. You can paint the wooden ones if you like and the plastic ones come in colors. You will need permanent markers in a variety of colors. You will need a transparent or translucent fabric that is stiff when you stretch it across the hoop.  Sheer organdy is ideal.  You will also need a small, sharp pair of embroidery or manicure scissors.

Cut a square of the sheer fabric about an inch larger all around than your drawing.  Center the square over the design and trace the design with permanent markers. (Practice on a scrap first.) When the picture is dry, stretch it over the bottom of the hoop and push the top of the hoop down firmly. Pull the fabric until it is as firm as you can make it.  Turn the hoop over and carefully cut away all excess cloth. Fasten the hoops together as J.D. has shown you here.  I hang the 'wonders' surface-side-out in a sunny window. The design can be seen from outdoors and indoors. If you have a light-colored wall across from the window, you may get still another image on it.  Some people hang the item on screened-in porches or sheltered patios. I showed some outdoors in a 40-mph wind once and all survived beautifully. This is a craft that can be taught to children in elementary school. (For more on 'Window Wonders', see the article in our Extras section.)

You mentioned a kind of pattern-making that you didn't discuss because you said it would probably be hard to get the materials for it right now. My mother-in-law has a lot of materials that she lets me use, so she might have what I need. Would you tell me about that technique?

I'll be glad to — and show you as well. Also, I am so glad that you have a good relationship with your mother-in-law. I had one of the best in the world and I miss her greatly. Cherish that relationship. (And I'll bet she will be a wonderful grandma, too.)

I am going to teach you to make a simple hot-iron transfer. You will need the following materials:
    an ironing board
    an iron, preferably a steam/dry iron
    fabric to transfer the design to (cotton is best for beginners)
    a simple design
    a sheet of tracing paper larger than your design
    a transfer pencil (this is the tough one!)
    a pencil sharpener
    straight pins
    scissors

Click here to download

I do a lot of children's patterns, so I am going to give you a simple one. Or you may substitute a design of your own. Mine faces forward, so you don't have to worry about design reversal. If your design is facing to one side, it will be reversed in the finished pattern. If you are going to put words or names in the design, you will need to reverse them before they are added to the design or leave them out of the design and chart them separately.

Draw or trace your design on the tracing paper with a hot-iron transfer pencil.
These red pencils are made by several companies. I use Aunt Martha's™ (2 to a package for around $3.00.) Each pencil will make many transfers.  Keep the pencil point sharp and go over the lines firmly until they look dark. Set the transfer aside.

Finished blackwork owl - no red marks

Cut you fabric at least an inch larger all around than your paper pattern. Set your iron for the proper temperature for your fabric. Press your fabric. Fold it in half lengthwise and press a strong crease along the fold. Refold it in half crosswise and press another pleat. these should meet in the center of the fabric. At this point i like to stitch a row of bright-colored basting stitches down each pleat that I will pull out once the transfer to the fabric is complete. Stretch the fabric flat. Place the transfer penciled side down on the fabric and lift the center of the transfer up with the center of the fabric. Pin the pattern to the fabric all the way around. Set the iron no higher than cotton and put it on dry (no steam). Press the pattern in to the fabric, pressing hard and go back and forth several times, but don't scorch the paper. It takes at least 5 seconds of hard pressure on each line to get a good transfer. Unpin one corner and lift it carefully. Peek under it to see if your lines have been transferred. If not, re-pin it in the same place iron over it until they do. Turn off the iron and unpin the pattern from the fabric.  I gently pull the basting threads out of the fabric at this point. Work the pattern in any needlework style you choose. The red lines will wash out of the fabric with warm water and a good detergent (I like Dawn® dish detergent) when your project is finished.

I hope these clarifications have answered your questions. Keep creating!

Annake's 24" monitor & soundbar - more help for aging senses

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Arbor Day 2020

*** NEW MATERIALS ON OUR EXTRAS PAGE  ***

See more info at end of this post.

Aspens  (photo by J.D.)

National Arbor Day is celebrated on the last Friday in April in the United States, where the idea was first proposed by Julius Sterling Morton in the 1870's. Morton was a Nebraska newspaper editor, a very successful farmer, and a statesman. He was very respected as an agriculturist. Morton loved trees, but Nebraska was not really rich in native trees, so he planted many trees on his estate. He came up with the idea for an Arbor Celebration and got the backing of other influential people. The first Arbor Day was celebrated in Nebraska on April 10, 1872. Morton's followers planted an estimated one million trees in Nebraska.

"Other holidays repose upon the past; Arbor Day proposes for the future."

J. Sterling Morton

The day became a Nebraska state holiday in 1885, the date changed to April 22 to honor Morton’s birthday. By the 1920's, each state had also passed a law establishing a state Arbor Day. These are celebrated on different days in each state. Trees are planted for these celebrations, so the dates depend on the climate in each state. In 1970, President Richard Nixon proclaimed a national Arbor Day on the last Friday of April each year. This year National Arbor Day falls on April 24th. Morton's former estate and lodge are now Arbor Lodge State Historical Park. Nebraska's state tree is the Cottonwood.

Blue spruce

All of the states in the United States have a State Tree (some have more than one).  In addition to State Trees, the U.S. National Tree is the mighty Oak and the District of Columbia claims the Scarlet Oak. Our Colorado's State Tree is the Colorado Blue Spruce.

What Is Deforestation?

Deforestation is the cutting down of forests to make way for farmland, pastureland, building cities, logging for lumber, and mining. It also happens when fires in the forest get out of control, or when there is an infestation of insects or diseases from some other part of the world for which the forest has no immunity.

Here are some disturbing facts about deforestation:

• Forests currently cover about 30% of the land, but scientists fear that 100 years from now there will be none left!
• One and a half acres of forest worldwide is cut down every second!
• That means 90 acres are cut down every minute. That's 20 football fields! Multiply that 90 acres by 60 and you get 5,400 acres per hour. Multiply that number by 24 to see how much forest is lost every day
  
• Deforestation contributes heavily to excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. That is because trees absorb carbon dioxide to make their food and to grow. In return, they produce oxygen and release it into the air. Carbon dioxide is a dangerous "greenhouse gas" and adding it to the atmosphere raises temperatures worldwide. The concentration of carbon dioxide in the air today is higher than it has been in 3 million years.
  
• Trees help to clear the air of pollution. People in large cities were wearing masks outdoors to protect themselves from pollution for years before the coronavirus epidemics began.
• Deforestation also contributes to soil erosion because tree roots keep soil from eroding. Loss of trees has made floods more devastating because so much topsoil is washed away. That also means that substances like fertilizer are washed into coastal waters, poisoning ocean plants and animals.

  

  Endangered lowland gorilla, photo by J.J.

• The majority of Earth's endangered animals live wholly or partially in forests.
• The tropical rain forests were once called "the lungs of the Earth" because of all the carbon dioxide they kept out of the atmosphere and all of the oxygen they produced. But rain forests are disappearing faster than other forests.
• Many life-saving medicines, including cancer-fighting drugs, have come from species found in rain forests. Many more remain to be found — if they don't disappear before they are discovered. As many as 28,000 species will disappear at current rates worldwide by the year 2045.

  

  "And a Corby in a Pine Tree",  by J.J.

• Bird species here in North America are declining in alarming numbers. That means both numbers of birds and numbers of bird species.  Climate change is driving species to find cooler climates in order to survive. That may mean moving further north on the globe or moving to ever higher, cooler elevations. In either case, they may find these new habitats don't have good supplies of their natural foods. They may not find sufficient nesting materials to build nests that protect their eggs and baby birds. They may run into new predators. The fact that they have left their natural habitats may well mean that those habitats will suffer from increases in the populations of harmful insects and their larvae. We need to preserve existing trees and replant ones that have been lost.

 

What are some things that trees do for us besides affect air quality and climate change?

Do you like to put maple syrup on your pancakes and waffles? Maple syrup is made from the sap of sugar maple trees in the Spring during a time when the trees have come out of their winter dormancy and started producing fresh sap to carry nutrients throughout the tree. Read the labels carefully; there are a lot of "maple-flavored' syrups out there which cannot compare with the real thing!

Many of the fruits that we eat grow on trees. That is something you can teach small children when you serve any of these fresh, canned, or frozen: apple, apricot, avocado, cherry, date, fig, kumquat, lemon, lime, mango, olive, orange, papaya, peach, pear, plum, quince, tangelo, tangerine. Many other fruits are available and popular in other parts of the world.

The same thing is true of nuts, which are the seeds of many trees. These include: almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, chestnuts, coconuts, hickory nuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, pinon and other pine nuts, and walnuts (both black and English).  But the list does not contain peanuts, which are not nuts and don't grow on trees. Coconuts and almonds produce a good substitute for milk that lasts much longer in the refrigerator than cow's milk.

As I mentioned before, many medicines have been derived from trees and tree products, particularly those from the rain forests.

A major use of cut trees is for lumber and plywood.  Woods with particularly nice colors and/or patterns are used for furniture and decorative moldings. Most of the latter are hardwoods, rather than the softer evergreens. If you have some of these, take good care of them. They will become increasingly rare and far more expensive.

What can we do about some of these problems?

Forest's Edge, photo by J.J.

The obvious answers are 1) cause fewer trees to be cut down and 2) plant new trees. Let's look at both of those activities. A huge amount of wood is used to make paper. That is something we can do something about. Going paperless as much as possible can help. Recycling paper will definitely help.

Cloth shopping bags

Using cloth shopping bags and not choosing to buy items with a lot of unnecessary packaging are large steps in the right direction.

Try to set up a book and magazine exchange with friends and don't duplicate subscriptions. Let the children draw and color on the backs of paper that is printed on one side only.  Ask companies that send unwanted catalogs to you to remove your name from their mailing lists. Encourage your children to make art and craft projects with paper and cardboard.  Reuse cardboard boxes for mailing or compact storage. Crumpled or shredded paper is better packing material from an environmental standpoint than "packing peanuts" or plastic airbags.  Use greeting cards and pretty wrapping paper again for decoupage and collage projects.

Planting a tree

Now, about planting trees.  The best trees to plant are those which are native to your area or which have been bred to do well in your soil, water, and climate conditions.  Check out your state tree, for example. Our state tree is the Colorado blue spruce and it is available here — baby ones are even free from the Arbor Day Foundation.  But you might want something that is more multi-purpose. Consider fruit trees. They don't take up as much space as shade trees, they grow fast, they provide you with valuable food, and the leftovers will make birds and squirrels happy.  In either case, read planting and care directions carefully and follow them.  You can also volunteer to plant trees in state and national parks or in areas where trees have been destroyed by wildfires or flash floods.  Check with the authorities about opportunities and regulations.

Here are some other things you can do:

1. Learn about prospective legislation that involves forests, parks and other public lands. Make your opinions clear and vote on the side of conservation and reclamation.
2. Vote for candidates for office who share your views. Talk to someone on your town or city council or attend some of their meetings. Ask questions about the possibilities for conservation and reclamation locally and make suggestions for improvements where possible.
3. Learn more about trees — they can be fascinating.
4. Teach your children to love and respect trees.
5. Don't carve your initials or words into tree bark. It can damage the growing layers underneath and let in harmful insects or diseases that will eventually kill the tree.
6. Watch an episode of Pete Nelson's Treehouse Masters on the Animal Channel™. Pete's a man who doesn't hesitate to hug a tree! See how carefully the crew cuts floors and decks so the trees can move naturally in the winds common to their environment. Those trees are meant to live for many decades.
7. If you cannot plant a tree,  give a donation to a group replanting areas ravaged by fires, floods, tornadoes or avalanches. Bring back the trees.

For more about trees, check our Extras page for:
Teachable Moments: Trees for Children
Teachable Moments: Trees for "Tweens" (Ages 9 to 12)

*** Our  "Extras"  page (the last tab on the top menu) has PDF files of extra materials related to the subjects in our blog posts, mostly aimed towards young people, their parents and teachers. Due to the current pandemic resrictions, we intend to expand this section greatly over the next two months. Check back every week for new files.

J.D., Annake's Garden Gnome

 This post by Annake's Garden is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.