For the heck of it

The plaque in the picture is in the enchanted garden in Como Park. The garden is designed to be enjoyed by human visitors and attractive to nature’s pollinators like bees and butterflies.

As a gardener I find the lack of bees alarming. There are some bees but not very many and I don’t see nearly as many butterflies either.  I have read that 75% of the plants grown for food are pollinated by wild type pollinators. I can’t imagine a world without home grown tomatoes and it is the bees and other pollinators that make it happen right in my own back yard.

It is also important to grow a variety of plants because they provide food or habitat for a variety of pollinators and other animals and insects. We tend to get rid of everything that grows naturally and replace it all with a few varieties of plants and flowers available at the local nursery.

There is a theory that if the bees all die mankind is next.

There are numerous websites dedicated to gardening, green gardening and environmentally friendly gardening. The EPA has some simple and useful information.

It doesn’t matter if you are ready. I94 will be closed from 280 t0 35E until 5:00 AM on Monday.

The closure is so that work can be done on the Snelling avenue bridge which if course if closed as are several other major arteries in the city. This is alright for those of us who live here because there really isn’t any good reason to leave St. Paul and if we have to go to Minneapolis we have options like bikes and light rail. It is however  sad weekend for those who live to the west. Just remember it is only for one weekend.

2014 was an interesting year and as it winds down there are a lot of people posting advice on the internet about how to make 2015 even better than 2014 was. Much of the advice comes in the form of platitudes and pithy sayings. My advice? This is a good day to stay off the internet.

We all get an extra hour this weekend and I have some big plans for mine but it is possible I’ll need more than an hour for my list of household and outdoor chores.

Other than giving us an extra hour in the fall and taking it away in the spring the only useful thing about daylight savings time is that it is a great reason to advertise. Real estate agents just love to send post cards and emails reminding us all about the beginning and the end of day light savings time. .

For environmental reasons I like to put my post card on my blog. More people see it that way and I don’t have to have anything printed or buy any stamps or annoy anyone by sending them spam  drip email.

Oh I almost forgot! set your clock back one hour at 2:00 AM on November 2nd 2104 because daylight savings time ends, and remember we never really know what time it is. Does anyone really care?

I got to spend a little time at the Minnesota State Fair yesterday. Did you know that you can buy “hot dish” on a stick at the fair? Bacon is also a very big deal. Usually it is combined with other foods but they also sell bacon.