Wednesday 21 November 2007

I'm not going mad!

I'm mad already!

Take at least seven kids and one or two adults and put them in a house 24/7 and what do you get? A huge mess. There's a layout coming with that theme, but for now, a break in my creative drought. I decided to do the Aussie Scrapjack for this month by Celeste Vermeend.




Plant a Tree

It is interesting... while we were transplanting the little oak tree that started growing under our walnut tree I made the comment "plant a tree, save the planet." I'm not sure where it came from but it obviously planted itself ('scuse the pun) in my mind from some advertising campaign or other.

There are a couple of quotes on the layout.

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
He who plants a tree plants a hope. (Lucy Larcom - poet, educator and editor in the 1800s)
And an implied quote with the little bird in the tree - Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come. (Chinese Proverb)

The journalling at the bottom of the layout reads: Planting a tree may or may not help reduce carbon dioxide. Let's transform the way energy is derived and used by coming up with carbon-free power generation. (I paraphrased these sentences from an article about Prof. Caldeira)

"The idea that you can go out and plant a tree and help reverse global warming is an appealing, feel-good thing," said Ken Caldeira of the global ecology department at the Carnegie Institution of Washington in Stanford, California, a co-author of the study. "To plant forests to mitigate climate change outside of the tropics is a waste of time."

So there you go.

It is nice to think that if I drove past our yard in 30 or so years time, or when the children drive past 50 or more years (or whatever they will do to move in years to come), there will be a huge oak tree giving pleasure to adults and children alike.

Russell Page said - To plant trees is to give body and life to one's dreams of a better world.

Maybe.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Oh Diane, your chinese proverb makes me laugh!

When the kids were little, the pear syrup we used to get had that proverb on the label for some deep reason I could never work out. It also had the directions for use of the syrup.

The funny part is the way the kids developed the combination of the two into a little bible sounding verse:

Keep a green bough in your heart and a singing bird will come. Concentrated 8:1

Janelle.