World Garden @ MindSay 
As things begin to awaken for a new season I have been so very grateful that I can still find ways to share what new and interesting things are unfolding in the garden here at MindSay and elsewhere on the net, while sadly, my website is still down. (fingers crossed - not for much longer!) I feel compelled to share despite some wrinkles in my venues for doing so and hope that friends and those who stumble across my work can still find and enjoy the vignettes and anecdotes I continue to collect!
These are trying times for many souls to the south of where I live, in the US. As well there are ever more severe times approaching those who live in poorer countries and contend with economic crises and the pressures for fuel and food. This is taking place in the midst of world wide awareness of the fragility of earth's environment, at the understanding that we have an impact on our world and must learn to be more aware of the nature of the world we live in.
Last night I watched the speech I'm sure many will be speaking of today, the Reverend Jeramiah Wright - speaking to the Detroit chapter of the NAACP and addressing the theme "There is a Change Coming" and I was heartened, just as I felt comfort hearing Abbas, the Palestinian Authority leader suggest "Peace is the only solution" back in November. I believe it's true that when people begin to understand that "different" does not imply "deficient" and we become committed to seeing people as simply different and we are committed to treating each other with respect for our differences, with acceptance that we are all citizens of this world - we will see a vast change. It is a change that I welcome and it is a change that may cause discomfort to those who are less willing to bend, to grow and step forward in this new millennium of human kind! I don't see the change coming without turmoil or conflict unfortunately, but I am confident the turmoil can be calmed through efforts like my own and others who attempt to help others see the underlying beauty of these changes in perspective!
Like our garden, we can bravely face the unknown and move forward to bloom in a new season! The future can be promising and can bring abundance for many.
On that note I share with you a new view from the garden, the birds will love them and the bees have already found the new young fruit trees we planted this weekend! In memory of my late brother Will - I vowed last April to plant these this spring but had to wait a few extra weeks for the snow to clear! Now they're in and appear right at home... our new little orchard by the barn!
There's nothing like planting trees! It is an exhilarating thing, and especially so when the trees will eventually provide food, (in a year or two for one tree species!) and will do so repeatedly for many, many years to come. Not to mention their beauty, their fragrance and the added benefit of having deep roots to withstand drought and wet weather extremes that have begun to plague our area. Like the grape vines and everbearing strawberries that have become well established and compared to less hardy vegetables that must be planted each year we're confident this investment will be a real bonus for our family, our garden companions and the garden itself! Our Enchanted Garden, Our World, now graced with a few more cherry trees, one red and one black, both sweet cherries, and the cutest little baby gold peach tree with gorgeous pink blooms!
Our contribution, for April at least, to reducing that carbon foot print, one that will continue to give for a lifetime!
;)
Update on the World Garden project
read some of the comments sent to Barbara from around the world - people from all walks, about gardens of all kinds, from all around the world. Gardens of peace, gardens for meditation, gardens for healing through herbs and "scent"sations! Gardens to help support healthy families and gardens for nature that thrive naturally.
About Barbara Wolf, I found this short bio to share with you if you haven't heard her name before.
About Barbara Wolf
BARBARA WOLF, with her husband, a retired college professor, has written college texts, such as Ghosts, Castles, and Victims, as well as a book called Professional Picture Framing for the Amateur. Her early interest as a television foreign correspondent in Africa and the Middle East has changed to the writing and presenting of papers at international peace conferences. Additionally, she is the head of the Global Meditations Network, a vast Internet peace organization whose web site is http://www.globalmeditations.com.
2002, Barbara was a speaker at the US-China Women’s Issues Conference, Beijing, China.
2001 -- co-presenter of peace poles at a World Peace Concert, Manchester, England, and at the World Conference on Spirituality and Peace, The Hague The Netherlands.
2000 -- delegate at First Global Peoples Assembly For Peace, Samoa, South Pacific; International Election Supervisor, Kosovo; speaker at a World Peace Prayer Society ceremony, Hiroshima, Japan.
1999 -- speaker at the 7th Annual International Conference on Conflict Resolution, St. Petersburg, Russia; speaker at The Hague Appeal for Peace, The Netherlands; planted the conference peace pole in front of the Peace Palace, The Hague, home of the International Court of Justice; helped plant a peace pole with Israelis and Palestinians at Gaza, The Middle East.
To date there are now 1744 world gardeners and 24 photographs on on the World Garden Photo Album Site!
I wrote to Barbara and she posted the full text of my e-mail on her comments page. Sorry about the typos - I was so excited I hit send a bit quicker than I should have! Still my e-mail to her was from the heart as my garden adventure has been an interesting one and I do enjoy sharing the insight, calm and sense of humour it has provided to me. It appears mine is the last of the comments entries so far. Here is a copy;
From: Cheryl Binstock
imcheryl@rogers.com
Barbara,
Isn't it incredible the number of souls who have been inspired to build or rearrange their gardens and dedicate parts of their property or personal space to the natural world. There seems to be a wave of humanity that is welcoming nature back into their lives!
Last summer I had a similar experience and found myself making a heartfelt plea to humanity and to spirit to rebuild our world as the Garden of Eden it once was and realizing in my corner of the world I was already doing just that.
I began through inspired nudges to write a blog, which helped me learn some web design skills and learning how to play with photographs to create graphics for the site.
This bloomed from there into a website, which now has it's own registered domain and can be found through a "google" search; Our Enchanted Garden at http://ourenchantedgarden.com. Just recently a discussion forum "A Forum For Nature" has been added as a link from the site and is only just beginning it's precious new life! It is "a place for Nature on the internet - to discuss gardens and gardening and also to discuss other aspects of nature and the outdoors in general.
Still all in its' infancy this project has been something that has been inspired, as if my higher self havs led me through a series of learning stages to arrive at this wonderful time and ready to begin the story of the life of our garden as it progresses through the seasons ( I just got my camera late last year!)
The garden has provided me with inspiration, calm, whimsy, fresh air and exercise, interaction with the natural world, a re-connection with what's important to me, etc. I enjoy sharing what that does within my life, within my world. I also enjoy sharing the stories of little miracles and magical happenings that unfold so effortlessly.
On a personal level, I have been unemployed durring this same time frame and have been hoping I have located the "path" that is my path and leads to the service I might grow into. And I have sensed that Photography work and photoshop work and graphics and website work may be where I'm headed. Or The website and it's added features may already be right where I need to be and may progress on its' own from here. Some things I just allow to "be" and then watch to see what happens - it's one the most important things the garden has taught me.
Note: Feel free to visit the website and the links to blogs, photos and the Forum For Nature, if your shedule allows, and let me know your impressions. I've sent one photo to eric so far but have no "entire garden" photographs as yet. Once the garden begins its' growth in earnest though there will be many to share, and in the meantime I get to practice and improve my interaction with a trusty camera and learning to let spirit help guide my eye!
A lovely adventure and to see it connected in a "world garden" is a fabulous idea. My heart feels the strength of purpose that will grow through such an endeavor, it will be important for large numbers of people as an anchor of solace in a world seemingly anchor-less!
Here are some of the links; Note these are listed on the website and can all be accessed from there to eliminate the need to type them all up.
Our Enchanted Garden; http://ourenchantedgarden.com
A Forum For Nature; http://ourenchantedgarden.forumup.us/
Our Enchanted Garden Blog; http://imcheryl.mindsay.com
Garden Poetry; http://luckydragon.mindsay.com
Photo Gallery at Flickr (view "sets" for best shots) http://www.flickr.com/photos/enchantedgarden/
I look forward to hearing your feedback if you have the time and hope you enjoyed the visit!
Best of all things!
Cheryl
To learn more about Our Enchanted Garden you can read this Flickr profile.
Our front meadow, dedicated to nature's wonders and now part of the World Garden.
Through Barbara Wolf at Global Meditations.com, a group of us at Spirithub.org heard about a project called the World Garden.
It seemed a special message, to learn of this new project at this time of year; the equinox, easter, passover, earth day all bundled up in this magical month of April. And so Our Enchanted Garden and others at Spirithub, have joined in to add our magic to the tapestry that will be created to assist the earth in healing and to assist humans in welcoming the natural world back into their lives! Read the following to learn about this interesting and ever expanding project. And thank you Barbara for beginning this new adventure!
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Here's a copy of the message received from Barbara;
Hello from my heart, everyone.
Let us begin a World Garden.
You, from Sweden, Australia, Canada, Brazil, wherever you live, we can unify our efforts by weaving a tapestry, a grand world garden. Each of us weaves one piece.
There is a purpose behind this unifying effort.
Long ago Mother Earth was a perfect garden. There was a perfect blueprint for her. Then, fragmentation began and today the garden is far from perfect.
Let us turn the imperfect to the perfect.
We begin small; each of us making one piece of a world garden of perfection. We overlay our efforts, our tapestry, on the energies of imperfect Mother Earth. That is how we change the imperfect to the perfect.
Thoughts running between us is the cement, the unifying factor, that holds the weaving of the tapestry.
Everyone is eligible for this grand undertaking.
If you live in an apartment, you can designate one indoor plant, or all plants, as your piece of the tapestry we are creating.
When you are thinking of your garden, no matter how small or how large, think in terms of perfection, think in terms of Love, the strongest of all energies.
Thought is energy.
Like attracts like.
Your blueprint of perfection joins with my blueprint of perfection to weave a grand tapestry of perfection.
I want to tell you a little story. One year ago, I was staying at a large palace on the Gulf of Finland that had been renovated by the Russian government for conferences and speaker accommodations. Beside this renovated palace was another palace that remained untouched since being destroyed by bombs during World War II. The violence within the vibrations of that destroyed place was unsettling. It was strange to encounter this.
A short walk away was a very large glass-covered conservatory for growing plants. This, too, remained as it was 60 years ago. The glass ceiling was shattered. Some glass was still hanging from framework, but most of the glass was in small shards scattered over the conservatory plants.
I was there during the month of May when the plants were beginning their yearly cycle of growth, just as they had been doing 60 or more years ago. Interestingly, concrete steps near the palace had the year 1910 carved on them, nearly one hundred years ago, and so I knew many plants hadbeen growing a very long time here. It was sad seeing the plants covered with glass shards as they began their yearly cycle of growth. Each plant, and there were hundreds of them, was attempting to grow into the perfection expected of them from the blueprint of Nature.
Today our world garden called Mother Earth may not have shattered glass for the plants to ignore as they grow, but there are many other defects. Let us, in our own way, piece by piece, begin repairing the damage.
Write me about your garden. I will put excerpts on the website for all to read. This is another way to unify our efforts.
Also, I envision having a family garden album on the website so you can send me a photograph of your garden. This photograph will be with photographs of other gardens to reinforce our thoughts that we are working on a world garden tapestry of perfection for our planet.
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Mikael Lund of Vancouver has developed a water device that has brought marvelous success for the growing of gardens. He has photographs on his web site, http://www.alivewater.net/apps.htm#oxygen
If you want to use his system for your piece of the world garden, please contact him, info@alivewater.net
Peace, Love, and Light,
Barbara Wolf
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If there is no physical room to allow yourself such pleasure do come often to view the gardens and refresh yourself virtually through a visual feast of imagery!
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If you're not sure about gardening or you'd like to spruce up that yard or corner of your property, perhaps you want to create your own garden in a small planter; come by to A Forum For Nature and see if there's information for you, post a question if there isn't, or add your own special expertise to the group, even if just to say hello and enjoy the information exchanged.
You are welcome and please do consider yourself; Invited!