Critical Mass Bike Rally

I love sharing stories about things that people are doing to raise awareness about environmental issues, around the world.

I’ve talked about the enormous rise in participants for events like Earthhour - http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2008/07/discernible.html.

I’ve written about how children are becoming aware of many of the problems caused by big business - http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2009/11/making-me-laugh-with-unexpected-insight.html.

I’ve shared photographs from many family tree planting events - http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2010/05/earthweek-2010.html.

Ohhh! How I could go on…

This story is about a community event that I participated in just last week. A ‘Critical Mass Bike Rally’ is a gathering of local peaceful people who have found a way to make a stand (or a ride) against global climate change.

I arrived at the bandshell, in London, Ontario’s downtown Victoria Park, just after 6:00pm last Friday evening. The weather was nice and warm with a slight breeze. Perfect for a bike ride!

Over the last year or so, I’ve been noticing familiar faces attending the many London community environmental action groups. I think that this is great!!!! Melissa (the girl in the red shirt) and I met almost two years ago. She helped me edit and put together my first two music videos - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVcQiXq9qhI.

I don’t know this lady’s name, but whenever there is an action group raising awareness about climate change, she is there with her super funky bike. This is a link to another story where we were both participants - http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-is-350.html.

There were a few interesting bikes at this event.

Ha! Someone with a soldering iron and a bit of imagination created this totally unique bike. I couldn’t wait to see it in action!

Some people had made up their own signs to help them voice their opinion about global climate change. I’m thinking that I just may make a large banner for next month’s bike rally.

One girl had even brought her dog along for a nice ride on the back of her bike!

I was really impressed with the amount of people that had showed up for this event and as 6:30 drew closer even more people arrived. I heard from a regular participant that this was the most successful turn out in a very long time! I was glad.

I really like this photograph… even tho’ others may wonder why, cuz I missed everyone’s head. The positions of the bodies (and their stances) and bikes, with a bright splash of sunlight really captures this moment. Later, when I arrived at home and had a chance to view all of these photos, I noticed something that still puzzles me. Take a look at the arm in the foreground – bottom right – and see if you can figure out what this hand is doing. I’m still puzzled!

6:30 arrived and it was almost time to leave. One of the coordinators gave a short speech, thanking everyone for attending and explained the route our peaceful entourage would be taking.

As we were leaving I had to quickly learn new photographic skills.

I had to learn how to ride my bike, retrieve my camera from my backpack and take pictures, all the while trying not to crash into the person beside me!!!

After we left the north end of Victoria Park, we navigated our way onto Richmond Street. There are four lanes for the traffic, so we didn’t cause any drivers any aggravation by filling up one of these lanes with bikes.

In the invitation to this event, people were encouraged to share their songs or chants with the other riders and folks sitting on restaurant patios. I kept waiting to see if someone would start something, but this never happened… until a bit later. I decided to take a little initiative and share one of my newest songs (that I had recently heard and changed for my own use) for The Peacebus.

I think I startled a few people when I suddenly bellowed out in my loudest and deepest voice, “Ladies and Gentlemen… This is a repeat after me song….”

Me – Everywhere we go-ooooh

Riders - Everywhere we go-ooooh

Me – People wanna know-oooh

Riders - People wanna know-oooh

Me – Who we are-rrrr

Riders - Who we are-rrrr

Me – So we tell them

Riders - So we tell them

Me – Future Leaders of the World!

Riders - Future Leaders of the World!

Me- Leaders for Peace for the World!

Riders - Leaders for Peace for the World!

Me- We’ll stop pollution

Riders - We’ll stop pollution

Me – and find a great solution

Riders - and find a great solution

Me – We’ll clean the air-rrrr

Riders - We’ll clean the air-rrrr

Me – to show the future that we care-rrrr

Riders - to show the future that we care-rrrr

Me – Future Leaders of the World!

Riders - Future Leaders of the World!

Me- Leaders for Peace for the World!

Riders - Leaders for Peace for the World!

Me – And if they can’t hear us

Riders - And if they can’t hear us

Me – We’ll scream a little louder!

Riders - We’ll scream a little louder!

Then we repeated the first half of the song again and then…

Me – And if they can’t hear us

Riders - And if they can’t hear us

Me – they must be deaf!!

Riders - they must be deaf!!

At that everyone gave a huge hoot and whup-whup and we all started laughing. It was a really enjoyable experience with lots of smiles that sparkled on many faces.

So, here we are riding back into the downtown area along Dundas Street.

I’m sure that many Londoners will recognize many of the buildings and landmarks in all of these photos.

Dundas Street, is only two lanes and I thought that many motorists would be getting mad at us for shutting down (we weren’t biking very quickly at all) this street. I took a look back and noticed that only four cars were crawling along behind our group. All Londoners know that the downtown area on a Friday night is always slow moving, so we all know how to avoid these streets.

Actually, I didn’t see one mad motorist during this whole affair. Many of them were honking, blinking their lights and waving to us as we rode by. I’m sure that had they been able to join us, they would have!

This is my favourite photo of them all. Here, we are almost at the end of our ride as we traveled along King Street. King Street is three lanes wide and is a one way street. When we happened along it, there was not a single car to be seen, so we filled all three lanes with our bikes.

I added borders to this photo and some text and it became my Facebook profile picture for this last week. I received many positive comments from friends from around the world!!!

See how easy and fun it is to do something positive to inspire others to want to make this world a better place for future generations?!!! I hope that I’ve inspired some of you – my readers from around the world – to either join in or create your own local events that will define our generation and our destiny.

Jim

Playing With The Moon!

In almost all of my blog stories I write about the importance of respecting Nature. A heart filled with respect allows our mind to open to a new sense of wonder. A mind filled with wonder allows our spirit to gain understanding.

One of the best ways to make these connections is to have fun with Nature…

… as I’ve mentioned before when writing about my guerrilla gardening adventures (http://bitsandpeaces08.blogspot.com/2010/05/guerrillas-are-on-attack-again.html).

A week ago, a friend sent me an interesting email filled with many photographs of people who were doing just that… having fun with Nature – or more specifically the moon! I thought that it would also be fun, for me, to share these photos with you, and so I will.

While I was getting the photos ready, the words of a poem – that I wrote in 1998 – began to echo through my mind. The poem speaks about the Earth, moon, sun and our ability to bring peace and love into our souls. I’ve decided to share both with you, here and now…

The Heart Of The Sunrise

In the heart of the sunrise, I see a brand new day

Filled with the laughter of the children who have come here to play

To dance beneath the skies and crawl upon the Earth

To enlighten all our hearts with dreams having birth

To pause and wonder at the value of it’s worth

In the heart of the sunrise I feel a brand new call

Asking me to share a vision with you all

But eyes look away, too afraid to see the light

And lacking is the strength to confront our enemy’s might

So the sky circles ‘round to fill this space with night.

In the soul of the moon, I touch a new babe’s eyes

Giving strength to the universe with a peace that has no disguise

Unleashing the tears that fall like love

Into the heart of the sunrise.

Jim

Blueberry Daze – Continued

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a story to invite other Londoners to a morning of Blueberry picking at a nearby farm. This is one of the promotional posters that I created for my blog and Facebook event…

The purpose of this event was to provide a free ride - for people who don’t have access to transportation – to a local Blueberry farm. I wanted to inspire people to realize the value of picking and preserving locally grown fruits. By connecting consumers with local farmers a new relationship will be formed that will benefit our community and our environment.

My boss, at Murphy Bus Lines, thought that this was a great idea and he donated a bus to this cause. On top of volunteering many hours to make this event possible, I also donated my services as a driver.

With the help of the Glen Cairn Community Resource Centre, we were able to get the word out to the community so that people could sign up for this event. Many people who use this Centre have low incomes and transportation is often difficult, so this event was a great way to provide an opportunity to stock up on healthy berries for the coming winter.

I began planning this event in May. It took a few phone calls and meetings with community organizations until I found a group that wanted to be a part of this. By the time the GCCRC had ‘hopped on board’ it was nearing the end of July. This left us only a week and a half to advertise and register berry pickers. I heard that only seven or eight people had registered, so I was absolutely thrilled when I had counted a total of eighteen passengers on the bus that morning. Almost half of them were children under the age of twelve!!!

I had chosen Kustermans Blueberry Farm for several reasons. 1) They were one of the closest Blueberry farms to London. 2) They were a family run business – now into its second generation. 3) I liked that they had a vision for the future.

The owner welcomed us to the farm and gave us a short tour. The children just loved the petting zoo, filled with colourful birds, Chinese chickens, rabbits and miniature goats.

Steve Kusterman told us that he wanted to create a farming experience that an entire family could enjoy for a whole day. Instead of simply having people come, pick berries and then leave, Steve wants families to think about coming to his farm for a whole day.

He has created this petting zoo – with plans to expand, there’s a children’s playground with swings and slides and inside one of the buildings he is displaying and selling some local artwork as well as many freshly baked treats. The farm also grows Raspberries and Steve is planning on adding other vegetables that people will be able to come out to pick.

Soon, we were in the fields filling our buckets with the tastiest Blueberries in the world!

The children had a great time and, I feel, that this will give them an experience to realize that the food that we eat actually comes from somewhere – not just a grocery store. Many people are disconnected from this simple realization, so little thought is put into the food selections that are bought at the giant superstores that dominate our cities.

By buying and picking locally grown, in season fruits and vegetables we are supporting local economies and decreasing our needs for fossil fuels, as large trucks are not needed to transport these items across the continent. Imported fruits are also picked while the fruits are still unripe, so that they will ripen during transportation… and we all know that these fruits just don’t taste as wholesome and fresh.

The money saved by picking our own berries is another great benefit. I made a few calculations – based just on volumes of berries – and found that a $10.00 pail of fresh Blueberries would cost close to $30.00 if purchased at a grocery store. The stores also package their berries in plastic containers and these will often end up in landfills, contaminating our soils for thousands of years. This packaging is eliminated when you pick your own fruits.

This is my friend Liz! The evening before, Liz and I had attended a group dinner and I told her about this berry picking event. She wanted to learn where this farm was, and she wanted to stock up on Blueberries, so I told her where I would be stopping to pick up passengers. See – a little ‘word of mouth’ advertising goes a long way! Thanks for coming out, Liz!!

My favourite part about any kind of berry picking that I do is eating them while I’m in the fields – there’s nothing fresher or tastier. When I return home, I’ll be freezing most of the berries but I always leave a bowl full in my fridge to enjoy over the coming week. These will taste great but not as great as they do when eaten right off the berry bush.

Everyone agreed with me on this point. “There’s nothing tastier that a berry going from the bush to the hand to the mouth,” Liz said to me as she pushed a handful into her mouth.

I said, “Liz, you’re wrong about that. Actually, the tastiest berries go from the bush directly into my mouth!!!!” We all had a good chuckle over that one!

“Blueberry Daze” was a great success and soon I’ll be planning another events along this line of positive community action, so keep your eyes open for future event promotions.

Until then, be local, be in season and be healthy and happy!!!!

Jim

Of Birds and Bees

During the mid 60’s Rachel Carson wrote a book entitled “Silent Spring”. It detailed the horrors that were becoming evident throughout the world – tho’ focussing on North America – concerning the industrial use of pesticides and insecticides. The title refers to the fact that if our societies continue to use these poisons that the world may one day witness a silent spring as the birds and bees that we need for our survival may soon all become extinct – thus no chirp chirping or buzz buzzing!

This book had such an awakening impact in both Europe and North America that soon many of these harmful farming practices were abandoned, but not totally. Over the last several decades we have joyed in the fact that the Bald Headed Eagle is no longer on the endangered species list and this is a great cause for celebration. However, to this day many of these poisons are still be manufactured in North America – even here in London, Ontario – to be exported to countries that don’t have such controlling environmental laws. We should be wary of the bananas and other fruits that are then imported into North America as our vicious cycles of trade and export continues.

+ + + +

Two summers ago, I was riding my bike home after a small gathering of local environmentalists – a very interesting evening – and I was taking a short cut through a downtown parking lot – now empty, except for one lonely shadow. I noticed that this person was standing, with clipboard in hand and staring high above the surrounding city buildings. I became curious and wheeled around to see what was up – so to speak!!!

She told me that she was conducting a study to find out how many of the downtown buildings – with old chimney stacks – were being occupied by the Chimney Swift. They fly into their homes right at dusk. She told me about these birds, never taking her eyes off of the building tops, and I learned a great deal. One fact that I found fascinating is that the Chimney Swift never lands once it has left it’s home in the early hours of the day – they fly all day long, resting only after they have returned, by hanging (almost bat like) along the inner walls of chimneys.

She told me that during the daytime they fly around eating a variety of insects. Then she started a short talk about insects and how different species fly around at different levels in our atmosphere. The Chimney Swift only flies in one layer of our atmosphere eating the bugs that share this same space. She told me that one thing people are starting to recognize is that car and factory pollution is killing many different varieties of insects and the Swift is finding it harder and harder to find food.

I shared a short story with her, about my first Swift encounter…

Joanne and I were living in Nova Scotia in 2003 and one evening – at dusk – I drove our Jeep into Wolfville to pick Jo’ up from the pub where she was working. I turned a corner to enter into a public parking lot and I noticed a lot of people standing around looking up. I parked and joined them.

It looked like a black disc of swirling shapes – at first I thought that they were bats. Then suddenly, one of the shapes broke away from the disc and started plummeting towards the ground and then it seemed to just vanish. Then another shape dropped and then another. Suddenly the entire black disc disintegrated and all the shapes fell. During this time I could see more clearly and I realized that they were vanishing into the chimney stack.

After chatting with some folks I learned that I had witnessed the daily return to home of the Chimney Swift. I was told that the town of Wolfville had preserved this old chimney, and had built a small display around it to tell the story of the Swift.

The lady in the downtown parking lot thought that it was good that I had heard of and seen the Chimney Swift before. Then we picked up our conversation about insects again…

We talked about how the insect population is steadily declining. I mentioned that when I was young, my mom used to drive me and a few friends to soccer practice and that it was a bit of a game to make comments every time a bug squashed on the windshield. I said, “You just don’t see that anymore. Even after a three hour drive through the country, to visit my parents, my car has only a few splat marks where 20 years ago the entire front of the car would have been a mess.”

We both agreed that this was a very serious matter.

So, this all brings my story to the present, as I continue on, talking about the bean plants that I am growing along the handrailing at the front of my house.

These are called Scarlet Runners and as you can see they grow like a vine. I hope you like the funky effects I used to make this image a little more interesting. All summer long I have been carefully feeding the vines in and out of the staircase handrailing to make a small wall of green…with sprinkles of red dots.

What I’ve been noticing is that the plants are producing very few beans, although I am seeing lots and lots of flowers all the time. I started noticing that when the flowers were not pollinated by the bees that the plant would grow another set of flowers, a little further along the vine. If these flowers were not pollinated then this cycle would continue.

It’s gotten to the point that sometimes up to ten rows of flowers were being produced with no flowers being pollinated thus no beans being produced. I have seen an occasional bee visiting these plants but I’m thinking that the normal routine would be to see many bees on these flowers at the same time.

I mentioned this to a friend who told me that sometimes she has pollinated her plants herself, using a feather from her duster. I had heard about this before but I had never tried it… until recently. I don’t have a feather duster, so after a bit of searching and thinking I thought that I could use a Qtip – I just had to pull the cotton off of the stick to make it a bit more ‘feathery’.

By lightly touching the insides of each flower I was able to spread pollen to many flowers. Incredibly this has actually worked. For the last two weeks I’ve watched my bean crop more than triple. I’ve even gotten into the habit of using this technique on my squash and zucchini plants with great results.

Now, I realize that environmental conditions are always different from season to season and from year to year – that’s why one year we will see an enormous amount of one kind of bug when the next year (maybe it’s a cooler year) we’ll hardly see any of the same kind of bug – so I’m not panicking about the less than normal bee activity I’ve seen this year. But it is something that I will be watching a bit more closely over the next several years.

I do think that it is important for all of us to start recognizing all of these seemingly small and subtle changes in our world. It will help us to understand Nature’s patterns a bit more intimately and hopefully this new relationship will help us make the needed changes that will allow our species to flourish on Earth instead of existing in fear of our future.

Jim