This promotional poster for CWF's first-ever Rivers to Oceans Week showcases a beautiful landscape along one of Canada's northern rivers, the Tatshenshini River, part of vast, protected area recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

June 8 - 14
Rivers to Oceans Week

All creatures — whether people or wildlife — live in a watershed. A watershed is an area of land that water flows across or though on its way to a particular water body. You can think of it as a network of springs, lakes, streams, rivers and wetlands, and all the land they drain. Rivers flow through a watershed as fresh water makes its journey from land to the salty wa­ter of the ocean.

Global climate change is causing sea ice to melt. The loss of this reflective ice surface (the albedo effect) leads to more warming of the climate and the loss of important ice habitat for polar bears, walruses and ringed seals. As ice melts, it also dilutes salt water and upsets the natural composition of marine food webs.

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World Environment Day (WED) falls each year on 5 June.

World Environment Day can be celebrated in many ways, including street rallies, bicycles parades, green concerts, essay and poster competitions in schools, tree planting, recycling efforts, clean-up campaigns and much more. In many countries, this annual event is used to enhance political attention and action.

It is a day when people focus on the environment and it is celebrated in over 100 countries. World Environment Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment.

World Environment Day is created to promote environmental issues to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development. It promotes an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues and advocates partnership that will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future. World Environment Day embodies this approach, raising awareness, encouraging people to voice their thoughts and do their utmost to improve the environment.

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National Wildflower Week - May 7-13, 2007

National Wildflower Week was founded in 1987 by Charles Spencer to honor his mentor, Edward Piela, naturalist and botanist, for his work teaching and promoting wildflowers. The first National Wildflower Week (NWW) was launched in 1988 as the primary focus of the American Wildflower Society, which became defunct a few years later.

Blue flag or wild iris

Habitat: Moist to wet areas, such as the edges of lakes, beaver ponds, and wet meadows.

I find these by the edge of Long Lake

 Blue flag is also know as liver lily. However, the roots are reported to be extremely poisonous. Blue flag was the emblem of the royal house of Louis VII of France. The alternate name, fleur-de-lis, is a corruption of the literal translation "flower of Louis".

 The iris is the rainbow of the Earth. Iris was goddess of the rainbow and messenger of the gods in the Iliad. That is why the flower, iris, is associated with tidings or messages and good news.  The flower name is fitting, given the range of colours displayed by the iris. The name versicolor means "of varied colours". Both the generic and specific names express the variable colour of the wild iris.

Language of Flowers: Iris means "Glad tidings", "Message" or "I have a message for you".

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Lily-of-the-valley produces rich fragrant white blooms for the shade.

Lily of the valley is the common name for a perennial flowering plant, Convallaria majalis, in the lily family, Liliaceae. It is native to Eurasia and eastern North America and is grown worldwide in gardens in warm and temperate zones. The plants develop two or three shiny leaves and a graceful, one-sided group of fragrant bell-shaped flowers, white to pink in color. Plants are propagated from pips, upright buds originating from underground roots.

Lily of The Valley~(Canada May Flower)

Nova Scotia Floral Emblem

This plants can cover the forest floor like a green rug; and one of the first to appear in the spring under the conifers. It has two heart-shaped leaves that clasp the stem. The tiny white flowers are bunched in a small tower. The berries, white with spots, later turn pale red.

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Celebrating April 27

Arbor Day

Celebrate Around The World~

http://www.arborday.org/arborday/

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Listening to Otis Redding sing “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay” can’t help but leave you with a sense of what might have been. 

 In early 1968, Redding's recording of "(Sittin' On ) The Dock of the Bay," co-written with Steve Cropper, became a top pop and R&B hit.

Sitting By The Dock Of The Bay:

http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/1686/Sitting.mid

Sittin' in the morning sun
I'll be sittin' when the evening comes
Watching the ships roll in
Then I watch 'em roll away again, yeah
I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooh, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay wastin' time

I left my home in Georgia
Headed for the Frisco bay
'Cos I've had nothing to live for
And look like nothing's gonna come my way
So I'm just gonna sit on the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooh, I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay wastin' time

Look like nothing's gonna change
Everything still remains the same
I can't do what ten people tell me to do
So I guess I'll remain the same, listen

Sittin' here resting my bones
And this loneliness won't leave me alone, listen
2000 miles I've roamed
Just to make this dock my home
Now I'm just gonna sit at the dock of the bay
Watching the tide roll away
Ooh wee, I'm sittin' on the dock of the bay wastin' time

Otis Redding

1941 - 1967

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Garden Song

by David Mallett

http://www.gardenofsong.com/midi/gardensong5.mid

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Earth Day~April 22

Earth Day proved extremely popular in the United States and around the world. The first Earth Day, in 1970, had participants and celebrants in two thousand colleges and universities, roughly ten thousand primary and secondary schools, and hundreds of communities across the United States. More importantly, it "brought 20 million Americans out into the spring sunshine for peaceful demonstrations in favor of environmental reform."

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Nat'l Volunteer Week 4/15 - 4/21/07

National Volunteer Week, April 15 to April 21, pays special tribute to  volunteers across the country who give of themselves to better their communities and the lives of others.

For more information:

Canada:

http://www.volunteer.ca/volcan/eng/content/nvw/welcome.php

USA:

http://www.usafreedomcorps.gov/about_usafc/special/nvw.asp

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National Garlic Day promotes the many uses of Garlic. And, there certainly are many uses. It's a vegetable. Its' a herb. It is used in recipes around the world. Garlic has ben used medicinally for thousands of years.

Garlic also contains an antioxidant that reduces blood clotting as well as other chemicals which help against cancer. Garlic is best eaten raw or baked whole in the oven. If frying garlic do not allow to go brown.

As a medicinal herb:

Helps to fight off colds and flu.

Lowers blood cholesterol levels.

Reduces the buildup of plaque in arteries.

Used as a treatment for acne and warts.

Used for toothaches

Celebrate National Garlic Day by using it heavily in your meals and snacks today.

You might find you are adding more garlic to your menu everyday.

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Sing:

Sing, sing a song
Sing out loud
Sing out strong
Sing of good things not bad
Sing of happy not sad.

Sing, sing a song
Make it simple to last
Your whole life long
Don't worry that it's not
Good enough for anyone
Else to hear
Just sing, sing a song.

Sing, sing a song
Let the world sing along
Sing of love there could be
Sing for you and for me.

Sing, sing a song
Make it simple to last
Your whole life long
Don't worry that it's not

Good enough for anyone
Else to hear
Just sing, sing a song.

Joseph Raposo Jr. (1937 – 1989)

Richard Carpenter (1946)

Karen Carpenter (1950 –1983)

The Singles 1969-1973

Throughout the fall of 1972 and into 1973, the Carpenters were busy meeting concert demands around the world, and Richard had not found time to get back to the solitary work of songwriting. In January, when they came to the NBC studios to tape a Robert Young Special they were asked to perform a tune from Sesame Street with Arte Johnson, Sandy Duncan, Robert Young, and a children's group. On the set, everyone from the cameramen to the producer was swept up in the sing-along quality of Sing. After several days of rehearsal, Karen and Richard felt the song was strong enough to be released as a single. The Carpenters' version, which Richard was arranging right at the TV studio, features The Jimmy Joyce Children's Choir. Richard and Karen have also had fun preforming this song in concerts throughout the country with children's choirs recruited from each city they visit. Short of that mythical talking dog, nothing was guaranteed to be more of a million-seller than Sing, which became their seventh gold single.

Richard and Karen

More to view:

http://www.richardandkarencarpenter.com/Album_PianistArrangerComposerConductor.htm

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http://www.zianet.com/jw_laurie/Sounds/PutALittleLoveInYourHeart.mid 

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AFTER THE RESURRECTION

Refrain:

Up from the grave He arose;
with a mighty triumph o'er His foes; 
He arose a victor from the dark domain,
and He lives forever, with His saints to reign. 
 He arose! He arose! Hallelujah! Christ arose!

 (Refrain)

Death cannot keep its prey, Jesus my Savior;
He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord!

(Refrain)

Vainly they watch His bed, Jesus my Savior,
Vainly they seal the dead, Jesus my Lord!

(Refrain)

 

 

Robert Lowry (1826-1899)

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World Health Day

 The World Health Organization (WHO) of the United Nation's sponsors World Health Day each year. Annually, a different country is selected to host World Health Day events.

April 7th

Sponsored by United Nation's World Health Organization (WHO), World Health Day focuses upon a different health theme each year. It is an international event to emphasize and work on important health issues or problems. Many countries around the world participate.

Major activities on world health Day focus upon, awareness, education programs, and fund raising activities to help with the health issue for the year. Countries also work on resolving problems related to the theme.

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For The Beauty of The Earth~let us rejoice in the bounty she holds~

Sound of Music

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/soundof.htm

My Day in the hills has come to an end
I know
A Star has come out, to tell me it's time
to go
But deep in the dark green shadows
Are voices that urge me to stay
So I stop and I wait and I listen
For one more sound, for one more lovely thing
that the hills might say

The hills are alive with the sound of music
The songs they have sung for a thousand years
The hills fill my heart with the sound of music

My heart wants to sing every song it hears
My heart wants to beat like the wings of the birds
That rise from the lake to the trees
My heart wants to sigh like the chimes
That flies from a church on a breeze
To laugh like a brook when it trips
And falls over stone on its way
To sing through the night
Like a lark who is learning to pray
I'll go to the hills when my heart is lonely
I know I will hear what I've heard before
My heart will be blessed with the sound of music
And I'll sing once more

Oscar Hammerstein II

1895 - 1960

Richard Rodgers

1902 - 1979

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