| Gardeners, plants, insects await return of spring
Mid-April and there is still snow on the garden. The day's cold rain has reduced it to patches along the border with the woods. Chill winds howl around the house; the lights flicker. Writing is interrupted by a sense of urgency to fill lamps with oil and buckets with water. Each April storm has left me hoping it was the last, that in its wake daytime highs would signal plants and insects, both friend and foe, to get on with spring. But storms keep coming. Everything waits. Gardeners, plants and insects all wait for the same signal, an accumulation of Growing Degree Days that initiates emergence from winter's dormancy. GDDs begin to accumulate when daily temperatures rise above 50 degrees Fahrenheit; for a given day, every degree above an average of 50 is one GDD. For example, a day with a low of 48 and a high temperature of 52 degrees would add two GDDs to the accumulated total.
Light a lamp for peace
As tensions remain high between the United States and Iran, participants in a MCC-led delegation to Iran in February are urging congregations to light oil lamps as a reminder to pray for peace and for the people of Iran. The delegation, co-sponsored by MCC and American Friends Service Committee, met with the Iranian president, a former president and other political and religious leaders in Iran in February. At the end of each meeting, the U.S. group presented Iranian leaders with ceramic oil lamps, made by Indiana potter Dick Lehman, as well as quilted wall hangings. Ron Flaming, MCC's director of international programs, said delegation members told leaders that the Bible calls on Christians to remember the leaders of the world with prayer and that the lamps signified a promise to remember Iran and its leaders.
Don’t throw away those paper cups!
This Tarzan ice-cream cup was made by Lily-Tulip Cup Corp. in the 1930s. Hake's Americana and Collectibles, of Timonium, Md., priced it at $518. You can find paper-cup collectibles for much less, but this one is rare and in mint condition. Cowles Syndicate Inc. .
Light up those circuit boards
Where do old circuit boards go after the technology they powered has become obsolete? If they're lucky, they get recycled into arresting pieces of home decor, like this circuit board standing lamp. The concept is inspired in its simplicity - just surround each bulb with circuit boards to cast a soft glow that's nonetheless got that modern edge. Every circuit board is different, of course, so no two lamps are exactly the same. At $900 from Uncommon Goods, this lamp doesn't come cheap, even though I'd feel good that it's made from materials that aren't biodegradable and would otherwise sit in a landfill for centuries to come. A less daunting option might be the circuit board table lamps for $220-$280, but I think the standing lamp brings a much stronger accent to a room. .
Fire victims' fatal error
AN elderly couple who died when flames ravaged their home near Buntingford declined the fire service's offer of a free smoke detector just two months before the blaze. An inquest into the deaths of Denys and Muriel Winsor, both 86 and married for 57 years, also heard that paramedics visiting the couple on the morning of the fire smelled smoke in the home but were told it was nothing. The Winsors died on December 14, 2006, unable to escape the blaze at The Homestead, Chipping. At Wednesday's inquest it emerged that the couple had been visited by fire safety officers from Papworth, Cambs, in October 2006 and were offered a free smoke detector but refused. At 5.55am on the morning of the fire, paramedics visited the couple, who were described by the coroner Edward Thomas as "living a very reclusive life".
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