~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
April 25, 2014

★~ Today’s Quote: The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is now. ~Chinese Proverb

★~ Arbor Day: Planting Trees

Arbor Day has been celebrated since 1872. A journalist named J. Sterling Morton created this holiday to encourage people to plant trees and to raise awareness about the importance of forests and plants. The first Arbor Day took place in the state of Nebraska, and local newspapers estimated that one million trees were planted that day!

★~ Plumbers Day:

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Without ’em, we’d be in deep you-know-what

Most people take plumbing for granted. It works so well we never think about what it takes to do a hot water system installation in Sydney, it’s not straight forward and it doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a testament to hardworking, highly skilled plumbers – from the industrial hydraulic engineer to the guy who turns the wrench.

Of course, it wasn’t always thus. People hand-carried water from rivers. Did their business in the bush, or in cesspools, outhouses and chamber pots they’d toss into foul, unsanitary streets. Think about all the squalor and disease that plumbers have. Need I say more? Today we say Horrah For Plumbers!! For those who want to take the extra step and hug a plumber please watch the How To Hug a Plumber Video First.

★~ World Penguin Day:

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Penguins are celebrated twice a year. In January, we celebrate Penguin awareness day and today we are celebrating World Penguin awareness day.

~ There are 18 species of penguin in the world. While some species are thriving, 13 of them have declining populations.

~ Penguins lost the ability to fly millions of years ago, but their powerful flipper-like wings and streamlined bodies make them very accomplished swimmers. They are the fastest swimming and deepest diving species of any birds.

~ Penguins are not natural tap dancers.

One way to celebrate penguins is to dress in black and white, and eat ice cream!

★~  Zucchini Bread Day:

Zucchini Bread in April is a wonderful way to greet the gardening season.  I use this recipe for my Zucchini Bread and if I do say so myself it is very tasty

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1850 – Paul Julius Reuter founded the news agency that bears his name. He got things rolling by using 45 pigeons to carry news and stock prices between Brussels, Belgium and Aachen, Germany.

♥~ 1928 – Buddy, the first seeing eye dog, was presented to Morris S. Frank

♥~ 1901 – New York became the first state to require automobile license plates. The fee was $1. Owners of automobiles were required to register their names and addresses, along with a description of their vehicle, with the office of the secretary of state. The state sent each owner a small license plate, which bore the owner’s initials. New York received $954 in registration fees that year.

♥~ 2003 – Southwest Airlines fired two pilots for “inappropriate conduct” after they removed all or most of their clothes mid-flight in the cockpit of a Boeing 737. The pilots claimed they spilled coffee on their clothes, but the airline ruled the prank went too far. The US Federal Aviation Administration said though rules forbid behavior that distracts crew members, there was no specific ban on flying naked.

★~Born Today:

♥~ 1873 – Howard R. Garis, author,  His most famous character is Uncle Wiggily, a gentlemanly old rabbit who always wears a suit and a silk top hat. Garis was a reporter for the Newark Evening News and he wrote hundreds of children’s books, many of them as a ghostwriter. He published his first Uncle Wiggily story in a newspaper in 1910, and it was so popular that he ended up publishing an Uncle Wiggily story six days a week for more than 30 years. By the time he retired, he had written more than 10,000 stories about the rabbit. (Writers Almanac)

♥~ 1917 – Ella Fitzgerald Grammy Award-winning singer [12]: Bill Bailey Won’t You Please Come Home, Mack the Knife, A-Tisket, A-Tasket; died June 15, 1996. Check out Google Doodle. celebrating what would have been her 96th birthday.

♥~ 1940 – Al (Alfredo James) Pacino Academy Award-winning actor: Scent of a Woman [1992]; Scarface, Serpico, The Godfather, Dick Tracy; Tony Award-winning actor: Does a Tiger Wear a Necktie [1969], The Basic Training of Pavlo Hummel [1977]

★~ Good To Know:

♥~ Certain types of trees warn each other when they’re under siege by insects.  Since the late 1970s, researchers have studied this phenomenon in willows and poplars. Collectively, they’ve found that trees infested with insects will produce an excess of chemicals in their leaves. These chemicals not only reduce the nutritional value of the leaves for the insects, but also warn neighboring trees. Following the warning, nearby trees will begin to produce the same chemicals, defending themselves from a similar attack.

♥~ Mature trees that are “properly placed around buildings” can protect a household from excessive exposure to the sun or wind. According to the U.S. Forest Service, such tree cover can conserve air conditioning use by 30 percent and heating use by 20 to 30 percent. But wait, there’s more! The Service also states that “healthy, mature trees add an average of 10 percent to a property’s value.”

♥~ A tree can absorb as much as 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year and can sequester 1 ton of carbon dioxide by the time it reaches 40 years old.

♥~ Trees are the largest living organism on earth:
– Some coastal redwoods are over 360 feet tall
– Some swamp ash trees are almost 300 feet tall
– Giant seguoia trees can weigh over 2000 tons (4 million pounds)
– It can take 10 minutes to walk around the crown of a giant banyon tree in Calcutta.
– Monkey trees can have a crown of almost 200 feet.

♥~ Trees are some of the oldest living organism on earth:
– live oaks can live to be over 500 years
– many giant sequoia trees are 2,500 years old
– some bristlecone pines are thought to be over 5000 years old.

♥~ Trees do not grow beyond their ability to support themselves. During periods of stress they shed leaves, flowers, fruit and/or branches.

♥~ Aspirin was originally developed from willow bark, but it’s certainly not the only plant-related drug. As with all plants, trees are a rich source of various biological compounds, so it makes sense that we’d be able to find a few chemicals that are useful to us. Some chemotherapy drugs are made from yew clippings, and ecstasy is  produced from the  “mreah prew phnom,”  in Cambodia.Unfortunately, the tree has become endangered due to the illegal drug trade.

♥~ The  official Guinness World Record for “World’s Most Dangerous Tree,” is held by the Manchineel tree from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. The manchineel’s bark is covered in sap that causes skin to blister and can blind a person if it gets in their eyes. Even standing under the tree in the rain can cause blisters because the sap will drip onto skin. The tree’s fruit, known as the “beach apple” or “death apple,” is slightly sweet but very painful to eat. Ulceration of the mouth and esophagus will occur from just a small bite and consumption can be lethal. Smoke from burning manchineel wood can cause blindness, and the sap has historically been used to coat arrows for hunting. Today it’s an endangered species in Florida.

♥~ Moon Trees:  In 1971, astronaut Stuart Roosa took 500 seeds aboard Apollo 14 as part of his personal luggage.  The seeds orbited the moon 34 times aboard Apollo 14′s command module—Roosa never walked on the moon himself. When he returned to Earth, the seeds were planted, and five years later, saplings were sent all around the country (and even overseas) as part of American bicentennial celebrations.  After the bicentennial celebration everyone forgot about them and It wasn’t until 1997 that they were rediscovered—by a bunch of school kids. Cannelton Elementary School in Indiana had a tree on their grounds with a “Moon Tree” plaque, but had no idea what that meant. They called NASA, and no one there had any idea either. Their inquiries prompted scientist Dave Williams to do some digging, and he was able to root out the tree’s history. He’s since collected details on over 50 of them.  The moon trees have e been compared with trees from their sibling seeds that never left Earth and there is no difference between the trees.

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Last summer after we took the trampoline down our plan was to plant a tree in its place, but we couldn’t decide what kind of tree and the best time to plant a tree had past. We started our research earlier this year and are learning towards a Washington Hawthorn tree. 

Another options is the Espresso Kentucky Coffee Tree

It’s a big decision choosing the right tree! Suggestions are welcome. We have pine trees in our yard, that dearly departed Joe helped plant when he was about 5. My teen grew up climbing them and swinging from them and now they are home to cardinals, wood peckers, robins and a few squirrels. Luckily they survived the winter. It’s so sad to see the number of trees that didn’t survive. I guess, I’m a bit of a tree hugger. In any case, we hope to adopt a tree and plant it by the end of May.

Wishing you a fabulous Friday!

Odd Loves Company!