The three orchids below have been blooming in March. The Wildcat is finished and the yellow Phalinopsis has just begun. The Pink Phalenopsis has been in bloom for at least a month and has just added two more flowers.
Wildcat 
yellow phal. 
pink phal
From Times Colonist – March 31, 2005
By Tom Spears
A new assessment of Earth’s environment – this one from the United Nations – brings the usual gloom, with a twist: Sometimes a problem that has been going slowly downhill reaches a ‘tipping point’, and bad things happen very suddenly.l
A prime example is the sudden and final crash of Canada’s cod fishery. Another is a situation in India in which people gradually cut the trees on a mountainside until there was sudden flooding and cholera.
The catch is that you can’t forecast when we’ll reach these tipping points. It’s like waiting for a house of cards to fall down, say organizers of the UN’s Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, a work by 1,300 scientist, economists and others in 95 countries, to be released today.
The fancy name for this sudden crashing is ‘non-linear degradation’, but A.H. Zakri, a Malaysian genetics professor who co-chairs the project, puts it more simply. “After a certain amount of time when you keep degrading the ecosystem, you would reach the tipping point and then all hell sort of breaks loose.”
There have been plenty of overviews of Earth’s ecology, but Zakri says this one is unique because it ties the pollution and endangered-species issues to the UN plan for global development. The key, the report says, is that we are pushing some resources too hard in our struggle to make economic gains.
Among the worst threats:
¨ Vast amounts of ordinary fertilizer from intensive farming are polluting our water and causing ‘dead zones’. Fertilizer is turning out to be far more lethal than many chemicals we usually consider toxic.
¨ Many dry areas are running out of fresh water. Canada’s Prairies are one of the regions under threat.
¨ Climate change threatens to cause more dry areas, but also more severe storms and floods. No country has a good handle on fighting this problem.
March 31, 2005 I signed up for 500 MB of hosted space with go.daddy for $37.92 for a year. I must change my settings on it to say yes to front page extensions I think. Billie will tell me.
I got a call from Billy at __daddy today. He gave me some good information that I think I should probably act on. I can get 500 MB for about $35. I will probably try and find a template to do a page; although I am slowly learning a bit about how to use Front Page. I have a WS_FTP now too, thanks to one of my good "STEVE" internet friends, who shall go nameless for now.
In April, I think I will try and be more organized with my blogs. One for computers, one for gardening, maybe one for other stuff., or maybe just one big long blog for the whole month.
Easter Lily
We are having Tara and Andy to the traditional turkey dinner this evening. Should be fun. I must get off my computer and into that other play room (kitchen).
Paraphrasing from the Times Colonist of March 27, 2005
It was right down to the wire, but the Save-On-Food Memorial Center opened to the skirl of bag pipes and the sounds of Rod Stewart Saturday night.
The arena was issued an occupancy permit about 6 hours before the 8:00 p.m. concert. Victoria Mayor, Alan Lowe, accepted the first ticket on the arena's opening nite. The arena has a 7000 seat capacity.
I have no photos of the place yet, or of it when it was under construction. Alas.
We were offered tickets to the show but had to decline as we had prior commitments. Alas, again.
This flower is like my old template web page... beautiful but torn, ripped off the net.
I am adding the links to my old blog that was so rudely deactivated because of my protest in the forums about obscene and lewd material allowed on the site. The place has become the Smutty Boys and Slutty Girls club, so I am just as well out of it.
I had quite a lot of information saved to that blog and do not want to lose the time and effort I put into it. So, here are the links to all my old posts.
November 17, 2004 Gardening, Photography, etc
November 22, 2004 Fractal Geometry
December 01, 2004 Photography, Gardening, etc.
December 12, 2004 Internet Ombudsman
January 03, 2005 January garden, travel, etc
January 09, 2005 Record Snowfall
January 09, 2005 Southeast Asia Disaster
February 01, 2005 February in the Garden
February 03, 2005 World Print Conference South Africa
February 08, 2005 Pixpo
February 08, 2005 Gung Hai Fa Choi
February 15, 2005 Real or Hoax?
February 19, 2005 Saggitarius - neutron star
February 20, 2005 Holga
March 06, 2005 March in the Garden
March 11, 2005 A Nation in Tears
March 11, 2005 Mount St. Helens
March 11, 2005 Computer stuff
white crocus
I have been rather busy with family and home with little time for playing on my blog.
I have learned how to access my web space on my isp but did not get much further than that with regard to building my web page there. I have a lot to learn about it yet and need some clear time without interruptions to look at it. This is not likely to happen in the next few days. :(
My delicate little yellow phalenopsis opened its flower 2 days ago. I have digital shots of it but have not got around to loading and editing the pictures yet. Its name is Golden Amboin "Corcoran"
I managed to get the pansies and few bedding plants planted yesterday and a whole lot of weeding done the day before. Their are hyacinths, daffodils and other spring bulbs in bloom. The magnolia trees are both blooming madly and smelling heavenly. They compete with the delicious fragrance of the clematis armandi that is on the back garage and is covered with blooms also.
A few days ago I moved the water tub back up to the deck. The fish survived the move and I now get to see it as long as the water stays clear. The little yellow water lily is beginning to show some growth.
Last nite I had a look at my old blogs on my ephotosite that I can no longer access. HA! I am considering reposting them here. I had some good information posted. like this: (hope it works) Record Snowfall
We had a pretty good lunch today at Dunlop house. As we were in the second sitting, they were running out of everything. The wine and the sweet onion soup were exquisite, though.
Tonite I registered my mmmee.com domain name! Weeeeeeeeeeeeee! I am getting so much help from a dear friend, who will go un-named at the moment. But you know who you are, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Its an honour and a pleasure to know you. Now I have to make the best page I can possibly manage to make, to show you that your time spent on me is not for nothin', and because I want to make that page.
I brought home a few pansies, polyanthus, heather and parsely today to plant out in the pots. Yesterday in the garden I weeded and weeded until I was late getting in to make our dinner. I can just get totally lost and forget time and everything out there.
sanguinaria Canadensis
This flower is not blooming yet, but hopefully it will be blooming by May. As everything is early this year, this lovely flower may be in bloom in April.
I was weeding in my garden for about 3 hours today. It was cloudy, about 13 celcius. A very relaxing and lovely afternoon.
On my computer, I seem to be slowly learning to manage my scanner to do ordinary documents and send them by email. Use the rtf files and scan, read and scan and save. Three steps to it, then send the file or print it. I did a copy of the notice of public hearing on Nob Hill, from Colwood, hearing to be held on March 29 at 7:00.
Tomorrow we go for lunch at Dunlop House at 1:30 with Jim and Sheila. This is always a treat.. excellent food and company.
There is a link to Flickr -- a Vancouver photo uploading and sharing site -- in the information of this blog. I had a quick look at Flickr and it seems to me to be very busy. For the moment, I think I will stay with Photo.net and Usefilm.com. I became very disenchanted with Photopoints people and the direction the site is taking. The forums and photos seem to be the domain of the smutty boys and slutty girls club. There is no room for learning or good critiques in the agenda. It has become a chatroom. I have said so, and Oscar deactivated my account. I wished him luck with his venture, but I really hope he gets his nose rubbed in the garbage he is allowing on that beautifull site he has created. Who knows, maybe that kind of shit will make his sb & sg club grow and flourish. I must thank him, though for getting me started on this blogging thing, and onward to thinking about creating my own web page. It was a lot of fun trying to make my ephotosite on his template site. My next one will be my own and won't be rudely pulled down by the insecure puppy. ONWARD!
let me see if I can add this photo of the lewisia
OK. Now I have to learn to make my own page. When I have managed that, I can add the blog to it. Hmmmmmmmm, I am going to be busy. Does anyone know where I can get a template page to start?
