hype? coverage? "they"? thoughts: Earth Day was "kicked off" on April 22, 1970 as an environmental "teach in" and is now observed in virtually every country on the planet ... a community oriented day that allows everyone to "think and act locally", learning more about their local environment and it's global connections - water supply, quality & distribution - conservation and recycling - etc,etc,etc - providing a vehicle for the "masses" to show their concern about the planet .... our area had presentations, discussions, displays in conjunction with the first Farmers Market weekend of the season ..... I learned that there's a small alternative energy business in town that I hadn't heard of, which is meaningful to me, and the area .... large groups of volunteers did things like removing invasive species "weeds" from important habitat areas, and cleaning the flotsam of "civilization" from local beaches the "masses" need to come to the "message", not be handed it by the news media Bill Here is a link that might be useful: Earth Day is every day

THANK You for that web site information, brandon7. I just went ot see the site. There is a button at the top of the Earth Fest home page"SPECIAL EVENTS". Click on that to get information about the GREEN BIG TOP sponsored by Ijams Nature Cnter. The statement says they will have a seed swap...a plant holding area, and more Earth Fest is a FREE event.

Jeanne, I have very good memories of my teachers from that time... most were new hires that were very young, so it was easy to relate to them -- and aspire to be like them (especially thinking of Miss Baumgartner with her miles and piles of hair. :) And good luck with your corkscrew willow!!! A friend bought one and it was awesome (very pricey!) luvs, I don't have any delusions about my little fruit orchard. lol! I don't have much room at all (25' wide side yard), so they're being planted a little too closely. :O) One of the reasons I ordered more fruit trees was actually precipitated by the Arbor Foundation! I ordered a 'Prairie Fire' flowering crab from them many years ago... it turned out to be some ordinary apple tree, so I decided to get another apple tree, hoping for cross-pollination. :O) I used to grow out their saplings for a year or two and then give them away to friends and relatives... it's really neat when I see how large they all are now. slinkey, your inherited orchard must have been WONDERFUL! I'm planning to just let my trees take care of themselves. ;^) If I don't get fruit for myself, that's alright. I'm hoping to at least have some privacy/interest, nice spring blooms, and food for the birds/wildlife. I share and still get plenty of the elderberries and blackberries that I planted several years ago, so figure I have nothing to lose.

I thought of Don't Sit Under The Apple Tree as well, glad you posted it! And this song is appropriate for Earth Day, I think... Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)/ Marvin Gaye So beautiful, yet grim. Kind of sad too, how it's still so relevant after all these years.