The Habit of Grumbling at the Weather

The habit of grumbling at the weather is the most senseless and futile of all expenditures of human effort. Day by day we complain and fret at the weather, and when we are done with it we have — the weather. The same amount of energy put into wholesome work would have set civilization far in advance of its present state. Weather is not a human institution, and therefore it cannot be "bad." I have seen bad men, have read bad books, have made bad lectures, have lived two years about Boston,— but I have never seen bad weather! — L.H. Bailey, Outlook to Nature

BROWN BAG BIOLOGY: What Would Bailey Plant?

BROWN BAG BIOLOGY/LUNCH & LECTURE

Wed., July 21th, 12:30-1:30 PM

Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum

903 S. Bailey * South Haven, MI * (269)637-3251

Come to sit under the museum's historic Walnut Tree with your lunch for the free program that started it all! Topic: "What Would Bailey Plant?"

In 1862, a young Liberty Hyde Bailey witnessed his mother's passing from diphtheria in the very room he was born in only five years previously. Sara Bailey, left behind at the Bailey homestead, a collection of cottage of pinks, Dianthus, that she gardened. The young, grief stricken Bailey, continually kept-up the garden, marking a rite of initiation into the world of Horticulture and Botany. He writes in his book, The Garden Pinks, "From earliest boyhood the pinks have been my companions. Mounds and rings of Grass pinks were in the front yard, left there by my mother...to this late day the memory of them lingers." This is his list of his mother's extensive pinks: Dianthus Deltoides, D. graniticus, D. Alpestris, D. Arenarius, D. Petraeus, D. Caesius, D. Plumarius, D. Caryophyllus, D. Gallicus, D. Atrorubens, D. Croaticus, D. Cruentus, D. Barbatus, D. Laciniatus, D. Heddewigii.
 

Find out more at this program at the Bailey Museum!

BLUEBERRY ICE-CREAM FESTIVAL at the BAILEY

BLUEBERRY ICE-CREAM FESTIVAL Saturday, July 17th, 2PM-4PM

Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum, 903 S. Bailey Avenue, South Haven, Michigan
Bring the family and taste the season's best! Locally grown blueberries from the southwest Michigan Fruit Belt adorn locally made Sherman's ice-cream. Being ecological never tasted so good! $5 suggested donation.

BLUEBERRY FACTS

• Only 80 fat-free calories per cup, blueberries are a good source of dietary fiber and vitamin C.

•Blueberries rank high in antioxidants that help protect against cancer, heart disease and other age-related diseases.

• Researchers have found compounds in blueberries that help prevent urinary tract infection.

• A single bush can produce as many as 6,000 blueberries a year.

• There are only three fruits native to North America: blueberries, cranberries and Concord grapes.

• Botanists estimate that blueberries have been around for more than 13,000 years.

Museum Becomes a Certified Wildlife Habitat™

Nature cannot be antagonistic to man, seeing that man is a product of nature. We should find vast joy in the fellowship, something like the joy of Pan. - L.H. Bailey, The Holy Earth

The Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum, a National Historic Site has it all for wildlife now: food, water, cover, place to raise their young and sustainable gardening. These are the criteria set out by the National Wildlife Federation. As they mention, "Whether you have an apartment balcony or a 20-acre farm, you can create a garden that attracts beautiful wildlife and helps restore habitat in commercial and residential areas. By providing food, water, cover and a place for wildlife to raise their young--and by incorporating sustainable gardening practices--you not only help wildlife, but you also qualify to become an official Certified Wildlife Habitat™." Check it out at their webiste, Garden for Wildlife.

The Need to Go to Nature

So long as the sun shines and the fields are green we shall need to go to nature for our inspiration and our respite; and our need is the greater with every increasing complexity of our lives. L.H. Bailey, The Nature-Study Idea

The Fresh Air Interview: Filmmaker Josh Fox - 'Living In The Middle Of A 'Gasland' : NPR

So bountiful hath been the earth and so securely have we drawn from it our substance, that we have taken it all for granted as if it were only a gift, and with little care or conscious thought of the consequences of our use of it; nor have we very much considered the essential relation that we bear to it as living parts in the vast creation. Liberty Hyde Bailey, The Holy Earth

    Josh Fox lives in the Upper Delaware River Basin, on the border straddling Pennsylvania and New York State. In May 2008, he received a letter from a natural gas mining company. The company wanted to lease 19.5 acres of land from Fox — and would pay him $100,000 to do so.
    "[They say] 'We might not even drill,' " he tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross. " 'We don't even know if there's gas here. It's going to be a fire hydrant in the middle of a field — very little impact to your land. You won't hardly know we're here.' "
    Instead of saying yes, Fox decided to travel around the country to see how the process of natural gas drilling affected other communities and homeowners. The result, his documentary Gasland, premieres on HBO on June 21. See more with the link above.

Seasonal Sundaes this Saturday

It's all local and good!

Ice Cream & Fruit Festival at

the Liberty Hyde Bailey Museum,

903, Bailey Avenue, South Haven, MI 49090, A National Historic Site

Saturday, June 19th from 2:00 to 4:00 PM

South Haven's own Sherman's Ice Cream covered with locally grown Michigan strawberries!  $5 donation.