[Friday Five] February 2

Hello again,

Another week has gone by. Here are my 5 picks for this 6th week of 2018.

  1. The wolf is back: Naya is 2 years old and traveled 700km from Germany to Belgium – on her own! Tagged with a radio collar in eastern Germany at 6 months old, she arrived in Belgium first week of 2018. Naya is the first wolf to be recorded in Belgium for over 100 years. With her arrival, this fascinating, elusive animal has now spread over all of Mainland Europe, leaving a trail of killed sheep and a debate on how to handle this endangered species.  Read more in this article in The Guardian or listen to the story at CBC’s As It Happens .
  2. Eat more veggies: After writing my blog post about healthy eating, I spotted this cool website: http://www.halfyourplate.ca/ . Check it out. It shows a multitude of recipes incorporating lot’s of vegetables. Plus, it lists all common vegetables and tells you about its nutritional value and how to store it.
  3. Mythopia is a winery in Switzerland. Surrounded by some of the highest summits in the Alps, the steep slopes of the Mythopia vineyard have become a paradise, home to fragrant flowers, fruit trees, rare birds and more than 60 species of butterflies. It’s a vineyard exuding biodiversity where the ecosystem is sustained by a symbiotic network of uncountable species. Read more about this special place on their website, browse for some cool images of the biodiversity happening there.
  4. The Upcycle: Beyond Sustainability–Designing for Abundance. Great book for optimists like me. I enjoyed this read, as it the authors helped me to gain a new perspective on a few things. Take waste for example. Start by considering waste as a resource for rare metals, plastic….you name it. Then design products that can be easily taken apart after use and completely used for other products. The book offers many examples based on the consulting experience of the authors. Well worth a read. Check out the website of co-author William McDonough for more insights into the book.
  5. Bokashi Composting: I started my first Bokashi compost In short, I am composting my kitchen waste into an air tight container and let it ferment. Fermentation in turn will stimulate microbial growth, which, when added to my “regular” compost, biochar or soil will increase the soil life of that medium and result in better nutrient uptake by my plants. Besides the benefit for my garden soil, Bokashi composting also does greatly reduce the smell of my kitchen waste and I can finally compost everything from leftovers to dairy to lemons. Well, maybe not bones. Haven’t checked that out yet. You can simply google “Bokashi” to find many sources about it. Here is one source I liked. http://bokashiliving.com/

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