Visitors new to this website no doubt ask yourself: "So what is up with this whole site? I mean "Wizards"? Are we serious about the Future or a collection of "wantabees" in their parent's basements?"

Its an honest question, deserving an honest answer.

The Green Wizards' Benevolent and Protective Association, Tower No. 412, and the Rememberers' Guild, Local 412 of Pittsburgh, are pleased to announce their February meeting. Salvus per ignem!

We will meet on Monday February 12 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Mt. Lebanon Public Library for a lecture on "Chocolate as Medicine." The presenter is a registered nurse, master gardener, and long-term herbalist. The talk will be followed by a chocolate tasting. You must register in advance, and space is limited.

The Green Wizards' Benevolent and Protective Association, Tower No. 412, and the Rememberers' Guild, Local 412 of Pittsburgh, are pleased to announce their January meeting. Salvus per ignem!

We will meet on Tuesday January 23 from 6:30-8:30 in South Park's Buffalo Inn for a free presentation "Let's Talk About Gardening." You may register online to reserve a space. Afterward, we may gather for food, drink, and discussion of topics from Ecosophia.

To think of the Homeless, is to think of poor people sleeping in abandoned cardboard boxes in an alley behind some downtown building. Or living among tents in some small patch of trees, among other people at the end of railroad tracks. We think of those unfortunates as drug addicts, runaways and sometimes the mentally ill BUT more and more the face of homelessness drives a car and works a job.

Recently the pictures of an emancipated polar bear has been making the rounds of the news sites and blogs.

Photographer Paul Nicklen and filmmakers from the conservation group Sea Legacy posted a video of the starving bear and stated that they believed its condition was a direct result of Climate Change. This has left many on both sides of the issue arguing whether that is the true reason for its condition.

While I haven't posted much this summer, its because even though I am lazy, I still have too much work to do! ;-) But I want to update the garden info, and I promise soon I'll find some more good links with garden hints.

The ancient skill of drying your food for storage is constantly being re-discovered and modified, and these days, there is a wealth of knowledge on the web (grab it while you can!) and locally (in many areas).

Okay - this post will probably clinch my title as "lazy gardener" or at least "whimsical gardener". It's spring, and in the Pacific NW that means trying to catch up with weeds that have had all winter to grow. It's not good to disturb soil when it's too wet (which is most of the time here) because it really turns to rock-hard clay if you do. I've learned the hard way how true that is, so I've watched as the invasive grass latched onto my garden beds.

I'm half ashamed to show this photo, but it does illustrate the dilemma of being stuck between two worlds. I am aware that most gardens are straight lines with bare dirt between the coddled and sprayed plants. I am also teaching myself some permaculture ideas, including the fact that bare dirt is not good, and that weeds can sometimes help rather than hurt.