Thursday, June 12, 2008

Someone Should Supervise me at Stutzman's



This is Stutzman's Greenhouse, which is a spectacular place to go. It's just a few miles outside of town. This afternoon, I intended to go to Stutzman's, as well as a couple of other spots out that way, to drop off flyers for the garden tour. Greg decided he would go along and we'd eat at the Dutch Kitchen.

So, we went to Glenn's Bulk Foods and left a flyer, then had a late lunch/early dinner at Dutch Kitchen, and then over to Stutzman's. Somewhere along the way, someone mentioned Stutzman's was having a big sale. Now, bear in mind, I'm a person who has already planted everything I intend to plant. I'm done.

That's why I bought another full flat of plants today. Really, seriously, someone should supervise me better.

Although you have to understand, when we asked what was on sale, the lady replied, "every living plant in here is half off." Half off? Everything? Those purple things and the blue things and white things? Yes. Everything. Half off.

In about 12 seconds I had gone back up front to get a cart and returned to wander the aisles.

I got two blackberry bushes, and some more flowers. I wanted a dill plant but they were about four feet tall and I didn't think they would survive the transplantation. I got a couple of really cool foilage things. I'll take some pix once they're planted. Of course, I don't really like to plant. I just like having it done. Unfortunate, that. However, as of yet, there is no gardener to do it for me so I believe it will be me getting them in the ground.

Greg picked up a couple of things, too, but he got tired of waiting for me. Stutzman's has forseen this problem and provided a bench for such occasions. It's quite the environmental portrait.

And, yes, those are real petals on the ground.


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McCain Girl

OK, this is funny... regardless of your political leanings and/or interest.




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Quote of the Day

Life is sweeping by; go dare before you die.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Preservation and Why it Makes Good Economic Sense



In the town where I live there's a great deal of discussion these days about a large downtown building and what to do with it. It's the large building in the background of this photo Greg took in May. An absentee owner has let it deteriorate to some degree, but it could still be preserved. A suggestion has been made to move our city hall to it because we also need to build a new city hall.

This makes good sense to me. It keeps a historic building extant. It solves a problem for city hall. It is good for the environment to use a building that's already here instead of building a new one and also prevents sending a ton of stuff to the landfill if it has to be demolished. And, to top it off, it preserves something that is a significant part of our downtown landscape.

Okay, so, there's the backstory.

The trick is getting other people to realize the benefits of preservation. I ran across this information from a speech the other day and just loved how he sums up the whole situation. This is from a seminar by Donovan D. Rypkema on the Economics of Preservation, given at the University of Miami in 2006.


"I cannot identify a single example of a sustained success story in downtown revitalization where historic preservation wasn't a key component of that strategy. Not a one. Conversely the examples of very expensive failures in downtown revitalization - Detroit leaps immediately to mind - have nearly all had the destruction of historic buildings as a major element. That doesn't mean, I suppose, that its not theoretically possible to have downtown revitalization and no historic preservation, but I haven't seen it, I haven't read of it, I haven't heard of it. Now the relative importance of preservation as part of the downtown revitalization effort will vary some, depending on the local resources, the age of the city, the strength of the local preservation advocacy groups, and the enlightenment of the leadership. But successful revitalization and no historic preservation? It ain't happening."


http://www.arc.miami.edu/knight/Courses/preservation%202006/drypkema%20presentation.doc
to read more of his presentation

My frustration with such things is that it's so obvious and yet people ignore it.

Facts play such a small part in changing anyone's mind about any topic. I know this, and yet it still surprises me.
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Check www.patsyterrell.com for the blog, art, and more.