Life Style & Travel

UNITED STATES—We can officially rest on the nomination front now that the 2024 Oscar nominees have been announced. All we have to wait for now is the awards shows to continue to shell out trophies and accolades. With that said, the nominations this week delivered some surprises, as they always do. I just love the conversation talk about snubs...

HOLLYWOOD—Last week the nominees for the 2024 Academy Awards a.k.a. as the Oscars were announced. We can now analyze who is likely to be the winner in the BIG SIX as I like to call them (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress and Best Supporting Actor). This week we start the beginning of our...

UNITED STATES—Spring bulbs begin to go into the garden during autumn to benefit from the chill of winter. Summer bulbs begin to go into the garden during late winter to avoid the chill of winter. Spring bulbs know to remain dormant through winter. Some summer bulbs do not. If they grow prematurely, they can be vulnerable to cool wintry...

UNITED STATES—If you don’t know by now, I am a huge sports fan in the football arena, especially of the NFL Detroit Lions. People may not know this, but the Lions have been brutalized in recent years because of the team’s performance, but within the last two years there has been a massive turnaround. Last year, so many people...

UNITED STATES—Winter is bare root season, which is the best time for installation of deciduous fruit trees. It is also the best time for dormant pruning of deciduous fruit trees. Evergreen fruit trees do not get much attention. Installation and any pruning of evergreen fruit trees happens after winter. However, regardless of perceived neglect, winter is actually citrus season. Technically,...

UNITED STATES—This is extreme dormant pruning. Pollard and coppice pruning involve complete removal of all new growth. They typically involve growth from a previous season annually. A two-year cycle involves growth from two previous seasons, and so on. This repetitive pruning to the same origins stimulates distended callus growth there. It is as brutal as it sounds. This is why...

UNITED STATES—Bare root season begins as the year ends for a simple reason. That is when deciduous plants are dormant. They are unaware of the otherwise distressful process of relocation. This is also why winter is the season for dormant pruning. Such pruning would be very distressful at any other time of year. While dormant, deciduous plants are unaware...

  UNITED STATES—Christmas trees are extreme cut foliage. They stand alone, rather than as accessories to cut flowers. Most are a few feet tall, and some are much grander. Ultimately though, they are as disposable as cut flowers. Because they are so expensive, their disposal seems to be wasteful. Realistically though, they are more practical than living Christmas trees. Now that...

UNITED STATES—Christmas trees and associated items are no imposition for nurseries. They are seasonal while not much else is appealing to a retail market. They occupy retail area that summer and autumn commodities relinquished earlier. Then, they relinquish their same space as bareroot stock becomes seasonable. The chronology is very coincidentally very efficient. Bareroot season is not actually contingent on...

UNITED STATES—It was so frustrating at every item on the list to have to stop and go through with the rigmarole again and again. How do you pantomime lard? Go around and point. It was the same way with the purchase of the lard, that we would carry in Heráclito’s rucksack, along with the rice, the beans, the sugar,...