Lasermonks

No longer monks sitting in monastery copying books. A small order of Cistercian monks in Sparta, Wisconsin, Our Lady of Spring Bank Cistercian Abbey was struggling to find a means of supporting the community. Many ideas had crossed the minds of the five monks and some ventures were attempted. When Father Bernard found that the toner for his laser printer needed replacing, the seed of what would become LaserMonks.com was planted. He realized that if his community was struggling with the high cost of these necessary everyday office items, so too were other religious communities, school and nonprofit organizations. It dawned on him that if he could find a way to save money on these items, he could pass the saving on to other organizations in similar need.

By 2007, this seed of an idea has become what is one of the most complex business models run by a monastery. Ink and toner is a huge industry. Lasermonks online database now boasts more than 35,000 different products and a high-tech online business to hand the 300 to 500 orders a day. http://lasermonks.com/

The monks do struggle with the conflict of peaceful serenity of monastic prayer and charity.
Lasermonks is cited as an example of how to incorporate charity into a business model. It might be a better world if more companies could adopt some of the monks' philosophies.

Chrysanthemum

One of the joys of gardening is anticipating what is to come. It will be some time before my chrysanthemum's start blooming but in the meantime, I will be pruning them trying to encourage more blooms and more growth. Apparently, the flowers start to develop when the hours of sunlight are less than 12 hours which means after September 21st. I wish that I could grow mums like the ones in the photos. These were taken at the annual Mum show in Hamilton, Gage Park.

In some European cultures such as Italy and Greece, the large chrysanthemum flowers we sometimes call "mums' are used exclusively to honour the dead. Chrysanthemums are seen as such potent symbols of power and perfection by the Japanese that at one time only the emperor was allowed to grow them. The chrysanthemum was adopted as the personal symbol of the Mikado, the emperor.

The word chrysanthemum is derived from the Greek chrysos meaning gold and the anthos meaning flower. Flowering plants were fashioned into crowns and used during magic rituals designed to protect participants against demons.

Maybe, if I have enough mums, I will be able to protect my family and house.

Asian chrysanthemums are reported to have been grown in the Netherlands during the 1680's but the first Chinese chrysanthemum to successfully join its European cousins was imported to France in 1789 by a Marseilles merchant, Monsieur Blanchard.

Studying our garden flowers leads us to a study of exploration and trade around the globe. Hard to believe that the humble mum has such an illustrious history.

I am looking forward to the fall and seeing the mums in all their glory. Might even pay a return visit to the annual Mum show in Hamilton, at Gage Park or the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton.

Immortality in a Name

Want your name to live after you? You can join Jeff Goodhartz and others who wish to have their name live on by paying to have a new species named after you. Jeff Goodhartz paid $5,000 to have a new-found sea worm given the Goodhartz name, "goodhartzorum".

"This really jazzes me up" says the 55-year-old high school math teacher whose namesake is translucent with a flamboyant blue tuft. "It will be out there, the family name."

Goodhartz bought the naming rights from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography which unveiled its fundraising name-a-species programme this year. http://scrippsnews.ucsd.edu/Releases/?releaseID=894

It's common for discoverers to name a new species after themselves or in honour of their spouses, children, colleagues or benefactors. It is a new practise to sell of the names in order to fund research.

I would love to have a sea creature named after me, maybe a sea cucumber or jelly-fish-some of them are breathtaking. I love to visit the Monterey aquarium and visit the Jelly exhibit. Maybe one day, we will all be watching the Mularium jelly float around the tank. Or I might want to have naming rights for this nudibranc. The possibilities are thought provoking! Just have to decide how much I would like to pay.

Clematis and lilies

Clematis are the flower of the week! Last year, I was lucky enough to buy some clematis for a very good price and I am so pleased that they are growing and blooming. This lovely specimen is a year old and just stunning.





Apparently, one of the earliest reports of the cultivation in Europe of clematis comes from the Greek botanist Pedanios Dioscorides around 50 A.D He is thought to have originated the name-from the Greek klema meaning a tendril, shoot or vine-which was then used by the younger Pliny to describe the plant in Historia Naturalis. During the Elizabethan reign, the clematis became known as Ladies' Bower or Virgin's Bower.


The clematis is not only admired for its flowers, but also for its remarkably tough stems. In North and South America and in Asia, it's been used as rope. French peasant women make clotheslines from clematis vine. Ancient Romans fashioned clematis baskets. Clematis vitalba has another use: in Russia and Italy, young shoots are boiled in water and eaten like asparagus.




I don't think that I will be weaving my clematis vines or eaten them any time soon but I will enjoy the flowers and look for more to plant and enjoy next year.

The last picture is not a clematis but I could not resist taken a picture of one of the lilies that has started to bloom in my garden.
I love Asiatic lilies. The range of colours is stunning.

Needlepoint

When I am not busy at the computer or dealing with the many projects that I like to get involved in, I like to do needlework of many different kinds. One of my favourites is needlepoint. Unfortunately, I find that I the need to work with a frame and that means that my work is not very portable. If I don't use a frame my work tends to develop a very Dalisque quality to it. These are my most recent projects. I have some trees that I will tackle soon.


The first two pillows are from a set of images created by one of the fathers of the Arts and Crafts movement, William Morris. These are stylized images of artichokes. So far they are my favourite projects.

Before, I tackled the William Morris designs, I attempted a few pillows like the design on the left. Yes, most of the projects that I have done include flowers. Will have to think about that. So far they are the designs that appeal to me the most. I do like Kaffee Fasset's work but the designs are sometimes too bold for my taste.

Time for a stitching break, working on an abstract right now.

(One of my other projects is figuring out how to download digital images to my blog. I think that I am getting better at it.One of my birthday presents which I requests was a memory key with a great deal of memory for my images. )

Meaningful Work

There is a new career obsession: "the quest for meaning in work". The yearning for meaningful work isn't new. But only recently has it become such a widespread preoccupation. This is a wonderful reflection of what people are trying to achieve but hard to accomplish. At first glance, many necessary jobs are not meaningful. They do not change the world and make it a better place but they are stepping stones in the process of learning job skills and simply getting a pay cheque to pay for tuition when in school and later to pay for the essentials of life. Some jobs enable us to create meaning in other facets of our lives.

The researcher who studied people's attitudes towards work and meaning suggested that we enjoy our work without finding it meaningful or being passionate about it. It might be enough to do satisfying work that meets one's needs. As our lives changes, these needs change. We do need to prepare ourselves to change our careers or the focus of our careers. Remember our careers are not who were are or our whole lives; there are other areas of focus.

Music Students

Today, I met with16 students who will be practising with me for the rest of the summer. Most of the students are from the high school where I have worked for the past two years. These students have chosen to meet to play chamber music and perform at hospitals, and seniors' residences during the summer. This will be the fourth summer that I have done this. Hard to believe that I have been doing this for so many years. Three of the students are back for the 4th year. They are very good players. My job tomorrow is to go out and start hunting down more music for them. Since they are paid for some of the performances, there is money available. Wonderful to see how much they have improved over the years.

With time, some students have dropped out because they have summer jobs and can not make the commitment to the summer any more. I always wondered if the numbers would eventually diminish but to my surprise the numbers have actually increased.

Good to know that there are students who are able to give their time and work at something.