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Category: Blessings Of Nature

Nature Is Such A Blessing For Newcomers And Nature Lovers. I Have Surprises For You – Enjoy!

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ABC Alice Springs  By Emma Haskin 26 Nov 2021

Watarrka/Kings Canyon National Park, 300 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs, has been transformed into a watery wonderland thanks to a very wet start to November.  

The Bureau of Meteorology has recorded 218.2 millimetres in Alice Springs, making November one of the wettest on record.

Reg Ramsden has been a tour operator in the region for 30 years and said the region has had sporadic rain over the past three weeks.

Chris Hakanson for Remote Tours

"It's been amazing. It's like a big cleansing. Everything is starting to green up," he said.

"It's been a while since we've seen a major flow like that and you have to be lucky to see it — you've got to be in the right spot at the right time."

Not many tourists 

Mr Ramsden said thanks to COVID-19 there were very few tourists to witness the waterfalls.

"It's unique to see it as it doesn't happen all the time," he said.

"People should get out here. People from Alice Springs should get out to the Western Macdonnell [Ranges] and check out those waterholes as they've all flowed majorly."

Mr Ramsden specialised in school group tours and his business has been badly affected by the global pandemic and subsequent border closures.…

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From FarmersAlmanac.Com

Has all this hand washing left you with very dry or raw, chapped skin? We've got a few natural remedies for that, some may surprise you!

If you’re like most, you’ve been doing some crazy handwashing lately—and topping it off with an alcohol-based hand sanitizer—to keep germs at bay. This kind of frequent hand washing while a reliable way to ward off illness, can lead to dry, chapped skin, according to dermatologists.

Practicing good hand hygiene kills germs, but it also strips away your skin’s natural oils. And for those who experience cold, dry weather, it can be a double whammy. As a result, your hands may even be raw, cracked, and screaming for help. So what can you do? We have a few easy, natural solutions.

First, A Few Hand-Washing Tips

  • When heading to the sink, stick to natural, fragrance-free soaps. You can also try using liquid Castile soap to wash with. Add a squirt to a pump dispenser and fill the rest with water. You can also add a few drops of germ-fighting tea tree oil, and fractionated coconut oil, or “liquid coconut oil,” to help keep your hands smooth.
…

Published on

ABC Rural / By Kim Honan

As a forager for more than 40 years, wild food researcher Peter Hardwick is no stranger to finding all sorts of uncultivated native foods in the bush.

Discovery Of Australian Native Raspberry

But it was his discovery of a thornless native raspberry seedling next to a car park five years ago, on Bundjalung Country in north-east NSW, that has the potential to be a game changer for the native food industry. 

“I grabbed a couple of suckers and took them home and one or two struck, and from that I’ve managed to propagate it, and I’ve grown it on and seen how it performs and here we are with a very nice specimen," he said.

"It's quite productive; it's juicy and it’s tasty. Having no thorns makes it approachable."

While native raspberries are a popular indigenous fruit, they have thorny stems and producers find them challenging to harvest.

"Usually these plants are very, very thorny ... They're recurved, and you’re lucky to get out of wild harvesting raspberries without a scratch," he said.

"So, to find a thornless one is fantastic because it means we can put this into backyards, schools, council parks and that sort of thing."…

Published on Leave a comment on A Grass Native To Africa Could Transform The Continent Dairy Yields. Here’s How

The cows kept by small-scale farmers in Africa are notoriously unproductive. The average dairy cow, for example, produces about 540 litres of milk per lactation. By contrast, dairy cows in North America that belong to commercial or intensive farmers can produce up to 10,479 litres of milk per lactation.

Grass-Fed Is Always Better Than Grain-Fed
Brachiaria Is The Best For Dairy Farms

One of the main differences between the two animals lies in the quality of their feeds and forage. Simply put, the more nutritious cows’ diets are, the more and better quality milk they produce. And small-scale farms – of which there are about 33 million in Africa, contributing up to 70% of the continent’s food supply – usually cannot afford more nutritious feed.

Brachiaria – the genus name of Urochloa – consists of about 100 documented species of grass of which seven species used as fodder plants are of African origin. This grass may hold the key to improving milk yields from cows kept by small-scale farmers. Why is this an important goal?

First, it will help to meet rising demand for animal-sourced foods – like cow milk – as the continent becomes more urbanised and its population grows.…

Published on Leave a comment on Ben Struggled With Lockdown Loneliness. When Two Lorikeets Started Visiting, Their Friendship Went Viral. ABC

Rainbow lorikeets visiting his window have helped Ben Newmarch through a tough and lonely time.

When two lorikeets started visiting, their friendship went viral. The first time that Sydneysider Ben Newmarch posted a video on TikTok, it instantly went viral. "It's been difficult living alone in lockdown and not seeing people," Ben wrote in the video.

Ben The Sydneysider Finds Cheer With His Lorikeets

The first time that Sydneysider Ben Newmarch posted a video on TikTok, it instantly went viral.

"It's been difficult living alone in lockdown and not seeing people," Ben wrote in the video.

"Then this happened."

In the video, Ben showed an unexpected friendship he made in 2021: two rainbow lorikeets, he called Peter and Jane, who have been rocking up to his window pretty much every day.

It's racked up almost 6 million views, and now Ben's adventures with Peter and Jane - feeding out of his palm, hanging out with him while he's wearing a dressing gown in the kitchen - has a dedicated following of more than 60,000 strangers on the internet.

It all started in summer, Ben told Hack, when he was about to leave the house one day.…

Published on Leave a comment on The Best Ways To Take Childrens Learning Outside, According To An Outdoor Play Expert

Bountyteam  MSN

I LOVE THIS ARTICLE BECAUSE I THINK CHILDREN TODAY SPEND FAR TOO MUCH TIME INDOORS. EVEN LITTLE KIDDIES AND TODDLERS GROW UP BEFORE THEIR TIME WITH SOME OF THE TV PROGRAMS THEY WATCH AND SO MUCH PLAY WITH TECH DEVICES. SOME OUTDOOR LIVING IS HEALTHY FOR KIDS - AND PARENTS TOO. LET'S TAKE SOME GOOD TIPS FROM SOMEONE WHO RELATES WELL WITH CHILDREN, HEY?

While we all know homework is necessary for a child’s valuable education, spending time outside is just as essential to children’s physical and mental wellbeing.

But the majority of Aussie kids prefer indoor play despite the many benefits of playing outside on their mood, feelings of satisfaction, creativity and development.

With the school holidays right around the corner and the challenges of lockdowns and restrictions continuing to impact many Australians, Penny Whitehouse, educator and outdoor play expert, shares her tips to take learning outside.

As a working mum, I know it’s easy to slip into an indoor routine and let the kids stay glued to the screen. However, the published research – and my professional experience through 12 years as a wildlife and environmental education officer working to cultivate joy from outdoor play – confirm there are major benefits to kids learning and playing outside during their development years.…

Published on Leave a comment on Spring Has Sprung: It’s Time To Build Your Organic Veggie Garden And Reap The Rewards

By Becky Searles, Family Garden Life

If you want to turn a house into a home then a garden is going to be your best move. And if you want to really improve the value of your home, it’s a productive garden where you can harvest nutrient-dense food that’s going to make the biggest impact.

When you think about a family’s basic needs, food and shelter at at the top of the list, and if your food garden is operating well, it can provide a family with food for most of the year.

Even better, if your family adopts organic gardening principles, you’ll have home-grown organic food that will leave money in your back pocket.

Some advantages to growing your own organic food include:

  • Saving serious money
  • Your family will enjoy freshly harvested food
  • Reducing your family’s carbon footprint
  • Your food will be packed full of nutrients
  • Your harvest will be free of the baddies like synthetic fertilisers, pesticides and chemicals
  • You’ll be helping the environment on so many levels
  • Mindfulness, connecting with nature and family at the same time

Planting the right foods at the right time will yield you delicious results all year round.…

Published on

ABC Rural By Anthea Moodie and Kallee Buchanan Aug 2021

It is not made by any other bee and is better for you, and now scientists know how native stingless bees make healthy honey. 

  • Scientists discovered the rare healthy sugar unique to native stingless bee honey in 2020
  • The bees make it in their gut after consuming nectar high in sucrose 

Researchers at the University of Queensland in collaboration with Queensland Health Forensic and Scientific Services have uncovered the secret of trehalulose — a sugar that is only produced by the tiny insect and does not spike blood glucose levels when eaten. 

Nectar sugars are largely glucose, fructose, and table sugar (sucrose), not trehalulose, so the question became "were the bees finding it or making it?"

"We fed stingless bees some sugar solutions to try and find out the origin of trehalulose," UQ organic chemist and research leader Dr Natasha Hungerford said.

"Then we took two different solutions and fed them to a small colony of bees that were confined for a short amount of time, 24 hours, and we fed them sucrose or table sugar.

"We found that when we analysed the honey that they produced in that short amount of time [they had] transformed the sucrose into trehalulose.…

Published on Leave a comment on Whats The Verdict? Kids Playing Outside Like They Did Years Ago Is In. Its OK!

By Janet Vargas - Natural Health Researcher

So don't be frightened of germs because there are Good Germs as well, kids are missing out on that benefit their Immune System. It’s much Safer than text books say – just one of many practices grandparents and their grandparents encouraged, and their kids were healthier than children Today. No they weren’t mistaken – less educated but not silly. We have been, to take so much notice of information we have been brought up with medical influence. TV and TEC are not Baby Sitter, but we have substituted them for Good Healthy Outdoor Play, Aye?

Encourage Your Kids To Get Their Hands Muddy Or Sandy - Its Good For Them!

And today’s Medical System always scaring us into Antibiotics and Vaccines  - half of which are not appropriate for or country here in Australia. We are not in a Third World Country, and people who live in the Islands are healthier than we are without a Medical Establishment, who are always finding more ways to rake in more profits.

I don’t think there are many of us who remain ignorant to the likes of Big Pharma after 2020 – what a boost to the Industry.…

Published on Leave a comment on Sun-Mapping And Positioning Our Veggie Garden-Beds For Success

Here You Have It Gardeners, Another Way To Improve On Your Veggie Gardening!

Last Week I Made A Companion Planting Guide For Gardeners And Beginner Gardeners. Now To Address The Light And Shade Aspect. Lets Work With Nature. Most Of Us Have Some Shade And Part-Shade In Our Yard (Or Space) When Thinking Of Growing A Veggie Garden (Big Or Small) And Some Of Us Are A Little Confused How To Work Things Out.

Happy Sun-Mapping For Your Veggie Garden

This Post Will Help Bring Some Clarity Into The Situation, So You Have An Idea Where To Grow Your Herbs And Veggies And How To Go About It. The Following Articles Should See You On Your Way To Good Results And Maybe Better Than You Have Had Previously.

How Sun Mapping Can Help Homegrown Veggies Thrive

ABC Everyday  By Koren Helbig

In hindsight, figuring out where the sun falls in our backyard would have been handy to do before we started planting any veggies.

Because edible plants need sunlight to grow — the more of it, the better — yet the sun changes position across the seasons, dropping lower in winter and throwing longer shadows across the earth.

My partner and I didn't even think to consider this when we moved into our Adelaide rental four years ago.…