Happy Holidays & Promising New Year

My 'snowy' pal and I would like to wish you all a Happy Holiday Season, with hope of a Promising New Year in 2013.

"Frosty" here is actually the latest creative solution some work associates and I fabricated this 2012 Holiday Season.

For the past three years, our campus has had a friendly competition to take a traditional 6' artificial Christmas tree and design something festive.  Our tree is always 'out of the ordinary' - to say the least, but we might have a slight advantage?  We are the Facilities Management group -- the "nuts and bolts" folks that keep the campus running smoothly.  You put a couple of building engineers, carpenters, designers, DYI-ers, and property managers in a room with some blank paper - it's going to get interesting.

We did an "Upside-down" tree in "Year 1" and an "Angel Gets it Wings" tree in "Year 2".  There are expectations and anticipation on what 'Real Estate' is going to do next.  Then - layer "sustainability" and "reuse/recycle/re-purpose" on top of that (because that's just 'how we roll') ... and you get "'Frosty' the Sustainable Snowman"!   (95% of the materials on and behind 'Frosty' are reused or repurposed - like the shipping skids that became the fence)

Now don't get me wrong, we have R&D 'rocket scientist' types on campus that give Rube Goldberg a run for his money!  The competition amps up each year.  Who can only know what next holiday will bring...

But in the meantime, all the best in 2013...  here's hoping for more ---

More peace .. more kindness .. more sanity 

and especially more lush gardens

Pacem in MMXIII

© Content and photos by The Bunnies Buffet (unless noted)

Time, Sacrifices... and "Field Trips" (Part 1)

Honest, I have not given up gardening, garden blogging or lost interest in catching up with Blog friends!  Right now, there simply does not seem to be enough time in the week (much less the day).

Minutes, Hours and Days - fly by in 'seconds'
(Image: from the creative minds at Microsoft Clip Art)

If you have small children and think time flies by fast, just wait until they are young adults.  Time isn't measured by school holidays - it's measured in annual milestones, or even 'life' milestones.  This is a big year in our home for milestones.  (If you see me posting a lot after August, you'll know it's gotten really quiet around the 'old hacienda'.)

I've been on many "field trips" recently and am grateful for my new(ish) smart phone.  It takes AWESOME pictures, which immediately can be emailed, posted or forwarded ... wherever and whenever.  I won't even get started on it's 'WiFi' compatibility -- yes, I'm a technology geek.

University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign:  the Alma Mater

This came in handy when I had the chance to visit my Alma Mater, the University of Illinois - Urbana Champaign.  It is renowned for it's agricultural studies (among many others), and now more than ever - it's known for it's environmental education & sustainable applications.  The University has a whole "sustainable" program.  Here is a quick link if you are interested:  http://sustainability.illinois.edu/    (Another reason to be a very proud 'alum'.)   As I walked up on this building (see photo below) - street side, it just had something special ... later on, from another side of the building - I saw the "money shot" view.  Here is the link to it's features:  http://sustainability.illinois.edu/greenbuilding.html

As I came up on the building from the street, I just "knew" it was something special...

A shot from my iPhone ... this building doesn't have a bad angle.

Even the 'shape' of landscaping around the campus has changed.  Dorms are being updated.  Faculty is challenging their students to design new and improved (AND native) landscapes around campus.  One more link:  http://sustainability.illinois.edu/landscapes.html  Illinois is not called the "Prairie" state for nothing.

The local community within the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana are caught up in the sustainability initiative as well.  Though I didn't take a picture of it -- Champaign's public transportation is comprised of a fleet of hybrid buses.  Even local businesses and churches have redesigned their surrounding landscaping, as seen in the attached photo:

A little 'fashion forward' coloring - along with drought-tolerant planting.

I had aspired to include photos from 2 other recent 'field trips' in this post - but I am a chatty blogger!  I've run out of time !!!   How apropos for this post ...

Garden close-up - with a little "mood" lighting

Pacim, amici ...

©  All content and photos by Shyrlene Foster @ The Bunnies Buffet (unless noted)