The Denver Botanic Gardens is hosting beautiful installations by artists Tetsunori Kawana and Stephen Talasnik. They work in bamboo and I absolutely loved the presentation in the botanic gardens. I’ll share a few photos with you here but if you are in the area definitely check it out this summer!

I loved this piece ^ It was huge! This is basically the top half of it. I think this work is so beautiful and a great installation for the botanic gardens since it’s using a natural material. It really fits nicely in the location!

These floating sculptures were very cool. I saw them first in an area that wasn’t as manicured as this photo and I almost didn’t register them at first because they fit in so well with the surroundings. I just have to wonder how long it takes to build any one of these pieces, they are so intricate!

A view through the body of one of the works. I wish I could go and sit inside of it… Looks so peaceful and cool under there

This was one of my favourite floating sculptures because it looks just like a lotus flower. Love the shapes of the one behind it as well that look like leaves. The more organic the shape seemed to me the more I liked it.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful spring! If you get the chance pick a nice day and go wander the Denver Botanic Gardens…. and tell me what you think!

Today is Blog Action Day and bloggers across the world are talking about Food. If you are interested check out www.blogactionday.org !

So something that seems to have come up a lot lately for me has been this issue of Agricultural Biodiversity. I keep running across mentions of the world seed banks and different ideas about the stability of our commercial methods of agriculture.

As population growth continues, we face huge challenges in feeding the world’s population. Even as it stands currently, we’re not there yet. People across the globe are constantly struggling to stay nourished. We are in a constant fight against hunger. In trying to keep up with growing demands, farming practices have focused in on high-yield crops and livestock which assure a bountiful harvest for those in need right now. The downside is that in narrowing our focus to selected varieties of foods, we are constantly losing species of crops that were once very prevalent. In the United States alone, we have lost approximately 90% of our historic fruit and vegetable varieties to extinction (National Geographic-July 2011 pg.115). This puts us at a great risk in the case of climate change or dangerous crop pathogens. With only select species available, one pathogen could take out an entire crop species, leaving us with no way to make up for the loss. In the same way, if the species we currently plant cannot survive with raising global temperatures then it is incredibly important that we have options.

Global seed banks are working to alleviate these concerns. They collect seeds from unique varieties of crops from around the world so that one day if we are in need, we could turn to them. Each different variety of crop can survive different conditions and have different resistances to disease. This makes biodiversity in agriculture extremely important! We can’t just rely on a few strains of corn and hope for the best. We should be bringing biodiversity back into farming. Using local/ domestic varieties of crops can even lessen our need for toxic fertilizers and pesticides by taking advantage of the unique resistances present in native breeds. I certainly don’t think we need to wait for a horrible crop failure and famine before putting these ideas into practice. We have the ability to be proactive and think of our future. Too many of our native crops have become extinct already; lets protect the ones we have left

Please check out the National Geographic Article “Food Ark” online at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/food-ark/siebert-text/1

It’s an awesome article Make sure to check out some of the images as well! Also on the site is a list of heirloom seed exchanges from around the US : http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/07/food-ark/growing-heirlooms

I wanted to share this video for anyone who is interested in Tai Chi. This is a video of Professor Cheng Man-Ch’ing playing push hands. The practice of push hands is integrated with Tai Chi and helps one to train sensitivity among other things. It has been a very important and influential  part of my Tai Chi practice over the years. There is an awesome book about Chen Man-Ch’ing and Tai Chi Chuan called “There Are No Secrets” by Wolfe Lowenthal which I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in learning more. So far it’s my favourite book about Tai Chi. Hahaha, now I’m talking too much! Here’s the video: Enjoy!

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSYPOhSgiis&feature=related

These are photos from my brother-in-law’s wedding in China this summer. It was my very first trip overseas and it was absolutely incredible! We spent much of our time in Xi’an, but the wedding itself was in a smaller town to the north-east called Baishui.

I keep shying away from beginning to post photos of this wedding because of the sheer volume of this album! It seems so inadequate to post only a few pictures at a time, but I have to start somewhere, right? So today I chose just a few portraits to share with you.

This is Jason Arentz (above) my wonderful brother-in-law. This photo was taken the morning of the wedding while everyone was still running about getting ready and waiting for the procession to begin. I love this photo because it shows just how joyful and excited he was that morning. Full of laughter! It was highly unusual for a white guy to be seen in this town on a horse and about to be married The procession was quite a spectacle and there were many people lining the streets to see what was happening and share in the celebration. This little boy was so excited and was jumping up at the horse and Jason just beaming This horse has nerves of steel! Amid the fireworks, people, and traffic it managed to keep its cool throughout the event.
I’m not gonna lie, I am not entirely sure what this guy was looking at. I just loved the expression and wanted to include it here. Sometimes photos just make me happy This is one of the palanquin-bearers from the procession. All of these guys were so vibrant – smiling and waving I really enjoyed walking alongside them. The lovely Li Hao My new sister-in-law in the bridal palanquin. She is so beautiful and I thought she looked just like a princess in there! I was lucky they opened the curtain so I could sneak over and snap a few photos!

I hope that you enjoy these little glimpses of the wedding procession! I can’t wait to share more photos from the wedding and other China adventures!