Trees!

Holiday gift cards - for clients who don't do snow images for a summer Christmas. environmentally friendly too - no ink, and earning treebucks.

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago – the next best time is now”

I love trees. Hang on, let me qualify that – I love most trees. I hated the ancient apple tree in my garden in America that produced a million wormy sour apples every year. The apples fell to the ground and attracted two million wasps – that tree I mentally consigned to tree hell. Oh yeah, I hate eucalyptus and black wattle trees that some idiot introduced to South Africa eons ago. Now they thrive and suck much needed water from the ground and crowd out indigenous species. Those trees need to emigrate back to Australia!

I love indigenous trees. They have such wonderfully evocative names: Tamboti,  Baobab, Jackalberry, Umbrella Thorn, Bushwillow, Buffalothorn, Mopani, Paperbark, Fevertree, Sausagetree,  Stinkwood, Sneezewood, Yellowwood – beautiful trees in a beautiful country.

I love climbing trees. I spent quite a lot of my childhood in trees and wish my kids had a tree to climb and build a treehouse in. I Want a grown up treehouse one day – yes, they do exist – I have the book! I have been known to totally embarrass my children by shinning up a suitable tree to look at the world from a different view-point.

I like tree people too! At the Yebo Gogga event last year, we met Sean Hide of Grow-A-Tree fame. We already owned a Grow-A-Tree White Stinkwood which had already reached a nice height of 30cm (from seed). On meeting Sean, my daughter, the family tree-embracer and inspiration behind out treebucks programme indulged in a Wild Olive tree pack . Sean is a dynamic guy -  and I suspect if we had lingered for any length of time at his stand, I would have taken home a small forest in seed form. I think it’s the best gift for someone who loves growing stuff.

If you would prefer the idea of a bigger tree with a more immediate effect on the environment, instead of the long haul of waiting for your baby to grown from seed, then Food and Trees for Africa are the people to contact. In addition to planting trees to offset carbon emissions, they also run  programmes that educate communities about sustainable food gardening.

We will be contacting them today with our latest order! We are happy to report that 10 trees will be taking root on behalf of clients who earned enough treebucks recently.

Treebucks? Treebucks are virtual points we award to clients who order printed goods through our company. We love design and marketing, but the worst part about it is thinking of all that paper being used. After working out how many square metres of paper would be equivalent to a tree, we award clients treebucks based on the square-meterage of their print order. When they have enough bucks – we buy a tree from Food and Trees for Africa on their behalf.

We have a few clients teetering on the brink of being tree “owners”, and some who are about to be responsible for mini plantations. We are grateful for all of their orders and although they might never actually sit under the tree they are responsible for, they can enjoy the virtual benediction of the shade and wealth they have provided for countless others.

Have you planted/hugged/consigned to hell/deported/climbed a tree today?

It’s a dog’s life

puppy pals

Having recently seen Marley and Me and having forgotten to take a wad of kleenex into the movie with me,  I ended up with seriously puffy eyes and a renewed appreciation for our canine friends. One of the lines in the movie struck such a chord, and although I cannot recite it verbatum, the idea has been stuck to my soul ever since. The concept that the love of a dog is perhaps one of the most amazingly self less relationships on the planet. They just want to be appreciated (and fed) and give a whole lot of slobbering devotion back.

Why then do hideous humans use these animals to make a quick buck? A recent TV expose of puppy mills showed the world how depraved these individuals are. Female dogs are kept in unbelievably squalid conditions and are required to produce litter after litter to feed the demand for “cute” puppies in pet stores. You pay hundreds, sometimes thousands for these bundles of “pedigree” fluff and later discover that your purebred is a “pavement special”. Not that Pavement Specials are not special, but the fraudulent claims of pedigree are wrong and puppy mills are stomach churningly gruesome.

The Wet Nose Animal Rescue Centre has rescued many dogs and puppies from the most inhumane conditions. They are in the process of legally challenging the creatures that perpetrate these disgusting practices, but in the meantime they have to keep going, feeding all the animals they have rescued and finding loving homes for them. Supporting the organisation should not be too much of a trial.

If you want to read about the visit to the puppy mill go to the wetnose site and read their news article on the visit: http://www.wetnose.org.za/news.php?action=view&pk=24. I was overwhelmed with a desire to force this barbaric cretin to live like his dogs for a month or more. This is a man who does not appreciate the value of a wet nose, big puppy eyes and an wagging tail.

Put your money where your heart is and buy a wetnose t-shirt, coffeemug or laptop skin from Howling mad. A portion of every sale goes to Wet Nose, and they get publicity every time you wear it, drink from it at the office, or take your laptop out and about!

While we might be HOWLING MAD – we like to howl in the right direction…especially when puppy farmers make us mad!  So howl for all the dogs caught in the snares of unscrupulous breeders and support Wet Nose!

The tough side of dog abuse

Can fashion save the world?

The darker side of a treeless society

We are all very excited about Earth Hour, coming up this weekend. I have been doing some musing about its specific implications and applications in South Africa.

In South Africa, having the lights out for only one hour is a bit of a treat after last year’s enforced load shedding which saw us twiddling our thumbs in the dark for 4 hours twice a week. No doubt the execs at Eskom are now feeling they deserve global accolades for enforcing these measures. I am wondering if this hour is making Eskom sweat. What happens when we all switch the lights back on? Is our dubious power supplier going to melt under the combined demand of the entire country?

So What?

After all the hype and publicity and enthusiasm generated  by this event, I wonder if it will really make that much difference once the lights are turned back on and we carry on with our consumption driven lives.

How about this?

We have come up with a positive way to help the planet. Howl at the Moon Design has always supported Food and Trees for Africa, by donating a tree through its treebucks programme. Now its sister company HowlingMad, has designed a range of very cool “Tree-shirts”. For each “tree-shirt” purchased, we will donate a tree to be planted through Food and Trees for Africa. It’s easy, the designs are great, and Food and Trees for Africa are incredibly excited about this initiative.

Wear a “tree-shirt”, plant a tree, help slow down climate change.

And the lighter side