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Archive for the ‘ Florists Friends’ Category

Janet Fish~Master of Light and Shadow

Monday, June 16th, 2014

Birdcage_and_Daffoldils1 janet fishJanet Fish, contemporary American Realist painter, was born in Boston and raised in Bermuda.

janet fish spring party

  Spring Party 

Birdcage and Daffodils oil on canvas 56″x 54″ 2009

Her father was an art history professor, her mother a sculptor and potter, sister a photographer.  And, her grandfather was American Impressionist painter Clark Voorhees.

Fish knew from a young age that she wanted to pursue the visual arts.  She said, “I came from a family of artists, I always made art and knew that I wanted to be and artist.”

A Janet Fish retrospective hosted by Huntsville Museum runs thru July 27, 2014.

Well Cool Project

Thursday, June 12th, 2014

The Academy of Floral Art in Dunchideock, near the Exeter, England has spear-headed the Well Cool Project, created to raise money for wells and sanitation in Africa via WaterAid.

julieandtinaThey are planning a number of floral shows Nov-Aug 2014 in Newton Abbot, Bristol, Manchester, Norwich and Oxford, England.  The shows are a completely new concept involving top Master Florists and Chelsea Floristry medal winners, such as the Academy’s own Julie Collins and Tina Parkes, making floral designs on stage, with music and lights to create a mood of Africa.

Funds from the ticket sales, raffles, collection buckets and the auction of staged show designs will all be donated to the cause.  All proceeds, after expenses, will go to WaterAid.

Ojai Valley Lavender Festival

Monday, June 2nd, 2014

ojai valley lavender festival.2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ojai Valley Lavender Festival! June 28, 2014

Sowing the Seeds

Thursday, May 29th, 2014

From the rooftops of Washington D.C. to the schoolyards of New Orleans, the South is home to some of the country’s most innovative urban farms that are helping teach students about healthy eating, giving their cities access to local produce and eliminating blight from their communities.

Birmingham’s Jones Valley Teaching Farm, the South’s most dynamic urban farm, is investing in one of the South’s most beleaguered cities by empowering thousands of young students to change their live.  With vegetables.

Jones Valley Teaching Farm.5.14

They’re involved in every part of the process from growing to harvesting and even selling their produce at the downtown farmers market.

As seen in Southern Living magazine, May 28, 2014. 

Nature’s Hidden Heros

Tuesday, May 27th, 2014

Marks & Spencer ambassador, Twiggy, enjoying “Nature’s Hidden Heros” at

Chelsea Flower Show 2014.

Where have all the Limes gone?

Friday, May 16th, 2014

041914Pulse03CJLimes are used for nutrition, as medicine, and, for aesthetically pleasing accents.  But, have you noticed?  Limes have all but disappeared from your local grocer, corner store and flower markets.  Where have all the limes gone!

A case of limes used to cost as little as $30; prices have shot up to as high as $200. And the limes are smaller — golf-ball-size fruit that doesn’t produce much juice.

Mexico is now the world’s largest producer and exporter of limes, and provides some 95 percent of United States supplies. Generally, the lime harvest is smaller and prices are higher from January through March, but in November and December severe rains knocked the blossoms off lime trees in many areas, reducing lime exports to the United States by two-thirds. California, with just 373 acres, is now the largest domestic lime source — but it produces less than 1 percent of national consumption, and its season is late summer and fall, so it’s no help right now.

Other factors may also be squeezing the lime market. Since 2009 a bacterial disease that kills citrus trees, huanglongbing (HLB, also known as “greening”), has spread across many of Mexico’s lime-growing districts.

As a result of high prices and rampant lawlessness in some Mexican regions, criminals who may be linked to drug gangs are plundering fruit from groves and hijacking trucks being used for export.

All of this suggests an uncertain fate for limes, a fruit we’ve taken for granted for so long. This time the crisis is likely to be temporary. As new crops mature, prices should be back down near $30 by June, and there should be plenty of limes this summer.

Sources are NY Times and NY Post magazines.

Oleg Oprisco

Sunday, May 11th, 2014

Oleg Oprisco is a brilliantly talented photographer from Lviv, Ukraine, who creates stunning surreal images of elegant women in fairy-tale or dream-like settings.

surreal-photography-oleg-oprisco-13 (1)

There’s one significant difference, however, that sets him apart from other artists who create similar work – Oprisco shoots using old-school film photography.

And, he does it all with an old $50 film camera.

Party Girl!

Thursday, May 1st, 2014

GH event kim foren. 2014

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kim Foren of Geranium Lake, OR, a long time B|Brooks member florist, shares some star-studded photos and fun news about a recent event hosted by Grace Hightower and Coffees of Rwanda. This company supports the farmers of Rwanda by buying their coffee, allowing them  to create sustainable businesses.  The event was also sponsored by Robert De Niro’s new VDKA 6100.

Beluga Photobomb!

Thursday, April 24th, 2014

Beluga-Photobomb-Leigh-Wedding-ll-131212-16x9-608-jpg_191353

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Juno, an 11-year-old beluga whale at Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Conn., perfectly timed this snapshot behind newlyweds Amanda and Patrick Leigh.

The happy couple, who are self-proclaimed animal lovers, didn’t plan the whale’s amazingly executed photobomb, but sure are glad he was in the right place at the right time to capture his smile on camera.

“That was just a lucky photo,” Amanda Leigh, 27, of West Haven, Conn., told GoodMorningAmerica.com. “We were down in front of the aquarium taking pictures. We paused to fix the dress and the whale happened to come over. My husband and I looked behind us and he was right there, like, ‘Hello.’”

“We never in a million years thought this would be anything,” she explained. “But we used it as our Christmas card and everyone loves it.”

Earth Day 2014

Tuesday, April 15th, 2014

Fox-and-Daffodil-by-Sweetmart-via-FlickrEarth Day is an annual event, celebrated on April 22, on which events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

chimpmunk.flower

Numerous communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.

lizardsinlove.13The Earth Day Network works with over 22,000 partners in 192 countries to broaden, diversify and mobilize the environmental movement.  More than 1 billion people now participate in Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world.

Fox photo by Sweetmart.

Other images, photographer unknown.