Lisa Hall-Wilson

It’s Friday so I’m Fumbling with Being Green. Ever heard of a terminator seed? I hadn’t until my sister-in-law told me about it. How horrible. The forced-sterilization scandal of the gardening world – but is it just hype?

A Mule In Harness

When my sister-in-law first told me about terminator seeds I was pretty peeved. The idea of a terminator seed is garden and seed companies selling seeds that produce plants with genetically dud fruit so you’re forced to buy new seeds/plants every year. The seeds produced by the fruit of said terminator seed plants are sterile. So, you buy a tomato in the store, theoretically you should be able to take the seeds from that tomato, plant them, and voila – get a tomato plant.

Not so.

The seeds from a plant grown from a terminator seed are genetically engineered to produce genetic duds – the fruit of those plants won’t produce fruit.

Was this true? Was this the greatest hoodwink of garden lovers ever? I did a bit of digging online and sure enough, there are a ton of blogs and articles dedicated to buying only heirloom seeds to avoid and boycott the terminator seed business.

But Genetic Use Restriction Technology (GURT), or suicide seeds as they’re also known, date back to the early 1990′s. There are ban terminator organizations, and the Wiki article even cites the UN Convention on Biological Diversity. So I did a bit more digging and found other sites claiming that terminator seeds are illegal, only licensed farmers can access the seeds and must sign a lengthy agreement not to save seeds, etc.

So – who’s right? If a garden or seed company labels seed packets and plants with assurances of no terminator seeds – is that true dedication to customers or is it a marketing ploy because they’re not allowed to sell those seeds? Hmmm… (I’m not a conspiracy theorist – but I have to say this has got me thinking.)

A Third Option…

As a farm girl born and bred from many generations of farmers, I’m aware of a few animal species created through selective breeding. Now, we’re not talking about breeding a Dalmatian to a Labrador Retriever – we’re talking crossing species. Mules are the offspring of a mare (female horse) with a jack (male donkey). (If you breed a jenny (female mule) to a stallion (male horse) you get a hinny if you wanted to know – never seen one of those.) Male mules are infertile with only very rare cases of a fertile female mule (called a Molly). Beefalo (or cattalo) produce infertile male offspring, but fertile female offspring. Not exactly a success, because you can’t ever develop a true breed that way – eventually you breed the buffalo out of the cow – if you get my drift. It forces breeders to keep a herd of buffalo cows because only a domestic bull/buffalo cow pairing produce viable offspring (it doesn’t seem to work the other way around). Tiglons and Ligers are considered infertile, though one or two exceptions appear in the historical record with hybrid females.

Genetic modification has been in use in agriculture for a very long time – not as old as selective breeding mind you, but it’s not new technology by any stretch. Everyone raves about the potato plant resistant to the potato bug. We all love the tomato, a plant native to South America but now with more varieties than a stray tomcat. But don’t genetically modify my vegetables! Don’t hate me, my point is that there’s a lot more genetic modification in our food than we care to acknowledge.

Ever tried to grow a tomato plant from the seeds of a store-bought tomato? Doesn’t work. A lot of the fruit in grocery stores are genetically modified to grow in a variety of climates, in a variety of sizes and even colors. How else do they get a tomato from California to Ontario on a truck – and still have it be ripe and look edible? Hmmmm… They’re hybrids. They’re like the mules of the garden world. They can’t produce a second generation. And tomatoes aren’t the only fruits (or vegetables) we eat that are a product of genetic modification.

So, are terminator seeds really a product of duplicitous garden and seed companies, or a clever marketing ploy? Tell me what you think below.

Lisa

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Thought I’d share a couple of photos from my garden. It’s the May Two-Four weekend here in Canada – this marks the official start to cottage/camping season, yardsale season, gardening season, mosquito season, and the start of summer – it’s a big deal. AND we celebrate the Queen’s birthday with fireworks and copious amounts of barbequed meat (and often alcohol). Long live the Queen! (My mom’s family are United Empire Loyalists – I’m allowed to say that.)

Bleeding Heart

Clematis

Purple Iris

Columbine

Ever had your instincts questioned by your kids? You said no, but didn’t have a great reason – just gut instinct. Ever questioned your own intuition? Maybe it’s not a big deal, maybe you are being over-protective?

Remembering Tori Stafford. Her family wore purple throughout the recent trial in her memory - purple was her favorite color.

3 years ago this past April, I was standing at my kitchen sink peeling potatoes for supper listening to the radio when an Amber Alert went out for a 8 year old little girl in a small neighboring community only 20 minutes away. The missing girl was the same age, in the same grade, as my younger daughter. My ever-independent daughter. My daughter was home, safe and sound, but the little girl on the radio didn’t come home from school that day and the police were asking residents for help. My heart pumped faster and tears instantly sprang to my eyes. That poor mother, what she must be going through? I stopped and prayed for the police and that little girl. I get goosebumps even now remembering that day.

What parent can’t relate to this fear? Just the thought of it has mothers gathering their children closer.

I later came to learn that little girl’s name was Tori Stafford – and she wasn’t coming home.

The tragic events of that day have been brought to light in two trials, the jury delivering a verdict for the second trial just this past Friday here in my city. Guilty. I’ve followed the investigation and the trial with tears in my eyes. My heart breaks for that little girl and her family. From what I’ve heard, Tori’s suffering was over by the time the Amber Alert went out. Her family never had a chance to help her.

Where a tragic story gets personal…

The details emerging from this latest trial were graphic and disturbing, and this little girl’s story should hit everyone hard. But behind the scenes, this story hits me doubly hard because the week before Tori was kidnapped, my younger daughter had begged and pleaded with me to let her walk home by herself. All her friends were allowed to walk home alone. She was responsible enough. She knew the way. I was being mean. I didn’t trust her. My gut told me she didn’t have the street smarts to navigate the more than 1kilometer walk home alone, so I said no.

But, as kids often do, she kept at it. My daughter chipped away at the confidence I had in that decision with emotional pleas and logical arguments. Maybe I was being over protective. Maybe I was being too strict. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust her to find her way home or to wander. I was on the verge of giving in.

That Amber Alert was like a punch to the gut. This could have been my baby. The crime was completely random and it honestly could have been anyone’s child. A freak happenstance left Tori alone that day after school. The police say that total stranger kidnapping constitutes less than 1% of all kidnapping cases – but that statistic brings me no comfort and I’m sure it does nothing for that little girl’s parents either.

My resolve was strengthened that I had made the right decision and I trust my instincts even more now. A blogger friend August McLaughlin recently posted about the Gift of Fear. It’s an insightful read about listening to your intuition. Ever questioned your own intuition? Ever found out that you were wise to listen to it?

If you think of Tori and her family this week as they finish up the trial (sentencing, victim impact statements, etc.) send up a prayer, a good thought – whatever you’re inclined to do. No parent should have to endure the ordeal they’ve faced for the last 3 years. Because though justice has been delivered, at the end of it all, Tori isn’t coming home.

Lisa

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In all The Avengers trailers the Hulk gets the barest of mentions. Is he really that one-dimensional?

Oooh – I’m all jittery. Blockbuster movie season has begun! If you haven’t already guessed, I’m a huge movie fan so you know I saw The Avengers on opening weekend. I’m no nerd girl so don’t ask me about comic books or epic battles, or how this movie stayed true to past versions. While I liked Black Widow and Hawk…guy…man, it was the Hulk that captured my attention.

Growing up, I watched the Saturday morning cartoons of The Incredible Hulk. He always came across as a mostly dumb, enraged but at times gentle, giant always rushing to the rescue. There was always this underlying layer of rage to him, but he cried, he sorta smiled at times, and mostly talked with his fists. I liked him.

Now we get to see Dr. Banner and the Hulk in a team situation. I don’t know much about The Avengers, or many of the characters who make up the team other than the Hulk. **I won’t give anything away that you wouldn’t see in a movie trailer.** Most of the movie the other team members understandably tiptoe around Dr. Banner who’s brought in as an expert. It felt like that child’s game Don’t Wake Daddy. After a while I wanted to say, ‘Give the guy some credit.’

The key to superhero movies, I think, is to let the audience see the hero’s humanity – or their struggle to be human. Dr. Banner doesn’t like the Hulk. The Hulk is uncontrollable, volatile, and destructive. There’s not much there worth redeeming.

In the final battle scene, Captain America (I think) says something to the effect of suit up – get your anger on to Dr. Banner. Bruce looks back over his shoulder and says, “That’s my secret. I’m always angry.”

BAM! That line hit me like a truck. I never saw the duality of the Hulk before.

I think everyone has a Hulk inside them. No, really. Is there a memory, a situation, an emotion, a person – that can just make you lose control? You say things that are destructive or harmful, you come out swinging no matter what, you talk with your fists (proverbially or literally), you lash out at everyone around you whether they’re at fault or not. When the Hulk comes out, you don’t see reason, there’s no mitigating circumstance, there’s just a cave-man-like reaction. We’d like to pin the green rage monster on people with anger management problems, but dig a little deeper. Is there a coworker who just sets you off every time they open their mouth? If you feel threatened do you come out ‘fists first’ whether that response is appropriate or not?

What situation or scenario do you need your Hulk for, so your weaker/softer/intellectual side can hide for a bit and not get hurt again. By the end of the movie Dr. Banner has learned that the Hulk isn’t all bad. He’s still more or less a wind-up toy that you point in the right direction and then get out of the way – but now the Hulk is an asset.

That line from Dr. Banner showed me a glimpse into his humanity. What does a brilliant scientist have to be mad about all the time? I’m guessing that condition pre-existed the Hulk or else why would it be a trigger? Even though that anger bubbled quietly beneath the surface, controlled, manageable – I bet he had a bad temper. I’ve heard it said that under the right circumstances, everyone is capable of murder. Do you think that’s true?

I have an epic bad temper. I have a really really really long fuse, but if I lose control I go from quietly sitting in the corner to explosively enraged. It’s only happened twice in my life – enough to know I never want it to happen again. I know there’s a Hulk inside me, but like Dr. Banner, I have learned how to diffuse the situation, walk away, turn the other cheek, take a deep breath. But maybe – like in the movie, there’s a time and place for the Hulk to be an asset. Where the monster, pointed in the right direction, is a force for good? What do you think?

What emotion quietly bubbles beneath your quiet exterior? What triggers your Hulk?

Lisa

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My girls are huge fans of The Hunger Games. They have this petty rivalry going for Team Peeta and Team Gale. I’m sitting on the fence and stubbornly refusing to read the novel until I stop hearing Hunger Games parodies on Youtube everyday (Yes, they’re still watching those videos). But it got me thinking about love this week.

Is there a perfect someone out there for you?

There’s a scene from The Notebook where Allie is forced to choose between Noah, a man of modest means she fell in love with one summer but hasn’t seen in years, and Lon – an upwardly mobile heir to a fortune and successful businessman. She’s engaged to Lon, but realizes once Noah comes back into her life that she loves them both.

Allie to Lon: “It’s just that when I’m… when I’m with Noah I feel like one person and when I’m with you I feel like someone totally different.”

I watched James Cameron’s Titanic last night. Seemed appropriate given the 100th anniversary of the demise of the ‘unsinkable’ ship. I watched the people in full-out kool-aid drinking denial, and generally ignoring what seemed apparent to anyone with eyes and ears. But, hasn’t everyone rearranged the deck chairs from time to time?

Freud identified 3 stages of denial: simple denial – refusing to accept an uncomfortable reality, minimisation – admit the fact but deny its seriousness, projection – admit the fact and the seriousness, but deny responsibility.

Are you a 1st class or a 3rd class passenger?

I spent the weekend rewatching The Lord Of The Rings extended edition. Yes, I’m that nerd. But I also caught the trailer for the new movie My Week With Marilyn with Michelle Williams several times. I haven’t had the chance to watch the movie yet, but it seems to me that Marilyn and Orcs have a lot in common. They both struggle at being authentic.

Movie Poster

Marilyn Monroe with her curves, her blonde hair, and that walk – stole people’s hearts. Our society equates beautiful with successful, happy, affluent, advantage, choices. A true American Cinderella story, she grew up bounced between foster homes and living with her mentally unstable mother, and got her break in acting through her modeling career. She became known the world-over as a sex symbol.

I love watching movies, it’s almost an addiction. I worked at Blockbuster because they gave me 10 free rentals A WEEK and I got to watch all the new movies before the release date. I go to the theater once, sometimes as much as three times a month – and we LOVE the drive-in in the summer.

When you think of a hero, what comes to mind? Daniel Craig’s James Bond? Tom Cruise’s Maverick? Aragorn from LOTR? Daniel Day Lewis from Last of the Mohicans? Sure, these guys are everything a hero is supposed to be.

Footloose 2011

The Footloose remake is out on DVD. It doesn’t matter if I’ve seen a movie in the theater, I’ll still watch it at home because it’s the second or third time through that I go beyond being entertained, to gleaning truth from the story. There’s truth in every story if you search it out.

The last time I watched the Footloose remake, one scene jumped out at me. Ariel is with Chuck (boo – hiss) and he calls her a preacher’s daughter. She’s his rebel child.

“I’m not a child,” she says.

“Prove it.”

*Smacks head* Did I just say that out loud? Ever have one of those moments? My life is a long string of embarrassing accidents and things I wish I could unsay. I was so gullible as a teen – it’s embarrassing.

Dirty Dancing

You know that scene from Dirty Dancing when Baby carries a watermelon to the forbidden staff party and dances with Johnny for the first time? Johnny says, “What’s she doing here?” She replies, “I carried a watermelon.” *smacks head* “I carried a watermelon?” Yeah, Baby and I have a lot in common.

The birds are chasing each other, trees are budding, tulips are pushing up. Spring has arrived. But the birds and the bees aren’t the only ones coming out to play with the warmer weather.

This is kind of a crazy post, I’m a little embarrassed to even write about it, but every spring this happens. Something must be in the air. Here where I live, there’s a month or two in the spring where it’s warm enough to leave your windows open at night and cool enough to leave the air conditioning off. It’s before the allergy season hits, before the mosquitoes are really pesky, and when being woke up by the birds is still pleasant.

Winter is so long here. Everyone stays shut up in their homes (except the hour or two after a snowstorm ends and everyone emerges to dig themselves out) and neighbors don’t generally chat. The thing about winter is the silence. Ever been out walking in the snow at night? Take away the sounds of the city, and there’s just silence. Your boots crunching on the snow – and not much else. Maybe a coyote in the country, a few chickadees or a blue jay. But spring is full of sound. Spring brings out the walkers, the gardeners, the kids, and the backyard enthusiasts. Everyone is buzzing with joy about the return of the warmer weather.