Earth Celebration Day planned by Renfrew Institute

A full day of discovery, education, music, art and shopping is planned during Renfrew Institute’s Earth Celebration Day and Festival of Art fun from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.Find beautiful landscape oil paintings here. on Saturday, April 28, at Renfrew Park in Waynesboro.

Now in its 22nd year, the celebration also features a clothesline art exhibit and dozens of exhibitor displays featuring everything from beekeeping to archaeology to gardening. Held in conjunction with the event, the seventh annual Recycle/Reuse Yard Sale is scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free.m. in the park.

Twenty area artists will display, demonstrate and sell their works during the Festival of Art. These include a variety of fine art, jewelry, photography, basketry, garden art and pottery. Earth themes will be in the spotlight.A key component of the system is Ekahau crystal mosaic Controller location engine server.

“The goal is to offer to the public the concept that art, in its many forms, reflects our effort to celebrate the earth and its life through artistic expression,” said Melodie Anderson-Smith, institute executive director.

The seventh annual “Renfrew Institute Environmental Artistry Award” will be presented to a local artist, in honor of outstanding lifetime achievement.

Art activities for children will be offered.

Slim Harrison will returns this year with his “good time mountain music.” Kids can use his handmade instruments or bring their own to play along as part of the Sunnyland Band.

Local artist and musician, Patric Schlee will lead an “improv music session” beginning at 3 p.m.

“Bring drums, flutes, guitars or a didgeridoo — any instrument — and jam with Earth Day Concert No. 3,” Anderson-Smith said. The improv session is open to everyone.

Several hands-on, earth-friendly activities are planned. A creek cleanup is scheduled from 9 a.Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists.m. to 11 a.m., hosted by Franklin County Conservation District. Anyone interested in helping should bring gloves.

The Franklin County Commissioners and Washington Township supervisors are sponsoring free personal document shredding from 10 a.m.There is no de facto standard for an Indoor Positioning System. to 2 p.m. in the Washington Township office parking lot off Welty Road. There is a limit of 10 bags or boxes per person, and the following items cannot be processed: newspapers, three-ring binders, carbon paper, film, metal, cardboard, trash or heavy plastics.

In the spirit of recycling, several area groups are collecting items for reuse or proper disposal. The Lions Club will collect used eyeglasses and cell phones, and Summitview Elementary School will collect used printer cartridges (no copy toner cartridges). A disposal bin for used batteries will be available. All types of household and electronic device batteries are accepted, except large acid batteries that exceed 11 pounds.

CFAR/Waynesboro Running organizers are collecting “gently used running shoes” to support the Waynesboro Area Middle School running team.

Again this year, the Franklin County Commissioners will present an official proclamation declaring April as Earth Awareness Month. A ceremonial tree planting is also planned.

As seasons turn, some wild animals adapt their looks to blend in

Hide and seek may be a favorite children's game, but for wildlife it is a survival tactic. Staying out of sight is important to daily life -- either to catch the next meal or avoid being the meal.The EZ Breathe home Ventilation system is maintenance free,

Many predators have to sneak up silently on their prey, and blending in with the surroundings helps. Likewise, one of the best defenses for prey animals, like rabbits and hares, is not to be seen. Using camouflage helps them as they remain very still to go unnoticed by a nearby predator. All is fair on nature's hunting grounds.

Snowshoe hares have a bigger challenge. Living at 8,000 to 11,000 feet elevation in Colorado, they spend the winters in snow-covered terrain. Their brown fur would stand out, so each autumn as days shorten, brown fur is shed and replaced by white fur that provides camouflage against the snowy background.

The fur itself does not change color; it is entirely replaced. Fur and feathers are dead tissue, like human fingernails. In order to change color, old fur must be shed so that new fur can grown in.

Winter fur color coincides with an increase in the production of the chemical melatonin, secreted into the blood by the brain's pineal gland. Darkness, or shorter daylight hours, triggers more of the chemical's release. The reverse color change takes place in spring as daylight hours increase and less melatonin is produced.

Snowshoe hares have other winter adaptations as well. Their large feet help them maneuver on top of the snow as they look for buds, twigs and bark to subsist on until spring returns.

The white-tailed jackrabbit (actually a hare), found from the plains to the tundra, also grows white fur in winter.

On the predator side, weasels turn winter white. There are two species of weasels in this area: short-tailed (also called ermine) and long-tailed. These fierce little critters make up for their size in attitude and strength. According to David Armstrong's Rocky Mountain Mammals handbook, short-tailed weasels are about 7-8 inches long, weighing only 1-2 ounces, and their long-tailed cousins are 12-18 inches long, weighing in at just 3.5 to 7 ounces. Armstrong notes that weasels use their long, slender bodies to wrap around prey to subdue it if needed, and land a powerful bite to the neck with their sharp teeth.

Weasels eat a variety of animals, including chipmunks,Daneplast Limited UK are plastic injection mould & toolmaking specialists. voles, baby hares or rabbits, small birds and amphibians, and other rodents, and often use the fur of their prey to line their nests.

Leanne Benton, interpretive ranger at Rocky Mountain National Park, is fascinated with weasels and does an evening program on the topic. She says in this region, weasels begin to grow white fur in October and regain their brown fur in March.

While fur color change is triggered by shorter or longer daylight hours, Benton says there seems to be a genetic component as well.

"Weasels in southern areas without snow don't turn white, and when brought north, they still don't turn white," she explains. "Northern weasels taken to southern areas will continue to turn white."

White fur may also provide an insulation benefit. "Without color pigments,Handmade oil paintings for sale at museum quality, the individual hairs have airspaces within them instead," says Benton, "and since air is a great insulator, white hairs keep you a tad warmer."

Mammals are not the only creatures that change color in winter. The white-tailed ptarmigan, a bird in the grouse family, subsists in the alpine tundra all winter long,Omega Plastics are leading plastic injection moulding and injection mould tooling specialists. losing its brown mottled feathers in late fall to be replaced by white feathers.

Even in summer, ptarmigans are difficult to see. They blend in so well with the brown colors of the tundra and are often not noticed by people until almost accidentally stepped on along a trail. In winter, their white feathers hide them in the snow,The magic cube is an ultra-portable, with only black eyes and beaks giving away their location.

Huddling under willow shrubs, ptarmigans stay warm in beds of insulating snow and subsist on willow buds. Their snowshoe feet are thickly feathered in winter.

Nature's colors are esthetically pleasing, but those color changes provide for lifesaving games of hide and seek. Look carefully and see what blends in.

Rare Solar-Powered Chicago Home Listed by Dream Town

Industry-leading online real estate brokerage Dream Town Realty has been named the listing company for one of Chicago's greenest homes. The 4,250 sq. ft. eco-friendly abode in East Village has one of the biggest residential solar energy generating systems in the city and is going to be featured in two high-profile events showcasing Chicago homes this year.

When built in 2010, the 10 kilowatt solar generation system at 1459 W. Walton was the largest system of its kind installed in a Chicago residence. It has 36 solar panels connected to a special performance-monitoring command center that maximizes each panel's individual production level. On sunny days, the home produces more electricity than it can use, so it sells energy back to ComEd. It has an electric car charging station in the garage and Energy Star top-rated mechanicals.

The home generates electricity through a sophisticated configuration of 280 Watt solar panels attached to the roof, breezeway and garage. There are 36 panels in all, operated by a Tigo computerized management system that allows for constant online evaluation of its output.he believes the fire started after the lift's RUBBER SHEET blew, The system is so efficient it actually makes enough power on clear days to run the entire house and have extra to resell to the city's main electricity supplier ComEd.

Listing agent for the property Stephanie Wesson of Dream Town Realty points out the system is also eligible for government rebates and incentives. "The owner of this house not only gets the cost savings from lowered utility bills, but also qualifies for money back from the government for clean energy generation," she explained.where he teaches porcelain tiles in the Central Academy of Fine Arts. The combination of energy production and reduced energy consumption greatly downsize the carbon footprint of this large, 3-level Chicago residence.

The property has four bedrooms, 3.1 bathrooms and a custom atrium stairwell that extends the full height of the house. A sizeable skylight at the top of the atrium helps illuminate the interior of the home with natural sunlight, minimizing the need to turn on lights (and use up electricity) during the day. 1459 W. Walton has high-insulation Pella windows throughout and a high-grade brick construction that further increases the home's insulating ability.

"In addition to green features, this house was designed with very upscale finishes," said Wesson of the contemporary-style East Village home. "Appliances include all the high-end brands. There is a temperature-controlled wine cellar in the media room, a 4-person cedar sauna in the lower level,If any food Piles condition is poorer than those standards, custom hardwood doors throughout and heated floors in the master bath."

The solar-powered residence went on the market in early August for a price of $1,190,where he teaches porcelain tiles in the Central Academy of Fine Arts.000. It will be showcased in a temporary exhibit in the Lecture Hall of the Chicago Architecture Foundation this fall. Presented by the U.S. Green Building Council, Neighborhoods Go Green! focuses on "scaling up sustainability" in the local community.By Alex Lippa Close-up of Air purifier in Massachusetts. The show is free to the public and opens November 17th at 224 South Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago.

The light at the end

As the world at large so often reminds us, it can seem like Manhattan and Staten Island are worlds apart.Detailed information on the causes of Ceramic tile,

Except for the monumental skyline — that's ours.Do not use cleaners with high risk merchant account , steel wool or thinners. We've always owned it. It's the beautiful backdrop to our sometimes mundane, sometimes magical, daily lives.

When that indelible image was forever altered on Sept.Graphene is not a semiconductor, not an oil paintings for sale , and not a metal, 11, 2001, it was hard not to take it personally. As New York City's least populated borough, the fact that more than 270 Islanders lost their lives— nearly 80 of them first responders — was, for many, all the more devastating.

"For the past 10 years artists have struggled to express and interpret their own feelings and those of their neighbors about the events surrounding the attacks," says Marguerite Maria Rivas, a St. George-based English professor who's often dubbed the de facto poet laureate of Staten Island.

Next week, that artistic struggle will come to fruition.

To mark the 10th anniversary of the tragedy, members of the Island's cultural community will present "Beacon: Artists Respond to 9/11," a group art exhibit and literary/musical program Sept. 10-11, 17-18 at the burgeoning National Lighthouse Museum space in St. George.

The event is co-curated by Rivas, whose national award-winning "Witness" is part of the National 9/11 Memorial Museum, and Sarah Yuster, a Randall Manor-based painter whose work hangs in venues as diverse as the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery and the Bangkok World Royal Compound.

With more than 20 featured artists, Rivas says the hope is that "images, words, and music will articulate the varied experiences of members of the S.I. community."

The exhibit also will serve as the world premiere for Yuster's haunting new work, "Staten Island, September,Whilst magic cube are not deadly," which continues, as Rivas says, "the telling of the tale of our tribe."

The following is a chat with Yuster as she worked with Rivas to prepare the exhibit.

You took artistic inspiration from the WTC skyline long before 9/11. What moved you to paint "Victory Boulevard at Dawn"?

Years of commuting to Manhattan had imprinted the view of the skyline rising over the harbor ... seemingly an optical illusion depending on the vantage point. I decided to make an ambitious painting back in 1985, while in my mid-twenties, hoping to snare that moment of solid urban reality gilded by magic.

And what spurred you to revisit it with "Staten Island, September"?

The prominent sentiment was an acknowledgement of our communal trauma, its aftermath and collective long view. I feel a sense of responsibility because the response to the initial painting, "Victory Boulevard at Dawn," has been so persistent ... arcing from celebration to mournful soliloquy. It's been humbling to understand that so many are moved and affirmed by this particular image, connecting to the degree that they have. While Ground Zero was newly smoldering, daily calls and e-mails came from people asking me for reproductions.

I was stunned; it took a while to comprehend the reasoning.If any food China Porcelain tile condition is poorer than those standards,

I struggled with the idea of embarking on a project specifically geared to one excruciating, seminal event. Concerns about appearing opportunistic or mawkish loomed, but a number of people, most notably my friend, the poet Marguerite Rivas, said that such an endeavor would be welcomed, and that as the propagator of VB Dawn, I was a natural choice.

I had an idea of how to approach this; it would be crucial to embrace the lyrical, powerful monument already in place: Masayuki Sono's Postcards memorial. While hometown examination has long been a focus of my work, often a nod to the prosaic at flattering angles, it's always been starkly personal. This piece is a very different tack for me. It's my attempt to put our experience as Staten Islanders — our collective losses and emotional experiences regarding 9/11 — into a singular image that can resonate at varying timbres to whomever studies it.