11 posts tagged “california”

by Douglas E. Welch, agn@welchwrite.com
Reader/Listener Line - 818-804-5049

Links mentioned in this podcast:

The Lavender Fields - Photos
Animalbytes with Keri Dearborn
Squarefoot Gardening with Andy Helsby
A Gardener's Notebook  Pictures on Flickr
A Gardener's Notebook Photo Sharing Group on Flickr

Listen to the Podcast

If first link does not play, try this one.

Theme Music: The One by The Woodshedders, aka the Hot Club of West Virginia,  courtesy of the PodSafe Music Network

I used one of my photos from our trip to The Lavender Fields to create these lavender themed products -- available from from CafePress.com

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Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, california, grow, build, make, DIY, howto, how-to, outdoors, losangeles, 91411

Join John Braheny, author of The Craft and Business of Songwriting*, for a discussion of A Career in Music. We'll discuss many of the lesser know musical careers and dispel some of the sex, drugs and rock and roll myths of the music business.

* I wrote the podcasting sidebar for this edition of Johns book

From John's web site...

JOHN BRAHENY (Bra HAY nee) is one of the most recognized and respected names in the music industry, and, more specifically, in the songwriting community. He is referred to as "the songwriter's best friend" for his tireless efforts to create education and discovery opportunities for songwriters, to help bring public attention to songwriting as an art form and to champion songwriters' rights.

Author and Journalist
Braheny wrote the best-selling and highly acclaimed Writer's Digest book, The Craft and Business of Songwriting (Writer's Digest Books 1988, 1995, 2002. 2007), now in its 3rd Edition. The National Academy of Songwriters called the book "A veritable songwriters bible. This is the definitive work on the subject of songwriting."

He had previously written the Songwriters Handbook for the American Song Festival, a bi-weekly "Songmine" column for Music Connection Magazine, and has contributed to Songwriters Market, Songwriter Magazine, Keyboard Magazine, Musician Magazine, The Musician's Business and Legal Guide, American Songwriter, and Music Biz Magazine among others.

Interviewer
Along with more than 600 interviews with music industry professionals and hit songwriters at the weekly Songwriters Showcase sessions and Songwriters Expo panels, Braheny conducted and edited more than 150 interviews for the Songwriters Musepaper, the monthly magazine of the Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase.

For several years he co-hosted Samm Brown's For The Record, a weekly music industry interview and call-in show on KPFK (90.7 FM) in Los Angeles.

John's expertise in interviewing songwriters is so well known and respected that in 1997 he was commissioned by Disc Marketing's In-flight division to conduct an ongoing series of 55 interviews with both legendary and contemporary hit songwriters for United Airlines' in-flight audio Salute to Songwriters Channel. The channel was a favorite on Air Force One. In November 2000, John was presented with an award by United Airlines in recognition of his contribution to their winning the international WAEA Avion Award in 2000 for "Best Overall Inflight Entertainment." (more)

Beneficial Wild Creatures In Your Garden
Guest Blogger, Keri Dearborn

(After talking with my friend Keri Dearborn over at AnimalBytes.net, I got the idea to have her write this blog post. She is an expert on wildlife and a gardener herself, so it seemed the perfect combination. Enjoy! -- Douglas)

I see my garden as an oasis of native habitat in a nature-hostile world.   If I can sit on my patio and watch an Allen's hummingbird raising her latest batch of fledglings or pick up a pot and find a slender salamander hunting for earthworms, my faith in the resilience of the planet is restored.  

But some wild visitors offer more than beauty and soul rejuvenation. These critters are beneficial to your garden or to you directly.   You should be inviting them into your garden and encouraging them to stay.   

Super Pollinators
We all learned about honey bees in Elementary School.   While a great producer of honey, the European honey bee is not an efficient pollinator.   It also is in serious trouble with introduced diseases.   Native bees, like that big black valley carpenter bee that comes through your yard at the same time every day and the California bumble bee with its single stripe of yellow are much better at pollinating plants.   These bees live in small groups or are solitary.   They are docile and seldom sting.  

But bees aren't the only pollinators.   Many plants are pollinated by flies, wasps, beetles and other insects.   A flower fly may look like a skinny bee hovering over your flowers, but this fly does double duty: it’s an important pollinator and their larva feed on aphids.    
  
Super Predators
Wild predators are vital to a healthy ecosystem, even in your yard.   If you have a problem with aphids, don’t spray insecticide, attract insect-eating predators.   Nobody eats more bugs than spiders and other insects.   Learn the good bugs from the bad.  

You probably know the lady bug and the praying mantis eat a variety of insect pests.   But so do ground beetles, ant lions and paper wasps.   The golden polistes, a large common paper wasp, is frequently sprayed and their papery nest knocked down from house eaves.   Do they have a stinger?   Yes, but they seldom sting people.   These wasps prey on tomato worms and other caterpillars that dine on your flowers and vegetable garden.  

The other predators you need are insect-eating birds: wrens, bushtits, California towhees, black phoebes and hummingbirds.   That’s right, hummingbirds are catching insects on the wing.   This crew of birds can clean up the bugs in your yard in no time, but they won't come if you are spraying.   Nobody wants to eat a toxic bug?

Hawks also play an important roll.   Cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks will maintain a balance among your seed-eating birds.   Red-tailed hawks hunt rodents and rabbits by day, while owls hunt them by night.

And while you might not think of a snake as something you want in your garden, think again.   The gopher snake not only preys on gophers and mice, it is harmless to humans.   It is such an efficient hunter, a rattlesnake doesn't want to compete with it.   When a gopher snake moves in, the rattlesnake moves out.  

Even a rattlesnake is providing a service by reducing rat and mice populations, but few people are comfortable having them around.   To keep rattlesnakes away, provide habitat for their predators.   Both red-tailed hawks and red-shouldered hawks prey on rattlesnakes.   California kingsnakes are immune to rattlesnake venom and also eat rattlesnakes.   The beneficial kingsnake is harmless to humans.

Super Defenders
With all the hype about various diseases swilling around us, there are a few animals that offer humans valuable protection.   Case in point the species that started this joint effort, the western fence lizard.   For more on how the western fence lizard helps protect you from Lyme's disease check out my post on www.animalbytes.net .

West Nile virus is a real concern in Southern California.   Removing standing water that offers mosquitos a breeding place is the first line of protection but there are a variety of predators that will help your efforts.   Orb spiders with their classic webs are extraordinary insect hunters and mosquitos are on their menu.   Admire that web, don’t knock it down.   Birds, that eat flying insects, like the black phoebe provide mosquito patrol during the day.   While at night, bats are eating mosquitos by the ton.   Bats are vital members of the southern California ecosystem. I’ve seen big brown bats, Brazilian free-tailed bats and a western red bat in my neighborhood.   We put up a bat box last fall and April 25 we noticed bats milling around the bat house at twilight.   Good bye mosquitos!

Go Native
There are few native animals I would deter from my garden. (Yes, I have had rabbits that munch my lettuce.   (Desert cottontail)  The key word here is "native." Most infestations and seriously troublesome critters (from insects to rats) are non-natives, they have few predators and even the weather may encourage them to over reproduce.

Why invite wild animals into your garden?   Many of them can be beneficial.   But it is also a global issue.   Southern California is one of the world's biodiversity hot spots, just like Borneo and the Amazon forest.  Our native plants and animals are disappearing rapidly as their habitat is lost to human development.   Some of these creatures are international residents.   The hermit thrush that spent the winter in my yard is now in Canada or Alaska, while black-headed grosbeak and western tanagers have just returned from Mexico and Central America.  

If you want to save the world, there is no better place to start than in your garden. I’ve had 114 native animal species in my yard, including 63 species of native birds.   How about you?   

How do you go about attracting beneficial wildlife to your garden?   Check out my post   “Creating a Garden That Attracts Wildlife” on AnimalBytes.net.

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, california, grow, howto, how-to, outdoors, losangeles, wildlife

Tonight, I sat down with my friend, Keri Dearborn, to discuss the special needs of volunteers within organizations and how you can organize your volunteer programs to ensure the best environment for everyone involved.

Keri Dearborn, experienced volunteer naturalist and docent at the Los Angeles Zoo and other institutions gives us the special needs of volunteers and how to work with them.

You can find out more about Keri and her organizations by visiting Animalbytes.net and Friends of the Island Fox.

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Technorati Tags: california, career, job, jobs, work, workplace, podcast, podcasting, events, losangeles, volunteer, volunteers

by Douglas E. Welch, agn@welchwrite.com
Reader/Listener Line - 206-338-5832

Links mentioned in this podcast:

1st Annual Mouse & Trowel Award Finalist
The Water Lily Cross by Anthony Eglin - Review
Country Garden Fair - Sepulveda Garden Center - May 5 & 6

A Gardener's Notebook  Pictures on Flickr
A Gardener's Notebook Photo Sharing Group on Flickr

Listen to the Podcast

 

Theme Music: The One by The Woodshedders, aka the Hot Club of West Virginia,  courtesy of the PodSafe Music Network

Support A Gardener's Notebook:

Join AGN Mailing List | iTunes Review | Digg.com | Podcast Alley |  Call the Reader/Listener Line @ 206-338-5832

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, california, grow, build, make, DIY, howto, how-to, outdoors, losangeles, 91411

I was doing some thinking during my son's ball game tonight and my mind turned back to 2 recent experiences. Both times, I was sitting around with friends who are not really tech geeks like myself. That said, the conversation eventually turned to blogging and podcasting, which they each do in a small way.

These conversations ended up spinning out into mini-conferences on all the great new tools there are available, the conventions of blogging and podcasting (how most people do things) and how to figure out the tech side in order to get some great projects moving forward.

Tonight, via Twitter (you can find me at dewelch), I floated the idea of a Los Angeles-based meetup to talk blogging and podcasting tech. I get together with other groups to chat about content and such, but we NEVER have enough time to share ideas about how, technically, to accomplish some of our ideas.

While I certainly don't know everything, I think I know enough to help facilitate such a group. Nothing pleases me more than getting someone blogging or podcasting, even in a small way. While the site may be rough around the edges or the podcast a bit unrefined, I love the fact that I helped people to get their message out there. I have met enough people, with enough varied knowledge, that I think we need to get together and share that knowledge. There is a pent-up demand for this information. People are just dying to talk about it.

So, if you have any interest in getting together over drinks, food or whatever, for a short tech demo, followed by massive and useful Q&A on all things blogging and podcasting, drop me a line at myword@welchwrite.com. The main goal is to get the information you need to take the next step with your blog or podcast.

While this meeting will be hosted in LA, there is nothing really stopping us from sending out a ustream.tv stream or a Talkshoe conference call to anyone else who wants to join in. Why not use some of these new tools to spread the word? (SMILE)

Let me know what you think!

Here are some possible points for discussion:

• Blogger
  
• Wordpress
  
• TypePad
  
• MySpace
  
• RSS feeds
  
• FeedBurner
  
• Web Hosting
  
• Libsyn
  
• Flickr
  
• Recording and Editing Audio and Video
  
• Advertising
  
• Categories
  
• Technorati
  
• Amazon Affiliates
  
• CDBaby
  
• Directories
  
• iTunes and its Quirks
  
• ...and much, much, more!

Read more: Previous "On Podcasting" posts

Technorati Tags: california, build, make, DIY, howto, how-to, podcast, podcasting, creativity, tutorial, losangeles, technology, software, computers, high-tech, freeware, shareware, free, tips, video, learning, education, tips, promotion, recording, record, blog, blogging, meetup, meeting

by Douglas E. Welch, agn@welchwrite.com
Reader/Listener Line - 206-338-5832

Links mentioned in this podcast:

Video:  Repairing a damaged drip irrigation line
A Gardener's Notebook  Pictures on Flickr
A Gardener's Notebook Photo Sharing Group on Flickr
The 10-Minute Gardener: Removing Friction
1st Annual Mouse & Trowel Awards
Book Review: Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
Amy Stewart.com

Listen to the Podcast

 

Theme Music: The One by The Woodshedders, aka the Hot Club of West Virginia,  courtesy of the PodSafe Music Network

Support A Gardener's Notebook:

Join AGN Mailing List | iTunes Review | Digg.com | Podcast Alley |  Call the Reader/Listener Line @ 206-338-5832

Technorati Tags: garden, gardening, hobby, california, grow, build, make, DIY, howto, how-to, outdoors, losangeles, 91411

I happened to notice this sign today in the Apple Store at the Sherman Oaks Fashion Square. Apple is holding 1 1/2 hour workshops on Music, Movies and Photos at most of their stores.

Here are the short descriptions from the Apple web site...

Music Workshop

Using GarageBand, we’ll teach kids to compose a song with loops, beats, and even their own vocals. At the end of the workshop, they’ll have a finished song on a CD and a workbook to use with other music projects. Please register for February workshops.

Movie Workshop

This workshop will teach kids how to import footage, crop video clips, and add special effects to produce their own movie with iMovie. When they’ve finished, these budding filmmakers can take home their masterpiece on a DVD, as well as a workbook full of tips for future moviemaking projects. Please register for March workshops.

Photo Workshop

Using iPhoto, we’ll show kids how to edit, print, and share photos and how to make photo albums and slideshows. At the end of the workshop they’ll have a DVD and a workbook to use for other photo projects. Please register for April workshops.

(Via Apple Web Site.)

There is a waiting list for upcoming events, but I see the April 25 event still has some openings. Visit the Workshop page for listings of all stores and events.

Link: Apple - Retail - Youth Workshops

Technorati Tags: hobby, california, make, DIY, howto, how-to, creativity, tutorial, events, losangeles, technology, macintosh, software, computers, free, kids, children, video, photo, photography, training, learning, education, apple

Update: 0208/07 1030 PM PST: Audio is now available.

Do you have a question or comment about tonight's seminar? Click the Comments link below and let us know. I'll do my best to address the questions here and, possibly,  in a future meeting.

For sites mentioned at the meeting, visit the TechIQ Bookmarks and Favorites