Thousands of years ago the Phoenicians called it “Inosin”, for the Greeks it was “Hierakon Nesos”, while in Roman times it was known as “Accipitrum Insula”; during the centuries the original meaning of its name has not changed: “Falcons’ Island”, underlining its main feature that fascinated the sailors who approached […]
Saying may be thinking of roses. It is to the roses that poets, painters, musicians of all time have dedicated their works. It is to the roses that we refer if we want to talk about feminine beauty. Yellow, pink, red, orange, violet, almost blue roses. Bush roses, vines, creeping, […]
We start our column with three very different proposals, but all very close to our way of being Earth Gardeners. The first volume, by Mario Tozzi, closely reflects our philosophy of eearthardening. The author tells us how and how much our relationship with the planet and its phenomenologies is the […]
Falconry may have begun before the 2nd millennium in tribes living between Middle East and Central Asia, because of hunting purposes and afterwards it spread towards east and then west. However, some people think that the real value of falconry, more than being a mere hunting style, consists in devoting […]
There is a fragrance in the intense and intoxicating gardens that spreads up to the kitchens and accompanies us in all the summer canteens. It is the scent of Basil, the “plant of the king”. BASIL (Ocimum basilicum L.) BOTANICAL CARD A native of tropical Asia and India, it was […]
The golden sandy shore that runs from the mouth of the Po almost uninterruptedly up to the Gargano, halfway between Termoli and Lesina runs along the Marina of the small town of Chieuti. A couple of weeks ago, after about forty years, I returned to Chieuti. The beach was always […]
October. Autumn shortens the days, the trees begin to color the landscapes. If you make an excursion from the sea to the mountains, moving towards the higher heights, we leave behind the green sclerophyllous woods to let ourselves be enchanted by the yellows, ocher and brown that occupy ever greater […]
Symbol of peace and different cultures is the most emblematic element of the Mediterranean flora. OLIVE (Olea Europaea L.) BOTANICAL CARD Belonging to the Oleaceae family, it originates from a vast region between the southern part of the Caucasus, Iran, Palestine and Syria and has gradually colonized all the countries […]
Probably very few animals over the millennia have impressed and stimulated the collective imagination as much as the nocturnal birds of prey. Creatures at ease only after sunset, able to fly and hunt in total darkness, have aroused, depending on the cultures and the period, wonder and admiration or superstitious […]
Darkness is the characteristic of the last month of the year. And with so much darkness it is difficult for the blooms to be many … In spite of everything, however, the oblique rays of our star are able to color the dark green branches of Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.), […]
Our second appointment is focused on two themes at first sight not close, but in my opinion strongly connected: the parallel development of the phylogenetic lines of populations and languages and the ecology of the family, or the recovery of the primary mission of families to educate their children. Cavalli-Sforza’s […]
. . . and one day Columbus armed three caravels and left for a long journey. . . That departure, in July 1492, it is appropriate to say, put into turmoil this and the other world. Animals and plants, which had lived for millions of years in total geographic isolation, came to be in direct […]
January, the coldest month. The day slowly begins to gain time on the night. Deciduous trees, now devoid of leaves, show their fractal structures; many evergreens during the last vegetation have stretched and directed their branches to the ground forming a dome that helps them to close to the cold […]
In the less cold areas of the Mediterranean basin, the spontaneous grasses, helped by autumn and winter rains, begin to appear. This is the moment to start looking for and picking up the first ones, keeping dandelion seedlings, Chard, Fennel, Borage, Nettle to make soups, omelettes, savory pies, … or […]
The trills and the first trills that begin to animate the foliage of the trees and the branches of the thickest shrubs, indicate without doubt that there is already someone who feels the approach of the end of winter! But February is, as many dicipolar dictates say, short and cursed: […]
Hottentot (Carpobrotus edulis) native to South Africa is highly invasive and is a serious danger for the pioneer species of both sandy and rocky coasts. From the Neolithic period to that of colonization and geographical exploration, introductions of species from other territories have facilitated human life especially from the food […]
Spring has arrived and, despite this year the sun appears rather shy, the blooms explode exuberantly and colored. Very difficult to contain on one page the multitude of flowers that open their corollas since March. It may be more interesting to divide the blooms for macroambients from March to May, […]
“Ecology”, “sustainability”, “compatibility”, “biodiversity”, “biological” are words that have entered our everyday life and that sound like reassuring. This is the reason why advertisers use them even in cases where the products they promote have even antithetical characteristics with the word used. The volumes suggested this two months are deepened […]
When, many years ago, I collaborated with Professor Attilio Marcolli in organizing the first Environmental Design courses at the IED in Cagliari, I discovered that my visual design knowledge could contribute to the formation of young and creative environmental designers: the teachings of balance, essentiality, formal cleanliness, simplicity, correct hierarchy […]
Maria Montessori, in the fourth chapter of her most important work, “The method of scientific pedagogy”, which later became “The discovery of the child”, highlights the importance of nature in education and training. “In our time and in the civil environment of our society children live very far from nature […]
The abundant rain that has characterized this spring has made the spring vegetation luxuriant, showing phenomenal blooms for abundance and exuberance. The impossibility of containing on a page all the species that bloom in April, will focus our attention on “more flowery” environments. We will follow the path of colors […]
The summer triangle still in the autumn sky The Sun is in Virgo since September 16th and remains there for the whole month to spend October 31st in Libra, with all due respect for the astrologers who remained at the positions of the Sun of 2000 years ago, a century […]
Around January 3rd, the Earth is in Perieli, that is at the point closest to the Sun of the Earth’s orbit, which, evidently, does not coincide with that of the Winter Solstice; during these days there is the maximum of the meteoric swarm of the Quadrantids that take their name […]
The Sun until mid-February is in Capricorn and then go to the Aquarium. The days continue to grow and in the night sky, towards the south, we can still enjoy Orione and the summer constellations. At the Solstice on June 21st, the Sun is located halfway between Toro and Gemelli, […]
The Sun from Aquarius passes, on March 12, in Pisces. Since the winter solstice in December, the Sun has been rising on the Ecliptic and it can be seen going through the daytime arches on the horizon higher and higher and wider, with the days getting longer. At the Spring […]
The Sun from March 12 in Pisces, passes on April 19 in Aries where it will remain until mid-May. Oriented towards South in the evening, we see from the West to the East the Taurus, the Gemini, the Cancer and the Lion. the Virgin and the Libra. Virgo In the […]
The Sun that in May was in Toro passes in Gemelli on June 21st, the day of the Summer Solstice; has reached the maximum height on the horizon at noon solar and from now begins to descend along the Eclittica, the hours of light begin to decrease. Solstice from the […]
May! among the hedges and scrublands, on the edge of the deciduous forests, along the country roads in all the regions of Italy stand out the flowering shrubs of the Hawthorn, COMMON HAWTHORN Crataegus monogyna Jacq. – Fl. Austr. 3: 50 (1775) It is a shrubby plant that often reaches […]
The Sun in Gemini since June 21 passes in Cancer on the 21st of the month, South facing in the evening, we see after sunset along the course of the night, from West to East, as eclittic constellations, the Lion, the Virgin, the Libra, the Scorpio, Ophiuchus, the Sagittarius, the […]
In animals, the innate disposition to learning is expressed in curiosity and play. It is curiosity that leads to the exploration of the environment in which each animal moves. Curiosity, and therefore the drive to explore and experiment with the surrounding world, is obviously most evident in puppies. A kitten […]
The visual and behavioral characteristics of the Common kingfisher have certainly not gone unnoticed and so, since ever, popular imagination has given these birds virtues and magical powers that certainly did not help their conservation, making them the object of hunting and easy hunting techniques: a viscous substance placed near […]
This document is the contribution that EARTH GARDENERS brought to the “Network Day” of the REBEL NERWORK network, of which it is part, which was held in Rimini on September 8th 2018. The images are taken from the Power Point that accompanied the intervention. “T’insegneranno a non splendere. E tu […]
The culture and culture of the olive tree have been handed down over time by the farming tradition, repeating every autumn the whole process of harvesting and pressing the olives. The pressing technique has been refined over time, with the production of cutting-edge tools and machinery to meet the needs […]
The Sun is in Ophiuchus until the 18th of the month when it passes, in Sagittarius. December 21st is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day there is for our hemisphere, because the Sun is at the lowest point of the Ecliptic; inappropriately it is said that the shortest is December […]
An old adage mentions: “we are what we eat”. We think there is nothing more true. The Mediterranean populations have for a long time brought written on where they lived and what they ate: the goiter so common in areas where it was not possible to find salt, or the […]
The substantial immobility of pre-industrial society overlaps with the immobility of the productive potential of the environment, driven by an evolution that only knows the slowness of biological times. The foods of vegetable origin known today are practically almost the same as those of the Neolithic. The archaeological findings of […]
The history of bread is closely linked to the development of human civilizations, from the dawn of agriculture until nowadays. We do not know exactly when bread was born; its first documented production dates back to 2,000 B.C. when the Egyptians realized the importance of cooking food at high temperatures […]
Reworking with additions to the text of P.R. Ehrlich Global change and its influence on biodiversity (R.Casagrandi & P. Melia (Eds) Proceedings of the XIII National Congress of the Italian Society of Ecology, Como, 8-10 September 2003. SItE Acts 27: 35-45). The article begins with a reference to the impressive […]
To define the current era, the term “Plasticene” has been proposed: plastic fragments throughout the world are continuously detected in oceans, soil, sediments and air. Just to have an order of magnitude, according to a recent study conducted by the University of Pisa, the amount of microplastics on Italian beaches […]
…. Thus amidst this immensity lies my thought: and TO shipwreck is sweet to me in this sea. Giacomo Leopardi’s twenty-one-year-old sea, however, was not water, it was the representation of that infinity that was the silence, the eternal, with which the poet measured the reasons and absurdities of life. […]
The Sun is not … constant The Sun is in the constellation of Aries from April 19th to May 13th, remaining there for about 24 days; then it passes into the constellation of Taurus where it remains until June 21, taking about 38 days to then pass into Gemini. Actually, […]
Late Spring in the park, wild irises and buttercups stain the ditches while yellow, white and pink patches of wild garlic color the edges of the paths. The green meadows are dotted with daisies, here and there tufts of blue irises sprout; presences can be glimpsed between the blades of […]
Honey is the oldest substance used by man as a sweetener; the first traces of beekeeping date back to the Neolithic, as evidenced by some cave decorations dating back to around 8000 years and found in the Cuevas de la Araña, a group of caves located in Bicorp, near Valencia, […]
Among the reflections arabesqued by the sun on the water as soon as you notice a flash of blue that darting trilling before. In vain you pursue him … already has vanished behind the reeds: it was Martino, he was the king fisherman. From his behavior, from the colors of […]
The recent weather conditions, which highlight how the climatic apocalypse is not the future but the present, should suggest that some of the environmental issues, which should have already been resolved for at least two decades, are now unavoidable if we want our species to continue to live on this […]
“Man is alone in front of his future. Their responsibilities are exhilarating and terrible.” Let’s start the new year with two proposals that explore the theme addressed in the article “For the love of the planet?”. The two volumes that we recommend are closely linked: the author of the first, […]
Evolutionism or creationism? The two themes have been at the center of public debate for years, but they are certainly irreconcilable and cannot be put on the same level: creationism is a philosophical and religious vision, while evolutionism is a scientific theory based on data and in continuous evolution. Supported […]
“Upupa, ilare uccello calunniatodai poeti, che roti la tua crestasopra l’aereo stollo del pollaioe come un finto gallo giri al vento;nunzio primaverile, upupa, comeper te il tempo s’arresta,non muore più il Febbraio,come tutto di fuori si protendeal muover del tuo capo,aligero folletto, e tu lo ignori” Eugenio Montale – “Ossi […]
This month we would like to recommend Franco Tassi’s book, not only because we love the idea that the Lynx still lives in our country and we like to ensure that it is known, but above all, because we believe it is particularly important to underline how the verification of […]
“He popped up like a mushroom”; “You won’t tell me you didn’t see it yesterday, it’s not a mushroom!” This is what happens, a few days after the rain: in the woods, as if by magic, we see them popping up almost everywhere, with their multicolored hats, their thousand shapes. […]
The three-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) is a small fish made particularly famous by the studies that Niko Tinbergen carried out on it, so much so that it is considered a true icon of the behavioral sciences. Certainly, on the same level of Konrad Lorenz’s geese and Karl von Frisch’s bees, […]
In autumn, training activities resume: schools, universities, and professional institutes reopen after a period of enormous difficulties. The pandemic has induced great transformations in behavior, teaching methods, and methodologies, in educational approaches. How to face the change? In a context so profoundly changed that it has created dismay, anxieties, frustrations, […]
“But when we reached the land that was nearby, there we saw near the sea a cavern that opened at the highest point, covered with laurels …” (Homer, Odyssey, IX, 181-183) Intensely scented and held in great esteem since ancient times, the Laurel (Laurus nobilis L. 1753) also called Lauro, […]
Many ethologists do not agree with the possibility of recognizing forms of intelligence in animals. However, we cannot deny they show “intelligent” behaviors aimed at achieving particular adaptations to the environment. Just take into consideration what the members of the order of the Hymenoptera, the so-called social insects, are able […]