Gardening Websites

Hi All,

Spring has sprung and the sun seems to be shining - occasionally anyway. With the coming of spring, homeowners everywhere on Long Island hope to have their lawns looking better than they did during November, December, January and February period.

With that introduction out of the way, I'd like to discuss - in some detail - one of the really, really excellent, educational and easy-to-navigate gardening websites that internet users can find on the web. Its name is...The National Gardening Association and you can click here to get to the site.

The National Gardening Association has a very, very helpful website - click here for a link to the site. When you visit the site, immediately on the left side of the screen you'll see a link for 'Expert Advice'. Individual links under this category include, Plant Finder, Weed Library, Gardening Articles, Q&A Library, How-To Projects, How-To Videos, Pest Control Library, Food Garden Guide and Plant Care Guides. Click on any of the previous links to go to that particular topic.

When you visit the site, you can connect to links at the top of the page like, 'Themed Gardens', 'Kids Gardening', 'National Garden Month', and 'Research'. You can also search the site by clicking on the dialog box at the top right of the homepage that says 'Search NGA'.

The site is national - I suspect that you already knew that - but one part of the site is very interesting if you are interested in getting information for different regions of the country. On the homepage, scroll down about halfway down the page and click on the link that says 'Regional Gardening Reports'. Click on this link for the current report - which deals with Hummingbirds. Meanwhile, back on the homepage, you can tailor the reports you see by entering your zip code in the dialog box.

Finally, from the homepage you can connect to other garden related links as varied as 'Garden News' and 'Tip of the Day' (the link wasn't working the night that I created this blog entry...)

Enjoy the gardening - hope your flowers and bushes grow as fast as you want them to!

Regards,
Stu

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. Either way you are a winner!

Stress, angst, agita...relieve it now!!!

Hi All,

I'm sure you all are aware of the stresses of daily modern life. What with kids and a job, and retirement and college to worry about....what is a responsible person to do?

It is easy to talk about relieving stress, but it is another completely different thing to actually take time for yourself and actually relax! Forthwith a few sites and some library resources to help you reduce your stress level in a friendly, easy, relaxing environment!

First and foremost there many, many, many, many....links to stress reduction on the internet. As a matter of fact, it seems like there is a not-so-small cottage industry for giving advice to the stress laden and to angst filled people on the internet. That being said, let's discuss 2 unbiased, authoritative , easily accessible websites that talk about stress reduction.

The first site is from the National Institute of Health. The site is called MedlinePlus and is a wonderful place to start research on any health topic. I entered the term 'stress' in the dialog box and you can click here for the results of the search! Note that Medline is authoritative, up-to-date, unbiased and very well organized. Sounds like a great site to me!

Click on this link for just a small sample of what the site has to offer - this link is an interactive tutorial on how to deal with stress - great stuff!

Also, click here for MedlinePlus' version of what the difference is between stress and anxiety.

Now, on to another website that discusses stress. The site is - you might have heard of it before - WebMD.com. Click here for a link to the front page of WebMD.com

Again, I entered the phrase 'stress' in the dialog box and you can click here for the links and results.

The results of the search are interesting - and very helpful to say the least. First you see a link to a whole section on WebMD called the 'Stress Management Health Center'. Click the phrase in blue and you'll link to the section. On the left side of the screen you'll see a list of options you can choose from. Some of the are: Causes of Stress, Effects of Stress, Measuring Stress, Ways to Relieve Stress, Ways to Avoid Stress, Setting a Goal to Reduce Stress and links to 'If You Need More Help With Stress'. Again, you can click on any of these phrases and you'll go to that particular section on the WebMD site.

Finally, you can Click here for a link to the library card catalog for the search 'stress reduction'. I sorted the results by date - newest items will be first - and the results include books, DVD's, books-on-cd, and other material types.

Hope this helps!
Regards,
Stu

Friend the library on Facebook or, if you think you can handle it, follow us on Twitter. We tweet really, really well! And often and on interesting topics!

Fun, Evocative, Descriptive Words - a whole bunch of them!

Hi All,

Just wanted to post a somewhat whimsical post today since it is a fairly sunny Friday morning in mid Spring. Even more important is that it is not raining! Woohoo!

Okay...sorry 'bout that folks. I intended on posting on Friday morning, but stuff happens and well, I wasn't able to get back to the post that day.

Forthwith, some words that you might find appealing, interesting, useful, educational and lots of fun to repeat with kids and children!


UNCTUOUS
WHIMSICAL
CHERUB
GESTALT
ZEPHYR
OBSEQUIOUS
SERVILE
NUCLEAR
GACK...

and of course there are many, many others in the whole of the English language.

If you are interested in learning new words on a daily basis, you might want to subscribe to AWAD - which is an acronym for 'A Word a Day'. Essentially the site sends you the definition of a new word each day. It is not a spam site and is pretty interesting.

Click here for the link to AWAD. Oh, and it is very easy to sign up and to leave the email list.


Finally, click on this link to Dictionary.com for meanings of these words - if any of them are new to you that is...

Enjoy!
Stu

Friend the library on Facebook and if you are up to it, follow us on Twitter. We tweet the good stuff!

Farmingdale - links and websites from around web

Hi All,

Farmingdale is a very, very historic village. Click here for the Wikipedia link to pretty much all things Farmingdale. On the Wikipedia site, notice a few things: the maps on the right side of the page, the Table of Contents at the very top of the entry - with 'chapters' entitled, 'Areas outside the Village also properly known as Farmingdale, History, Geography, Transportation, Demographics, Prominent Citizens, College and more.

There is also a link to external links - click here to see that particular link.

Click here for the official Farmingdale website, here for the Farmingdale-Bethpage Historical Society website, here for the Farmingdale Chamber of Commerce website and here for the Detailed Zoning Map of the Village. Click here for information on the Bethpage Purchase which occurred in 1687 and helped found much of the Farmingdale-Bethpage-East Farmingdale-Plainedge area. Neat stuff.

Click here for the Zip Code Tabulation Area from the 2000 Census for zip code 11735 - which is Farmingdale. Cool stuff from the Census Bureau. Click here for a brief listing of Farmingdale businesses - from a homemade website by the name of Fdale.com.

Finally click on the relevant links that I post below if you are interested. These are a bunch of businesses, companies, organizations, etc that I thought some users would find interesting when talking about or researching 'things Farmingdale'. And yes, I will list the Farmingdale Public Library in the list - its a great place to visit, take materials out from or stop by and read a newspaper, use our wifi, or take in a movie! (Sorry for the somewhat shameless plug...)

Some fun/interesting attractions and things to do in Farmingdale.

Farmingdale State College
Farmingdale Multiplex Cinemas
Palmer's American Grille
Adventureland
Ellsworth Allen Park
Farmingdale Patch
Farmingdale-Bethpage Historical Society
Farmingdale Public Library
Skydrive Golf Center

Enjoy the links!
Stu

Friend the library on Facebook! Or if you are really, really daring, follow the library on Twitter! You can't go wrong with librarians sending you fact filled, information driven twits!

Pictures - Take Them and Touch Them Up!

Hi All,

Now that we are entering the Spring and Summer season it is time to take photos! And what happens when you take photos that are, how shall I say it? Less than spectacular?

Easy! Just point that browser of your to Citrify.com! You'll be able to clean up the red eye, fix up a crummy complexion, touch up blemishes, erase wrinkle's and airbrush skin. Plus there is a lot more to do on the site like adjusting brightness, contrast, hue, saturation and sharpening the photo.

Another really good photo site is Google's Picasa. Click here for the link to Picasa. Picasa is similar to Citrify - just old wine in a new casket. In other words, its the same but different - so give it a shot. But remember that it is a Google product. Click here for the 'Getting Started Guide' link to Picasa.

Finally, if you are interested in books that can help you learn to take better pictures and to edit them so they look even better than they already do, click here for a link to the library card catalog for books that deal with 'photo editing!

Enjoy the sites - happy photo editing.
Stu

Friend the library on Facebook or follow the library using Twitter! Either way, you'll be the winner!