Imagine making a midnight run, armed only with peonies and tulips, a hand spade and packet of seeds. This is a typical evening for one Mr. Richard Reynolds, the Londoner credited with bringing back the beautifully defiant act of guerilla gardening.

Jon Mooallem caught up with Reynolds sometime in April, apparently to write this wonderful treat of an article from the Sunday Times magazine a couple of weeks back. I’m obviously late to the party on these happenings, as the BBC and others have been reporting on Reynolds’ movement since early 2005. Reynolds and his crews focus on neglected public land, taking over plots of weeds and turning them into cared for public spaces. It seems they have re-ignited a worldwide movement of bewildering, another term synonymous with guerilla gardening coined by Australian gardener Bob Crombie. Or rather, it seems this natural act is becoming a part of the collective consciousness once again.

Still, the most famous group of Londoners employing these tactics should probably go to the activists associated with the group The Land is Ours, a group that occupied 13 acres of derelict land belonging to the Guiness company, for five and a half months before being evicted. Their mission was to highlight “the appalling misuse of urban land, the lack of provision of affordable housing and the deterioration of the urban environment”. And they potentially learned all this from Liz Christy and her Green Guerillas from the Bowery in New York in the 1970’s, who learned it from a couple of Brits, who must’ve read the bible at some juncture. Point is, this act of using public space for the community’s greater good has been around a long time. Everything runs in a circular motion.

And to think that I have a half of an acre with no garden growing…hmph. I always felt that I needed to own a home before I had a garden, and now that I do, I think that I need to find a place that I want to put down roots before I sow. Instead, I think, I should just stop thinking so much and perhaps pick up a hoe and take some action for a moment. (grab a hoe…did you like that? It makes me feel giddy and juvenile, so I couldn’t help but mention it…)

Enjoy the video that the Nation fashioned over two years ago, if you’d like. And if you’re feelin’ it, get yourself some tools, cuttings, and maybe a headlamp and have a go at it, yeah?

For as long as I can remember, my family has had the ritual of stretching out Sunday morning in the pursuit of newspaper reading. This tradition involves all kinds of newspapers, depending on the location of any given Sunday, but it ALWAYS involves The New York Times. I almost always go to the magazine first, if I am not sideswiped by an unsuspecting “Style” section headline. (Plus, I have a guilty pleasure of reading the wedding announcements. PURE east coast lineage postings, really…)

This week, the magazine hosted its’ 7th Annual Year In Ideas. I adore this issue. I’m not sure if its because I was blessed with the “wonder bug”, whereas seemingly mundane things become incredibly interesting to me, no doubt implanted by my parents, or if it is purely that some of these revelations are truly incredible.

Some of my favorites this year are:

– Fake Tilt-Shift Photography, which makes pictures of actual life-size vistas look like pictures of miniature model’s of said vistas.

– The Honeycomb Vase, sculpted by bees

– Left-hand-turn Elimination, which would make one of my best friend’s mom proud, as she never made left-hand turns. UPS has incorporated the practice, saving three million gallons of gas and reducing CO2 emissions by 31,000 metric tons

– Mindful Exercise, a study concluding that self-awareness can lead to actual, measurable health benefits.

– Lap Dance Science, which deduces that women earn more while ovulating.