Ever wondered how you could store a beautiful dutch rose in its most beautiful form for as long as you can? Here’s a tip to do just that.

Take a candle (white and not colored one), and light it. Let the melting wax trickle on the flower covering it from all the angles possible. The wax settles on the flower petals. As the wax becomes solid around the shape of the rose, it will protect the rose.

There will be some initial color change due to heat of the wax, but as it cools down the you will notice that the rose will retain its shape and texture. Do this till you have completely covered the flower with wax. This way, the flower can be retained in the same form for many many weeks and months with the transparent coating of wax. Of course, if it falls the flower will break as the wax will make it solid and hard. This might get cumbersome with a bunch of roses, moreover a bunch lacks the magic that a single long-stemmed deep red dutch rose beholds. Put it in your favorite vase and let it bloom for a long long time.

You can do this and keep your roses close to your heart forever. Okay forever is stretching it a bit too far, anyways keep it as long as it lasts.

A classroom without walls, is the perfect way one can describe the Holly Hill Farm in Cohasset, MA. They take students during the fall and spring and teach them farming. The young farmers program expose them to basics of farming: planting, fertilizing, weeding and harvesting.

On the final day the students prepare lunch from the harvest. To read in detail visit Holly Hill Farm, classroom without walls.

I wonder if in India, all students start getting into such programs during summer or winter break, we will be teaching a lot to them starting from dignity of labour to appreciating healthy food. The schools can start this kind of programs by having common patches for each standard where the social work hours can go.

I remember we used to cut grasses, weed, plant trees, water the plants etc during the social work hours. But what fun it would have been to have a complete vegetable garden in the school. May be today I would’ve been in a different profession altogether.