liveonearth: (Default)
 I keep planting things in the yard and then forgetting what they are, so I need to take notes somewhere.  This seems like as good a place as any.  

BEAR'S BREECHES
In the front of our yard, facing the road, is an area that has long been overtaken by bear's breeches (Acanthus mollis).  It was pretty enough with its large glossy dark green leaves and spires of purple & white flowers...but it took over the entire bed and wanted to keep expanding its territory.  I was done with it.  I wanted to plant crape myrtles.  W dug up the bear's breeches last fall, but this year it has been coming back with a vengeance.  I go to the front and dig out more roots every 3 days.  A one-inch chopped-off piece of root will continue to send out leaves for...a long time.  Now when I plant something new I dig up the entire area and sort through the soil, finding every chunk of bear's breeches root and throwing it in a pile.  But there are many places where the roots are still under there, and the leaves keep coming up.  I hope to have that plant eliminated from this bed by next year.  It has become clear what a big job that is.

CRAPE MYRTLES
The two we planted are going to be 20 foot trees, but for now they are not even waist high.  I believe they are the Natchez variety, white flowering in late summer, leaves turning orange-red in the fall.  I planted them because I want the muscular trunks to frame my view from the front porch.  I have seen gorgeous crape myrtles in botanical gardens and arboretums.  I've been studying on what to do on youtube--going to go out and cut a couple of crossed limbs and eliminate suckers when I finish this post!

DIANTHUS
(Vivace rustique?) I just planted a pink dianthus in that front bed.  I planted one a couple years ago and W moved it or maybe weeded it out...if he doesn't know what a plant is, he is mean to it.  Anyway I'm hoping that this will bloom soon as it is covered in buds.

GROUND COVER
A month ago I planted a couple of plants that are supposed to cover a lot of ground and I have no idea what they are called now.  I also planted a maroon-leafed composite that is blooming now with chocolatey flowers.  Wish I knew what these things are.

ROSES
The pale pink rose by the front walk is going HUGE right now, blooming harder than I have ever seen.  All the other roses on the property are looking exuberant as well.  I'm not wild about any of our roses because none of them have great aromas.  I like roses for their smell more than anything.

FOOD
We're eating spinach and asparagus from the garden.
Lots of other greens are on the way.
The green beans germinated well and are growing fast.
The broccoli and peppers and tomatoes are growing nicely.
The blueberries are forming up.
The raspberries are flowering and are covered in bees.
The fig tree (2nd season) has figs all over it.
I just potted a basil plant in a large pot---last year they were up-and-dying in the garden soil so I will keep it in this pot for now.

PEAR TREE GONE
W took out the pear tree last fall and we have not planted another fruit tree in its place.  We'd like an apple tree but basically it doesn't matter how much I study up on it, W will not believe me nor will he go with my choices, so he has to do it himself.  Of course, if I go out and buy something he will plant it, he just won't let me tell him what to buy.

MY LITTLE HERB BED
All I have in there is peppermint, thyme, calendula, and digitalis/foxglove.  The foxglove just started to bloom.  The mint is spreading underneath all the other plants and will have to be trimmed back down to size soon.  Scattered around in other places I have a purple sage and a rosemary, and the oregano is mixed into the grass.  The parsley has bolted and W planted stuff all around it.

Slice

May. 30th, 2021 12:53 pm
liveonearth: (Default)
 
Slice of PDX life. Went for a walk around the park and saw a dead crow, flies there too but not smelly yet. Got philosophy books! on Freedom and Purpose (Catholic Christian perspective) and The Passion of Michel Foucault by James Miller from a free library. Saw teen white boys playing baseball, and crowds of parents and fans watching. Saw a long line of glistening newer cars parked nearby. Huge four-door black Ford truck with blue lives matter sticker. More Fords, Lexus, Mercedes. The usual subarus but cleaner than the park average.

Home alone now. Finally. This is the thing that I need more than anything. Time. Quiet. Alone.

 
liveonearth: (Default)

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance,
chaos to order, confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast,
a house into a home,
a stranger into a friend.

-- Melody Beattie


liveonearth: (Default)
 Your confusion is not pathology, it is path. It has something to show you that clarity could never reveal. The nature of chaos is wisdom, but you must provide a home for it to receive its mysteries.


Your feeling of disconnection is not neurotic, it is intelligent. It has something to show you that oneness could never reveal. If you will practice the yoga of non-abandonment and provide safe passage – it will disclose an unmet doorway.

Your loneliness, your shakiness, and your fear are not mistakes. They are not obstacles on your path. They *are* the path. The freedom you are longing for will never be found in the eradication of the unwanted, but only in the core of the love and information it carries.


There are surges of somatic activity that contain very important information for your journey. If you will offer safe passage for the unknown aliveness, you will meet the messengers of illumination. Nothing is missing, nothing is out of place, and nothing need be sent away.


Yes, you may burn until you are translucent, but it is by way of this burning that your wholeness will be revealed.


~ Matt Licata

liveonearth: (moon)
1.  Portland has the best Bitters.  From fresh strong coffee to extremely hoppy IPA's, to unique herbal blends to add to your cocktail, you will not find a town with more depth and variety in its bitter beverages and flavors.  Asheville, NC would like to claim that it is a beer capital of the US, but all they did was win an online survey.  Anyone who has been beer-drinking in both cities knows which one dominates.

2.  Portland has ample fresh water, including a well-protected drinking water supply.  The Willamette River splits the town in half, and the even larger Columbia River divides north Portland from southern VanCouver, Washington.  Hydropower plants on the Columbia provide cheap electricity.  Rains fall predictably from fall to spring.  Climate change scientists suggest that Portland will be getting less long slow drizzles, and more intense downpours, but the total amount of precipitation is likely to remain similar.

3.  It is easy to grow things here.  Portland is called the City of Roses because rose sprigs that came from Ireland in ballast took root along the banks of the Willamette.  Today cultivated roses bloom from February until November.  The climate is so mild that the city doesn't own any snow plows, and many plants survive the winter because it doesn't freeze often or hard.  In the summer, with a little irrigation, food gardens are highly productive.  Those invasive blackberries that people can't seem to kill produce delicious sweet berries every summer.

4.  The city is so liberal that even conservatives are welcome!  Everyone can find a community here.  Local pride about the openminded nature of the residents is relfected on bumperstickers that say "Keep Portland Weird".  Here in Portland it is legal to be naked in public (look up the Nude but Not Lewd Law) but people are so polite that they only get naked downtown during the annual naked bike ride, for which people who can't bear to see are well warned and able to avoid the affront.  There are communities of many ethinicities and religions living peacefully side by side, and great ethnic food too.

5.  The roads belong to everyone in Portland.  Cars actually stop to let pedestrians cross.  Bicycles are given a lane, or at least a little attention and respect.  Public transportation in the form of light rail and busses is busily bringing people into and out of the city to limit traffic and parking crunches.

6.  Nature is everywhere.  In town there are large and small parks and lovely pedestrian trails.  The volcanoes of the Cascade mountains are visible from town, and the protected Oregon coast is only an hour's drive away.  The Columbia gorge begins just outside the urban area and is loaded with gorgeous waterfalls and fantastic hiking trails.  A visitor to Cascadia cannot fail to notice the richness of the green.

7.  People are green here too.  We recycle what we can and reuse everything else.  We refuse to drive our cars when possible, and are mindful to minimize our carbon footprints.  We eat local and organic and support sustainable agriculture.  We have solar panels on our roofs.  We are trying to save the world, or at least, doing our own small part and feeling good about it.
liveonearth: (Spok has a cat)
I just heard her dispatch some squeaking thing.  I did not get up to save it from her.  She is probably licking her chops right now, having just chomped down the last bite.  Maybe it was a baby rabbit.  It squeaked like one.

I'm having trouble keeping her clown collar on her.  I bought her a birds be safe collar but the quick-release under-collar is too quick to release--she scratches it right off.  Maybe if I put it on her when she has just fed she will be happy enough to ignore it and get used to it.

In other home news the raspberries are coming in.  W says they've never ever been this early.  It's still May and we have both pink and blonde raspberries already ripe.  The blueberries are on their way as well.  We will probably not get very many of them, because the crows are waiting for their ripening as well.

I'm planing my tulsis outdoors today.  Rama tulsi, the most medicinal Ocimum, and Kapoor, and Vana.  These are the Ayurvedic names, and two of them have the exact same Latin name according to the seed company I got them from.

Bergamots are going out as well.  Three of them.  Should be interesting to see how they fare.

I never know what will live and what will die in my little garden.  
liveonearth: (moon)
When I have a morning at home alone I work on my lists and I fall into my practice more easily.  The sun is streaming in and I am doing triage on piles of "urgent" items which have become buried under a stream of distractions and amusements like my nonstop study of public health.  One observation this morning is that the strong balancing poses which I find so elusive when surrounded by empty air and other students are more accessible when I am alone in my office.  Here I can step into a warrior 3 knowing that the sunny windowsill is right there to hold me up, and yet confidently not needing it.  This strength and balance that I find in my own small office is something I would like to take with me into the world.
liveonearth: (Default)
Boy was it nice to be out there for a while. No electricity, no flush toilets, no internet. Just fast cold water, snowy peaks, giant ponderosas, steep grasslands, birds of prey and sand beaches out there. But I'm back in town. I'm sick, too, but on the mend finally today. Somebody brought a cold to share on the trip, and most of us got it. I spent yesterday in bed. I started weeding through the ~350 emails, most of which are irrelevant. I will get back on that project today. In between starting to unpack from the trip, organize in my new home, study for boards, and get well.
liveonearth: (moon)
Twenty eight percent (28%) of US households are now just one person living alone. This is the most ever. These singles are the biggest spenders, contributing 1.9 trillion to "the economy" each year. (According to The Week 2/10/12 which is in turn quoting Fortune magazine)

And another factoid from the same source: the number of US prisoners age 65 and over has increased 63% between 2007 and 2010. I guess we're keeping them put away so long that now they need more medical care, and it's becoming an issue. The total number of prisoners has been flat for that same period.
liveonearth: (fantasy river)
Traveling at Home

Even in a country you know by heart
it's hard to go the same way twice.
The life of the going changes.
The chances change and make it a new way.
Any tree or stone or bird
can be the bud of a new direction. The
natural correction is to make intent
of accident. To get back before dark
is the art of going.

liveonearth: (Default)
At least, that's what I heard on the radio. Whenever I hear that "Everybody" says something, I am immediately suspicious. Everybody? OK then, what jobs do we want? Jobs with health insurance, and a paycheck, right? How about a desk, a telephone, and a computer? A window? A coffee maker? Boy now we're talking about the kind of job I could go for. But is that really what we need? I mean WHAT DO WE NEED?

I think we need a bunch of adventurous entrepreneurs to figure out what it is that we really need, and get busy developing the means of production. I went to naturopathic medical school because I see natural medicine as a sustainable and beneficial profession in which I can continue to serve no matter what the economic condition of my community. I am going to offer my assistance, and I trust that my knowledge and service will be of adequate value to allow me to live a good life.

I don't want a job!!! Jobs for me have been dead ends, places where I can get comfortable while my life drains away doing someone else's work. When do I get to do MY work? To be creative? To do my good for the world?? I saw this culture headed for the brink a long time ago. And it's still headed that way. I want to create a window to a better future.

What do we really need after all? A safe and comfortable place to call our own. It doesn't have to be fancy. We all need shelter, somewhere to keep our pillow and toothbrush. We all need fresh water, and good food, and we all need touch and love. That's about it! Jobs and insurance are figments of this paradigm that's headed for the drink.

today's news: U.S. poverty rate rises to 15.1 percent, number of uninsured Americans hits record high  )
liveonearth: (Default)
I could (yet can't) break out of this prison for drunks
I did not come here of my own accord, and i cannot leave that way
Whoever brought me here will have to take me home.

--Rumi
liveonearth: (Default)
http://www.minishower.net/minish_commode.html

Here in the land of no bidets, this product has been found invaluable by a friend dealing with a perianal fistula. Also a terrific way for people with hemorrhoids to avoid torturing them with TP, and a kinder gentler way of cleaning vaginas. I haven't bought one yet, but I might. I'd rather have a full fledged bidet installed in my dream house, but who knows if I'll ever live there. I've wanted one ever since I lived in Europe as a teen.
liveonearth: (Default)
This is the so-called food safety bill. What it actually does is secure complete control of our food supply by the corporations. A companion bill (S.3767) was recently added into it, which criminalizes food production, meaning that you could be charged with a crime for eating what you or your neighbor grows in the yard. This is insane. Family farms and ranches, community and home gardens and farmers’ markets stand to lose big. The rules that would be imposed may be reasonable to control industrialized food production, but will rapidly destroy local/organic and community food production.

The corporate powers that be would like our current congress to push it through but Senator Coburn and a few others have held it up, because they realize that it needs their full attention. It probably won't be debated until the new congress is formed, after the election. Last year they passed the House version of this bill (HR 1279) in spite of considerable citizen action against it. We can allow the corporations to control and run our nation. It will take concerted citizen action to stop it. I am not sure enough people are awake yet to see what is happening, I'm not sure enough people care to stop it. And in the final reckoning, the government can no more stop people from growing tomatoes in their yards than they can stop people from growing and smoking pot. But they can make it illegal and inconvenient and underground. They can make us into criminals by passing laws that do not serve the people, they serve only big business. This is no democracy, as long as the people are lazy overfed sheep. This is a giant corporate farm and we are the product.

Bill Text:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=s111-510

Stop S. 510 Action Page: http://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1057.php
http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=6719

S 510, the Food Safety Modernization Act, may be the most dangerous bill in the history of the US. It is to our food what the bailout was to our economy, only we can live without money.
http://foodfreedom.wordpress.com/2010/04/24/s-510-is-hissing-in-the-grass/

Track the Bill:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=s111-510

QotD

Aug. 1st, 2010 01:59 pm
liveonearth: (Lillies)
Home is not where you live, but where they understand you.
--Christian Morgenstern quoted in Montreal Gazette



liveonearth: (Default)
Tennessee's high-tech future became more secure last week when the U.S. Department of Energy announced that the Oak Ridge National Laboratory would become the nation's top research facility for the future of nuclear energy. It is fitting that the laboratory that brought us into the nuclear age would be chosen to plan for its future.
a pro-nuke editorial and a bit of history from the town historian )

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