The approaching end of summer

We know that in September, we will wander through the warm winds of summer's wreckage. We will welcome summer's ghost.
Henry Rollins 


I don't know what the world looks like where you are. Here the change of season is ahead of where it should be, somewhat like I observed in the spring when I heard a knock at the door one day and  there stood Summer. who announced it was here a month early, and marched right in. Fall is not being as bold, but has sent me a note written in the leaves on the trees.

Usually I smell fall in the air and begin my routine of fall clean-up, planting onions for the next year, turning and combining compost piles ( I have three in different parts of the yard ), cutting back this and that. This year I can see that we are going to have an early fall by the color of the trees. Even my landlord noticed it. And lots of leaves. I have even seen a grape leaf or two raging red. In September. What are they thinking. Some of the vegetables are telling me they are thinking about the long snooze. 

I have not yet seen the long migrations of Geese, so winter is still out there some where waiting for the right time to announce his arrival. The fig tree usually waits until just after Thanksgiving to drop its yellow leaves. I appreciate that, it makes such a gorgeous backdrop for the holiday. That is when I pull the last of the bamboo stakes supporting the tomatoes and store them in the rafters of the garage. Thank is when I begin in earnest rearranging the living room for fires, and stacks of wood. 

But this year everthing is early. The river has stayed high, there has only been one week of high temperatures. I think for my own sanity I am going to wait until I smell fall in the air. 

I hope it is still summer where you are, and that you are not welcoming Summer's Ghost a little too early.

A product of my environment

     

You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success - or are they holding you back?   

- W. Clement Stone  

I live in a beautiful place. I have my cultivated garden with lawn, 100 feet from the house is the Sacramento River, and to the north of my cultivated space is an open area, with oaks and maples and cottonwoods. I have my vegetable garden back there as well. The property is a magnet for birds. I used to hear a pair of horned owls, but the people to the north of me are clearing the property for development and they could very well have cut down their home. I haven't heard them in a while. Butterflies, mantis, lady bugs, every now and then I see something I have never seen before. Yesterday I saw a small flat beetle that was red with a black edge that I need to look up.  There are the usual wild mammals like raccoons (four legged bandits with hands), possum, skunk (smelled, but never seen except dead on the road) and an occasional coyote. The Canadian Geese sometimes fly over the house just above the tree tops, honking. One of these days I will get a decent picture.  This past week or so it has been the Crow Convention because the figs are ripe. They fly from tree to tree in the neighborhood. They are loud and boisterous. A couple of hundred at a time, it is impressive.  Hummingbirds, chickadees, blue jays and magpies. Bats at dusk. They are sooooo cool. When it is very hot and not very breezy, the dragonflies appear -- a few hundred at a time, swooping and darting from about three feet off the ground to a hundred feet above the house. I have tried to get pictures, it doesn't do the numbers or the dance they do any justice. To stand in the middle of my lawn with these 4 inch creatures flying around me is magical. 

This is Swainson Hawk territory. The Hawk saved the banks of the levee system from being denuded. The Army Corp wanted to strip the trees and foliage so that the levee would be easier to inspect. The tree roots, and bushes help stabilize the levee, but it took the Friends of the Swainson Hawk to convinced them that the habitat loss would be too great if they did. Not just for the hawk, but for all the small creatures that form the ecosystem and are part of the food chain, and bio diversity of the river.  

My house is an older home built in the late 40's. I live on the second floor above a "garage space." You cannot store anything important down there, because occasionally the river overflows the banks and comes into the yard. My first flood was in the spring of 2011. Three feet of water in the yard for a couple of weeks. It was not fun. The dog hated every minute. WE survived and so now every winter I start pulling stuff up, some of it comes upstairs. But I am honestly getting too old to schlep stuff up and down the stairs and rearrange my house for 4 months. 

I believe that the events that happen are reflective of energy you want to pull into your life. I love it here. I have a studio space that I use mostly in the winter. My true passion and love is gardening, my artwork has always been reflective of that.  So I put in a vegetable garden, and I usually have something out there all year.  Summertime,  I am outside. And that vegetable garden feeds me. Serious business. I take pictures of my flowers and plants. The other morning I woke up to the image of a tall drawing of grass, with the emphasis at the base. It was an inspirational dream image. So I am photographing the bases of plants right now, putting together some reference material for this winter when the cold and rain will keep me inside. I have not lived in a place that felt more like home since I left Walnut Creek. 

So my objectives as I go forward are to do the two things I do very well: First to create a beautiful outdoor space, and do things with plants. Second, to do artwork and crafts inspired by nature. This environment supports my goals and objectives. 

The base of the Naked Ladies

Good Vibrations

Pretty Girl

The long, leaning process

Upright

“It does not matter how long you are spending on the earth, how much money you have gathered or how much attention you have received. It is the amount of positive vibration you have radiated in life that matters,”    ― Amit Ray

Now I really believe this quote. I think it is at the root of what we are doing here, everything that goes on. I have days when I approach a marginally OK version of good vibration ( Wait, I hear the Beach Boys ) And other days when I am surprised plants don't wilt as I approach.

I think it applies to everything on the planet, The plants, the animals, all of the minerals, And especially the made made objects. They are after all an extension of us, and we are creating reality as we go.

Creating a good vibration in your environment means that people come into your space and feel better. That creative energy is somehow transmitted to them. With the arts you extend your vibration to your work. With food, it is in what you cook. Music speaks straight to the soul. I am reconsidering a number of things of late. I have a lot of creative energy, but am not using it. That just seems wrong.

I read something, a few times by different people that boiled down to there are two emotions: Love and Fear. I would venture to say that positive vibration is really how much love you have put into everything you do. Now when I find myself getting angry, or upset, or feeling a "negative" emotion I have to stop and ask myself what I am afraid of. It sounds pretty easy until I am furious with the dog for having peed on the corner of the bed again. That one always stops me in my tracks. What am I afraid of then? Fear of Dog piss and all the work it represents, and how my time will be side tracked while I clean it up? In truth, why does it matter if I can do it with a good feeling in my heart. Uh-huh.

On another note. I have had a colossal failure in my garden, this time of my own doing. The corn has ripened without my knowledge, and I have now more than a few ears of too ripe, firm and somewhat tasteless corn. I am going to boil the ears and save it for chowder. But this is like the most embarrassing thing I have done in a while, and I can definitely relate this to not providing them with enough love, attention and water. I just didn't see the ears, and didn't know they would do this. ARGH. A week ago the sunflowers toppled at about four feet taking some of the corn with them. For those not aware of what I did, I tried Three Sisters, and included sunflowers, But when we had that really hot weather the corn and sunflowers took off, shading the beans and squash. I spent this afternoon cutting down all the corn to three feet. Whacking back the sunflowers to where they had bent over. The beans are in there, and I saw some squash. We will see. I hated to see the sunflowers go. They brought such joy into my life. Positive Vibration. I believe each photo will enlarge if clicked on, the leaning photo is difficult to see.

Fall is right around the corner. I don't smell it, but the leaves have a slight yellow cast. Time to think about a second crop of onions.

How I spent my summer vacation

I know where I'm going and I know the truth, and I don't have to be what you want me to be. I'm free to be what I want. 

-- Muhammad Ali

I don't take a lot of time off. I am serious about showing up and doing my job. I am responsible and dependable. I haven't actually taken a "vacation" in a year, however before that it was more like 20 years. Uh huh, you are reading that right: Twenty Years.  But as I was heading into spring this year,  I heard my self saying "I need a vacation." Then I heard my self saying "I really need a vacation." So I decided when, and I took it. I didn't want to go anywhere, or do anything. Well, no, that's not quite right: I didn't want to go anywhere ( couldn't afford it ) but I had tons of stuff to do at home. I did not want to see anyone or deal with visiting. I just wanted to work on projects. Last weeks' post mentioned how I had too many unfinished projects,  and that is some of what I did this past weekend when I had five days off in a row. I would work, and wander, and work, and wander. I could take the time to finish some little thing. I could afford the luxury of going back and forth between 5 projects. 

I could clean the garage, reorganize the garage, finally park my car in the garage. I could go back upstairs to put something from the garage in a more suitable place and spend time reorganizing and cleaning my studio for as long as it took to assemble a box of trash then go back downstairs, dump the box of trash and work on the garage again. I took the time to unwrap a bunch of old frames stored in the garage,  in the process finding one really gorgeous, ornate gold one that I put above the fireplace. Then I got a brain storm and put a framed Egyptian painting on papyrus inside the gold frame. I really like the effect.  Then I did a whole wall of  empty frames with other empty frames, and some with artwork. I actually looks cool. The frames are all warped or funky from being down in the garage through a couple of floods. Up high, but moisture damaged non-the-less. I did laundry. I mopped the floor. I did this, and that, and the other thing.  

What's the point? I let myself do what ever. One thing lead to another, and back to the original, then down a side path, and that was just the most relaxing and satisfying thing ever. I let my self work until I was tired. I slept until I woke up. NO Alarms-!! I feel great! It has been so long since I could just not care. No schedule, no interruptions, no worries, no homework. ( I had some to do, I just chose not to do it ) I didn't care about where I was supposed to be, or what anyone thought about what I was doing or how I was using my time and I got a LOT done. I played a lot of Ball with the dog. I saw two people - my landlords. I talked to one friend on the phone. This was just bliss!  Best vacation ever.