Indecision here I am

Indecision may or may not be my problem.
Jimmy Buffett 

I laughed when I read this. Wasting away again in Margaritaville. Which is not my problem. I just have a lot of unfinished projects.

Usually there is something that happens during the week, or sometime over the weekend that sticks with me and I write. Or the garden does something amazing and I write. This time I could not choose. My thoughts were like a ping-pong ball bouncing in a dodecahedron. So I am a day late. 

I found another dead animal, stripped of  most of it's flesh, with one small orange, black and white patch of fur that was untouched. Why that one patch? The patch was about the size of a dollar coin, except it was oval. I looked for the skull, I love animal skulls, I don't see it yet. 

The little cherrie tomatoes that are on the twenty volunteers are the most incredible little packages of concentrated flavor. I have never tasted anything like them. For us tomato lovers they are amazing. 

I took a couple of days off, which gave me a four day weekend. The luxurious feeling of free time was quite nice, I tackled a lampshade I needed to do, I still have to stitch it to the frame, but the start is made. I created a curtain for a small closet from a sheet. 

I tried unsuccessfully to cut some wine bottles. Talk about a crap shoot. I watched a couple of videos and went with the technique of scoring the bottle and pouring hot water on the score line. It looked so simple in the utube vid. There are now eight bottle tops in the recycling. What I really want are the bottoms, but no sense in wasting the tops. I have an idea for planters. My thought is that glass in the garden probably won't break when it falls on the ground. Maybe.

It was a gorgeous weekend, lots of boats on the river, hawks in the sky, When it gets still and hot the dragon flies swarm, which is quite cool. Occasionally the big green and white striped beetles go nuts when there is a light on. Beetles are my favorite insect and they are everywhere. I have not seen one praying mantis. 

I hope you had a focused weekend.

A Small Death

Wild animals are just as confused as people are now. You've got toxins in the water, oil, sewage, all sorts of things.
Jack Hannah 

I made the rounds with the dog this morning, We have a regular route, he has things he likes to sniff and see if there are any messages there for him. It gives me a chance to check out the yard and I make mental notes about what I need to do. I listen to the birds. Sometimes I find an owl feather, occasionally a pile of feathers. Hardly ever a dead body. This morning after we had circled the house and were walking out from under our huge fig tree. I found a dead possum. About five feet from a faucet, near a huge saucer I leave out for water and only twenty five feet from the house. The flies were buzzing around but it didn't smell. It wasn't a huge old possum, but more like a young adult possum. It;s eyes were open. The dog didn't seem in the least bit interested, which I found odd, but I took the dog into the house anyway. I grabbed  a shovel, dug a hole and buried it. I put some logs over the grave. Poor thing. It had a small hole on its underside, so something probably got it, but I also thought maybe it ate some poison. I said a little prayer for it's soul. Yes, I think animals have souls. 

Possums are interesting creatures. From a distance they look like a big rat. As I was carrying it to it's final resting place I had time to study it. Assembled by committee. Their little hands ( paws or claws ) are brown and leathery, with padded bottoms and formidable claws. Nasty sharp little teeth. The tail is very much like its smaller cousin but it has bands of dark and light. But what really struck me as odd were its ears. They reminded me of those little leather ears they stick on stuffed animals. For such a large animal, they were small: an inch and a half at most. The same dark brown as the feet and hands. The body is covered by course light and dark fur. But the ears look like they were put on last - the committee ran out of money for the ears and that was all they could afford. 

I see them dead on the road often. Sometimes waddling across the road.  I drive slowly at night for exactly that reason: small animals. They probably are confused. Why in the world would they understand a car? As a rule I don't think a lot of people give a hoot about how what they do affects the animals around them. I live on a very pesticide and herbacide free piece of property. The Sacramento River is just outside my back door. My Landlord had the well water tested, there is the average stuff, and an increasing number of not so great things. I leave water out for the animals, but it is only filtered by the rock and soil of the land surrounding the well. If they drink straight from the river who knows how much oil, and gasoline, and sewage they get. 

So today, no pictures, just a few words for one of the small creatures that I share my space with. May this one possum rest in peace. 

Harvest

Onions and beets

Yellow onions in the ground

Black berries ripening

Care less for your harvest than for how it is shared and your life will have meaning and your heart will have peace.
Kent Nerburn 

I like this quote a lot. I try to share what I grow. Whereas my red onions were a dismal failure, the yellow ones have been a great success. Good size, all healthy, not too hot. They fell over about two weeks ago, and I have just now had time to pull them . The beets are an ongoing harvest but some were getting a little bit big. The smaller tender ones went to my landlords', while the larger ones were steamed and put into a batch of pickled Eggs and Beets for a friend. I have been picking and freezing black berries for a month now. I freeze them on a cookie sheet, which keeps the berries separate, and easier to work with. The black berry bushes are a nuisance, they grow everywhere, and require constant pruning, but the taste of a warm black berry is divine. They have more antioxidants than blue berries. The dog likes them too. 

The Sunflowers are easily 12 feet tall, and the corn has ears. Remember the beans and squash I planted with the corn? Well for all my earnest efforts, they are struggling for sunshine. So "Three Sisters" has not worked well for me. My peppers are starting to produce. The basil is trying to flower, Ha! I am too quick. I have found I like it chopped in salad. I have been enjoying the collard greens now for a couple of weeks. I am going to have a lot of fennel seed. The lettuce did well despite the extremely hot weather. That was nice. 

I love having a garden. It is everything that is good about life. 

Happy Summer!

Summer 2013, Resilience

Echinacea species

Echinacea species with bee

Sunflowers and Corn Tassels

Resilience is accepting your new reality, even if it's less good than the one you had before.

Elizabeth Edwards 

Everything is a month early. The fields of Sunflowers on San Juan Rd. here in Sacramento, have responded to the early heat by being only three feet tall with full heads. They are now bent over and dry. Too much heat, too soon. But they still did their job and did what they planned on doing. They grew, they made flowers, they made seed and now they are dying. Not what the farmer had planned, but the best the Sunflowers could do.

Plants and flowers are resilient. They have to be. They are survivors. And it really takes a lot to kill a plant. The Echinacea aka Cone Flower, is actually a wildflower that has been bred to be pretty too, in all sorts of colors it never dreamed it could be. You can see why it is called cone flower if you look at the different flowers in the left photo. As they mature the center turns into a bristly cone on seeds. This is a wonderful plant, beautiful, medicinal, and the bees love it. They have been hovering around this clump for two weeks, gleaning every bit of pollen. I am hoping this year, because of the bees, I will get some really viable seed. I save seeds for everything. I wait to cut these back until they are way dead and dry. For this plant the survival mechanism is two fold: they produce seed, and they have a clump of roots that just takes a long snooze when the flowers are through. This clump as been through a flood that put 3 feet of water around the lower portion of my house for two weeks. While I was getting my second degree, I didn't always water as much as I needed to. Did they care? NO! Wildflowers love harsh conditions. They are the ones telling God  "Bring it on, I can take it." The 110 degree weather, even though I watered very well, that is still very hot. I could hear the Echinacea laughing. 

The Sunflowers and Corn have a little bit different story. I am sure this is some sort of "Monsanto" Monster Corn  variety. The Sunflowers are a hybrid grown mostly for the flowers. ( Yes, I will save the seed ) I grew Corn once when I was a kid, and once here. I am doing something wrong because it never does very well for me. Dug in a whole bag of manure. This is a four foot long by 2 foot wide bed. They are very tall - this picture is showing flowers and tassels a good three feet or more over my head. The Sunflowers seem happy. The Corn not so much. I did a Three Sisters planting this year. "Plant the Beans and squash when the Corn is a foot tall. Plant sunflowers to provide extra support. Too late. The corn and sunflowers took off like a shot, shaded the beans and squash. Then the corn stared falling over. This is one of those disasters I would rather not share, but who are we if not our failures too? But this brings us back to resiliency. The corn are all producing tassels, and I may get a few ears of corn, with maybe a kernel or two. I will take photos and share them when it happens. I am not expecting Farmers Market corn here. 

When I have days of self doubt, feel like the long bout of under employment is taking it's toll, I walk in my yard, I look at the river. I remember I am very fortunate to live here, I am very talented, and that I am also very resilient as well. I always do my best, anything less is an insult to my garden. 

Flowers operate on Flower Time

Grandpa Ott, Morning Glory

White Rose of Sharon

Enjoying success requires the ability to adapt. Only by being open to change will you have a true opportunity to get the most from your talent.
Nolan Ryan  

One of the things I love about flowers and plants is that they don't give a hoot about anyones idea of time. They do what they need to do, when the time is right for them to do it. They are in touch with the rhythms of nature, The do their best all the time. They don't let what they other plants or flowers are doing phase them.  But they do adapt to what the weather is doing, and slowly they change to survive. But they continue to make seeds, send out roots, and find places to thrive. this year in response to the weather every plant is about a month ahead. I however am a week late with this post. Sometimes I live on flower time. 

Both of these flowers make seeds. Grandpa Ott is a prolific, purple Morning Glory. I save these every year, and I buy a new packet every other year to keep some diversity in the seed banks.  I plant them near the vegetables to bring in the bees.  The Morning Glory just does its thing and flowers all summer long. They don't seem to mix with the wild morning glory at all. I have also planted Moonflower again this year. Fussy! Out of a packet of seeds I will get two or three that make it to producing seeds. But they are the most fun, you can watch them open at night, literally watch them unfurl. I have one that came up out by the old cottonwood we cut down  and I am hoping it climbs up that dead tree. The Moon Flower grows slowly, in a more deliberate manner than a regular morning glory. I planted the two together and hope that the Moon Flower will use Grandpa Ott for support. 

The white flower is a white Rose of Sharon. I got seedlings from my friend Karrie Jo in Modesto. She as a few different colors, I took three and got three white. They are really lovely in a full moon. Prolific in the seed department. They can be pruned to be either a tree or a bush. They are a relative of the hibiscus. 

Next week I will be back on a timely schedule. ;-)

Sigh ...

Mary C. Ferris

Design & Illustration

Administrative Assistant

Friendly, Personable, Responsible 

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Always remain strong, no matter what. Your strength and your ability to keep going is what defines you.

-Unknown Author. 

I have days when it is almost impossible to get out of bed and do what needs to be done. Not for any other reason than I am being worn down by the struggle to stay afloat in this economy.  This is not an easy time to be marginally employed and over 50. We all know that. I wonder constantly if the job I was just turned down for turned me down because I am a little too old. It doesn't matter that I will work harder, be more reliable, will want to do a good job, be willing to work weekends, have reliable transportation. None of that seems to matter. Or does the person who comes in after me have more experience because they have just been laid off after 20 years doing the same job and now they are willing to work for $9 an hour because they have house payments, car payments and children in college. Compared to any of the millions of people who have lost their jobs, I have the equivalent of no skills or too many different skills. Jack of all trades, master of none?

Today I made a long, hot drive to another city to apply for a freelance job. I can tell they weren't impressed. I can do what they need but don't have all the collateral product to prove it. The other side of being marginally employed. There has never been the nice leave behind, there is no new work to put in the portfolio because I cannot afford to freelance if it requires driving anywhere. I have never felt so stranded and isolated by my financial situation. So the quote is about that and how it is making me stronger. It is defining me. Everything that is not important is falling away. To quote my favorite Marketing blogger, Seth Godin. "This is a dip." This is what I have to push through because what I want is on the other side. I want to do creative work, my images and ideas have merit and deserve to be seen. I am good at what I do and can do. I want to have steady income, I want to participate in life. Today I felt hopeful stepping into the river of life and realized part way through that I was slogging through mud.  And because of todays experience, I am stronger, and more clear about what I want, what I need to be doing, and the paths to take to get there are more visible than yesterday. I have not lost sight of the mountain top. 

Results

 

I've always believed that if you put in the work, the results will come.

Michael Jordan 

On April 22, 2013 I posted three images. They probably seemed a bit dry. Those images were a semi circular chart that looked like a speedometer, some signs that had no real meaning, even after I explained them, and a rectangular image of lines and colors bars. The combination of these three items were intended to instruct our church membership on why we could not have the A/C on in every room at church every Sunday. This blog includes the pictures of the presentation itself. It worked like a charm. The visual imagery was combined with an effective explanation by Fred Allen, one of the principles in the Energy Project. People understood. And that was the intended result. Fred and I discussed the problem, then worked it out. I produced the imagery and he stood up and used those charts to illustrate the problem and the solution. Results. 

The first speedometer chart was the opening analogy. Energy usage rises just like speed and there is a point where a certain amount is over our limit. The blocks with words on them were calculated to match the incremental size of the energy available to be used. So Base Usage takes up the right amount of space on the linear chart. We don't want to go into the red zone. If we have all the A/C on, in each room, at the same time, we end up in the red zone. It is one thing to tell people, but stacking the blocks of energy on a chart illustrates what happens. 

The idea was simple once I figured out how to do it. The speedometer was mounted on black foam core. The energy chart was mounted on Magnetic white board. The blocks of energy are actually the same sort of magnetic paper that one uses for business card magnets. All of it is available at the nearest office supply store. Total cost was about $50 with printing. 

Notes from the garden

Gopher plant, about 5 ft tall

Hollyhock

Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.

May Sarton 

Succulents

Gardening has always been my first love.  Regardless of what is going on in my life I always find time for the things that need to be done in the garden. I will admit that in my twenties I spent a lot more time doing artwork than I do now. But the important pieces are all plants and flowers. Now I am likely to be out in the yard as not. Many of the photos I take are reference for drawings to be done when I can no longer be as active as I am now. 

I am fortunate to live in a truly wonderful little house on the Sacramento River. It is surrounded by a large piece of property with huge old Oaks and Cottonwoods. I have Great Horned Owls, and Quail in addition to the numerous small and large birds of the area. I see Coyote from time to time. I have a vegetable garden. Everything in the vegetable garden has chicken wire around it  -- Raccoons and Possums. I see where they have been out having a party, digging for worms and grubs.  What I have noticed this year is how some of the insects are out in force. It has to be because of the mild winter we had.  I have pulled two Ticks off/out of me, and a third today crawling up my leg. I have never seen the sheer volume of Oak Leaf moth that I have seen this spring. Groups of twenty or thirty  at a time when I hand water, flying up to escape. Every tree, every bush has shown the ravages of Caterpillar presence. The Mosquitos were very bad a month ago, but have tapered off (Thank the Lord). The Crickets and Frogs at night are the best sound to fall asleep to. Amazing that such small creatures can make such large sounds. 

The early heat means that this year all of the iris bloomed, that was a first. But they are long done. The big, white Calla's are done, but the smaller pinky-purple ones are just coming up. The African Daisy is heading into a second bloom cycle. the Chinese Gladiolas are no doubt going to put on an amazing show. I expect a sea of orange out there in late June. I just transplanted two Giant Bird of Paradise and know they won't bloom this year, but with any luck, they will next year. Some of the roses have done something, I think they are waiting and will attempt another show.  If it sounds like a lot of work, it is a a lot of work. 

And there is no where else I would rather be. I hope you have a garden of your own, however small. It will always rejuvenate your soul. 

400 parts per million and rising

All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.
George Orwell 
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/obvious.html#ZwcxCa7tVm2SKPu0.99 

I don't need to post an image for any of this. I want to scream "You greedy bastards!!" I also want to put out a challenge: Some one please develop a truck that runs on something other than any fossil fuel. Everything will change if we have big machines that can run on something else.  Natural gas included. Fracking is AWFUL! Hello? it pollutes water in a big way, and less heard is that it also increases the earthquakes where fracking occurs. And they want to bring fracking into California. Some one isn't paying a damned bit of attention to the consequences. You want to be a billionaire? Create something better than the internal combustion engine that will haul freight across the country, that will pull a train, that will power a ship, that will fly a plane, that will run a tractor, and for Pete's sake make it affordable!  Get real and start Thinking BIG! How do you convert a coal power plant? You need an artist, let me know I can work cheap when I believe in something. 

What did you do today to lower your carbon footprint? Hot as it was I did not turn on the A/C. I am about to turn off the fans as the delta breeze has kicked in. It is our responsibility, yours and mine, not some government. Ours, for our children and grandchildren. 

Nobody sees a flower really; it is so small. We haven't time, and to see takes time - like to have a friend takes time.

Georgia O'Keeffe

I love this quote. Most people will pay attention to the big showy flowers, but the small wild strains not so much. I found a forgotten clump of these at the back of the property here in Sacramento and moved them. Over the past four years they have thrived and grown into big clumps. This year they bloomed in profusion. It was a stunning spring for iris and the big showy ones are through. I thought I had another month for these, and that they would send up their usual couple of blooms. This year each clump had thirty blooms about 4" across. They are a delicate pale yellow and lavender with touches of brown. I think they are related to the white and purple ones you see everywhere. These have red berries that are great for fall color. I scatter them here and there when I am doing fall clean up. I always think about my legacy as a gardener. What have I left behind? Have I planted things where they can survive without my care? With these iris, I know they will flourish. 

Hard to believe summer is just around the corner.

M