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. 

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 

Available for hire

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.