tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59614134049173396072024-03-13T19:14:39.839-07:00 Restoring Paradise Bees Poems Fibers Politics Leaves Bread...Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comBlogger43125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-81291180292834858942015-10-05T16:08:00.003-07:002016-05-26T11:57:54.723-07:0077 Favorite Novels +1My plan was to identify my 100 favorite novels, but I stalled out at 77. I can think of other novels I've read, and enjoyed, but they don't qualify as "favorites." These aren't the greatest novels ever written -- though I think a handful should be on that list -- they're the ones I've enjoyed the most and most frequently returned to. I'm still on my first read of <i>The Wake</i>. I've read <i>The Once and Future King</i> at least 20 times. New addition: Hardy's <i>Far from the Madding Crowd</i>. And if I had to pick just one -- <br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Middlemarch;</i> George Elliot</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Midwinter of the Spirit;</i> Phil Rickman</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">My Antonia;</i> Willa Cather</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">On Beauty</i>; Zadie Smith</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Outlande;</i> Diana Gabaldon</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Once & Future King</i>; T.H. White</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Owl Service</i>; Alan Garner</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Persuasion</i>; Jane Austen</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Portrait of a Lady;</i> Henry James</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Possession</i>; A.S. Byatt</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ragtime;</i> E.L. Doctorow</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rascal;</i> Sterling North</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Riddley Walker;</i> Russell Hoban</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Round House</i>; Louise Erdrich</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Sea Lady</i>; Margaret Drabble</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Sea Road</i>; Margaret Elphinstone</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Secret Garden</i>; Frances Hodgson Burnett</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Shipping News;</i> Annie Proulx</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Snow Falling on Cedars;</i> David Guterson</div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sophie’s Choice</i>; William Styron</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stuart Little;</i> E.B. White</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Summer of Love</i>; Lisa Mason</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ten Days in the Hills</i>; Jane Smiley</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tell Me How Long This Train’s Been Gone</i>; James Baldwin</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">To the Lighthouse</i>; Virginia Woolf</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Voices</i>; Ursula LeGuin</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wake;</i> Paul Kingsnorth</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .25in;">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Wind in the Willows</i>; Kenneth Grahame</div>
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<br />Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-71382075723033675192015-08-27T10:46:00.003-07:002015-08-27T10:46:55.149-07:00100 Greatest Novels of My Life - coming SoonAfter seeing all these "100 greatest" book lists I decided to make my own list of personal greatest hits; books I've re-read most times, learned most from, most enjoyed, given to others most often, raved about most. I'm finding there's some research involved to recall books that were important decades ago, or remember authors of childhood favorites. Culling favorites from certain authors (Ursula LeGuin, Margaret Drabble) is challenging. The process also makes me want to check out some often-mentioned "great books" that I just haven't read. More soon.Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-69540349924199226652015-04-23T20:08:00.000-07:002015-04-23T20:11:15.526-07:00Old Kitties in SunOur dear old kitties Millie & Pox celebrate their 16th birthday this month. Millenium & Apocalypse were 1999 kittens who've lived their lives mostly outdoors, by their choice. Millie is a wild girl who lives rough in the summer; we don't know where she goes or what she does but she comes home when the weather turns cold. Pox stays close to the house, sleeps in his box up high, and never misses a meal. He's thinking of becoming a house cat in his old age.<br />
<br />
They spent a lot of time hanging out together this winter & spring.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v2zzn0ZcegU/VTmzbaCNTAI/AAAAAAAAAWk/NijM4msRNuI/s1600/old%2Bcats%2Bin%2Bsun%2Bsml.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-v2zzn0ZcegU/VTmzbaCNTAI/AAAAAAAAAWk/NijM4msRNuI/s1600/old%2Bcats%2Bin%2Bsun%2Bsml.jpg" height="395" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-44778062137164569572014-10-31T16:18:00.002-07:002014-10-31T16:18:28.569-07:00Happy Halloween!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z8JZU4HsKhE/VFQYVi8kSFI/AAAAAAAAAWA/GYZQ3aTrZdg/s1600/Casper%2BHalloween.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Z8JZU4HsKhE/VFQYVi8kSFI/AAAAAAAAAWA/GYZQ3aTrZdg/s1600/Casper%2BHalloween.JPG" height="492" width="640" /></a></div>
White cats are not traditional for this holiday, but Casper FEELS those Samhain-Halloween-Dia de los Muertos vibes. Green Man Jack O'Lantern by Professor Bob. Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-29377822191639984012014-08-21T10:24:00.001-07:002014-08-21T10:24:08.441-07:00Ultimate Summer Salad<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S1PYHQa7hyY/U_YrCn1OmvI/AAAAAAAAAVw/UKcgE7ZobgM/s1600/Salad%2Bcrop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S1PYHQa7hyY/U_YrCn1OmvI/AAAAAAAAAVw/UKcgE7ZobgM/s1600/Salad%2Bcrop.jpg" height="579" width="640" /></a></div>
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It's all about the colors.Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-77396207762582320642014-07-18T11:14:00.000-07:002014-07-18T11:14:22.804-07:00Distant Neighbors<i><a href="http://powells.com/biblio/1-9781619023055-1">Distant Neighbors: The Selected Letters of Wendell Berry & Gary Snyder.</a></i> Wonderful, makes me miss the Age of Letters.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L9-pn6HTWF8/U8ljwwAK_AI/AAAAAAAAAUw/L_jf--f0RO0/s1600/9781619023055.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L9-pn6HTWF8/U8ljwwAK_AI/AAAAAAAAAUw/L_jf--f0RO0/s1600/9781619023055.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">"And I myself am not comfortable with unnecessary exotic Far Eastern baggage in my secular and spiritual life here on Turtle Island. Trappings of the ancient Judeo-Roman world, or Greek Hellenistics, also strike me as exotic. Where to draw a style of our own from? The plain style of plain folks is truly attractive -- and also the free use of found feathers and beads, and the beautification of daily life with the things at hand that the Indians did so well. Oh boy: We sit in my barn doing Japanese Zen meditation, using those alien texts, but in the dialogue with the teacher, nothing is exotic -- it is really the depth of the natural heart. But the work that lies ahead, of creatively making a coherent style that fits our daily life, as well as our inner needs, is a big one; it could be a whole work in itself, even if there wasn't a planet about to crumble around us."</span><br />
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<br /></div>
Gary Snyder to Wendell Berry<br />
June 5, 1980<br />
Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-47780695129634451822014-07-02T13:47:00.001-07:002014-07-02T13:50:43.912-07:00Bees in the Poppies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ccCH54Ht8GQ/U7RuMMKJauI/AAAAAAAAAUg/3Md9Jn9977A/s1600/Bee+poppy+pollenSML.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ccCH54Ht8GQ/U7RuMMKJauI/AAAAAAAAAUg/3Md9Jn9977A/s1600/Bee+poppy+pollenSML.jpg" height="512" width="640" /></a></div>
Bees in the poppies, covered with ivory pollen, 8:30 am.<br />
Do they use it medicinally? Treatment for <i>nosema</i>? Indulge on winter mornings, rain falling outside? Use when the hive weakens, those last weeks of dwindling, small cluster, the chill creeping in? Are there bee doctors, prescribing the right pollen for sickness or depression?<br />
<br />
Some dark-red and wine-purple poppies buzz with three bees at a time, while the morning haze still hangs over the grass. Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-5432132299810809512014-06-25T11:53:00.003-07:002014-06-25T11:53:57.753-07:00Solutionary Rail Chronicles, IA utopian fantasy in the form of an email.<br />
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From: Margot Boyer</div>
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Subject: Train to Chicago</div>
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Date: June 14, 2031</div>
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To: Bill Moyer</div>
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<br /></div>
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Hi Bill;</div>
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<br /></div>
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Writing to you from my sister’s place in Oak Park; big airy
living room, south-facing with an overhanging porch that keeps off the summer
sun, and doors that open to a garden of mostly prairie plants with a couple of
roses near the door. They’re near the graywater outflow and seem happy, glossy
leaves and strongly scented apricot blossoms that exactly match the cushions on
the gray couch. This is not an accident. It’s especially pleasant in the
morning with doors open. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Bob & I came out on the train for nephew Beckett’s high
school graduation. I used to ride Amtrak cross country in the 80s, equipped
with purple poncho, backpack of cheese & crackers, science fiction novels.
I always loved trains; the smell of hot creosote still makes me nostalgic for
riding the Blackhawk to Galena in 1976. But those trains were slow. When I was
in college, the cross-country Empire Builder scheduled 50 hours from Chicago to
Seattle, but was normally 6 to 12 hours late. We endured long mysterious waits
in the middle of North Dakota while the AC ran at half power, everyone started
to sweat, and babies began by whimpering and got to howling before the train
moved.</div>
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<br /></div>
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So I was excited, but skeptical, to think that we’d arrive
at Union Station after 26 hours, even with a couple of hour-long stops along
the way. I armed myself with two days worth of knitting yarn, dried fruit and
goat cheese, and your new memoir! Didn’t have much time to read on the train,
but I’m loving the revelations of near-catastrophe with Backbone projects
twenty years go. You surely have more secrets to spill in the next volume. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Bob brought his mini-computer and a wood carving project;
pocket knife blades up to 3 inches are okay, if you want to take up whittling. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The new trains look like trains, duh, with a sort of rocket
ship at the front end, but amazingly clean and quiet. The windows are clean,
without the scratches and muck that accumulated on diesel trains. All the seats
have good views, with folding panels to block the sun if you want. The seats
are comfortable and spacious; we paid extra for the ones that fold flat so we
could lie down completely -- well worth it. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Plenty of room to walk around among, I think, 32 cars. The
lead car, which probably shouldn’t be called an engine. Staff dorm behind it.
Further back, two separate lounge cars with drinks and snacks, an excellent
diner, one car for big baggage. There were a couple of quiet cars, an official
“noisy” car full of teenagers playing complicated board games and old guys
watching games on a TV at full volume. I couldn’t sit in there but the
atmosphere was convivial. The cars are not identical, but have minor variations
in seating arrangement and several different color schemes so it’s easy to
figure out which is yours. Wireless net everywhere, natch, and in one of the
lounge cars a thoughtful library of actual books. Each one has an envelope
tucked in back so they can be finished at leisure, and returned to the train
station at either end of the journey. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The staff was professional and seemed to enjoy their
jobs. The bartender in the Hawaiian-themed lounge car said she’s writing a
dissertation on psychological adaptation to the abandoned cities (Florida,
Louisiana, Virginia, southwest England), and the return of drowned-city myths
similar to Atlantis or the French city of Is. She’s used her free-rail pass to
visit Florida once a year for five years; 32 hours each way from her home in
Portland. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The conductor – that’s not the right title, but the guy who
looks after things in the cars, answers questions, makes sure people get off at
the right station, and wears a sharp hat with a brim – said he’s been working
in trains for 30 years. “When my kids were little I’d have to wait for a train
to get home and never knew when that’d be. Once I got stuck in Fort Buford for
six days in August. It was 110 and I missed my daughter’s big swim meet when
her team won the championship. With the new trains I know when I’m getting
home: 4 days on, 3 days off. I have a lot of seniority so I get about 8 weeks
off a year. My wife and I usually go to LA in the spring and help in my son’s
desert plant nursery, but we’ve been through Canada, Europe – next year we’re
going to South America. We get great rates on the trains all over.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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Outside the tracks: strange bare rocks in the Cascades where
glaciers used to be. Orchards in Eastern Washington; they’re still doing apples
but with shade-culture, growing young trees on the east side of old ones and
using contour to channel moisture to the growing trees. At CWU they’re breeding
new heat-tolerant varieties – have you seen the pale-green Wenatchee apples? A
lot of apricot and peaches and maybe pomegranates; is that possible? I swear I
saw some. </div>
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<br /></div>
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There’s still a lot of dryland wheat, but the shapes of the
fields have changed so it’s less of a checkerboard, instead following the
contours of the land. North and east-facing slopes are in grain, south slopes
in pasture. Smallish cattle, lots of sheep, lots of black Jacob goats with the
fancy horns. In Montana we saw a herd of bison, hundreds or maybe a thousand.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The wind generation starts on the east slope of the Cascades
and goes on to Minneapolis, at various scales. The biggest wind turbines have
an op-art yellow and silver patterning that apparently scares off the birds so
they don’t get caught in the blades. </div>
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<br /></div>
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The old rail towns looked spiffed up; I saw old
motels that were obviously refurbished and doing business, signs for B&Bs
at the station in every railroad town. Antique-and-café neighborhoods near the
train stations. Old houses with fresh paint, bright colors, flower gardens! in
North Dakota. Signs for the Prairie Restoration Corridor, state names and Dept.
of Interior logo, here and there. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Do you remember 20 years ago we were demonstrating against
coal trains and coal ports – downtown Seattle, rainy December, the opponents in
red sweaters & Santa hats? I can’t believe we had to work so hard to block
such a monumentally stupid idea. It was like the dead hand of a zombie industry
dumbly intent on dragging us all into the pit; filling wetlands, contaminating
aquifers, blocking traffic, suffocating children, all so it could fulfill its mission
of catastrophic climate change. Is that why zombie movies were so popular in
the waning years of the fossil fuel industry? </div>
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<br /></div>
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Obviously we reached a tipping point, and it now seems as
inevitable as the electric light bulb but we didn’t see it coming. Obama nixed
that huge oil pipeline. The big tribal lawsuit in Canada made it way too
expensive to keep mining Alberta tar sands. The Whatcom county council refused
permits for the coal port, and then all 4 western governors on both sides of
the border dug in their heels and insisted that health and safety rules forbade
them from letting the coal trains in. The big west coast corporations agreed,
saying fuel trains would ruin property values. Buffett set up the
electrification project on the northern trunk line. Then the Republican
governor of North Dakota had that dream about Jesus and wind
turbines, took all the Bakkan shale revenues, and plowed them into
renewables. The Lakota and the Blackfeet nations decided to combine
solar-voltaic with prairie restoration – so now the buffalo are grazing under
the big solar collectors. After Northwestern University voted to divest from
the FFs in 2016, the great plains colleges followed, and BP and Shell Oil lost
52% of their value in a single week, April 2018. </div>
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<br /></div>
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We arrived in Union Station, Chicago, 5 minutes ahead of
schedule, with plenty of time to make our local, and went up to the
Great Hall to stretch our legs. It’s sharp as ever, with some of the ancient
wooden benches and new café tables under the 100-foot ceiling, filtered
sunlight streaming in. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Have you seen the two huge pillars that guard the hall “To
Trains,” each with a monumental female figure way up high? One holds an owl,
and the other a rooster. My grandfather told me when I was little that they are
Night and Dawn. He said it meant the train station is always open.</div>
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<br /></div>
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cheers for all your work! </div>
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MFB </div>
Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-60174325931082234462014-03-22T15:45:00.001-07:002014-03-22T15:45:54.799-07:00Stairway to Cat Heaven!It's been a good winter for fiber arts: I've finished a small quilt, learned the basics of drop-spindle, made a small dressy sweater and a large scarf, and have eight projects in the works. This pattern, available online from McCalls Quilting, is called Stairway to Cat Heaven. <br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oxHEixDIzLE/Uy4P4FYUYnI/AAAAAAAAATw/PXlv2KYc2QQ/s1600/Cat+heavenFULL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oxHEixDIzLE/Uy4P4FYUYnI/AAAAAAAAATw/PXlv2KYc2QQ/s1600/Cat+heavenFULL.jpg" height="320" width="315" /></a></div>
The pattern makes all 4 cats in black, silhouettes in the night. This take depicts the cats in our house, in white, white/gray, gray, and black velveteen. From top to bottom, these depict Millie, Pox, Rosemary, and Ramona.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ncajEHdx6OE/Uy4QeP9f6WI/AAAAAAAAAT4/n-Rjd7yqxio/s1600/cat+heaven+detail+1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ncajEHdx6OE/Uy4QeP9f6WI/AAAAAAAAAT4/n-Rjd7yqxio/s1600/cat+heaven+detail+1.JPG" height="214" width="320" /></a></div>
I added embroidered details, including Pox's shoulder marking and the names, and quilted by hand in pale thread. This detail shows embroidery and quilt stitches, as well as the obvious marks of a white cat rubbing up against the quilt, which hangs behind our couch.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mstINTmlBqc/Uy4Q21WPf2I/AAAAAAAAAUA/ynPo8jYZb-8/s1600/cat+heaven+ramona.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mstINTmlBqc/Uy4Q21WPf2I/AAAAAAAAAUA/ynPo8jYZb-8/s1600/cat+heaven+ramona.JPG" height="214" width="320" /></a></div>
This project served as a sampler for trying techniques that were new (hand quilting) or that I hadn't done for a long time (embroidery). It left me wanting to stitch. The next project -- far more experimental -- features hand-stitching prominently.<br />
Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-39894625742807112192013-10-10T15:14:00.002-07:002013-10-10T15:14:34.907-07:00Oil and Honey: Like Bees in Autumn
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<u>Beeyard Report & Book Review </u></div>
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The bees know when fall arrives. On the 20th of September
the bee yard was full of buzz – a photo can’t capture the smell of honey, the flight
of thousands of pairs of golden wings, the need to bring in food before winter
comes. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WGgxGQqF8V8/Ulck4uUNZzI/AAAAAAAAASw/K9fox2-CXMg/s1600/flying+fall+bees+crp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WGgxGQqF8V8/Ulck4uUNZzI/AAAAAAAAASw/K9fox2-CXMg/s400/flying+fall+bees+crp.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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{page:Section1;</style>Now at mid-day the workers go foraging and return loaded
with bright yellow pollen that winks in the dark as the bees enter the hives.
Pulling a feeder in garden gloves I took a sting to my finger -- the bees are
irritable and protective in this chill. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Bill McKibben’s new book <i>Oil and Honey</i> captures a different
urgency; to create a movement that can stop the Keystone XL pipeline, protect
our atmosphere and climate, and force politicians and corporations to consider
more than their own short-term interest. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ti6s9RbpCU4/UlclIPwl1bI/AAAAAAAAAS4/WJ4XPbKtG38/s1600/oilandhoneybookpage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ti6s9RbpCU4/UlclIPwl1bI/AAAAAAAAAS4/WJ4XPbKtG38/s320/oilandhoneybookpage.jpg" width="211" />
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It’s a memoir of recent events, from the creation of 350.org
in 2006 to last year’s national bus tour that kicked off in Seattle the night
after President Obama was re-elected. The excitement of movement-building
creates tension in counterpoint to the peace of a neighbor’s honey-house.
Hurricanes flood Vermont Valleys and the New York subway system, even as the
Occupy movement and the 350 demonstrators find their strength. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Now that the entire nation has a front in the Extreme Energy
wars, we struggle to block coal ports on the west coast, mines in Montana, tar
sands oil pipelines through Texas, and fracking in Pennsylvania. Beekeepers do
what they can to keep hives going despite parasites, pesticides, poisons in GE
pollen, and violent weather. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l_vwak3crNs/UlclkkM5WsI/AAAAAAAAATA/05w3hk6j-bk/s1600/no+coal+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l_vwak3crNs/UlclkkM5WsI/AAAAAAAAATA/05w3hk6j-bk/s400/no+coal+small.jpg" width="400" />
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The urgency of bees in autumn brings in the food before the
cold and dark descend. Our urgency is to protect what’s left, to stop dumping
carbon into the atmosphere before we precipitate climate changes that will make
civilization (maybe human life) impossible to maintain. </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MrA7qJBiuBk/Ulcl12LihhI/AAAAAAAAATI/sIYEminoE_Q/s1600/hive+entrance+macro+crp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MrA7qJBiuBk/Ulcl12LihhI/AAAAAAAAATI/sIYEminoE_Q/s400/hive+entrance+macro+crp.jpg" width="400" />
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Of course, we may have already passed the point of no
return. With six hives to watch over, I’m hoping that some will make it to
spring. </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MrA7qJBiuBk/Ulcl12LihhI/AAAAAAAAATI/sIYEminoE_Q/s1600/hive+entrance+macro+crp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-l_vwak3crNs/UlclkkM5WsI/AAAAAAAAATA/05w3hk6j-bk/s1600/no+coal+small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Ti6s9RbpCU4/UlclIPwl1bI/AAAAAAAAAS4/WJ4XPbKtG38/s1600/oilandhoneybookpage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-78539710789181503862013-08-25T15:50:00.001-07:002013-08-25T15:50:41.601-07:00Beloved Relics from Before the Age of the Net<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5NYHiZ9p45M/UhqIX2n501I/AAAAAAAAASE/fipcUnnKJHs/s1600/Sunset+Hoh+sml.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5NYHiZ9p45M/UhqIX2n501I/AAAAAAAAASE/fipcUnnKJHs/s400/Sunset+Hoh+sml.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Big black vinyl platters of music, depth of analog sound,
the hearts of those young guys pouring out of old stereo speakers to fill the
living room and the valley beyond.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Letters scrawled by hand on lined paper, on the porch, hot
summer afternoon, scratch of pen and the crickets fast, faint drone of tractor
down the road.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Group poem, typed line by line, old black Royal, fluent
tap-tap, sticky O, hard-hit e and f.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Hand-embroidered dresser scarf, blue and purple thread lilacs on white linen, delicate lace of simple crochet stitched
around the hem, carefully washed, ironed, laid on wooden dresser for protection
and beauty. </div>
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<br /></div>
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Blue and white telephone booth, privacy on city
corner, heavy handset, surprise of a dime in the change-return, crud on plastic
walls, phone book dangling, PIZZA section torn out.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Plastic coin purses full of pennies and nickels. Wooden cigar boxes full of
photos.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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The fat pages of Want Ads, jobs, apartments, cars, pets, garage sales, prayers to Holy
St. Jude, all you need to set yourself up in a new city, slick black ink on the
fingers.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Eight-year-old girls playing
jacks on a bare floor: the ball bounce, the hand grabs one jack, 2, 3, 4, and
ever-more-complicated demands of dexterity the girls make neatly.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Fat paperback,
yellow pages come apart as they turn, reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sometimes a Great Notion</i> on a park bench
in Wenatchee, penniless.</div>
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<br /></div>
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“I’m just going to run in for
a newspaper.”</div>
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<br /></div>
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The big wooden drawers of card catalog where I searched for witches in 1970 and found
Salem, English Witch Trials, Psychic Phenomena, African Witch Doctors, Witches in Fiction,
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dr. Faustus.</i></div>
Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-84161953615075919342013-07-14T21:01:00.001-07:002013-07-14T21:01:36.850-07:00The Elwha River is Free!
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-46OWpqzFmwA/UeNxj9cf5UI/AAAAAAAAARU/4Vu7JT0TniY/s1600/port+angeles+to+mtn+sml.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-46OWpqzFmwA/UeNxj9cf5UI/AAAAAAAAARU/4Vu7JT0TniY/s320/port+angeles+to+mtn+sml.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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A short road trip to pick up queen bees gave us an excuse to
spend the night in Port Angeles and to visit the Elwha River.</div>
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<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QkcmCLOfxkM/UeNyBMnCqUI/AAAAAAAAARc/bKmg4R6DG5s/s1600/former+dam+site+sml.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="312" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QkcmCLOfxkM/UeNyBMnCqUI/AAAAAAAAARc/bKmg4R6DG5s/s400/former+dam+site+sml.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<style></style><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Cambria; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Dammed in 1910, the Elwha is now the site of the
largest dam removal project on earth. The lower dam has been removed and the
upper dam, Glines Canyon, will be removed in 2014. </span><br />
<br />
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We walked around the barriers and took a walk above the
river, where Lake Aldwell covered the slope for 100 years. The massive stumps
of trees cut before the lake rose seem almost calcified from a century of gray
sediments –</div>
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but life is bursting through the soil. </div>
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The salmon are expected to re-colonize the upper
river in the years to come.</div>
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<i>Mother salmon, father salmon</i></div>
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<i>Brother salmon, sister salmon</i></div>
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<i>Come back salmon, help us salmon</i></div>
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<i>feed us salmon, leaping salmon!</i></div>
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<i>heya heya heya heya</i></div>
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<br /></div>
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(Tom Heidelbaugh)</div>
Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-3188714256267849542013-07-04T12:50:00.000-07:002013-07-04T12:50:03.676-07:00Rehiving the feral Bees. and a duck or 2.
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Once upon a time a beekeeper had a big
hive at Island Meadow Farm. Time passed, and the colony failed, and the
beekeeper had other things to do. The bee boxes stood in an old nut orchard.
Once a swarm found them, and for three years the hive flourished, and then the
colony died.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The next winter there was a huge storm,
and the stack of boxes fell over. They were stuck together with wax and
propolis. In the spring, another swarm found them, and since they were dry
inside, and smelled of honey and wax and other good things, the swarm moved in. When the people in the neighborhood saw
the huge hive lying on the ground with bees going in and out, they started
talking about it. "Isn't it great that the magic hive has bees
again?" </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"Yeah, it's great to see them. but
what will happen to them in the winter?"</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> So the people decided that it was time
to open the hive and move the bees.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RUoi9uvp1IU/UdXPlTtkjMI/AAAAAAAAAQg/ISZ3ZoCDWoY/s900/OPening+feral+hive+sml.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="322" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RUoi9uvp1IU/UdXPlTtkjMI/AAAAAAAAAQg/ISZ3ZoCDWoY/s400/OPening+feral+hive+sml.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They cut the comb out of the hive and wired it into new frames.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YaMemFyCUyA/UdXPcs2RaII/AAAAAAAAAQE/AUlnP2c3p6g/s1080/cutting+out+the+comb+sml.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-YaMemFyCUyA/UdXPcs2RaII/AAAAAAAAAQE/AUlnP2c3p6g/s400/cutting+out+the+comb+sml.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">One of the
old boxes was still intact, and full of bees, and it seemed the queen might be
in there, so they put it in the middle of the stack.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">Gradually the bees got used to the new
upright situation and settled in.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-m7sKVz-VkPc/UdXN6h671QI/AAAAAAAAAPY/N0XDrkwtzik/s977/new+upright+hive+sml.jpg"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: yes; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"></span></a><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X0jK21D--9g/UdXPjJusSsI/AAAAAAAAAQY/JnttWuP7oeA/s977/new+upright+hive+sml.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-X0jK21D--9g/UdXPjJusSsI/AAAAAAAAAQY/JnttWuP7oeA/s400/new+upright+hive+sml.jpg" width="366" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zWZDxNfJBN4/UdXOQzIcK6I/AAAAAAAAAPo/cYpS_hMJ1BY/s720/day+1+upright+hive+sml.jpg"><span style="color: blue; font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-no-proof: yes; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"></span></a><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">This is an ongoing project --
consolidating the big hive and removing the extra equipment. Next step will be
to divide the big hive, and requeen with a Russian/Hygenic queen from <a href="http://www.owa.cc/">OlympicWilderness Apiary</a> next week. More pictures soon.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SA5jnEX-zdE/UdXPaQcLX9I/AAAAAAAAAP8/LBanXRwn2Y8/s900/cute+duck+sml.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="356" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-SA5jnEX-zdE/UdXPaQcLX9I/AAAAAAAAAP8/LBanXRwn2Y8/s400/cute+duck+sml.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times; font-size: 10pt;">On another note, we are thinking about
adding ducks to our place. Here's an especially cute, 10-year-old-duck, who
lives in the Poultry Palace on Maury Island. How could
you resist?</span></div>
Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-84965263125606503192013-05-22T15:14:00.000-07:002013-05-22T15:14:13.092-07:00Ramona really wants that bird<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1ATmTc7bBI4/UZ1C7RrbVxI/AAAAAAAAAN0/U1zZMWCM1Ew/s1600/ramona+sees+bird.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1ATmTc7bBI4/UZ1C7RrbVxI/AAAAAAAAAN0/U1zZMWCM1Ew/s400/ramona+sees+bird.jpg" width="388" /></a></div>
It's right out there, so close...Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-71950008395498879572013-04-29T20:49:00.002-07:002013-04-29T20:49:43.853-07:00Honeybees Come Build...We brought two new packages of bees home -- they're Carniolians, just up from the almond pollination in California, so now we have three hives on the Bee Pavilion.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4880t0DtpvU/UX89PfuSjCI/AAAAAAAAANM/6GIgIqqX4Q0/s1600/3hives+new+pav+tiny.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4880t0DtpvU/UX89PfuSjCI/AAAAAAAAANM/6GIgIqqX4Q0/s400/3hives+new+pav+tiny.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
The quotations are from a bee book that Dierdre gave me (the origin of bees is from Paradise), Emily Dickenson, and W.B. Yeats. The bees are happily exploring their new world. Bees are such a responsibility -- it's exciting to have them and one worries about them too. Worry about the bees serves as a proxy for the big worries (the earth, climate change, the Pacific Garbage gyre, and the whole nightmare of western civ). But the bees are industrious, productive, single-minded, and determined, setting a good example of perseverance. That's why I love the Yeats poem so much -- the bees continuing, bringing sweetness even during a civil war...<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tkMfwMaCFmA/UX89SzlkVOI/AAAAAAAAANU/SG7F3Y9E9r8/s1600/placing+feeder+sml.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tkMfwMaCFmA/UX89SzlkVOI/AAAAAAAAANU/SG7F3Y9E9r8/s320/placing+feeder+sml.jpg" width="285" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The bees build in the crevices</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Of loosening masonry, and there</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The mother bird brings grubs and flies.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">My wall is loosening; honey-bees,</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Come build in the empty house of the stare.</span><br />
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Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-5234242327116921392013-04-04T16:39:00.000-07:002013-04-04T16:39:04.424-07:00Bee PavilionSpring is coming! We lost our big purple hive over the winter. Now the pink/blue hive, which seemed less impressive last summer, is getting into gear, bringing in alder and dandelion pollen for the young bees.<br />
Bob designed, and Alistair built, this amazing bee pavilion.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VAvp4llnGug/UV4Num4o9eI/AAAAAAAAALk/N6yx7690_cA/s1600/bee+pav+1+sml.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="436" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VAvp4llnGug/UV4Num4o9eI/AAAAAAAAALk/N6yx7690_cA/s640/bee+pav+1+sml.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
At left, the hive with the old roofshed -- the little roof helps keep the entrance dry and reduces moisture inside the hive, which seems to help keep the hive healthy in our wet winter climate. At right, the new bee pavilion, with room for 6 or more hives on the low stand, and a roof over all.<br />
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Here's a detail of the construction. The base of both stand and roof is concrete blocks; there's no foundation.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nLYZEbexamo/UV4OZ1kTqhI/AAAAAAAAALs/e6ivE_IiVis/s1600/bee+pav+close+detail+sml.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nLYZEbexamo/UV4OZ1kTqhI/AAAAAAAAALs/e6ivE_IiVis/s400/bee+pav+close+detail+sml.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
It's since been painted, and bee-friendly plants will be added around the stand. More pictures when the rain quits.<br />
<br />Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-65082490766538861542013-02-18T14:42:00.000-08:002013-04-04T16:28:20.221-07:00Daniel Thomas Snyder, 1961 - 2013<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HZjWdIJ9Lew/USKsYY6urrI/AAAAAAAAAKg/zp3P1t0wAJw/s1600/dts+close.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="314" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HZjWdIJ9Lew/USKsYY6urrI/AAAAAAAAAKg/zp3P1t0wAJw/s320/dts+close.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Daniel died February 4, two months short of his 52nd birthday, at home after a long illness. I found this scrap or draft of a poem in a packet of letters he wrote from Berlin in the mid-90s.<br />
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">A Song for Central
Europe</b></div>
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When this meal is over</div>
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and the surly resentful waiters</div>
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have cleared away the fruity little coffee cups</div>
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with the grit left in the bottom</div>
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while my hosts reassure that this shabby show</div>
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is style, is class, is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">elegance</i></div>
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and that my hunger for green vegetables</div>
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is only an Amerikan affectation,</div>
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I would like to stumble into a</div>
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3 AM 7-11, buzzed</div>
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I will ask the halfwit behind the counter</div>
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“Howzigoin?” and he’ll know I don’t really care</div>
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but still he’ll joke with me</div>
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as if I was another human being</div>
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Leaving with my ale</div>
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I won’t curse the tram schedule</div>
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Instead I will jump into my own car</div>
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and watch in the rearview for diligent cops</div>
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who have no fascist fusballers to chase</div>
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and so are concerned for my B.A.L.</div>
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Lest I jump the curb by Fred Meyers</div>
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and sanguinate the smoothly concrete American sidewalk</div>
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I wanna be back where <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Krank</i></div>
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is not the shitty way my lungs feel</div>
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from the plaster dust and crowds coldly spewing contagion</div>
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through the subway</div>
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But the stuff that keeps me moving down I-5 through the wee
hours</div>
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Percolating an infectious funk through my veins</div>
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in the land where that long snake moans.</div>
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Daniel T. Snyder ~1996</div>
<br />Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-47812423509366608392013-01-29T16:50:00.000-08:002013-01-29T16:50:32.292-08:00Darwin, God, Chance<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WmfDdDt61Dc/UQhtiDiD1BI/AAAAAAAAAJU/8pNKc-x3wrw/s1600/sedum+bee+sml.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="306" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-WmfDdDt61Dc/UQhtiDiD1BI/AAAAAAAAAJU/8pNKc-x3wrw/s400/sedum+bee+sml.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
"...what Darwin had done was to relieve God of the awful burden of making the world: of shaping every leaf and snail shell, squeezing out every litter of kittens and every pupating butterfly, building every snowstorm; relieved him both of the labor and the guilt. He had chosen an assistant to do that work, and the assistant was Chance."<br />
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John Crowley, <i>Endless Things</i></div>
Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-33112307231276390512012-11-06T10:59:00.000-08:002012-11-06T10:59:23.017-08:00With Charity For All<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Because ultimately, "we're all in this together" is a higher moral stance than "I got mine, suckers."<br />
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Because we ARE going forward; it works better to face that way.<br />
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With malice toward none, with charity for all. <br />
<br />Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-90573000158587696462012-10-21T18:56:00.000-07:002013-04-04T16:29:12.964-07:00George McGovern<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Century; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">…we will
call America home to the ideals that nourished us from the beginning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Century; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">From
secrecy and deception in high places; come home, America.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Century; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">From
military spending so wasteful that it weakens our nation; come home, America.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Century; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">From the
entrenchment of special privileges in tax favoritism; from the waste of idle
lands to the joy of useful labor; from the prejudice based on race and sex;
from the loneliness of the aging poor and the despair of the neglected sick —
come home, America.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Century; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Come
home to the affirmation that we have a dream. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Century; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;">Come
home to the conviction that we can move our country forward.</span></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="font-family: Century; font-size: 12pt;"> * * * </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Century; font-size: 12pt;">THIS was McGovern's acceptance speech upon receiving the Democratic nomination for President, July 1972. Unfortunately he didn't deliver this great speech until 3 am, Miami time. I was 11, and disappointed to miss the climax of the convention. In the fall I got my first political experience hanging around the Rogers Park McGovern headquarters, stuffing envelopes and selling t-shirts on the street under the Loyola El station. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Century; font-size: 12pt;">McGovern might be the most decent man ever to receive the nomination for president of this nation. What a different world we would be living in had he won. </span></div>
Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-58892083395872896532012-10-10T12:18:00.001-07:002012-10-10T13:13:43.817-07:00Honey and the end of summerThanks to these gals, we got over 5 gallons of honey -- most of it off the big purple hive.<br />
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The bees are put to bed for the autumn, with boards under the bottom screens and the extra entrances closed up. I've been feeding them, and pink hive has has been enthusiastic about taking syrup, while purple hive mostly ignores it. Both hives have a full box of honey up top, some honey in the brood boxes, and pollen with a little honey in the bottom box or two... these are big hives and we haven't been able to take much out. They've been bringing in pollen up through last week, though I doubt they're finding nectar so dry and so late in the year. They worked the oregano and hyssop and mint and SEDUM as long as they were in bloom.<br />
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I still haven't treated for varroa mites, though <a href="http://www.spikenardfarm.org/team.html">Gunther Hauk</a> says that formic acid (sold commercially as mite-away) is nontoxic. Maybe in the spring. The pink hive is Carniolian, the purple is the Russian-wild survivor mix from <a href="http://www.owa.cc/">Olympic Apiaries</a>; both seem fairly mite-tolerant.Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-86992084890310626372012-08-27T11:16:00.003-07:002012-10-10T12:20:01.619-07:00Dark Mountain 3 & the Paradox of CivilizationThe new <i>Dark Mountain</i>, Issue 3, is loaded with interesting ideas, writers, and art & I'm excited to have 3 poems in it. The art of holding conflicting ideas in the mind: unfortunately civilization is headed for a crack-up of epic proportions, but on the other hand, poems in print!<br />
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In Chicago last week I walked around the Armitage-Fullerton-Lincoln Park triangle taking pictures and admiring the beautiful houses and growing garden culture. The sedums and sages in the formal garden by the conservatory have honey bees all over them -- who's keeping bees? I want to talk to them!<br />
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The "blue angels" military air show raged overhead, burning jet fuel, making a huge noise, causing dogs to howl and babies to burst into tears. How can you not love this civilization of fountains, conservatories, gardens, diverse people taking picnics to the park? How not be horrified by our wastefulness -- wasting jet fuel, enticing young people to the military, and creating sonic booms -- as <i>entertainment</i>?<br />
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Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-83222625243025239862012-08-22T14:43:00.001-07:002012-10-10T12:20:32.296-07:00Bookman's AlleyBookman's Alley in Evanston was the greatest bookstore around Chicago... on trips to the midwest I always made a trip up there to browse the vast stacks and inhale the special aroma of literature, local history, printing press, wool blanket, and bison skull that permeated the place. The owner had announced that he was selling off his inventory and closing up shop in the spring, and it seemed the time to visit had passed. When I was in Evanston on Monday for lunch we stopped by Bookman's Alley and found it locked up, but the young woman working in the frame shop opposite told us that he had been open over the weekend. It seems like it's still possible to visit, though I don't know how much of the inventory is left. Well worth a trip, last chance to see, carpe diem! <br />
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My best find there was an old copy of H.L. Mencken's <i>The American Language.</i> A treasure.<br />
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<br />Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-47563079029201278742012-07-24T10:54:00.000-07:002012-10-10T12:20:44.470-07:00Excitement in the Bee Yard - RequeeningWe are requeening our hives using Steve R's no-kill method. On the right, the Big Purple hive and the new purple nucleus hive. The nuc. hive contains the new Russian queen from Olympic Apiaries, along with ready-to-hatch brood and a lot of young workers from the Purple hive, and honey. Later in the summer we'll combine the two hives, with the nuc. hive and young queen on top.<br />
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On the left, the combined Blue swarm hive and the Pink hive from which it originally came.We are recombining the two so that the young queen in Pink can be the queen of the whole colony. Right now there's a double-screen board between the two colonies, but in 2 weeks we'll remove it and spray with syrup and Honey-B-Healthy to make them all smell the same (yummy) and stimulate feeding, grooming, and good vibes.<br />
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This method allows you to requeen without killing the old queen, or even finding her. Putting the new queen on top and making sure she has lots of workers and a strong colony on her side seems to be the trick.Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5961413404917339607.post-75646362813417587162012-05-21T11:08:00.001-07:002013-04-04T16:30:30.714-07:00preparing for collapsatopia...At my house we talk about What To Do in preparation for the big crash, the Collapse of the Economy As We Know It. Which we assume is not too distant; maybe next week like JH Kunstler is forever promising, or maybe next year, or maybe somehow not for ten or fifteen years.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>This makes financial planning tricky; none of the usual instruments of finance (pension funds, federal bonds, corporate stocks, mutual funds) seem likely to hold up in such an event. But one can't just stock up on perishables like sugar and flour. I don't expect that precious metals will hold value when nothing else does. What will still be valuable when the money economy is in ruins or pretty close to ruined? I end up with the basics: food. drugs/alcohol/medicine. tools. fuel. materials that can be used to make stuff. & community, neighbors, the local relationships of the farmer's market, corner store, back-fence bartering. <br />
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With that in mind, growing food looks like a better idea all the time. Investing in the local microbrew or distillery is a fine idea. Tools are my sweetie's specialty, so that's covered. And we buy our eggs & meat from down the block, supporting our local farmers, knowing we'll want good protein when the global economy comes apart.<br />
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It will take generations to regain the deep knowledge of farming that
was thrown away in this country in the decades since WWII. Better start
now. <br />
<br />Margothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15983412583372191869noreply@blogger.com