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Sunday, August 23, 2020

Sunflowers

IDEA OF THE DAY: GARDEN YOUR WORRIES AWAY

The pandemic has been a boon to home gardening. The mental and physical benefits of the activity are well known: longer lives, lower levels of depression, and exposure to vitamin D. “Gardening reduces stress,” Huma Yasin has written in The Times.

Contact with nature can also provide philosophical comfort, The New Yorker’s Rebecca Mead argues: “Many people, when faced with their own mortality or that of their loved ones, become more attuned to the natural world. This is evidence not just of a garden’s power to distract and inspire but of its power to console.”

And for some marginalized communities, gardening grants agency over food insecurity and a lack of healthy options. “Possibilities, solutions, freedom — that’s what I’m growing,” a Los Angeles gardener and activist told The Wall Street Journal. “That’s what the gardens represent.”
04:43 AM, August 21,2020; The New York Times "The Morning" 

To me sunflowers are the epitome of happy flowers brightening my garden. They seem so cheery with their bright yellow petals. The variety below, which I cut weekly to adorn our dining room table is literally overflowing with bright yellow pollen onto the table cloth covering our dining table. This flower below was cut from a circle of sunflowers planted in our front yard. The birds absolutely love the seeds once they have ripened so it is spectacular to watch the variety of birds eating their fill.
Hopi Black Dye Sunflower
Traditionally Hopi people have used Hopi Black Dye sunflowers
to make a dye for cotton, wool and basketry.
Colors derived include maroon-red, deep maroon, dark purple,
deep lavender, medium blue and black dye.


This Summer has been extraordinarily hot and dry. Very little monsoon rain for the entire region with most of New Mexico remarkably below the average rain fall. It is amazing to me that rains frequently fall in the higher elevations with only virga on the "flat lands". 

And now we are blanketed with wildfire smoke, mostly from Colorado but also from a fire zero % contained near the Santa Fe Ski Basin. The past two days we have been unable to see the mountains to the East because the smoke is so thick.


Pueblo Indians' Winter Squash.
But amidst this unpleasantness, which mostly keeps us all inside with the windows shut, I am still harvesting food to eat from our backyard. The tomatoes are finally ripening and the first carrot seeds planted are maturing . . . delish!! The corn is done producing but it was fabulous eating my fill of corn on the cobb! The Wild Garden lettuce mix continues to be succulent and enjoyed daily in salads or sandwiches. BLTs this time of the year are "to die for" as the saying goes.


"There is a great comfort in growing your own food.
Your are close to the soil.
You use the basic elements - 
water, sunlight, earth, air, and plants -
for your work, 
your sustenance,
and your pleasure.
You nurture your garden from seeding to mature plants,
tending,
pruning, 
weeding.
Year after year, you see cycles come and go,
from sprouting to harvest to withering, to seed again.
You eat your plants to live
You don't mind and they don't mind.
Some day, you will fall back to this earth,
back into the sun-baked dirt,
you will become food for the plants.
It's the way of life,
and it's all very agreeable."
                                 Deng Ming-Dao


And before the wildfire smoke moved in, Shasta spends her mornings outside in the backyard.

Here she is napping in Big Bluestem grass
which is one of the grasses growing
in the tall grass prairies.
"This and Little Bluestem are the grasses
that fattened up cattle of the Old West,"
Gail Haggard, the owner of
Plants of the Southwest.
As we all deal with the pandemic, and of course the drama of national politics, may we lighten ourselves with a good belly
















Sunday, August 2, 2020

Abundance

At this time half way between the Summer Solstice and the Fall Equinox abundance is evident. Our red grape vines are heavy with clusters of almost ready to eat seedless red grapes. The tomato plants hold a plethora of tomatoes beginning to ripen. The corn stalks provide juicy ears of corn for lunch almost daily. The Summer squash plants are laden with delicious zucchini and yellow crooked necks. The mini melons will soon be ripe for my enjoyment. Carrots, lettuce, kohlrabi offer veggies for almost every meal.

Saint Theresa (red) grape
August 1, known as Lammas Day or Lughnasadh, is celebrated in England, Scotland, Wales and other countries in the Northern Hemisphere. It is a time when grains are harvested from which bread is made and shared in celebration of the abundance of grains.
And a few days later, August 03, 2020, we will have the occasion to view the full moon. This full moon also marks the peak of Summer. The day light will be shortening with the night time beginning to lengthen. The astrological alignments provide us all with opportunities for change and awareness. 

There is an existential threat to all life on Planet Earth created by humans and their insatiable consumptive greed. 

"The modern conservative is engaged
in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy;
that is,
the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
John Kenneth Galbraith

And the Black Lives Matter movement is front and center with sports figures using their platform to keep it there. The restart of the pared down basketball season played in the Bubble of Disney World was marked by all of the first four teams linking arms and kneeling for the national anthem to protest how police go about their duties. It is time for we humans to rein in our greed, drop the white supremacy mentality, and BE more compassionate with ourselves and each other. As we social distance and wear masks to protect all of our community members from the deadly virus, let us each find our way individually and collectively to "live with this virus". 

Our glass top table inherited from Dwight's Granny 
serves as a wonderful place to share
an evening meal with friends or
afternoon tea with a soon to be fast friend.

The grape arbor is a lovely backdrop
for our abundant vegetables.


As we open ourselves to the opportunity for change and awareness, may we