Sprouting

I moved Between Earth and Sky created by Dwight
 from the back yard where
she kept getting knocked over by the rowdy Shasta.
Her arm was broken off . . . again . . . reglued . . . again.
So now she has a safer home in the front yard.

Many, many, many weeks ago I planted fava beans seeds in the four circles where I plant the Three Sisters beans, corn & squash)

and in both raised beds. 

West most raised bed

East most raised bed

Everyday I have been checking . . . nada green sprouts. And then the rain came with 4.0" falling in 24 hours. You can see from the above pictures that there are now sprouts.

I was advised by a friend and now local neighbor as well that fava beans need moisture to germinate. Well, the abundance of rain of late is just what the fava bean seeds needed to poke their little green heads through their casings and soil.

Once the fava beans mature and are picked, the stocks make for the very best additive to the soil for raising deliciously tasting food. As I did at MuRefuge I will top both raised beds with these stocks. It seems that I recall in one growing season the stocks decomposed. I plan to plant tomatoes through the stocks in the West bed as well as lettuce, carrots, peas in the East most bed.

The rain continues to fall. So far this week over 7.1" has collected in the rain gauge positioned near my front walkway. Every morning I go out early to see what the gauge has collected then dump out the rain. All of Northern California is in need of the rain continuing at the present rate through January, February and into March. This entire area is anywhere from 30% to 50% behind in the "normal" rainfall. So, although it makes for messy walking when Shasta and I go out for our morning walk, I tell her "it is worth it" so our garden reaps benefits from the rains.

May your weather wherever you are be not too intolerable . . . or deadly as in some parts of the Eastern United States. And as we are all more house bound may we

Season Greetings

Season Greetings to all of you wondrous BEings who view my posts. I wish the most lovely of lovely Winter Solstice celebration to each and every one of you. For those of you who celebrate Christmas may yours be special as well. 

Pinus monophylla (Pinyon pine)
Please notice the sculpture sitting in
the upper right corner:
that sculpture closes this post.  

The Pinyon pine is my most favorite tree. I have loved them since I first saw them growing in the Mono Lake Basin. Of course, none grow natively in the are where I live now. However, I wanted one to grow at PageRefuge. I found one to purchase that would fit in my budget. The tree is picture above in a clay pot sitting in the front of my house. I water it daily in the Summer and now with the rains coming the small tree is getting plenty of moisture.  

I felt so fortunate that the house we bought in Santa Fe had a full grown one just East of the driveway. Does not the Pinyon pine look gorgeous with the snow?

Since am forgoing "decorating" for the holidays, I am grateful for the mini Pinyon pine in my front yard. Remembering all the past fully decorated trees is heart warming, like the one pictured below sitting on our Santa Fe house's front portal.

Typically these posts end with

However for this one I am choosing to close with one of Dwight's spectacular sculptures he completed while we lived in Santa Fe. The figure is honoring the place from which her ancestors emerged from Mother Earth. For me she depicts such heart felt love and gratitude. 

Glorious

A bit late but the weather person I listen to in the evening assures me that December is when the rainy season begins. So far I have measured 2.3 inches of rain in my rain gauge with this glorious arrival of rain. More rain is predicted today (Sunday December 04, 2022) with more coming throughout the week.

In my opinion right now we cannot get enough rain. The ground beneath the mulch here at PageRefuge is dry, dry, dry. All the plants throughout the property are so looking forward to getting much more rain to help them establish deeper roots. Of course, with deeper roots come a more above the ground vegetation with an abundance of flowers some Spring time and Summer.

Dwight's picture of me walking
towards the entrance of Tower Gallery.
Oh how much fun we had driving
up here frequently.
We took all of our friends who came to visit too.
Some of them even got to meet Roxanne

Roxanne Swentzell Gallery in Santa Fe, NM presents

Big Heads at her Tower Gallery. 

"It is in response to the state of the world 

and its disjointedness. 

All the gapped polarities

between viewpoints have felt like

humanity has lost its ability to 

connect and relate to itself as a whole.

The head, torso and legs have forgotten how to work

together so that the entire body can 

function well.

Big Heads is a result of heads not working 

with the other body parts to get the whole perspective.....,

a fuller perspective, a wiser perspective, 

a more loving perspective." 

The entrance to Tower Gallery

Every single minute, hour, day, month that Dwight is absent in my life, I grieve his loss. I miss him so much. AND I am ever so grateful he is no longer struggling to breathe. He is at peace where ever souls go once they depart their human form.

I must add here that he is no longer here to read my unpublished blog posts and tp critique them as only an English professor can. So whatever errors anyone may find they are of mine.

As we, where ever we are, individually struggle with gaining a whole perspective during this glorious rainy season here in Northern California, may we celebrate with a deep belly

Thanksgiving

 Vitis californica x European grape cross  ('Roger's Red' California grape)

Eternal Spirit of Justice and Love,

At this time of Thanksgiving we would be aware of our

dependence on the earth and on the sustaining presence of other

human beings both living and gone before us.

As we partake of bread and wine, may we remember that

there are many for whom sufficient bread is a luxury, or for whom

wine, when attainable, is only an escape.  Let our thanksgivnig for

Life’s bounty include a commitment to changing the world, that

those who are now hungry may be filled and those without hope

may be given courage.

Amen.

                                CONGREGATION OF ABRAXAS

I remember my meeting Dwight for the first time 35 years ago on Thanksgiving. We had both been invited by our individual friends to share in the abundance of food and friendship. He had recently left his wife thus his friend did not want him to spend this holiday by himself. When we were introduced, we both were taken aback by the instantaneous connections we felt.  Some while past before we actually got together to share a drink in a downtown Sebastopol pub. Soon thereafter we spent most of our nonworking hours together and the rest is history as the old saying goes.

So this particular holiday carries much significance for me. I am saddened that Dwight is no longer with me in physical form.

Luckily I have a dear, dear, dear friend who will coming to my house for a very, very, very nontraditional Thanksgiving meal. We will have a wonderful time celebrating Thanksgiving. I will be spending the day in a totally different way from any past Thanksgivings I spent with Dwight.

Evening sleeping Shasta

My evenings are quiet often spent reading or if the Warriors are playing basketball watching their game. Shasta keeps me company as she is pictured above.

To discharge all the swirling emotions around this holiday I have a frequent belly

Putting the Garden to Bed

In the Fall before the rains were certain of providing soil and all planted in it, Shasta's Auntie T used to say she was "putting the garden to bed." Now that the rains have failed to provide the usual moisture during the previous month of October and now it looks to include November as well. But recently I have been out in the garden putting her to bed. Please enjoy the depicting pictures below.

In left lower corner Monardella villosa

 (Coyote mint ‘Russian  River’)

pruned of spent flowering stocks. 

And the green birdbath (the last clay project

  Dwight completed), from which 

  Shasta routinely has drink when 

    she returns from our morning walk.

What looks like barren wood chips
is three mounds of cut back to the ground
Epolibium canum  (California fuschsia ‘Calistoga' ).

 The Meyers Lemon tree is barren of its fruit. 
In the barren patch of potting soil
Indian Rice Grass seeds have been sown.

While out doing what I love the most, taking care of my garden, I had frequent

Last

All the empty Todd planters
stacked in my wooden shed
ready for seed planting in a few months.

Yesterday crawling around on my hands and knees I planted out the last two Todd planters. They contained native grasses that I started from seed. My idea is to create some grassy areas for Shasta to lay. Right now she only has wood chips to nap on.

I planted Blue fescue beneath the grape arbor.
Shasta often paws at the dirt especially
when she is excited by a Turkey vulture flying over.
So to allow the grasses to root I created a barrier.

Red fescue, only about half of one
of the Todd planter, was planted to
the East of what I had planted earlier.

While I was planting yesterday, I also put into the ground two yarrow plants my dear friend Ann brought by Monday late afternoon. She had told me she had pink flowering yarrow that she had brought back from Santa Barbara some while ago when her children were at the university.

This yarrow she told me is a magenta flowering yarrow.

And this Channel Island yarrow has a lighter shade of pink.

I am so excited to have yarrow with flowers other than white of which I have two.These flowers and leaves I use in a salve I make yearly. It is a great salve for any scratch, burn or surgical site needing to healed. And now I have two stunningly different colors of yarrow which I can see each morning when I look out the dining room double doors while doing my morning qi gong.

Shasta keeping me company
while I watched a recent 
Warriors basketball game.

As I continue to adjust to living without Dwight, I frequently have a good belly

Halloween

Sitting on the front steps
into my house are
a pumpkin and colorful gourds
which are reminders of the season.

Halloween, shortened from All Hallows' Eve, is a cross quarter day; also know as Samhain. It falls more or less half way between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. 

            "the seed now begins its time of gestation

        the harvest is gathered, the fields lie fallow,

        and the gates of life and death are open."                   

            from Earth Prayers

        edited by Elizabeth Roberts and Elinas Amidon

This cross quarter day is near the Day of the Dead or Dia de los Muertos which is a holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and most of Latin America. So rather than writing the usual two blog posts, I have chosen to incorporate both in this post.

This is the first Halloween and the first Day of the Dead that Dwight will not be with me to celebrate. Much to my dismay this is the beginning of celebrating holidays without Dwight. Of course, he will be front and center in my mind when I do honor these two holidays.

                                        

As we honor those ancestors that have gone before us and those loved ones who have died leaving us bereft, may we prepare our alter with food they enjoyed. The alter may also be covered with colorful leaves that are so abundant presently.

Dwight loved broccoli
so I purchased a modest amount at
this morning's Farmers Market
to enjoy eating on Halloween.

  The longer we are together

the larger death grows around

us.

How many we know now

who are dead! We, who were

young.,

now count the cost of having

been

And yet as we know the dead

we grow familiar with the 

world.

We, who were young and loved

each other

ignorantly, now come to know

each other in love, married

by what we have done, as

much

as by what we intend. Our hair

turns white with our ripening

as though to fly away in some

coming wind, bearing the seed

of what we know. It was bitter

to learn

that we come to death as we

come

to come, bitter to face

the just and solving welcome

that death prepares. But that is

bitter

only to the ignorant, who pray

it will not happen. Having come

the bitter way to better prayer 

we have 

the sweetness of ripening.

How sweet

to know you by the signs of the

world!

                              WENDELL BERRY

to usher in these holidays and open connections with your past ancestors and loved ones that are no longer with you in physical form.

Shasta Has a Cousin

Recently Shasta's Auntie T adopted a cat from the Marin Humane Society. She did not want a kitty but rather a full grown cat. Talking on the phone Tanis picked out 4 cats but when she arrived a few days later to check all 4 out there were only 3. She spoke to each one to see who was a "yes" to come live with her. The below cat chose to BE her cat so home he came in his carrier. Tanis has set up everything in her main house's bathroom.

Such an elegant looking boy!

Aren't his paw markings precious?

I love his green eyes!

Tanis had gotten him settled in the bathroom and closed the door. After she went about her late afternoon routine and felt she had adequately recovered from her "trip over the hill" to Novato, she opened the bathroom door to discover "no cat". Where was he? She enlisted a friend's stellar searching ability but she could not locate the cat either. They were both clear he had not somehow escaped to the outside of the house because he had used his litter box. Some while later Tanis discovered he had crawled up under the sink to his "very own hiddie hole". 

Shasta had yet to meet her cousin. Tanis wants to allow more time for him to feel safe and comfortable in his new home.

Tanis is "trying out" numerous names and thus far has not found the perfect name for her cat. Perhaps she will make a call to the animal communicator to inquire if the cat has a name for himself. I did that with Rose. When we all connected on the phone, she showed the animal communicator a rose flower so Sun's reincarnation became known as Rose. Sun never liked her name that I picked out for her. The Siberian Husky was Sun and our adopted black and tan hound was Star. Sun and Star seemed like good names at the time. Sometimes we humans are just plain weird to our pets.

Rose tearing into ribbon from
one of our wedding presents in 2010.

So while waiting to take Shasta to visit Tanis in Pt. Reyes Station and meet the cat I will enjoy a frequent belly

Indigenous People Day

AKA Columbus Day is on October 11. 

While living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, both Dwight and I along with Shasta attended the impressive parade on this day. We noticed the native peoples in the area had great influence on the city of Santa Fe. Santa Fe was truly a multicultural city with a long history of Hispanics, Native Americans and whites from many countries; unlike anywhere else either Dwight nor I have lived.

Dwight's female and mal pueblo heads
that sit in my herb garden
in front of the tall hedge.

I had the opportunity to interact with the local "indigenous peoples" many of whom lived in one of the Pueblos in the area. Today there are 19 pueblos in New Mexico presently with each having its own government yet sharing a common prehistory of emerging from beneath the earth, and culture. 

Roxanne Swentzell's
sculpture depicting
the ancestral peoples arrival.

This is Dwight's depiction of
"mother" bringing her first peoples 
into the earthly realm.

I was born part of this earth.

My Grandmother Earth.

I was born part of this earth

My Mother, all living beings.

My Grandfather, the sky.

I was born part of this earth.

My Father, all creatures of the air.

I was born part of this earth.

The eight Grandfathers.

I was born part of this earth.

The four corners of the earth.

I was born part of this earth.

The great wind giant of the North.

I was born part of this earth.

The red road of the dead.

I was born part of this earth.

The blue and black road of destruction.

I was born part of this earth.

The old ones say

the old way’ gone,

the old ones say.

Still,

I was born part of this earth.

                               DANIEL WESTERN

Contemporary Pueblo people are descendants of Ancestral Puebloans who lived in the area where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah all meet at one point. The single point in the United Sates only occurs here and is referred to as the Four Corners region of the Southwest. 

Dwight and I had our first Christmas celebration in New Mexico at the Santo Domingo Pueblo. Dwight had purchased for me greenish colored turquoise earrings and necklace. Erlina Coriz, the creator of them, invited us to spend the holiday with her, her daughter and her granddaughter. First we attended the celebration which involved ceremonial dancing. The dancers practice all day for days to prepare. All in locals in attendance bring chairs and blankets because after all this is December and it is chilly. Then we returned to Erlina's home for a delicious indigenous meal. The granddaughter at the time attended the Santa Fe Indian School which was established in 1890 by the federal government to assimilate the "native child". The Dali Lama use to frequent the school and attendees were invited to visit him in India which Erlina's granddaughter did. We had a lovely Christmas like no other before nor since. 

                               Taos Pueblo is the only living Native American community 

                                  designated both a World Heritage Site by UNESCO 

                                             and a National Historic Landmark. 

                                  The guide who gave the tour was exceptional.

The second November we lived in Santa Fe we went to Taos, New Mexico, to celebrate our anniversary.  We rented a place for several weeks exploring the area including the Taos Pueblo. We drove one route going and another along the Rio Grande River returning to maximize our acquaintance with the area. A word of caution to anyone who is considering a visit to this pueblo. It is not open all of the time . . . remember people live here; it is their home they generously share at only certain times. I mention this because I heard an irate white woman complaining she could not visit on her trip to Taos. Now I reside in Cotati, California, far, far, far away from our Stamm home on San Felipe Circle in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I loved our house depicted above. Now it seems to me that living in Santa Fe was a magical place to live. The new owners are enjoying making this their forever retirement home.  I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reads this blog. I love writing new entries for BE-ing Rooted: a Practice in Essential Living. To paraphrase the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, "Change is the only constant in life". As I continue adjusting to huge change in my life brought about by Dwight's death in July, I frequently

The second November we lived in Santa Fe we went to Taos, New Mexico, to celebrate our anniversary.  We rented a place for several weeks exploring the area including the Taos Pueblo. We drove one route going and another along the Rio Grande River returning to maximize our acquaintance with the area. A word of caution to anyone who is considering a visit to this pueblo. It is not open all of the time . . . remember people live here; it is their home they generously share at only certain times. I mention this because I heard an irate white woman complaining she could not visit on her trip to Taos.

Now I reside in Cotati, California, far, far, far away from our Stamm home on San Felipe Circle in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

I loved our house depicted above. Now it seems to me that living in Santa Fe was a magical place to live. The new owners are enjoying making this their forever retirement home. 

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who reads this blog. I love writing new entries for BE-ing Rooted: a Practice in Essential Living.

To paraphrase the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, "Change is the only constant in life". As I continue adjusting to huge change in my life brought about by Dwight's death in July, I frequently