Turning

 

Cassis Peaches bought at the
Sebastopol Farmers Market today.
Not perfect but will be delicious to eat
this Winter once canned!

Today, August 01, is a cross quarter day midpoint between the Summer Solstice and the Autumnal Equinox. In the Celtic tradition this day called it Lughnasadh designated to celebrate the Summer harvest. Today is a reminder of the turning from Summer towards Autumn.

  

 “The Summer was very big.

....

Command the last fruits that they shall be full,

give the another two more southerly days,

press them on to fulfillment and drive

the last sweetness into ” .... the fruit

                                         Rainer Maria Rilke

I am so grateful for the abundance this Summer has offered. When I see all the canned fruit over the past few months, I am filled with gratitude.

Santa Rosa Plums from our tree and Tanis'
Blenheim Apricots
and 4 different kinds of Peaches

I ask for a moment’s indulgence to sit by Thy side.

The works that I have in hand

I will finish afterwards.

Away from the sight of Thy face

My heart knows no rest or respite,

And my work becomes an endless toil

In a shoreless sea of toil.

Today the summer has come at my window

With its sighs and murmurs,

And the bees are plying their minstrelsy

At the court of the flowering grove.

Now it is time to sit quiet

Face to face with The,

And to sing dedication of live 

In this silent and overflowing leisure.

                                   RABINDRANATH TOGORE

Michele, Katie and Leigh
during the Sims Reunion
floating on the McKinzie River in Oregon.
  They are obviously fully embracing leisure.

Today as we honor the turning of the seasons may we

Reciprocal

                              

                             O our mother the earth, O our father the sky,

                           Your children are we, and with tired backs

                           We bring you gifts that you love.

                           Then weave for us a garment of brightness,

                           May the warp be the white light of morning,

                           May the weft be the red light of evening,

                           May the fringes be the falling rain,

                           May the border be the standing rainbow.

                           Thus weave for us a garment of brightness

                           That we may walk fittingly where grass is green,

                           O our mother the earth, O our father the sky!

                                                                        TEWA PUEBLO PRAYER

As I slowly decompress from the events of the past nine months and become tuned into my surroundings, I am filled with joy how individuals, businesses and political entities are tuned into altering the path of our  climate catastrophe. Our activist friend Jenny is involved in stopping any new gas stations from being built. The city of Cotati is giving "take out your lawn" rebates of which we are taking advantage. The city also provides electric charging stations, one of which is pictured below quite near our home. We walk past these on some morning walks with Shasta. 

However when we follow her lead, she turns left out of our driveway instead of when we lead her to the right. She is focused on getting to the path along the Laguna de Santa Rosa where there are a plethora of delicious smells. Her nose leads her from one delectable smell to the next preferring this pleasurable activity above walking briskly to get some physical exercise.

The SMART (Sonoma-Marin Area Rapid Transit) train provides an alternative to driving to work. In the picture below you can see there is also an electric charging station at the Cotati Station where I get off the train that I catch in at the San Rafael Station when I return from the A's games.

 

I just need to tag my Senior Clipper card when I get on and off to pay for the ride. Easy peasy IF I remember to do both. When I go to the game, I take the 09:10 bus, also using my Clipper card, since the train only runs for commuters so does not offer me a ride that late in the morning. I am able to use my Senior Clipper card for the bus ride as well.

I read a short brief recently that compared the various gas and oil conglomerates. BP, a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England, was listed as having the least effect on with the climate catastrophe. As I checked further I found a BP statement: "Our purpose is reimagining energy for people and our planet. We want to help the world reach net zero and improve people's lives." They seem committed in the United States to expand alternative energy sources in addition to extracting oil and gas from the earth. Of course, now I want to buy Stella's (our Prius) gas from them. Unfortunately, the nearest ARCO station is located in Santa Rosa. 

String of Hearts

I am ever so grateful to be back in a home that is houseplant friendly. Our Stamm home in Santa Fe just did not provide enough light for what few houseplants I had. Light abounds in our Cotati home thus I am quickly adding plants. I have already filled all the beautiful pots I have and am pleading with Dwight to return to the clay studio to make me a few more. For a long time I have wanted a String of Hearts plant that is pictured above. They are difficult to find but as you can see I now have one. It is presently sitting on the wooden cabinet in our bathroom.

Pink blooming Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) 

When I was growing massive amounts of Comfrey on our septic mound at MuRefuge, I had read that this plant came in pink, purple and lavender. All my previous Comfrey plants were purple flowering. So what a wonderful surprise when this above newly purchased plant began blooming in such a stunning pink color. I use it to make a wound healing salve. 

  

The reason for growing a massive amount at MuRefuge was for the "green manure" it made. I would cut all the plants to the ground and fill barrels with it and add water to the brim. Once it decomposed the water was filled with similar components to animal manure. I would use this water on all the vegetable beds to provide nutrient dense vegetables for our consumption.  

Because the relationship 

between self and world is reciprocal, 

it is not a matter of first getting 

enlightened or saved and then acting. 

As we work to heal the Earth, 

the Earth heals us. 

No need to wait. 

As we care enough to take risks, 

we loosen the grip of ego and 

begin to come home to our true nature.

                                                  Joanna Macy

As we seek for ways in our daily lives to heal Mother Earth, may we 

Wonderfully Wacky

The below scene invariably makes me laugh when Shasta and I walk past this unicorn skeleton sitting on a neighbor's front entryway. It is one example of the wonderfully wacky here in Cotati. Our now adopted small berg is just one place where the unconventional peoples express their views here in Sonoma County.

In Sebastopol driving North there is a sign expressing why Biden won this past Presidential election: fairy dust was sprinkled over the county by Tinkerbell. Even though I see the sign frequently I still have a wonderfully wacky belly laugh every time I drive by and read the message. What an antidote for the lies still spewed by the abysmal man elected for one term as President of the United States. Wouldn't it be wonderfully wacky if we could move on from his tiresome rhetoric?

After way more than Dwight wants to count visits to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, we now are "official" California residents with brand new shiny California license plates. Each car has two in California as opposed to only a rear plate in New Mexico where the plate is owned by the person to whom it is distributed and moves from vehicle to vehicle when another is purchased. I so wanted to keep our New Mexico plate but the DMV absconded with it even tho' Dwight asked for it back. Also, please all notice the holder for the plate. BEing able to go to Oakland Athletics' baseball games with Shasta's Auntie T AKA our dear friend, Tanis, makes the move from Santa Fe, New Mexico, worth all the aggravation of our relocation almost palatable. Tanis is the actual season ticket holder purchasing the tickets. I pay her with my seasonal canning. A win - win for both of us.

And Shasta loves going to the beach no matter the fog and drizzle prevalent in the Summer:

She loves the smells from the seaweed and rocks covered with the living shells attached to them:

Stunningly beautiful sea weed
in a variety of colors and shapes

Goose Barnacles and Mussels

Barnacles and Seaweed

The remake of our gardens is in full swing. All the ugly, in my opinion, metal water troughs and round barrels have found new homes where others plan to plant veggies in them. Me, I prefer to plant in the ground. Wondering if we have gophers? No more, Shasta killed a baby gopher just the other morning. Our English friends lost a very large, old fig tree to gophers. So I plan to plant all the trees, especially the fruit trees in 5 gallon gopher baskets, and native shrubs in 3 gallon gopher baskets. I am still figuring out about a veggie bed since Dwight is NOT interested in building anymore beds. Says he's "done" doing that.

The icky redwood "fluff" that was around all the exotic plants is gone. The two year old 400 gallon hot tub has not only disappeared but we got 15 $100 bills too. Luckily Dwight found an eccentric man who lives along the Russian River through Craigslist. Over a number of weeks he made it all disappear! Of course, Dwight helped with the getting the redwood fluff into his truck. Shasta loved him and always got a fabulous play time whenever he was here. We all plan to have an outing to visit him and meet his wife and three dogs.

The first of the estimates is in for cutting down the front two very tall hedges, a couple of small trees including one heirloom yellow delicious apple tree and the remainder of a number of shrubs I have already pruned drastically. I was pleasantly surprised at the reasonable, to me, estimate. I went with the first estimate and Sierra Tree Service has been scheduled. I am so excited to be getting woods chips from all that is cut down. The owner of this service says he can bring me wood chips from other jobs because some people do not want the chips.

As more and more of the "professional landscaping" disappears from all about the house, it is easier to imagine natives thriving here. We will be touring our friends Bill and Kathy's "flammable landscape" of natives not far from MuRefuge to see what we might want to plant here amidst the mulched front and backyards. The layers of mulching feed the soil thus all that is planted therein thrives. Sheet mulching is a basic Permaculture recommendation that I have employed for many years.

May we all "celebrate what's right with the world!" with marvel and a hardy belly 

Change

It is said that the lotus flower will not grow in pure water and can only bloom fed by the mud of decay.  So too our collective trauma, brokenness, delusions, moral suffering, and pain can, ironically, be the very means for our awakening. Each day, let us awaken to transform ourselves, our communities, our nation, and our world with wisdom and compassion. –Roshi Joan Halifax

Below are some thoughts on this time of change from a Taoist perspective:

(10:30 a.m.) NOTE on Non Attachment:  During this “Great Transition,” the Chi is not Flowing Peacefully... but Raging like a River and assertively eroding away anything in its path... and Old Paradigm Thoughts, Beliefs and Behaviors are no exception.

At this time, if we lack the ability to Detach from the affects of this Assertive Influential Chi, the results may not be as Peaceful or as Graceful as we’d prefer.  

How do we manage the Energetics of Yang Assertiveness, is to Skillfully Compensate with relative Yin Expressions.  Slowing Down, Detaching or Letting Go are a few beneficial examples, under these excessively Yang Circumstances.  

If you’re not comfortable with applying the Brakes... you can practice just easing off the Gas or Excellerator and simply Cruise!  

Nobody’s saying you hafta “Stop” doing what you’re doing.  But Change the Way you’re Doing It!  That’s what’s being required for this Next Evolutionary Step.  

The Great Transition is all about “Change!”  Now, How We Choose to Change, is up to us!  But something needs to Change within us.  

With all respects, you don’t hafta do anything you don’t wanna do.  Just consider any consequences you may hafta pay, in order to have it your way!  That consideration may just be the Motivation you need, in order to benefit from this Great Transition.  

Peace & Good Health... Namaste,

~ Uncle Obi ~ 🙏☯️✌️

Both of the above perspectives on change are so wonderful to consider as we discard our masks, some but not all of us, and reenter the outside world, so to speak. While sequestered, our worlds grew small to include just those living with us. Some started gardens for the very first time of their lives, others read vociferously and still others remained bored unable to engage in much other than what was absolutely essential to their daily lives. Some experienced the richness of BEing while others seems to pout and exclaim, "oh poor me".

All of us here in our small home in Cotati, California, made big changes but now are settling into BEing in our lovely space. Cathie is recreating the garden while Dwight is focused on washing and moving our Prius into the cleared out garage . . . finally. 

Shasta is sleeping as she energetically entertained lunch guests yesterday.

No matter the process of our present daily life, may we each have a frequent hardy

 

Celebrating the 4th of July

and my passed mother's birthday. My mother was born on July 4, 1914. I remember as a child making and decorating her birthday cake with red, white and blue. 

My mother is the second from the right.
The others are her sisters:
Donna (left), Arlene, Eva and
Martha to my mom's left.

Her brother, and my Uncle Ervy, if around, was always my staunch cheerleader in the effort.

Said uncle is on the right
with his brothers Harley (far left)
and P.C. in the middle.

Today I made no birthday cake, rather we went to the Farmers Market in Sebastopol where we stocked up on fresh food for the week. All the wonderful vendors at this particular market offer the best options. Since I do not have a garden yet, I am so grateful these farmers grow such fabulous organic, nutrient dense food: cauliflower, chard, Early Girl tomatoes, eggplant, fennel, Frida spicy mix delicious addition to salads, lettuce, Romano beans and zucchini.

Blenheim apricots, figs and plums

June Pride peaches

String of Pearls
for my all time favorite
hanging apparatus.
Now to find the "perfect" window
in which to display this
fun plant where it will thrive.

And then several times a day I am collecting Santa Rosa plums that are dropping ripe from our tree. These plums are one of my all time very favorite plums. They make great cobbler, jam, and are delicious canned to enjoy during the Winter months when even here fresh fruit is hard to come by.

I am just ecstatic to now have 
a mature Santa Rosa plum tree
in my backyard.

Ah to be alive

     on a mid-September morn

fording a stream

barefoot, pants rolled up 

holding boots, pack on,

sunshine, ice in the shallows,

northern rockies

Rustle and shimmer of icy creek waters

stones turn underfoot, small and hard on toes

cold nose dripping

  singing inside

creek music, heart music,

smell of sun on gravel.

I  pledge allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the soil

of Turtle Island

one ecosystem

in diversity

under the sun --

With joyful interpenetration for all.

GARY SNYDER

To honor our democracy on this Fourth of July let us each and every one of us have a celebratory belly

 ha

Special Day

A very happy Shasta
on this Summer Solstice
and 2021 Father's Day

A bit tardy with this post. We have been celebrating the very first Father's Day Dwight has had both of his two daughters with him since I have known him (34 years). And of course, Mike, Katie's husband, joined us to Shasta's delight since he is one of her very favorite humans in the whole wide world.

 Dwight and Leigh put together the swing frame

over the previous day. And we found just the right spot

for it in the corner of the backyard.

Above is daughter Katie, Dwight and 

daughter Leigh enjoying the swing.

Mike in the back

Katie, Dwight, Cathie

Shasta in the front.

Leigh playing with Shasta's ears.
All are just so happy to BE together!

Once Shasta could rouse herself

from enjoying the cool slate of the 

back patio, she found the zinnia leaves 

make for a very tasty snack.

The summer solstice is the time of greatest light. 

It is a day of enormous power. 

The whole planet is turned 

fully to the brilliance of the sun.

The great culmination is not static or permanent.

Indeed, solstice as a time of culmination 

is only a barely perceptible point. 

The sun appears to stand still.

Its diurnal motion seems to nearly cease.

Yesterday, it was still reaching this point,

tomorrow, it will begin a new phase of its cycle.”

Some “celebrate this day to remind themselves 

of the cycles of existence.

They remember that all cycles 

have a left and a right,

an up side and down side,

a zenith and a nadir.

. . . All of life is cycles.

All of live is balance.

So celebrate . . .”

365 Tao: Daily Meditations, Deng Ming-Dao

Bright purple seed pods
of the evergreen perennial (Dianella tasmanica),
along the West side of the walkway 
from the front to the back of our house.
Two of the plants will go to Katie.
All the remaining are earmarked for the yard waste bin
UNLESS someone locally reading this wants 1? 2? or ?

As we all celebrate cycles, balance and this glorious day of the greatest light, may we

Meanderings

Meanderings in our new neighborhood is both familiar and not. While I use to shop at Oliver's, the local grocery store here in Cotati, while we lived at MuRefuge, we did not walk about this cozy little town of over 7,000. We did used to walk along the Laguna de Santa Rosa headwaters that our English friend and now near neighbor restored. The plantings are all native and have grown into stunning flowering shrubs and native blooming trees like the Buckeye tree which I love.

We have a long, narrow "dog" park (Delano Park) just across the street from our new home that Shasta and I walk through each morning as we use to walk to Lopez Park in Santa Fe. Some mornings we meet a number of dogs and their owners, other we are by ourselves. As we come out at the far end of the park there is an expansive field across the street. Here's what we saw this morning.

Each morning we see the two cows and usually a small flock of wild turkeys of which there is a plethora, both here in Cotati and other towns and cities in Sonoma County. We have heard of over 200 in flocks and most all the citizens complain of the numbers. If they get into one,s garden they can reek havoc with the plantings for sure!

As we round the corner and come upon the City of Cotati Munipal Center, we pass a stunning planting of Matilla poppies which is my most favorite "bush" for its spectacular "floppy" flowers.

Matilija Poppy (Romney coulters)

And here is what the "bush" looks like.

My plan is to have one? two? three? in front of our breakfast nook window near the "floppy" flowered rose bush that rests against the garage. 

As you can see the flowers of the two have a similar quality. And while I am neither a big fan of roses nor do I have any skill in knowing how to care for roses, this rose is rather growing on me. The other yellow with a slight reddish tint rose bush I will dig up this week. The lady who cares for all the roses at the church down the street is going to plant it with all the pink and red roses which have been donated by people after their loved one's funeral. She was delighted to get another color.  

After breakfast all three of us have a couple mile walk, sometimes longer. One of our new favorites is walking West beneath the freeway into a neighborhood with really old stately homes and small newer ones as well as bigger ones dotting the shady road.

Another common bird is the peacock.
Here is one in his favorite
shady spot
where we see him almost each time 
we walk here.
We have seen a female with two babies
 . . . cute beyond description!

Here you see a male turkey attempting to woo a nearby female
who seem uninterested, at least to this human's thought of the matter.

A touch of Santa Fe: 
here is a picture of
Olive Tyrrell's, the chef at
The Kitchen located
in the Plants of the Southwest,
beautiful slab pot
with a rabbit foot fern
sitting on the back of our
new very low flow toilet.

I know it has been almost two months since I have written a post. Seems the moving, unpacking, having my very first yard sale (with stupendous guidance from Katie), digging up plants and throwing them into the garden waste bins x2  which get filled to the brim weekly, going to an A's game every few weeks and spending time with our long time friends here in Sonoma County . . .  well, the time has sped by. But now you can look forward to the upcoming Summer Solstice post.

There is one native plant, well it is actually a vine, that was previously planted in the gardens of 35 Page Street. This I will not only keep but cherish especially when the Pipevine Swallowtails eventually visit and lay eggs on the leaves. 

California Pipevine (Aristolochia californica)
now retrellised after all the icky redwood bark
was removed, then watered and fed.

May we all during these unsettled times (what an understatement . . .huh?) continue to