Eeeeeeeek!

I am blessed to have many of these beneficial insects on the land I try to tend. I am pretty sure that, if insects can "feel", the smaller ones do not feel as blessed about this as I do...

I hope your day is filled with blessings of all sorts! :-)

Late Bloomers

If you google "wild violet", most of the first hits will be how to eradicate this "invasive species" from your property.

Eradicate this species?  That puzzles me greatly, because I love the diminutive, fragrant flowers, and would like nothing more than to have them spread all over the place.  I mean, what's not to like?  With their simple heart shaped leaves, pretty color and their graceful form, I just can't help but be happy when they first start blooming in early spring.  Stepping through their colonies gingerly, I pick a handful to bring beauty into my  house.  I have even *weeded* some of the colonies to make sure they remain strong (false strawberries, while pretty and a good ground cover, are no match for violets).  The summer heat ends their bloom here, and it is with mixed feelings that I witness this, because in there place are seed heads, which whisper to me, "more violets"...

Three years ago, I noticed something unusual: in October, the violets put out a second bloom.  At first I thought they were duped by the weather, but plants are not so easily duped.  It had been I who had been mistaken; they rebloom every year.  I had just never noticed it before.  What a pity!

Today, the violets surprised me again.  While weeding a bed of hostas (it is against a north-facing wall  deprived of sun), I thought of what a boring bed it was, and wondered what I might put between them to give it a bit more appeal.  The bleeding heart I had planted had gone dormant long ago. Suddenly I had my answer: a volunteer violet was nestled between the hostas.   Nature is a far better gardener than I am.  It was a perfect solution.

Tomorrow, weather permitting, I will transplant some violets from a healthy colony into my bed of hostas.  And I will pick another handful for my kitchen window.  As I watch the golden, bronze and red leaves fall, the dainty, cheery faces of the violets will remind me that spring is not so very far away.

 

A face any mother could love...

“Schlepherdess”

Does this dog intimidate you?

"Schlepherdess" is definitely an unusual appellation.  I chose it mostly its because all the good names were already taken.  Honest.  So I was forced to make one up.

I was looking for something that would express an idea I have of my relationship to the part of Nature I occupy, as well as Nature as a whole.  It also has something to do with passions of the past, and who I am now.

Back in college, I was introduced to the exciting then-new field of ecology.  Of course, I had to do a paper on Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring”.  I am happy to say that it was not a new book then.  It *was* available in paperback.  In that class, I fell in love with our Earth.  I have been so ever since.

I’ve since tried to live ecologically-minded.  For a few years, I gave up driving my VW in favor of a 12-speed bike.  I read Euell Gibbons and Tom Brown.  I toted a backpack with a guide to edible wild plants, a sheet of plastic, a knife and a book of matches, all must-haves if one gets lost in the wilderness. (The closest I ever came to entering that condition was when I took a detour off the Appalachian Trail to attend to urgent matters.  Desperately wanting to avoid detection, I wandered farther and farther.  Afterwards, I couldn’t find my way back. Twenty minutes of walking downhill - one survival tactic - landed me back on the trail.  So much for those fantasies.)  When other women I knew were reading Cosmopolitan, Jacqueline Susanne and Erica Jong, I was reading about how to build passive solar, straw bale, and envelope houses (along with Jacqueline Susanne and Erica Jong.)  For decades I have dreamt of being off the grid electrically. 

When we were able to, my husband and I bought a pocket of woods for our children to grow in.  We raised a lot of our food.  We had milk goats, which, until I met my first Border Collie, were my favorite animals ever.  In fact, I only met my first Border Collie because I wanted some animal help with my goats.  It turns out that goats don't respect dogs.  If appearances mean anything, goats are mystified by dogs.  They will watch dogs retrieve balls, sticks and frisbees like refs at Wimbledon.  It's as if they're asking themselves, "What on earth is that animal wasting it's time for if the humans keep throwing something away?  How long will this inanity last?"  Otherwise dogs did not interest (or intimidate) them.  If a dog had the temerity to try to block a goat's path, they got a solid head-butt.

Every year in these woods, I have become more respectful and observant of the Earth.  As I was once a goatherd, I want to ‘shepherd’ the earth, which provides us with sustenance.  Throw in the fact that I’m pretty much like everyone else, a person trying to do good but not always succeeding, and you have it: Schlepherdess.

Autumn...

Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost

Nature's first green is gold

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

Poetry is a beautiful medium of expression, and in Robert Frost's hands, it's stunning.  The meaning of the above poem has been debated by scholars much more qualified than I, but that's the thing about poetry, like art in general: you see in it what you bring to it.  Another Robert (Francis), in a poem named Catch, likens a poem to a baseball ("Two boys uncoached are tossing a poem together, Overhand, underhand, backhand, sleight of hand, everyhand...High, make him fly off the ground for it, low, make him stoop, Make him scoop it up...")

No English Major,  I (like the boys) am uncoached in Poetry, and that's OK.  Here is what I see in this glorious poem.

'Nature's first green' is the swelling bud on the branch, which, when it first unfurls, briefly resembles a flower.  But the golden hue now gracing the leaves is a beauty so very transient in the world of plants... Green lasts a long time (palm trees, anyone?) but gold?  I think of daffodils, lilies, pears, bees, even dandelions and goldenrod, their existence so brief in the scheme of things.  In Autumn, these golden leaves must fall, they cannot sustain themselves any longer.  So far,  we have seen these things so often that, while spectacular, they are "normal".  Then Frost does what he does so well... he morphs a natural occurance into a universal theme: anything glorious is transient.  Man's innocence was transient, and it's loss resulted in the loss of the Garden of Eden (and one presumes great grief in the heavens as well as on Earth).  A beautiful, brief dawn becomes a plainer day.  Nothing gold can stay.

Frost wrote and published this poem in 1923.  In 1924, it was again published in a collection - New Hampshire, which included "Fire and Ice" and "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" - which earned him the 1924 Pulitzer Prize, when that really meant something more than it does today.  I would have loved to have gotten that small volume as a gift.

So Autumn has arrived here on the land I inhabit, with all it's attendant beauties.  The golds and reds, the rose hips, apples, spicebush berries, the scarlet Virginia Creeper and the red & gold oriental bittersweet berries (the latter plant choking the woods in places such that I am cutting down as much of it as I can every year.  If I slack off, soon my trees will disappear as well as their leaves.)  The butterflies have gone for the most part, the song birds are migrating through, and I am glad I let the field go to weed, for birds of all kinds eat there all day long.

I need to cherish these beautiful golden days and evenings, because they will not last.  I am grateful that the written word remains.

Exactly how average am I?

Average dog?

Since I’ve identified myself as average, I think it’s reasonable to explain myself a bit.  But first I had to look up average, because I wasn’t quite sure of the definition.  I think, but I am not certain, that the average person uses words that, although they have a pretty good idea what they mean, upon reflection are not exactly certain of their definitions.  Unless specified, the stats given here apply to America, and are the most recent I could find from a reliable-sounding source, for example, the US Department of Commerce and the Pew Research Center.


Although I’ve had more than the average number of years of education (“some” years of college; trending toward increasing), there is so very much that I still don’t know.  Like the Average American, I own a computer (76%), so I used the Internet (access: 74.9% in 2004) to look up the definition.  I Googled it (73% use Google or Yahoo when searching for specific information).


There are a surprising number of definitions of “average”, from very objective (“Any measure of central tendency, especially any mean, the median, or the mode.”) to subjective (“Lacking special distinction, rank, or status.”).  The definition I will use is: “an intermediate scale value regarded as normal or usual”.  Sounds good enough to me. 


I belong to the middle class (again, class definitions vary widely; one source defines the top 1% of wage earners as the “capitalist class”!).  Like the average American, I own my home (67% of housing units are owner occupied).  I have a mortgage on it (67%).  I would love to be among the 33% who own their houses outright.


My average number of children are grown (physically).  I was part of a duel-income couple (42%), but am now single (“most” first marriages end in divorce).   In my (majority) white-collar workplace, I desire more autonomy (majority of my fellow Americans).  I am not part of the largest single occupation in the United States (secretaries; 4.1 million in 2004).


Like most, I get my news (average: 67 minutes a day) from national (57%) and local (54%) television.  I used to be one of the 40% who read a newspaper on a typical day, but I had to give that up as a luxury I could not afford.  As a result, I am one of a growing number of people (23%) who get a significant amount of my information online.


I have hobbies*.  I garden (#7),  watch movies (#4 if I go out, #8 if I rent), read (#1), though not enough, take care of my dogs (#40), watch TV (#2), use my computer for recreation (#6), do crafts (#25), and like to take photographs (not listed, which is weird, as 47% of American households own a digital camera. I exercise (#10) but definitely do not consider that a hobby. ( “But you blog,” you might challenge, “which is not average.”  I don’t know about that.  About 170,000 new blogs are created every day.)


I worry about the economy (54%).  I am somewhere between struggling (42%) and thriving (54%).  I worry I may not be able to pay off my house.  I spend less than the average amount of $52 a day on non-household-related expenses.  I think those who spend $52 a day on non-household-related expenses must be in that “thriving” group.  I am reasonably happy.  I would rate myself somewhere between “a lot of happiness/enjoyment without a lot of stress/worry” (41%) and “a lot of stress/worry without a lot of happiness/enjoyment” (13%).  I am in the minority (32%) who experience physical pain on a daily basis (arthritis, if you are curious).  I am happy for those who do not (48%).


Like the majority of Americans, I am overweight (63%), and do not eat the recommended 5 servings of fruits and vegetables per day (80%).  I am working on it, though.  I (all 100% of me) believe  Photoshop** is to a great degree responsible for the demoralization of the average woman.  Consider this: photographs of models - women who are 5 inches taller yet weigh 23% less than the average american woman (5’4”, 155 pounds), and who have spent hours having their make-up and hair done before being photographed, are routinely ‘shopped’, having their eyes enlarged, their necks/legs elongated, their ears/waists trimmed and, at times, having entire body parts (hands, feet, legs) replaced, not to mention the erasure of normal blemishes, to meet industry standards of acceptable beauty.  I refuse to read fashion magazines.  They are not good for my morale.


I would write more, but (in an effort to spend less) I’m headed off to a matinee!


I hope you have a fulfilling day.

(The photo above is not your average dog.  It is a Czechoslovakian Wolfdog.)





* (Steven M. Gelber wrote seriously of this in his 1999 book, "Hobbies: Leisure and the Culture of Work in America”.  An amazing trip down memory lane starting with Victorian collectibles,  he opines on the evolution of why people have hobbies at all.)

** for a short You Tube demonstration of common Photoshop enhancing techniques, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP31r70_QNM&feature=related

On Blogging...

"The Average Joe will fail to make a living from blogging," (Steve) Pavlina said. "But the Average Joe will fail at every other serious long-term endeavor anyway. If you want to succeed in blogging, you can't be average because people don't want to visit and read average blogs. Average is boring." (from an article in the San Francisco Gate)

Steve Pavlina (according to the article) makes about 40 Grand per month blogging.  If money is king, I guess he's right.  Luckily, I don't plan on making a penny from this blog, so being average will have to do.  

I'm glad that being average is not against the law (the way he describes the "Average Joe",  I wonder if he considers *being* average very unacceptable.  Who does he think reads his blog?  Superman?).  Otherwise I'd be posting from my jail cell.  And is it true that the average person will fail at every serious long-term endeavor?  Are we a world populated by failures?

No matter.  I disagree with him.  Average is not a dirty word.  And the average person is not a waste of space.  Most of the people I know hover around average, and they still have great value.  I'm not saying that we should avoid trying to be better people; I simply believe that, in this world of striving for things, if one is average, it's not a cause over which to lose sleep.

Philosophy aside, I plan to blog about the wee part of the world I live in.  If you stumble upon this blog and like it, I'm happy for you (and for me).  If you happen upon this blog and are bored, perhaps you should try Pavlina's bolg - I'm sure it's much more interesting.

In any case, I hope you have a fulfilling day.  If average is as bad as it gets, wouldn't most of the world be a better place? (Hmmm...I'll have to think about that.)

on blogging for money: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/09/12/BUJSRRJ9H.DTL&ao=2#ixzz0zoYxk3A3