05.29.07 PROUD PAINT JOB

Some folks aren't afraid to express themselves if the paint job that comes with their automobile from the factory doesn't satisfy!

05.28.07 POSIE PROOF

An evening posie set aside on the nightstand has withered to a limp collection of weeds by morning. Placed in the night’s water glass, enduring life returns by the next bedtime.

05.27.07 MARKET DAY!

Every Saturday around 6am a festival grows from the dusty asphalt of a downtown parking lot. Dozens of local farmers and hobby merchants set up stalls in the millenias-old tradition of market day to sell produce and crafts, all work of their own hands. Musicians play, children tug on hands, parents enjoy coffee and muffins, and commerce shows its positive face.

05.25.07 FRANS GARDEN

In the center of the city a backyard garden becomes a place of peace, beauty, and contemplation thanks to the nurturing spirit of my friend Fran. I believe a bit of the Greek goddess of the garden, Demeter, must inhabit her soul and live in this place.

05.24.07 WE ARE STILL LIVING IN THE GARDEN

Just a hopeful note after the passing of a good friend. From a short music video posted on myspace.com by Ken Weller.
Take a look: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=2014893414

05.23.07 "A SEAGLASS CHANGE"

My wife just returned from a visit to the west coast. As we discuss the crises and challenges facing world society and a world economy she mentions a phrase her friend in California used, “a seaglass change.” She was referring to the type of social change that occurs without the violence of revolution. The incremental evolution of “changing the world one idea at a time.” The process by which a piece of a broken discarded beer bottle, once a hazard or even a weapon, becomes a heart-shaped message, a thing we might make jewelry of and hold as beautiful. A transformation that has occurred without intent or direction, but as a result of the interplay of natural forces which have sculpted an artifact changed in both form and function. Belief in the power of this process reassures me and strengthens my hope for the future of humans in this world of nature.

05.22.07 CONFRONTATION

My town is hosting a celebration of photography next month. One of the more serious exhibits of photos went up in an outdoor space yesterday. It displays black and white photos of locations in the United States where hate crimes have occurred. The exhibition is quite moving and will encourage thought and discussion on a topic which is easily skimmed past in the daily news, or is more often just unreported. The exhibit was created by artist Lynn Johnson and exhibit designer Rob Long.

05.21.07 THE NEWS BENEATH OUR FEET

Students at the university have discovered the effectiveness of the pavement as a location for making announcements, embellishing graffiti, and spraying stencils. The chalk announcements disappear rapidly, the painted stencils take a bit more time. But the discovery of another means to share thoughts and ideas in our "pedestrian" world is definitely a sign of hope.

05.18.07 TRUE COLORS

Local citizen Aaron Fein has dedicated himself to a message of peace and world unity. His consciousness awakened with the rest of the world's to the violence and overt nationalism of the events of September 11 and afterwards, he has created a project to express his feelings about the commonality of the human race and the futility of nationalistic chauvinism. He is sewing a set of the world's flags to display in public gathering places. But these flags are special, he has chosen to eliminate the colors from the fabric to demonstrate that inspite of the colors and patterns, all countries and all peoples actually are made of the same cloth. You can read more about his project at www.whiteflags.

05.17.07 FALCON FANS

A relative recently emailed me a link to a webcam which is sitting over the nest of a family of Peregrine Falcons in San Jose, California. Children in schoolrooms around the country (as well as the rest of us) have the opportunity to watch this pair of predators rear their offspring in a public venue. When I tuned in this morning one of the parents was ripping a recently caught animal into bite-size bits to feed the young hatchlings. A great opportunity for everyone, especially children, to witness and learn about the often brutal and "unattractive" side of nature. You can peek in on the Peregrines at http://sanjose.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?publish_id=91/nest

05.13.07 TOOTH TO TOOTH

Audubon's ferocious print of a fox showing every tooth after being caught in a trapper's bite is appropriate to the "fox news" I received yesterday. My neighbor reports seeing a family of young foxes in the woods about one hundred yards behind our home. We hear the foxes at night, they have an almost unearthly cry which easily identifies them. They are one mammal which has no fear of advertising its whereabouts. The Red Fox, Vulpes vulpes, is common around here and I welcome this family to our land. After a horrible and destructive infestation of rats in the barns and chicken houses around here, both the fox and the Black Snake are predators which will provide a useful service to the farm ecology.

05.11.07 COMMUNITY AGRICULTURE

It has taken a long time and a lot of hard work, but the sensibilities are beginning to change. Wendell Berry pointed out decades ago the mistakes of basing our food supply on centralized national and international producers. In our area the momentum continues to build to support community agriculture. An advertising flyer came yesterday in the mail promoting all of the opportunities we have to support a growing sustainable agricultural market by buying and eating local.

05.08.07 FLYING COLORS

Yes, there are still some folks who never bought an electric dryer! And they have no problem with their "carbon footprint." It seems electric dryers are right up there with electric hot water heaters as huge devourers of electricity. Our electricity around here comes from coal-burning plants and the coal comes from West Virginia (often from highly criticized "mountaintop removal" mines.)
But it is encouraging to see solar and wind power put to good use in a wonderfully low-tech fashion...the laundry line.

05.03.07 STAY TOGETHER!

My son Jasper took this picture yesterday evening. Five (or is it six?) tiny blue bird chicks huddle in their nest in our garden. They squeeze tightly to one another creating enough heat among themselves to keep themselves warm while the parents are off hunting. Nature will nurture these young ones and if she doesn't feed them all to the black snake which comes to call occasionally, we will have more bright blue color flying over the growing vegetables.