@carolina

bald cypress changes

2011-11-08T13:46:00.000-08:00

I have had a more difficult time getting used to leaving Daylight savings time than the 6 hours time change from NC to Spain.
Bald cypress is well into the fall color and needle drop. A conifer that becomes "bald", since I live with these, I forget how unusual these trees really are.

battle of the (small) titans

2010-05-21T18:55:00.000-07:00

I actually took this photo last spring, but it so interesting, I am reposting.

I was able to get quite close to these 2 male skins fighting over territory;they were so involved they seemed to ignore my presence.

Backyard owl

2010-05-17T08:16:00.000-07:00

One of the pair of Owls that we have graced with in the proximity of our yard.

Saturday in Bath

2010-05-16T06:55:00.000-07:00

Saturday in Bath( not typical) Cutthroat corquet, pirates who have seen Johhny Dep too often, real musicians.

about 2 weeks left

2010-05-16T06:50:00.001-07:00

the Kildeer left her nest briefly, so I took a picture of the eggs. About 2 weeks left before the babies arrive, according to my estimate.

Kildeer (shorebird away from the water)

2010-05-10T05:03:00.000-07:00

In my community garden a killdeer is nesting. The nest is on the ground and the gardeners have put signs and markers up so that the bird will not be bothered. The person who has the plot next to the nest has abandoned their plot for now.

I took these photos yesterday, getting no closer than the distance the bird starts to give the warning pip. I also saw this bird give the broken wing act at some distance from the nest in order to decoy away from the nest.

Here is some background information on the bird.

The JUG (s)(Just us girls) chapter meeting

2010-05-04T15:55:00.000-07:00

Italy circuit

2010-04-24T15:25:00.000-07:00

Just thinking (dreaming) at this point, but I have enough miles to fly into Milan. Spend some time along the coast , Tuscany, maybe Umburia, Lakes region.

Tempted to buy some euros now, never seen the exchange rate re dollars so low!

View milan in a larger map

NCCAT -Feb.2010

2010-03-03T13:44:00.000-08:00

Traditional music and the girls was a good mix!

2009-12-01T15:04:00.000-08:00

gone to Portugal

2009-08-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

be gone until September 22. You can find me at my travel blog here.

no explanation

2009-07-18T13:49:00.001-07:00

Our wood stove has been moved by forces we cannot explain. This cast iron is the single heaviest object in our home, it cannot be moved by either of us alone.

Today, I noticed that the stove had been moved about 5 inches in a way such that the connection with the stove pipe was now at an angle. Here are the pictures I took of the movement. I am almost positive that this movement happened last night or early this morning, I think I would have noticed this fairly significant crooked aspect of the stove as soon as I saw it.

I took this picture and labeled to show the movement marks. This stove is so heavy that it took both John and me to move it back to the proper position lined up with the stove pipe and parallel to the lines on the stove pad (composite stone material). Nothing else around the stove, nothing else in the house has been moved or changed position at all.

This is extremely strange and quite frankly, a tad creepy. Anyone....thoughts on this?

Independence day in Independence, Virginia

2009-07-14T15:42:00.000-07:00

mountain mushrooms

2009-07-09T19:35:00.000-07:00

close up of the surface of some kind of Boletus mushroom
Reishi mushrooms have been used in traditional Chinese medicine as a herbal medicine for more than 4,000 years, making it one of the oldest mushrooms known to have been used in medicine.

fit for a cake

2009-07-09T19:15:00.000-07:00

I think the rododendren blossums look like a confection fit for a fancy cake

fishing in the trout pond

2009-07-09T19:09:00.000-07:00

camp by the creek

2009-07-09T18:46:00.000-07:00

Mayberry lives,for now

2009-07-09T18:34:00.000-07:00

cultural icons at least around Mt. Airy, NC. , Andy Griffith and company.

this diner is hanging on near an exit off Interstate 77. John had a fried "bolony" sandwich.

best farm stand I have seen

2009-06-22T05:42:00.000-07:00

talk about eating local, farm stand just down the road from my mom. You pay on the honor system, that must very rare these days!

lost turtle

2009-06-16T17:57:00.000-07:00

we had a turtle visit our garage, perhaps a female looking for a place to lay eggs. John took her(?) back to the ditch.

Mom, can I keep it?

2009-06-09T06:54:00.001-07:00

this applies to everything

2009-06-07T08:53:00.001-07:00

"We must draw closer to Nature while reflecting profoundly on the implications of being sparks of divinity residing in biological bodies. Though most people no longer want to garden, camp, hike, study nature, or even sit quietly doing nothing in the fields, we must do more of exactly those things. Teachers, artists and other leaders are capable of creating psychic ambiances and physical environments in which people will return to those activities gladly.

For, Nature, if given a chance, crafts the human spirit, young ones and old ones, to higher states of perfection at which many problems simply don't arise."
The picture is from my garden, the quote is from the latest edition of the Naturalist Newsletter, I always find lost of useful and fascinating information about nature with photos and the writing is profound and inspirational.

backyard bugs

2009-06-06T13:15:00.001-07:00

coming in for a landing on my butterfly weed, dug up not too far from J &L.

and the deathwatch or click bug beetle. Ency. Brit says:

an anobiid, or borer insect, of the family Anobiidae (insect order Coleoptera) that makes a ticking or clicking sound by bumping its head or jaws against the sides of the tunnels as it bores in old furniture and wood. Believed to forecast an approaching death. Its name is derived from the credence that it was often heard by the people “on watch” with an ill person on the verge of death.

They are sometimes found in our yard,

a microcosm of the world

2009-05-31T10:08:00.000-07:00

My swiss chard, a thing of beauty. Picked from my garden and had to take a picture before eating.

Human beings are the only living things that can create ugliness.

Good life for goslings

2009-05-30T09:45:00.000-07:00

Mom, we're paddling as fast as we can!
watchful father keeps a look out
still fluffy and cute...

population explosion...

2009-05-29T13:12:00.000-07:00

We have about three generations of baby Canada geese on the Washington waterfront.

Quite a few people are enjoying the geese. When I was taking these pictures there was a couple feeding the geese.

Feeder: I love the babies, they are sooooo cute!"

Me: Yes, they are cute, we certainly are getting more geese each year.

Feeder: Oh no, these geese will leave in the fall. We buy a truckload of bread (day-old bread, I assume) each week just to feed the geese.

Of course, our Canadian geese follow the trend of becoming non-migratory with the population increase that comes from less natural threats and truckloads of bread. From a single flock of a few birds several years ago, and none on the waterfront, we now have several hundred at least.

But who am I to spoil someone's pleasure in making contact with another living creature, even one that is close to becoming an invasive species. In these pre global collaspe times, it really makes no difference.

first tiger swallowtail caterpillar

2009-05-25T15:09:00.000-07:00

This caterpillar showed up on my fennel plant. I love his strips, you can see he (she?) is just about to take a bite.

Vicente, master of tabique (brick) and piedras (stone)

2009-05-21T14:05:00.000-07:00

This is Vicente who works for a local landscaper. He begain work in Mexico as a mason when he was twelve, his father died, and he had to go to work to help support his mother, brother and sisters.Here is the path he did with some of the rocks I have collected, the red pebbles are jaspar that I picked up on a Newfoundland beach, the larger stones are from various other places. Each stone brings a memory of the place and time that I collected it. I love the job that Vicente did on this part of the project.
And here is the satisfied client.

Origins....

2009-05-21T10:28:00.001-07:00

This caught my attention full AP article jere

"Other scientists believe the new strain could have been circulating in humans long before it reached La Gloria. The new strain's ancestry has ties to a pig farm in North Carolina where in 1998, scientists discovered that pig, bird and human viruses had combined in pigs to form a new strain of swine flu that also infected a handful of humans."

This photo is one of my Aguascalientes pictures, where you can buy porkskins close to my size.

skink territory disputes

2009-05-18T14:07:00.000-07:00

I was lucky enough to get some nice photos of the back porch environs dominant skink making sure that he remains dominant. This type of lizard does not have sharp teeth, so basically a lot of wrestling with jaws clamped around the head. The red/orange coloration of the head is typical of the breeding coloration of this type of skink.(broad head skink)

We have seen lots of lizard activity in our yard this spring, five lined skinks, blue tailed skinks and the Carolina anole, mistakely called a chameleon locally because it does have a color change but they ususally move too fast to get a good photo.

kindness of strangers

2009-05-17T09:18:00.000-07:00

This story brightened my day after reading the news

Here is the story

Are your bluebirds tucked in on this cold night?

2009-04-07T17:28:00.001-07:00

Got golden dust?

2009-04-05T13:09:00.000-07:00

We do, it's everywhere. I think it can be beautiful, like my this red lettuce in my garden.

But John is trapped inside, 5 minutes outside puts him down for several hours.

"We've turned into an American city.”

2009-04-05T12:34:00.000-07:00

Recent article from Assoc. Press. When are we going to learn the Drug War does nothing but enrich cartels, destabilizes importing countries, and wastes enormous sums that could be used for treatment and education of drug abusers. The US has the highest prison population of any "civilized" country, and a majority of this incarceration is for lower class, non-violent users of illegal drugs. White collar upper class or famous idiot drug abusers like Rush Limbaugh for example, do not go to prision.

"We've turned into an American city.”

With its spectacular bay and stunning, snowcapped peaks, Vancouver easily ranks as one of the world's most beautiful cities. But in recent months, the people of

Canada

's Olympic city have been living in fear.

Even as Vancouver prepares to host the 2010 Winter Games, its crime rate is going up. Since January alone, there have been 45 shootings in the region, 17 of them fatal. There were 58 murders last year in this region of 2.7 million people, up from 41 the year before, according to the regional Integrated Homicide Investigation Team.

The root of the problem seems to be drugs, or rather a shortage of them.

The Mexican cocaine supply line extends through the United States, especially Los Angeles, up to Vancouver, according to Royal Canadian Mounted Police Superintendent Pat Fogarty. But now the Mexican government of President Felipe Calderón has mobilized 45,000 soldiers and 5,000 federal police to curb cartel activity. That has driven up the price of cocaine in Vancouver from $23,300 per kilogram to almost $39,000, Fogarty says, and gangs are killing each other.

"People are nervous ... and so are the police," says Fogarty, head of the regional gang task force. "The public's outraged. The government's outraged."

Vancouver social activist Jamie Lee Hamilton, who lives in Vancouver's seedy Downtown Eastside, says she no longer has much faith in the justice system.

"I'm really apprehensive about going out in the evening," Hamilton says. "We've turned into an American city.”

Couple's Dreams of Immortality at Death's Door, Thanks to Madoff

2009-03-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

original article here

y AMIR EFRATI

Arakawa and Madeline Gins's quest to make human beings immortal is at risk of dying.

That's because the couple lost their life savings with Bernard Madoff, the mastermind of a multibillion-dollar fraud.

Of all the dreams that were crushed by Mr. Madoff's crime, perhaps none was more unusual than this duo's of achieving everlasting life through architecture. Mr. Arakawa (he uses only his last name) and Ms. Gins design structures they say can enable inhabitants to "counteract the usual human destiny of having to die."

Immortality Quest Hits Financial Snag

View Slideshow

The pair's work, based loosely on a movement known as "transhumanism," is premised on the idea that people degenerate and die in part because they live in spaces that are too comfortable. The artists' solution: construct abodes that leave people disoriented, challenged and feeling anything but comfortable.

They build buildings with no doors inside. They place rooms far apart. They put windows near the ceiling or near the floor. Between rooms are sloping, bumpy moonscape-like floors designed to throw occupants off balance. These features, they argue, stimulate the body and mind, thus prolonging life. "You become like a baby," says Mr. Arakawa.

A typical apartment has three or four rooms in the shapes of either a cylinder, a cube, or a sphere. Rooms surround a kitchen-living room combination with bumpy, undulating floors and floor-to-ceiling ladders and poles. Dozens of colors, from school-bus yellow to sky blue, cover the walls, ceilings and other surfaces.

At least one tenant says he feels a little younger already. Nobutaka Yamaoka, who moved in with his wife and two children about two years ago, says he has lost more than 20 pounds and no longer suffers from hay fever, though he isn't sure whether it was cured by the loft.

There is no closet, and Mr. Yamaoka can't buy furniture for the living room or kitchen because the floor is too uneven, but he relishes the lifestyle. "I feel a completely different kind of comfort here," says the 43-year-old video director. His wife, however, complains that the apartment is too cold. Also, the window to the balcony is near the floor, and she keeps bumping her head against the frame when she crawls out to hang up laundry, he says. ("That's one of the exercises," says Ms. Gins.)The couple's destiny intersected with the Madoffs' in 1994, when Ms. Gins met Mr. Madoff's wife, Ruth, at an art gallery. Ms. Gins recalls that she later met the Madoffs at one of her art shows, and Mr. Madoff said he could help her by investing the couple's savings in his firm.

The couple initially invested less than $1 million with Mr. Madoff. Over time, they added deposits and had several million dollars in their investment account at the time of his arrest, Ms. Gins says. "We were grateful to him; he was making things possible for us," she says.

Since Mr. Madoff's Ponzi scheme came to light, the couple have been trying to sell their seminal work, the "Mechanism of Meaning," a series of 84 8-foot-tall panels that took them 10 years to complete, for about $17 million.

"Museums in the U.S. and Germany would be the best candidates," says Lisa Dennison, an executive at Sotheby's who is trying to line up a buyer. "It's an amazing work, but there are not many possible customers for it."

Barring a sell-off of their collection, the couple fear they won't realize their dream of building a "reversible destiny" village with homes and parks that would combine their theories of life into one community.

"Here was someone we thought was a supporter of ours," says Ms. Gins of Mr. Madoff, "and he pulled the rug out from under us."

duality

2009-02-17T18:10:00.000-08:00

from a vender at the Sunday flea market we often go to. At this point the primary shoppers are Hispanic. I think that this picture helps illustrate the macho culture; a woman is either the sacred virgin mother or displayed for the pleasure and service of men.

market day

2009-02-17T18:06:00.000-08:00

I purchased all these things at the Sunday flea market here in Washington NC. In some ways I can compare our market to a tianguis, a name for a native market in Mexico and Guatemala. Some of these markets in Central America go back thousands of years and have been held in the same place on the same day for all that time.

Our Hispanic population is fairly recent, of course, some of the items that I like to buy as illustrated in my photo are:

Cacao, the seeds that make chocolate, I roast mine and grind with my coffee. in the same plate are cinnamon sticks. The green things are cactus pads or leaves called nopales. They have become one of my favorite vegetables. My favorite way is to broil both sides and then top with cheese just until it melts. Good and very healthy. And oranges of course,at this time of year families go to Florida and pick oranges to bring back and sell here. Thirteen hour drive to sell juice oranges much more cheaply and fresher than in the grocery store. Nothing better than fresh squeezed OJ to start the day.

know about red maples?

2009-02-11T12:11:00.000-08:00

Swamp maples are one of the earliest trees to flower here, and even without seeing them in bloom we would know by my allergy suffering husband. Mid February is the beginning of his worst time for allergies and this year is no exception.

But they are beautiful and reading my favorite naturalist writer, sometime posting from Mexico, but now back near Natchez Mississippi they are unsual in the following way.....(you can read this complete entry and others online at:JIM CONRAD’S NATURALIST NEWSLETTER

The photo credit is also from this newsletter

RED MAPLES FLOWERING Especially with sunlight backlighting them one of the most gorgeous signs of spring right nowis the flowering Red Maples, Those are male flowers, for maple flowers are"polygamodioecious," which means that individual trees are polygamous and that that trees can bear only male or only female flowers OR both male and female flowers can reside on the same tree, BUT the most common condition is for trees to have only all male OR all female flowers.

giant flowers take over home

2009-02-04T10:34:00.000-08:00

Terra Ceia farms has the bulbs that make the biggest, brightest, blooms. We give them due respect and admiration in our house, and they brighten my day every time I see them. I think that for me anyway, the power of beauty and brillant color in living things has a powerful effect on mood.

tough to be a vole hunter.....

2009-01-27T18:37:00.001-08:00

I have been working hard to get rid of those pesky voles, dig, dig dig... hard work for a little guy like me.

I did it for you! (well I guess digging for rodents is my terrier genes)

It's a dirty job but I'm glad to help.

And this is the thanks I get? Foot washing I really despise.

Sigh...but tomorrow is another day, and I'll still be digging up those voles for you and me.

a mixed race family

2009-01-24T07:29:00.000-08:00

the local pond ducks show evidence of non-prejudcial mating. The white duck has the Muscovy duck mohawk and the other members of this family group are all different mixtures of the local population.

Just like our new president, they are really not able to be labeled as one race or another.

once every 4 years (on average)

2009-01-21T10:34:00.000-08:00

we get snow

the kitty stove

2009-01-19T15:52:00.000-08:00

John hooked up a small propane stove to put in the garage for Kitty (aka Spike Cat).

That's the kind of guy he is.

Of course Kitty likes that radient heat. Notice the detail of the pan of water for a humidifer on top of the stove.

how to be happy......

2009-01-11T07:32:00.000-08:00

By Cesar Millan The Dog Whisperer

Live in the moment. Dogs live in the moment. They don’t regret the past or worry about the future. If we can learn to appreciate and focus on what’s happening in the here and now, we’ll experience a richness of living that other members of the animal kingdom enjoy.

Nurture a balanced life.
Offer exercise, discipline, and affection every day. Do the same for yourself. We humans are happier if our routines include physical activity, a sense of structure, and the opportunity to give and receive love on a daily basis.

Trust your instincts.
Animals don’t care about words. They recognize that what’s really going on in any interaction is beneath the surface. Many of us have lost touch with this all-important instinctual part of our natures. By paying attention to nonverbal cues such as body language and energy, we can learn more about our friends, our loved ones, and ourselves.

Be direct and consistent in your communication.
Many of my clients only intermittently enforce rules, leaving their pets confused about what is and isn’t acceptable behavior. Great relationships, no matter the species, begin with clear and consistent communication. This is a lesson we should carry into other areas of our lives—with our family, our friends, and at work. Remember: We teach people how to treat us.

Learn to listen.
Make the time to lend an ear to those you love or those who want to transform their lives. But don’t try to fix their problems, and don’t take their problems personally, either. A great leader is also a great follower and knows that everybody counts.

Don’t hold grudges.
There’s a remarkable lack of conflict in dog packs. That’s because members resolve the situation when disagreements arise, then move on. Imagine what our world would be like if we dealt with our conflicts before they escalated out of control. Holding onto negative feelings tends to make them multiply and prevent us from moving forward.

Live with purpose.
When dogs are bored, they develop issues ranging from anxiety to aggression. But when given a job and a way to contribute to the pack’s well-being, they turn around almost immediately. All animals—including humans—have an inborn need to work for food and water. Ask yourself how you can contribute more to your job, your family, and the world around you.

Celebrate every day.
For a dog, every morning is Christmas morning. Every walk is the best walk, every meal is the best meal, every game is the best game. We can learn so much by observing the way our pets rejoice in life’s simplest moments. Take time every day to celebrate the many gifts that are hidden in the ordinary events of your own life.

having fun?

2009-01-03T17:38:00.000-08:00

Aria, (my friend in Oaxaca) sent me this foto she took of me enjoying some wonderful camarones in Tlactalpan.

As you can see I am having a wonderful time.

We liked this restaurant, but our favorite place to eat seafood is without a doubt, the Marco Polo near El Parque Ilano in Oaxaco.

annoying things....

2008-12-25T17:47:00.000-08:00

We are very happy to be in our house. But we still have problems, not the least of which is a leak from the upstairs bath.
I remind myself how lucky we are to have a house, albeit with unresolved construction issues which I believe will eventually get fixed.

demographics research a success?

2008-12-25T17:37:00.000-08:00

John received this unrequested magazine sample, when I stopped laughing, I realized it is for real. And it actually has some fairly good writing in it.

Pamlico sunset

2008-12-12T17:08:00.001-08:00

weird weather, thunderstorms yesterday, lots of rain, brief cold front today, then tomorrow highs in the low 60's.

Am I distracting you?

2008-12-12T16:59:00.000-08:00

John went to a flea market yesterday and forgot his hat, so he bought one at the flea market. No mirror to see what the hat looked like, but his head was warm.
Could not figure out (until he got home and looked in the mirror and I began to laugh) why people were looking at him a little oddly.

Childhood is short.....

2008-12-07T17:51:00.001-08:00

Childhood is short, immaturity is forever.

I just have one thing to say.....

2008-12-07T17:21:00.000-08:00

To the people who took my Obama yard signs..... I just have one thing to say....(well maybe more than one thing)... this was the sign I made and put up after 3 had been stolen. An excellent example of how venal too many(not all) republicans are.

Nah, Nah, Nah, Nah.....
But seriously everyone in the country really won, our president elect is the right man for the times.

moving to a share economy

2008-10-27T15:27:00.000-07:00

I discovered/rediscovered ways to live cheaply or using no money this week.
New discovery, a place on the net called Freecycle where people post things they want to give away or post things that they need. We have been trying to get an old, but still working freezer a useful home, but without success. I signed up for our local freecycle and within a half hour the freezer was picked up by a young father who wants to have a place to put his vegetables from a fall garden and hopefully some venison that he will hunt or have given to him. It was so gratifying to be able to give something away that as the mission of the national organization says"t's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills."
Only down side, once you register you get the postings sent to your email, and that can be several or more a day depending on how busy the local freecycle is, but I just use the delete.
And the picture? Well not connected, really just that feeling of free...floating..recycling?

a person could almost live here

2008-10-25T10:29:00.000-07:00

latest pictures, very hopeful....showing the built in bookcases, built in dresser, both in "my" room, the bathroom, and the kitchen with microwave installed, waiting for stove to be installed.

working for social justice, cada dia

2008-10-22T06:30:00.000-07:00

Don't have a photo of me, but that is not important. This picture is of the artwork that Nancy Scobles, the art teacher at a local school brought of her children's art. The children were studying Molas an textile art form practiced by indigenous people in Panama;we thought it added a nice touch to the setting.
I was fortunate to have played a small part in a forum that we held last Friday (Oct 17) in the local Episcopal Church. The reverend to quote" I interpret our work with the recently migrated Latino population as a non-negotiable Christian moral value. After all, as a child Jesus himself was an immigrant to the foreign land and culture of Egypt. As an adult, Jesus did the vast majority of his work crossing cultural borders to work with those who were considered to be "outsiders."
As you know I am not a believer in the traditional sense, but I believe with all of my spiritual being that we must live the moral values that the Rev. refers to.

Here is the text of my opening speech, si te interesa....
Soon you will hear from our esteemed panel members who will share with you their extensive research about the realities of our immigrant population, but first I would like to share some personal reflections. My name is Ann Crew and when I retired in 2002 I had a goal of learning to speak Spanish and travel to Latin America. I am still working on the language skills but in the process I have made many trips to parts of Mexico that tourists never see. I have always traveled alone and was initially motivated to attempt to help our Latino population to return the favors of the generosity, kindness and courtesies I was shown in my travels.
I have never been to Cancun but I have been to Ixmilquilpan. Ixmilquilpan is a small town in the Mexican state of Hidalgo. Many of the people living here in Washington are from the rural area around this small town. I feel fortunate to have the experience of seeing some of the culture of the descendents of the original inhabitants of North America; cultures that have struggled to retain their traditions under centuries of oppression and struggle. This centuries’ old way of life is being destroyed by the winds of a global economy that leaves the small villages and farms struggling to exist. This is the human side of globalization which our policies such as NAFTA-facilitated corn exports make it all but impossible for subsistence farmers to make an even a poor living for their families. Many of our latest immigrants come from towns with no future and are lucky to avoid rape, murder, or starvation on the way to our community. When I meet people from this part of Mexico who now live in my community I know how motivated they are to make their lives here a success. These hard working families are trying to live the American dream, and if we do not stand in their way, their children will follow the same general upward movement, the same as other immigrant groups, the same path my immigrant predecessors followed. If we do not stand in their way, by the second generation most will have moved from the fields to the universities and into the professional ranks of the U.S. workforce and by third generation like other immigrants will not be able to understand the language of their grandparents. When I volunteer or substitute in our elementary schools I see the children of these immigrants who come into kindergarten speaking only Spanish and see most enter first grade, comfortably bilingual. These Latino children are often the most serious, hard working children in the room, a reflection of the parents desire to succeed.
I have never been to Acapulco but I have been to San Pablito, high in the remote mountains of Puebla state. Most of the people in town spoke Otomi, but the only fluent English speaker in town learned in Durham, North Carolina. In this isolated place I talked to people who had been to my town and had family living here. The only product this town made was fiber paper made from the bark of a fig tree, the same process and type of paper that Cortez observed being used by the Aztecs. Since the hardening of our borders the people in this tiny village, no longer go back and forth as freely. This means that people living here in Washington are going to settle and stay. The boss of the subcontractors that framed my house was from this town, started work at 11 and worked his way up, now as a success in this country he cannot go back to see his aging parents.
I have met so many hard working Latinos in my community, with the kind of values that I want members of my community to have, the Latino culture places the highest importance on the family with the motivation to work hard to provide and succeed for their family. When I see these vibrant families here in our community I am confident that all they have all they need to succeed and enrich our community, if we simply allow them to.
I want to clarify that I am not courageous, far from it; my life has been a privileged and easy one, compared to the most recent immigrants in my community. We chose the subtitle Beaufort County Testaments of Courage when the steering committee was in the early stages of planning for this forum we thought it would be dramatically effective to have personal testimonies from immigrants living in Beaufort County. We wanted you to hear personal stories of courage, sacrifice and perseverance. But we found out time after time that the climate of fear and intolerance promoted by some in our community had a chilling effect on anyone we asked to tell their stories. We talked to employers of Latinos, we talked to various Latino members of our community, we talked to people who we knew were legal and those whose status was unknown, the answer was always the same, No puedo, I am sorry, I cannot. Sadly, our experience was an education for us in how persuasive is the general climate of fear affects all Latinos, and demonstrates the critical need for forums such as this.

deep immersion

2008-10-20T14:07:00.000-07:00

From the latest nature newsletter, Jim Conrad, now in the Yucatan, Mexico

When one moves through various cultures, eventually
the question arises as to what keeps people behaving
one way and not another. Why do the Maya keep acting
like Maya, but never even for a moment assume the
habits and outlooks of Arabs or Polynesians? When I'm
back in Mississippi or rural Kentucky, why are most
but not all people socially conservative Republicans
with high cholesterol levels believing that global
warming is mostly bleeding-heart-liberal propaganda?

A liberating feature of experiencing deep immersion in
very different cultures is that at some point during
the process you begin seeing how the vast majority of
people dedicate their lives to living like people
around them, unthinkingly, even when it may not be in
their own best personal interest, or that of the
community. Since all cultures I've ever experienced
proved to have at least one unsustainable feature,
over the years I've developed the notion that the herd
instinct and the momentum of tradition and often-
repeated routines are lethally powerful agencies.

Yet, each human, I've also decided, has a kind of
"switch" in the brain that can be flicked whenever the
person wants. It's the abandon-this-culture switch.
Having reached a certain threshold or saturation point
in something, just flick that switch, start thinking
of yourself as belonging to another sphere of
influence, or maybe no sphere of influence at all, and
it's done, you're out of it.

Recognizing the presence of this switch is important
because herd instinct, tradition and habits aren't
going to save Life on Earth. Only people with their
abandon-this-culture switch flicked, thinking
rationally and behaving decisively -- always at some
point working in conflict with some elements of the
surrounding culture -- can save Life on Earth.

However, reality is strung together so that you never
get by with just abandoning something. Something else
must always take its place -- fill the vacuum. What
should take the place of an abandoned culture?

Intimacy with Nature is the most appropriate
substitution. Nature experienced firsthand, Nature
reflected upon, Nature interpreted the way you
personally interpret it. Nature provides the paradigms
needed upon which ethical, sustainable, loving lives
can be built. Nature fills the human spirit's vacuum
when old, unsustainable, dead-headed manners of being
are flicked OFF.

perspective

2008-10-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

What if the candidates lives were reversed?

What if John McCain were a former president of the Harvard Law Review?
What if Barack Obama finished fifth from the bottom of his graduating class?

What if McCain were still married to the first woman he said "I do" to?
What if Obama were the candidate who left his crippled first wife after she no
longer measured up to his standards?

What if Michelle Obama were a wife who not only became addicted to pain killers, but acquired them illegally through her charitable organization?
What if Cindy McCain graduated from Harvard?

What if Obama were a member of the Keating-5?
What if McCain were a charismatic, eloquent speaker?

If the above questions reflected reality, do you really believe the election numbers would be as close as they are?

This is what racism does. It covers up,
rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities
in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities
in another when there is a color difference.
You are The Boss.. which team would you hire?
With America facing historic debt, 2 wars,
stumbling health care, a weakened dollar, all-time
high prison population, mortgage crises, bank
foreclosures..............

Educational Background:
Obama: Columbia University - B.A. Political
Science with a Specialization in International Relations.
Harvard - Juris Doctor (J.D.) Magna Cum Laude
Biden: University of Delaware - B.A in
History and B.A. in Political Science.
Syracuse University College of Law -
Juris Doctor (J.D.)

Versus:

McCain: United States Naval Academy - Class rank: 894 of 899
Palin: Hawaii Pacific University - 1 semester
North Idaho College - 2 semesters - general study
University of Idaho - 2 semesters - journalism
Matanuska-Susitna College - 1 semester
University of Idaho - 3 semesters -B.A. in Journalism

Now, which team are you going to hire?

PS: What if Barack Obama had an unwed, pregnant teenage daughter...?

it all comes down to greed....

2008-10-01T19:46:00.000-07:00

source for image designer here.

Iguana rescue.....not

2008-09-29T17:35:00.000-07:00

Fire fighters are well used to being called out to rescue kitties in distress from trees that prove too scary, but a lizard? That’s a new one.

Firemen were summonsed by the RSPCA, in the UK, after some distressed residents in Cove, Hampshire, reported an iguana stuck up a tree. After arranging an aerial platform for the rescue and the presence of an animal rescue expert the fire brigade started their 45 ft ascent up the tree to find… a branch.

Bemused rescuers realized by the time they were 25ft up that the green-colored ‘iguana’ was nothing more than a weather-beaten algae-covered branch.

The animal rescue advisor at the scene Colin Horwood said: “The branch bore a striking resemblance to an iguana when seen from the ground.

“I have never seen anything like it.

“We take all animal rescues seriously but in this case it was a good intent false alarm.”

Firefighters attending the rescue had thought the call was entirely credible as they knew the RSPCA had rescued another iguana in the area just the week before.

Source Great Green Lizard Frozen in Time

beginning bathroom tile....

2008-09-25T15:24:00.000-07:00

waiting for grout, I really think putting the tile down on a diagonal makes it appear larger.

finally some real kitchen progress

2008-09-25T15:17:00.000-07:00

Roughed in kitchen cabinets, finish work needed, but you can get an idea.(you can click on each picture to see more details in a larger view)

Dear American,

2008-09-23T16:59:00.001-07:00

Dear American:

I need to ask you to support an urgent secret business relationship with a transfer of funds of great magnitude.

I am Ministry of the Treasury of the Republic of America. My country has had crisis that has caused the need for large transfer of funds of 800 billion dollars US. If you would assist me in this transfer, it would be most profitable to you.

I am working with Mr. Phil Gram, lobbyist for UBS, who will be my replacement as Ministry of the Treasury in January. As a Senator, you may know him as the leader of the American banking deregulation movement in the 1990s. This transactin is 100% safe.

This is a matter of great urgency. We need a blank check. We need the funds as quickly as possible. We cannot directly transfer these funds in the names of our close friends because we are constantly under surveillance. My family lawyer advised me that I should look for a reliable and trustworthy person who will act as a next of kin so the funds can be transferred.

Please reply with all of your bank account, IRA and college fund account numbers and those of your children and grandchildren to wallstreetbailout@treasury.gov so that we may transfer your commission for this transaction. After I receive that information, I will respond with detailed information about safeguards that will be used to protect the funds.

Yours Faithfully Minister of Treasury Paulson

an ancient and revered basil

2008-09-14T16:34:00.000-07:00

below is what some of the proponents say, I say from personal experience that the tea (no caffeine) is delicious and seems to have an immediate effect on my state of relative calm, in other words it seems to help me stay more centered, stronger emotionally, and better able to resist the fears and worries that we are presented with daily.
The unique chemistry of Tulsi is highly complex. Tulsi contains hundreds of different beneficial compounds known as phyto-chemicals.

For example, the essential oil in the leaves of Tulsi, which contributes to the fragrant and refreshing flavor of Tulsi Tea, is a particularly rich source of valuable phyto-chemicals.

Working together, these compounds possess strong anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and immune-enhancing properties that promote general health and support the body's natural defense against germs, stress and disease.

But the best part is that tulsi is one of the most effective adaptogens ever known. An adaptogen is an agent that helps the body adapt more efficiently to stress. Adaptogens reduce the intensity and negative impact of the stress caused by mental tension, emotional difficulties, poor lifestyle habits, disease and infection, pollution and other factors .

Holistic Health Promotion.
Enhances general health and well-being, having positive overall effects on the body and mind.

Stress Resilience.
Increases the capacity to cope and adapt to changing and challenging environments, and reduces the negative physical and psychological effects of stress (adaptogenic).

Energy and Performance.
Improves stamina and endurance, and increases the body's efficiency in using oxygen. Enhances protein synthesis and strength.

Anti-Aging Effects.
Helps retain (and regain!) youthful vigour, and slows the biological aging process by reducing the impact of physiological aging factors.

Antioxidants.
Provides significant antioxidant and free radical scavenging protection. Neutralizes dangerous biochemicals that contribute to premature aging, cancer, and degenerative diseases.

Radiation Protection.
Reduces the cell and tissue damage caused by harmful rays of the sun, TV, computers, X-rays, radiation therapy, high altitude air travel, etc.

Immunity Tune-Up.
Strengthens and modulates the immune system. Reduces allergic histamine, asthmatic and other adverse immune reactions.

Anti-inflammatory Action.
Reduces the painful and dangerous inflammation that plays a key role in various forms of arthritis, cancer and degenerative neurological disorders.

Antibiotic Protection.
Offers significant natural antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties and is, thereby, helpful in treating many serious systemic diseases, as well as localized infections.

Heart and Vascular Protection.
Lowers dangerous cholesterol and stress-related high blood pressure, protects the heart and blood vessels, and has mild blood thinning qualities, thereby decreasing the likelihood of strokes.

Liver Support.
Generally contributes to healthy liver function, improves the metabolic breakdown and elimination of dangerous chemicals in the blood, and counteracts various liver diseases.

Lung and Bronchial Support.
In addition to contributing generally to respiratory health, Tulsi has been shown to be helpful in the treatment of a variety of serious allergic, inflammatory and infectious disorders affecting the lungs and related tissues.

Nutrition.
Contains vitamins C and A, and minerals calcium, zinc and iron, as well as chlorophyll and many other phytonutrients. It also enhances the efficient digestion, absorption and use of nutrients from food and other herbs.

And, as if that weren't enough, among its many other benefits, Tulsi also lowers fevers, reduces nausea, vomiting and cramping, protects against gastric ulcers, lowers dangerous blood sugar levels in diabetics, diminishes "bad breath," and repels mosquitoes!

Dis-Ode to Republican veep

2008-09-13T17:15:00.000-07:00

I actually know everything I need to know when I found out that she thinks it fun to shoot wolves from planes. But this really says the rest quite eloquently.
Excerpted from a essay by Eve Ensler complete essay here

Sarah Palin does not believe in evolution.I take this as a metaphor.In her world and the world of Fundamentalists nothing changes or gets better or evolves. She does not believe in global warming. The melting of the arctic, the storms that are destroying our cities, the pollution and rise of cancers, are all part of God's plan. She is fighting to take the polar bears off the endangered species list. The earth, in Palin's view, is here to be taken and plundered. The wolves and the bears are here to be shot and plundered. She has been known to kill 40 caribou at a clip. She has shot hundreds of wolves from the air. The oil is here to be taken and plundered. Iraq is here to be taken and plundered. As she said herself of the Iraqi war, "It was a task from God."

Sarah Palin does not believe in abortion. She does not believe women who are raped and incested and ripped open against their will should have a right to determine whether they have their rapist's baby or not.
Sarah Palin does not much believe in thinking. From what I gather she has tried to ban books from the library, has a tendency to dispense with people who think independently. She cannot tolerate an environment of ambiguity and difference. This is a woman who could and might very well be the next president of the United States. She would govern one of the most diverse populations on the earth.

Sarah believes in God. That is of course her right, her private right. But when God and Guns come together in the public sector, when war is declared in God's name,when the rights of women are denied in his name, that is the end of separation of church and state and the undoing of everything America has ever tried to be.

This vote is a vote that will determine the future not just of the U.S., but of the planet. It will determine whether we create policies to save the earth or make it forever uninhabitable for humans. It will determine whether we move towards dialogue and diplomacy in the world or whether we escalate violence through invasion, undermining and attack. It will determine whether we go for oil,strip mining, coal burning or invest our money in alternatives that will free us from dependency and destruction. It will determine if money gets spent on education and health care or whether we build more and more methods of killing. It will determine whether America is a free open tolerant society or a closed place of fear, fundamentalism and aggression.
Consider the chant that filled the hall after Palin spoke at the RNC, "Drill Drill Drill." I think of teeth when I think of drills. I think of rape. I think of destruction. I think of domination. I think of military exercises that force mindless repetition, emptying the brain of analysis, doubt, ambiguity or dissent. I think of pain.
Do we want a future of drilling? More holes in the ozone, in the floor of the sea, more holes in our thinking, in the trust between nations and peoples, more holes in the fabric of this precious thing we call life?

beautiful, abundant, but...poison

2008-09-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

Scientific Name
Chlorophyllum molybdites
Common Name
Green-Spored Parasol, Green Gill

Highly poisonous and producing severe gastrointestinal symptoms of vomiting and diarrhea,is the most commonly consumed poisonous mushroom in North America. The nature of the poisoning is predominantly gastrointestinal,and can be so severe as to be fatal.
This time of year, they are springing up everywhere and can get quite large. I have read that one reason for some poisonings is that Asian immigrants are used to eating a mushroom that looks like this in the Asian Indonesian countries they come from, so make the assumption this look-alike is good to eat.
I have been watching the squirrels eat this mushroom quite avidly.

2008-09-09T13:32:00.000-07:00

Shoes are the only thing I cannot find at my Goodwill/Salvation Army/Used Clothing stores, so the few shoes that I buy I order oline from Zappos.
Zappos Free Shipping & Free 365 Day Returns..this is really true, that is free shipping both ways, and no questions asked on returns. I have actually ordered different sizes in the same shoe just to make sure I had the right size and returned the other. Huge selection, and usually shipping in 2 days.
However, I have gone to the dark side, that is the Croc shoe side, made in China, from some petrolum based synthetic material. I now have two pairs, the extremely comfortable slides that actually have some arch support and now, even worse, I now have a pair of high heel crocs (actually my only pair of high heels)

lucky one more time

2008-09-07T16:34:00.000-07:00

the most storm swept through never attained hurricane status (but only by a few miles)
the street next to the water had a brief period of water, but it left quickly with no damage to any one's home

How will you describe....

2008-08-30T18:44:00.000-07:00

Kinda glad at this point in my life that I do not have children or grandchildren.
How could you possibly describe how magical a night of fireflies was or how hauntingly beautiful the call of the whipper will was?

Our world is so losing so much every day, so inexpressibly sad. Not enough people care enough to stop this daily loss.

Vanishing fireflies

Disappearing whippoorwills.

Kitchen floor, now and then

2008-08-30T17:46:00.000-07:00

finally got someone to sand, stain, and finish our kitchen floor(buried under layers of 70's era linoleum and glue.
I love it!

Debbie's Hawk

2008-08-23T07:57:00.001-07:00

Debbie has a pair of young Cooper's Hawk that have taken up residence in her yard.
This one let me get close enough for a good photo.

my kitchen, now

2008-08-23T07:51:00.001-07:00

I took these pictures a while back, and as of today, nothing much has changed. However, I am hoping that in the next couple of weeks, I can post some things that will show a dramatic change.

my favorite living naturalist

2008-08-11T16:08:00.000-07:00

Looking to for this plant that grows in my garden, I found out this a native indigo. I found this information on the plant form Jim's backyard natue site. Below is an excerpt from perhaps my favorite naturalist who is writing about the envoronment, as he explains why he is headed back to Mexico, as opposed to staying here and work for change.(Click here for full entry)
Here is an excerpt from his latest entry. All of his Newsletters are archived at http://www.backyardnature.net/n/
Jim’s backyard-nature site at
http://www.backyardnature.net
WHY HERE, NOT THERE? "Here" being the Yucatán, "there" being the US.
Nature is varied and dynamic enough in North America
for me to be content forever up there as a naturalist.
Also, with regard to my environmentalism, I've always
felt that my fight should be in the US, not here, not
only because I am native of there, but also because no
civilization in the history of humanity has ever been
as destructive of Nature -- with its unrestrained
appetites -- as US society. I should really stay up
there "thinking globally, working locally." So, why
have I come here, and didn't stay there?

More than anything it's because in the US public
transportation infrastructure is so poorly developed.
When I'm up there in the kinds of places I like to be
I'm grounded unless I hitch a ride with someone or
bike, and it's simply dangerous in backcountry US to
bike most roads. In Mexico, in contrast, I can get
almost anywhere paying an acceptable fare. It may be
in the back of a pickup truck or in a rickety micro
van, but at least the option exists.

By the way, just during the few weeks I was in the US
my Greyhound ticket doubled in price and service was
reduced dramatically. What used to be an overnight run
between Mississippi and the Mexican border, with two
stopovers, now takes 22 hours with three stopovers,
and each stopover is miserable. Twice in the US I had
to leave the bus because I saw my baggage being
removed in the wrong place, though clearly marked. In
Mexico, prices haven't changed, and first-class
service remains as professional as ever, which is very
good.

A second reason I'm here, not there, is political.
Twice last year nature-oriented organizations invited
me to visit them as naturalist-in-residence and twice
I was disinvited when they read my Newsletters
directing readers to the Union of Concerned
Scientists' documentation of how the Bush
Administration consistently and destructively
manipulates scientific information, and simply lies to
the US public on important issues. It seems that
professionally I have no future in the US. Here people
are glad when I can advise them on this or that
technical matter.

A third reason I am here, not there, is because at age
60 I'm anticipating needing medical services. I can't
afford basic services there, but here I think I can
get what I need at costs that even I can afford

baby bunnies

2008-06-17T08:04:00.000-07:00

still waiting for something to happen with our house, After a flurry of activity to remove everything and then the demolition of the upstairs rooms we now seem to be in a waiting pattern, to be expected I guess. We are aware that this will be a long process, this coming Friday will be one month since the night of the fire.

So...baby bunnies. These babies were playing just outside the window of the health club pool where I was exercising. It was late dusk and the lights were on inside the pool so I think the bunnies could not see anything but a dark wall, they were actually pressed up against the window. I was not able to get the shot of the babies nursing with their monter, that would have been great, but I was able to get these pics.

gardenias

2008-06-16T19:09:00.000-07:00

it's been a slow week for house restoration, but we go by several times a day to pick gardenias to take back to our temp house and check on kitty. The gardenias are the most prolific we have EVER seen them, the bush is absolutely full and the yard is full of fragrance.

Smoke gets in your eyes..and nose, and throat....

2008-06-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

We are waiting for the framing to come for the roof...watching the weather so that once the roof is removed they will have time to cover before the next rain. Even if we have to delay our house, we desperately need rain, things are already looking parched and even more threatening, there is a large, still not contained fire burning in the Pocosin Refuge east of us. The smoke here looks like a medium to dense fog, not healthy for venturing outside.
Here is the link to the local paper's article on the fire,which is currently the largest active wildfire in the United States. The fire started with a lightning strike June 1 in Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.

all in all, a positive experience, really!

2008-06-11T18:06:00.000-07:00

Even though the picture, taken yesterday of the second floor of our house looks rather shocking, we are not unduly stressed. This picture shows the work being done to remove all the walls,taking everything down to the studs in order to repair and remove all traces of burn and smoke. In the end our house will be cleaner, better, brighter, have a new roof, all interiors replaced and/or repainted. We also plan to do lots of upgrading, new kitchen, new bathroom upstairs and more.

got skink?

2008-05-20T05:57:00.000-07:00

a male broad head skink in red headed breeding mode. He disappeared when our one-eyed kitty came strolling by. Also saw a nice little garter snake, but (do not worry, Jerry, no pictures here!)
Last year I found a five lived skink in a nest with her eggs, this was around June as I recall, here is the link to my post showing mama and her eggs.

what a waste.....

2008-05-19T10:26:00.000-07:00

from the NY Times....articles on how much food we waste. I try to waste nothing, but I am sure I can do better.

Click here to see the the slide show.

views from Nags Heads Woods

2008-05-12T14:41:00.000-07:00

this small hilly wooded area between the sound and the ocean is owned by the nature conservancy.

a few more beach pics

2008-05-12T05:22:00.000-07:00

Here are a few more beach (Nags Head) photos from our April "leave the allergens behind month"
These are from the Charles Kuralt trail that goes around a wildlife lagoon, lots of wading birds and I saw a baltimore oriole, but impossible to get a photo. I did get this turtle with a beautiful design on his back, have not tried to identify yet.

you can't make me grow up

2008-05-03T16:19:00.000-07:00

(me in a beach chair in Manteo)

another sunset

2008-05-03T16:05:00.000-07:00

I think it is strange that when I am traveling in Mexico I feel the need to post almost daily but that when I am living closer to home, I post less. I think when I am far from home, I feel the need to let people know I'm OK and also I have heard that my many fans like my photos and stories about my travels (I use many fans facetiously here, but I do know my Mom likes to my daily travel updates!)
But I take pictures almost every day that I think are worth sharing with someone...
We are back from the "escape the allergens second annual April at the beach" trip so here are some sunset views, we were facing the sound side this year instead of the ocean side so we got to see some great sunsets.

we are monsters....

2008-04-24T17:52:00.000-07:00

anything but curb our consumption, let the world starve.... Source: Earthweek;Diary of the Planet Food riots in several poor nations during the past month have U.N. and other officials arguing that the growing diversion of grain harvest from food to ethanol fuel is causing a global food crisis.

“The reality is that people are dying already,” said Jacques Diouf, of the Food and Agriculture Organization.

Last week, the U.N. predicted "massacres" unless the biofuel policy is halted.

"The world food situation is very serious. We have seen riots in Egypt, Cameroon, Haiti and Burkina Faso," said Diouf. "There is a risk that this unrest will spread in countries where 50 percent to 60 percent of income goes to food."

Global food prices have jumped 83 percent over the past three years as the world’s main agricultural producers shifted their focus to biofuels.

Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has called on industrial nations to cut off all subsidies for such alternative energy production, and to focus on providing food to the developing world.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, head of the International Monetary Fund, says a growing number of government ministers have labeled the impact of biofuels as a “crisis of humanity.”

U.N. statistics say that the amount of corn it takes to produce 11 gallons of ethanol can feed a child for an entire year.

Autism Another world

2008-03-12T15:51:00.000-07:00

I have always thought that there are many different modalities of relating to and perceiving the world. We are so narrow in acceptance on the proper or even functional way of experiencing the world. So I think some of the new ideas about autism are fascinating. There is a video here that was made by an autistic woman in which she uses technology to explain her very valid ways of experiencing the world. I think this is actually quite moving and made me think about our limited understanding of human potential or the way the mind and brain work.
Quote from this article "The video clip opens with a woman facing away from the camera, rocking back and forth, flapping her hands awkwardly, and emitting an eerie hum. She then performs strange repetitive behaviors: slapping a piece of paper against a window, running a hand lengthwise over a computer keyboard, twisting the knob of a drawer. She bats a necklace with her hand and nuzzles her face against the pages of a book. And you find yourself thinking: Who's shooting this footage of the handicapped lady" link to video clip here

bio bottle experiment

2008-03-09T09:56:00.000-07:00

I have been buying my juice in some bottles that say that are bio degradable in 100 days. Does not say in what conditions this will occur. I would think that buried in a landfill this would happen very slowly. I would also think that in sunlight this might happen more rapidly.
So here is the picture of day # 1. In my tiny efforts I do not delude myself that everything beautiful is dying or threatened. My pitiful efforts to recycle, buy less, conserve, etc. essentially amount to nothing. For example, above is a recent picture from the NY Times showing the supposedly protected butterfly reserve in the Central Mexico mountains. “There are a number of sawmills around the area that are busy eating away at the forest,” “These are organized groups that go in armed sometimes. This is wholesale clear-cutting.”The photographs show that cutting is taking place inside a protected “core zone” established by presidential decree in November 2000, according to the NASA Web page.

somewhere in North America there are masks

2008-03-05T11:27:00.000-08:00

Mardi Gras in Glouschester, NC (near Sea Level (town name) NC.

time shift

2008-02-28T06:01:00.000-08:00

I find it scary how time seems to be passing so quickly for me (and perhaps for so many creatures on the planet as well) I think that perhaps frogs are the "canaries in the coal mine" for our species. But on a personal level, time seems to have gone into another dimension of rapidity. Some say that this is a reflection of getting older, the different perspective that time has once we know (conscious or unconsciously) that the time we have left is likely less than the time we have lived. Or perhaps it is a reflection of my very fortunate life, which is full of variety of activities, some altruistic, some purely self indulgent, and others a mix of the two. But I have been intrigued lately by some reading I have been doing about the Mayan calendar. One interpretation is - we, or rather Consciousness have been down this same road seven times before over the last 16 billion years. Each of these cycles of Creation runs 20 times faster than the last one. The same amount of Creation is paced 20 times tighter. This is why time seems to be going so fast. It is not "time" but Creation itself that is accelerating. We are entering into the 5th cycle of the underworld, with the 6th cycle of the Mayan calendar being empty after 2012. Crackpot idea, maybe, but the Mayans did predict celestial events well into the future, way beyond the time of the Mayan rulers and to quote Shakespeare "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Vive Obama

2008-02-23T11:42:00.000-08:00

Thought this was interesting. A sign that perhaps Latinos could be an important demographic in the coming election? Quien sabe?(who knows?)
Web site with music! here..even without knowing Spanish, the message gets through.

Maca, tuber that gives energy

2008-02-23T11:27:00.000-08:00

Here is a a video from the NY Times showing how the tuber Maca is grown in the high Andes and how the increased consumption of the healthy tuber could also help the indigenous people who live here.
I take Maca every day and have taken it for about 8 years, ever since it helped me have a very trouble free (ended my hot flashes within 24 hours) menopause. I'm a believer.
picture from the video, showing the high Andes where the plant is grown

A true story, the world is stranger than we can imagine

2008-02-22T09:08:00.000-08:00

The last time Jaeyaena Beuraheng saw her seven children was in 1982 when she left the southern Thailand province of Narathiwat on one of her regular shopping trips across the nearby border with Malaysia.

She disappeared, and police later told her family that she had apparently been killed in a traffic accident.

In fact, Jaeyaena had simply taken the wrong bus home - an error that would have been easy to fix except that she only speaks the local dialect of Malay known as Yawi, according to officials at the homeless shelter where the 76-year-old has lived for two decades.

On her way back from Malaysia, she mistakenly hopped on a bus to Bangkok, some 1150km north of her home in Narathiwat province.

Unable to read Thai and speaking a language few Thais can understand, she again took a wrong bus, this time to Chiang Mai, another 700km further north.

There she ended up as a beggar for five years, until she was finally sent to a homeless shelter in the central Thai province of Phitsanulok in 1987.

An official at the shelter said she was known as "Auntie Mon" because her speech sounded similar to the language of ethnic Mon living along the border with Burma.

But still no one could understand her, until last week when three health students from Narathiwat arrived on an exchange program to research the problem of homelessness at the shelter.

She sang a song for the visitors, one that the staff at the shelter had often heard but never understood.

"She sang her same old song, one that nobody could understand until those three students from Narathiwat told us that she was singing in Yawi, a Malay dialect," the official said.

"So we asked them to talk to her and find out if she had relatives."

Jaeyaena told the students that she had a Malaysian husband and seven children, recounting her entire story of the bus and how she had become lost in northern Thailand.

Her shocked family sent her youngest son and her eldest daughter to meet her and bring her home on Tuesday, the official said.

"She remembered all of her children's names. But at first she couldn't recognise her youngest son, but she recognised her eldest daughter," said the official, who was at their reunion.

The village chief said she had arrived home yesterday, some 25 years after she left to go shopping.

original news story link here

photo credit unknown, but not taken by me

Finally a lunar eclipse I can stay awake for!

2008-02-20T17:44:00.000-08:00

wildlife art festival in our town

2008-02-10T11:47:00.000-08:00

What do you do when there are no more places for wildlife to live? Have a "celebration" of wildlife represented by artists’ representations of all those animals. As you know I sometimes exaggerate for effect, but every day all around me I see more trees being cut down, more huge houses being built where trees used to be, more hunters chasing after fewer animals with places to hunt overused, overcrowded or just disappearing. At times it seems that hunters (and I use the term to refer to those who honor the animals they kill and want to see conservation of those animals and their habitat) are some of the most effective voices for wildlife.

So lots of very good paintings, wood carvings, and other animal representational art of all types, with an emphasis on wild bird decoys was represented at this festival. Most of the art is of a very high quality; the hours of work this bluebird represents amazes me.
Also carving contests, retriever trials, duck and geese calling contests (a 12 year boy was a national champion) and a chance for John to talk with his friends who share his interests in waterfowl.

obesity and smoking helps the health care system?

2008-02-07T10:57:00.000-08:00

Turns out I might have had a misplaced concern about the stress placed by smokers and the obese on our already broken health care system. According to some recent studies "Preventing obesity and smoking can save lives, but it doesn't save money, researchers reported Monday. It costs more to care for healthy people who live years longer which that counters the common perception that preventing obesity would save governments millions of dollars"
Now, this really does make sense when you think about it, those of use who practice healthy eating, not smoking and other healthy habits, like exercise are going to live long and thus over time cost the health system more.
you can read about the study here Fat People Cheaper to Treat, Study Says
However, I think there are lots of costs that the study did not consider, just to think of a few, like for example, the cost of updating beds and hospital floors to account for heavier people, doctors being tied up taking care of obesity-related illnesses, etc.

And the data seems to have been obtained rather simplistically, just by dividing cost by the number of years, obese people are cheaper. Dead people are very low maintenance! If the higher cost of healthy people is truly just because they live longer, then that should be reflected in a year-by-year cost. I still find it difficult to believe that a healthy person who suddenly drops dead at 90 would be more expensive than someone who lives the last 20 years of his/her life with diabetes, heart disease, possible amputations, etc.etc. or the cost of gastric bypass and/or the correction of failed gastric bypass.

things are horribly out of balance

2008-02-01T15:39:00.000-08:00

first picture: PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - It was lunchtime in one of Haiti's worst slums and Charlene Dumas was eating mud read the full report here
and then there is this excerpt from a recent NY Times Article: full article here"Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler"

To put the energy-using demand of meat production into easy-to-understand terms, if Americans were to reduce meat consumption by just 20 percent it would be as if we all switched from a standard sedan to the ultra-efficient Prius.
Grain, meat and even energy are roped together in a way that could have dire results. More meat means a corresponding increase in demand for feed, especially corn and soy, which some experts say will contribute to higher prices.
This will be inconvenient for citizens of wealthier nations, but it could have tragic consequences for those of poorer ones, especially if higher prices for feed divert production away from food crops. The demand for ethanol is already pushing up prices, and explains, in part, the 40 percent rise last year in the food price index calculated by the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organization.

Though some 800 million people on the planet now suffer from hunger or malnutrition, the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens. This despite the inherent inefficiencies: about two to five times more grain is required to produce the same amount of calories through livestock as through direct grain consumption"

I already knew that meat production is an inefficient way to get protein in terms of the resources used to obtain it, but this article highlights just how damaging it is on so many levels.

Am I saying that because I eat less meat that means I think the poor people will not have to eat mud? No, not directly and not immediately; I don't believe that anything is going to change for poor people in my lifetime. But all things and beings (animal and human) ARE connected, and if enough people made many small changes the chain of existence which connects us all could be linking more people who can live without hunger and with dignity. Of course, for me even if there was not a huge hidden cost to eating large quantities of meat, it's an easy choice because it makes me feel bad or downright ill. I feel SO much better eating very small amounts of meat (mostly pork as a seasoning) and mostly vegetable, fruits, some dairy products, like yogurt, so that makes me not a particularly noble character for eating very little factory farmed meat; for me it's no sacrifice.

testimonal week?

2008-01-31T14:01:00.001-08:00

I have another product that I have not been without since I discovered it. Since I am slightly allergic to all the family of topical antiseptecs (bacitracin Neosporin, Polysporin, etc.) I use different and in my experience more effective natural products.
By far the best is a blend of herbs and plants in an aloe base that is made in North Carolina. Going by the name "Wounded Warrier" (supposed to have some of the plants that the Cherokee used) you can find it in health food stores or order it from Amazon.com.
I find it to be a remarkable healing ointment for any kind of skin thing you have going on...from insect bites, scratches, abrasions, itchy rashes etc. I realized how great this stuff was when I recommend it to John for a scaly, red place on his nose that the doctor has treated several times and that John has treated with other ointments. I recommended he use 'Wounded Warrier" and within a week the skin on his nose looked better than I have seen in years, no long pink or scaly but smooth and a healthy skin tone.
There are lots of testimonials on the web site, however I take "testimonials with more than a grain of salt, however, even if the following is made up, I still like it.
Testimonal: I live in Venezuela at the moment and used a great deal of the Wounded Warrior, sharing it with others, while in the Amazon jungle in Ecuador this summer. The mosquitoes at that time were absolutely vicious there and all of us had scores of very itchy, painful bites. Wounded Warrior saved the day, as we applied it several times a day to help with itching and speed healing. Everyone loved it! I carried it everywhere with me, but unfortunately my backpack was stolen a couple of weeks later in a market town in Ecuador and I lost it. Cindy Renkas

miracle preventation or placebo (Does it matter?)

2008-01-26T06:50:00.000-08:00

Used at the very onset of a cold, even before the symptoms manifest themselves, I have found this product to be amazingly effective.
When I experience that slight, almost subliminal tingling at the back of my throat, I start aggressively using this spray. I will even keep it beside my bed so that when I wake up in the night I can spray in my mouth.
It seems to somehow stop the process of the cold progressing any further.
I also use this product as a preventative when I am in a setting where there are lots of infective agents (for example any classroom where I am substituting) or even if I have been out in public and someone has sneezed on or near me (hey, I'm not paranoid, really..)
other things I take regularly are turmeric (curcumin) and lots of vitamin C. there is also a lot of research on cumin that is very promising for a host of other ailments. (google it for yourself!)
In my experience these things DO NOT work for me:
Echinacea, Ginseng

strange connections

2008-01-22T18:59:00.000-08:00

I picked up a hitch hiker today. I have never done this before. I was passing by and saw a nicely dressed Caucasian lady standing by the side of the road with her thumb out. There was something about her that compelled me to stop. She got in my car, I asked her where she was going and she named a destination about 20 miles away. I was on my way to visit with my former Spanish teacher who is now also my friend and could not take her the whole trip, but could certainly get her closer to her destination. I happened to mention that I travel to Mexico and compared the easy public travel there to how terrible the public mass transit is in this country. She immediately responded that she knew that well, because her husband was Mexican, living in Hidalgo state, and that she was returning there to stay in a few months. We switched to Spanish, and talked about how in Mexico several buses, many collectivos, and taxis that one could afford would have passed by the corner she was standing on, here there would pass exactly zero options for public transportation. We talked about what is offered as Mexican food here and commiserated that it was not even a pale reflection of real Mexican food. By that time, I had to let her out because I had arrived at my destination. When I finished my visit and exited onto the highway I looked for my hitch hiker, but she was gone. I wish her well.

making small changes

2008-01-15T12:56:00.000-08:00

cloth napkins instead of paper towels/napkins.
I have no illusions (delusions?) that anything I do will change the tipping point of death of so many creatures and the destruction of natural cycles that our behavior has caused. My actions are so insignificant compared to the plastic gyre the size of Texas in the Pacific, or for that matter the economic forces that focus on the bottom line and short term profits for a comparative few and the lack of concern by the overwhelming majority of anything beyond what they can buy (most Americans) or how can I get enough food and clean water to survive today(millions of people around the world)
Having said all the above, it is still amazing how much less paper products (paper towels and napkins) we have been using since I decided to use my quite colorful, beautiful, and washable cloth napkins. (from Patzcuaro). They take up no significant space in any load of clothes we wash and are completely colorfast.

Adios y que le vaya bien, Andee (Good Bye and go well, Andee)

2008-01-15T12:01:00.001-08:00

PHOTO Credits from Andee's blog: Mylife in Chacala
I just found out that one of the people who I have met in my Mexican travels and who I consider a friend has died. I was fortunate enough to meet and spend some time with her in Mexico in 2005. She lived in a small town on the Pacific in Nayarit state. People think I am brave to travel to Mexico by myself (No I am not brave, Americans just do not know the country) but Andee truly was brave. She made the decision to move to Mexico, knowing little or nothing about the place she decided to live and came knowing little or no Spanish. She knew that with the retirement resources she had the quality of life she could have in the states would not be good and so decided to try living in Mexico. She had few possessions and was happier with having less. I remember one winter, she could not find a house sitting or place she could afford to rent and so decided to live in a tent on the beach for the winter months. She loved it! She had so many friends there and was well-loved by the locals who lived there. When I was there her social calendar was full of invitations to all kinds of events every day. The children were especially fond of her and the feeling was mutual. We had some conversations about death and dying,and I felt that she had no fear, was content to be where she was and planned to end her days there. She was a caring person with observations that pulled no punches, and who often had uncomplimentary things to say about insensitive gringos behaving badly. However, she was also a truly happy and content person and felt herself very lucky to be where she was. I only wish I had a chance to see her again, I know she wanted to return to Oaxaca one day, perhaps she can "travel" now to anywhere she wishes to go!
If you want to read her blog and see her photos, you can see it here.

Last visit to Wilmington

2008-01-12T14:26:00.000-08:00

These Canada geese are year round natives and are now breeding here in larger numbers. The mute swans are introduced and are now a breeding population, pretty birds but very destructive of marsh.

Since my friends are moving to another city my visit last week was most likely my last. I enjoy visiting there, but not enough to go just go there. And like so much of any of the area in coastal NC, the past 20 years with the out of control development has made it much less pleasant a place to be. Even the neighborhood walk that we take from my friend’s house has changed in the past year. Lots more people seem to feel that a huge concrete paved driveway is something they must have. Does not sound too alarming, but multiply that by thousands and the fact that the run off from a paved driveway is much worse for the surrounding waters than woodland or marsh and people should not be surprised that the water quality suffers. A sand, brick, pebble or oyster shell driveway, almost anything except asphalt or concrete allows the rainwater to be absorbed. Even an oyster shell driveway like ours is endangered, water quality is too dirty for oysters anymore and the few that are harvested in NC do not generate oyster shells because the state is encouraging and in some cases requiring the shells to be put back in the water so that the spats will have something to anchor too. A good idea even if the water quality is not good enough to harvest oysters for human consumption. Wilmington has a tremendous amount of traffic compared to when I first began visiting there and the planning and construction for the traffic has not kept pace. Of course, this is also a very wealthy demographic, so the usual pattern is one person per SUV, just like the place where I live.
These pictures are from Arlie Gardens which I have walked or driven by many times but never entered. This is an old estate that was bought by the local government, and represents the only undeveloped shoreline on Bradley Creek. It was much smaller than I imagined but had some beautiful old oaks and an impressive collection of camellias, some of which I am told are unique hybrids to this park.

oriental persimmon tree

2008-01-06T09:08:00.000-08:00

there are several oriental persimmon trees around town. This one near the old mill and unfortunately in a private yard is always prolific. I have been doing some research and think I will order one for my yard. I think this company offers the best prices and I think that the variety Tanenashi persimmon is the one best suited for my zone.