Another New Chapter....

Here it is early September, 2013, and I have not written anything in here since June!!  I don't really have an excuse altho I thought about it many times.  I have been staying in the same place all summer, here in Maine, with my 5yr old grandson, Eli, and his mom, Angela.    His dad is my son, Jake, who now has his own little place nearby and so life is more peaceful since everybody has more personal space.  Well, except for me, but that's OK.  I am returning to my home in Florida next week.  I can hardly believe that 4 months have already gone by.

Eli is now in kindergarten...full time!  Just a few years ago the little ones went for only a half day.   What happened?  It is easier for working parents this way, but I'm not so sure about the kids.  He takes the school bus too.  It is crazy to see him climb up those tall steps in the morning as he boards and then plunk down into one of the front seats.  His mom is able to get some info about school activities out of him because she asks him as soon as he returns.  He likes it overall.   So my job is over here for now.   I'll be in touch regularly to hear about his progress.  Of course, I will return as often as I can.  I am hoping that Angela will soon buy her own house so we (daughter & 2 kids & I) can all come up for Christmas vacation, or as soon as possible.   My grandkids in Florida have never seen snow!

New chapter for my daughter in Florida too.  She is planning a move to Miami but will move back in with me for a while until her husband returns from India.  He is embroiled with heavy family drama (she suspects...he is out of communication range)and stuck there for now.  She doesn't want to move without him....too big a decision & too much work alone.  We will be squished but we did it before and it is only temporary.  We will have fun.

I received a grant, fortunately, to obtain a new roof and a new septic system....a Very Big Deal!  They just put on the roof and the rest may be happening the day I return or the week, certainly.....the timing is crazy!    

Astrologically speaking, (a favorite topic of mine), it is a VERY intense time and it sure is playing out that way for many people that I know and love.  The moon is still in Virgo & the sun is in Virgo still and we just had a new moon that has been urging us to clean up our homes, get rid of clutter, re-affirm our goals, and get with a program for health...a cleaner diet and exercise!  Virgo is an earth sign and all about getting it done and there has never been a better time to visualize & implement the changes we want in our lives than right now.

I will write more often when I am home again.  Love and Good Health for you all!

Summer Is Here!

What an intense time we are in!  Not only is it the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year, (officially yesterday, June 21, 2013, Northern Hemisphere), but tomorrow morning, June 23rd, the Super Full Moon occurs at 7:32am EDT in Capricorn, the sign of Getting Things Done!!  It is a great time to further one's career especially when using one's natural talents and gifts.  Did you know (I didn't) that 2 days before & after the Solstice, both hemispheres of the planet AND the human brain are in harmony with each other....a jump in Evolution for Human Consciousness!! (Boy, do we ever need that!!) Astrologer Elizabeth Peru is my source for that information.  She suggests looking back to where you were a year ago....we are now half way through 2013!  Do you need to readjust your course in order to achieve a better outcome?  Now is the time.  Make it a Personal Celebration, she says.  Show yourself Love & Appreciation...Don't push too hard....rest....grow....& wait.  Of course that does not mean to sit around and do nothing, but while we work toward goals, we need to patiently wait for the outcome.

Here in Maine we are having beautiful summery weather AT LAST!  Overall. it was a very chilly and often rainy spring....jeans & long sleeves everyday and sometimes even fleece!  But now it is almost a heat wave and we'll take it!

Now to give a local illustration of the SUPER MOON, which, obviously, does not necessarily manifest in positive ways, my 5 year old grandson, Eli, broke his arm 2 evenings ago in just the few seconds it took for his mom to run into the house for something.  He stood up on the arm of a chair on the patio and it tipped over...OUCH!     Then, last night,  Eli's mom, Angela, returned home late at night from her grueling restaurant job and her dog barked so much at her arrival that  I opened the door for him to run out and greet her.  Bad idea.  He suddenly took off after something and seconds later had been sprayed by a skunk!!  Bad Bad Bad!!  Poor Angela....she was exhausted and yet she gave him 4 BATHS with various ingredients recommended for killing the smell (first with tomato soup, then with vinegar, bk soda & a little dish soap, then dog shampoo, etc).  There wasn't any choice.  She hasn't slept much.

On a much happier note, I have been seeing fireflies every night in the wild area behind the apartments here.  What a thrill!  I wasn't sure if there were any left, it had been so long since I'd seen any.  But then I haven't been in Maine in the summer in years.  They are boiling away in Florida right now.

My final thoughts regarding the Solstice & the Super Moon energy are about the thousands of people around the globe who are rising up and protesting governmental corruption and injustice.  Please join me in visualizing peace and well-being for all and a swift end for the despots.  So be it...for the highest good.

The portait above is Eli, age 5.  The hydrangeas are from Mothers' Day....love, love.

Spring in Maine

It has been embarrassingly long since my last post.  I'd like to get into the habit of more frequent,  brief posts.    Well, here I am in Maine, hanging out with Eli, my grandson, just turned 5, and very cute.  He loves to draw robots (he's good at it) and LOVES playing Donkey Kong.  I told him I cannot understand why it is called that when there isn't a single donkey in it....mostly gorillas...

The weather has been quite different from what I left in Florida, even though we were having a rather cold spring there.  When I arrived here over 2 weeks ago, it was lovely and warm enough for sandals, which I was wearing....nice!  But, in typical Maine fashion, the temps have dropped and remained in the 50's & 60's and it has been raining for many days in a row now.  I choose not to complain about rain, however, because it is bad luck and sure beats a drought.  It is also a whole lot preferable to a devastating tornado like the poor folks in Oklahoma endured....those that lived through it.  But with or without rain, it is absolutely gorgeous here!  Fruit trees are all in flower, white & different shades of pink.  The other deciduous trees have all leafed out and the evergreens have many new shoots.  Then there are the flowering shrubs like azaleas, rhodadendron and forsythia....Enthralling!!  Tulips and daffodils are out too.  Anyway, when the rain finally stops I look forward to digging up a bit of ground behind this apt. and planting primarily in pots.  I just have to plant.  I'll do herbs and some flowers and a few veggies with low space requirements (no squash or melons) in the small ground area.  My best gardens ever were here in Maine, where I lived for many years.  I am planning to divide all my time between the 2 states as grandkids are the bottom line for me.  It makes it easy to decide where to be.

Speaking of gardening, I came across a wonderful website about a family that does it all on a small lot in Pasadena, California.  They have less than a half acre near Los Angeles, and grow enough food for 4 of them to live on and sell the surplus...they raise bees for honey, goats, rabbits, and chickens.  The four are a family of a dad, Jules Dervaes, and his 2 daughters and son, all grown.  Jules has a very interesting history which y'all can read about on their website:   UrbanHomestead.com.  The son, Justin, even creates bio-diesel right there at the place!  It is very inspiring to me and I wonder how they are going to keep the place humming once the "kids" decide to marry & raise families somewhere else. Anyway, they have become quite well known and give classes and write a blog and make tv and other appearances.    I'd be delighted with such a life as long as there are enough people sharing the chores so that I can get some painting done.

I have done a few sketches and will share one or 2 here and will write again when the weather warms up.  I miss my 2 sweeties in the south but am happy to be here with the third one....it's all good.

New Changes

Since I did not write a single word in here in the whole month of March, it is about time.  Lots has happened and the biggest news for me is that I will be spending the entire summer in Maine!  My youngest beloved grandchild, Eli, almost 5, is being bullied in daycare and his parents are very unhappy about it, of course.  They asked me to come up asap and release him from the daycare situation until he starts kindergarten in September.

 I have never been away from my house that long before and will miss it.  I am hoping everything will be ok as I will put lots of Borax under the baseboards to keep out the ants & cucarachas.  I will keep the overhead fans on to circulate the air.  I also buy that stuff called "Damp Rid"to put in the closets to absorb humidity. (I do not have central AC).  I imagine I can have my mail forwarded and will suspend my internet svc & TV.

It is gorgeous here in Florida right now so I am enjoying it fully with my occasional power walks on the beach.  It is finally warming up quite a bit.  Yesterday I dipped into the ocean for the first time this season.  I did not put my head under tho...so it doesn't quite count, really.  It just wasn't warm enough.  I've also been weeding and mulching my little front yard...quite a big job.  I need a lot more mulch.  I put cardboard down first, then the mulch.  That should keep the weeds down for a while. I will just have to pray for rain over the summer since I have no one to water it all.  It will be alright.  I have neighbors who will watch over the place.

I am excited to see Eli!  It has been about a year, I think....much too long.  But this long spell will make up for it.  I am bringing my little traveling watercolor kit and some pastels and different kinds of paper....and a sketchbook too, of course.  We will have lots of fun.

The most dramatic thing that has happened to me lately is that a dead tree blew over and landed on my car!  I was parked at my daughter, Eliza's, apartment complex on March 24 and it had been raining.  Suddenly a very powerful gust of wind came up and knocked at least half of the tree off and CRASH!  I am very grateful to the apt owners for replacing my smashed windshield and they have agreed to fix the dents in my roof as well.  Wonderful!

I have my list going for what to bring and what to accomplish before I go....the clock ticks by so fast.  I will miss my two sweeties here, Elsa & Marcos, but I shall return....and I shall send them notes.

That is it for now....ta ta everyone....I will attach a photo of the very skilled glass guy removing my windshield.

Love,
Kate        ps   I re-posted my camellia drawing since my little shrub has been blooming like mad.

2013 - Year of the Black Water Snake

On February 10, 2013, the Black Water Snake of the Wetlands, according to Chinese Lunar astrology,  arrived.  Also called the Year of the Hybrid Serpent, the sensual snake brings cosmic awareness, sage spirituality and integration with Source/Maker/Spirit.  The snake is about wisdom, intelligence, and self-control which may come in handy when the unexpected happens.  The intense Dragon Year of 2012 is replaced by the deep-feeling water snake...more subtle, yet sneaky.

I have to mention that some pretty awful events have occurred in snake years: ie, the twin towers tragedy of 9/11; the Pearl Harbor attack, as well as the 1929 stock market crash, all fast, aggressive strikes.  The best advice in a snake year, therefore, is to be aware, prepare, or beware.  Fortunately, the water snake is predicted to be better behaved than the others.  The snake supports added responsibility...likes protection and a safe place to work and live...it is a year to make headway in slow and methodical ways.

The snake moults from 1 to 4 times a year and so this year is about transformation in more than one way.  This is a good year to shed some outdated beliefs, opinions, and ways of doing things that, like an old skin, served you in the past, but now must go to make you faster and more nimble...and able to get rid of unwanted parasites.    There can also be unexpected transformations which may not manifest outwardly, but there can be plenty of activity beneath the surface.  There will be secret negotiations and plenty of clandestine activity, including love affairs.  Hmmmmm  ( We will be watching the news!)

The snake year can be very good for business and finance, as well as detail work, such as research and investigation, as long as we focus on steady progress and self discipline.  The snake is the most enigmatic, intuitive, introspective, and refined of the animal signs and it has that sneaky energy that can be to your advantage if you look for holes in the loop that can take you further than others in your field.  Many will feel new-found ambition to greatness and being all one can be...what can be better than that?

So, remember to prepare for the unexpected and volatile situations by carefully evaluating the pros and cons before acting, whether in job searching or in romance.  Do your research...read consumer reports, do background checks on prospective employees, expand your skill set for employment, stay in shape.  Image is important.   And  just as importantly, heed your Instincts...watch the signs, the hints, the red flags.....after all, the water element is emotive, compassionate, and perceptive.....and snakes have acute vibratory sensitivity in the air around them and on the ground...Native American wisdom would advise us to honor the animal medicine and Be Snake.

The End of 2012 and The Year of the Dragon

As we are deep into the Christmas season with mixed feelings of the joy of being with family and the grief we feel at the loss of the children in Connecticut...we can only keep hoping that there is an overall desire in the people of the world to make things better.  I don't mean just general optimism but real change...political, and therefore financial...with improved conditions in the lives of the masses.  What is happening in the middle east and elsewhere is entirely unacceptable.  I can only hope that as we all remain focused on the importance of greater equality for all, there will be ways to take action that will be made apparent.  I will remain alert to that possibility.  

We are coming to the end of the Year of the Dragon...2012...in Chinese astrology... a year of surprises...disaster came in massive waves and violent acts of nature...Tempers flaring the world over and many people staging some real or imaginary revolts against constrictions....Lots of energy and change during this year...daring and exhilarating and grandiose...

2013 will bring in the Year of the Snake.  On February 10, 2013, the deep and feeling-oriented Snake slithers through...it will be a year of more change, especially in a spiritual way.   But I will write more about that later, since we have a while yet.  

I wish Happiness for All...I am praying that the refugees in Syria and elsewhere find tents and other shelter in which to keep warm for the winter.  

Love, Kate

ps  The Sun just went into Capricorn ....until around January 20....Capricorn really gets it done..... the Sea Goat...the only mythical animal of the Zodiac

Special Times

If there was ever a day to write something it is today...the day of the Lunar Eclipse and a Full Moon in Gemini...the Sun went into Sagittarius on Wed, the 21st.   Without getting tooo astrological here, I do have to mention a few things.  This is the Beaver Moon, according to Native Americans, and it is prime for listening and meditation...surviving and evolving.....and for pity and forgiveness from the Divine Feminine.  It is also a forgiving moon..the mother of pathos.  We are approaching the shortest day as it becomes colder & darker.....more yin....yin is feminine, cold, and quiet (among many other things).  Yesterday I worked in my yard...I love that and have tons more to do....then I switched out my summer clothes for my winter clothes for the prime space in my dresser.  Oh, and last night  I did a very cool Full Moon ritual (which I think I got from April Elliot Kent, astrologer) with sesame oil.  You go into the bathroom and strip and massage yourself (unless there another there) All over with sesame oil -which has a very organic and nutty sort of smell and calling in all the nice moon energy...she said she did a couple standing yoga poses for a while and THEN take a shower.  It was nice ....a trace of the oil remains on your skin so you don't need lotion.  It's a tribute to the special time.

 About a month ago I moved into my daughter's apt. to take care of her kids while she was in the Dominican Republic trying to get her Indian husband approved by immigration.  Well, after a couple years of struggle and lots of $$, it FINALLY HAPPENED and they are both back here in the USA!!  It is wonderful and the kids are beyond thrilled, as they had already bonded with him back in the Dom Rep while they still lived there (til 2010). I have to add this hilarious fact I just learned...Elsa, 6, is teaching her dad, Karan, from India, how to read. She makes him say it and corrects him.  Really funny to hear.
 So the seasons have changed since I was last living in mi casita.   There was a Solar Eclipse on Nov. 13 (did you know eclipses always come in pairs?) which marked this month as special and I celebrated with a dip (my last) in the chilly ocean.

This is also the month that Susan Miller of AstrologyZone.com promised us Aquarians that this is THE month for a boost of some kind in our careers AND our love lives.  Well......I have answered so many ads on Craigslist for employment over the past many months it is almost comical...from artist to nanny to dog-sitter, etc.......Nada.......not that I ever give up tho........my next post may have to be about my experience as a senior online seeker on the dating sites...pretty funny.  Haven't met anyone in person yet but there a few fairly strong contenders as far as I can tell at this time.   More on that later.

Time to get out the Christmas deco!

Life With the Kids

It is never boring...that is for sure.  Eliza is still in the Dominican Republic waiting out the holidays & religious feast days in order to file the final paperwork with immigration.

Meanwhile, life continues here with plenty of naughtiness.  Marcos is all boy; loud, loves to burp loudly and make other obnoxious noises.  It is impossible for him to be sneaky...his face shows it so obviously that it is comical.

Elsa is another story completely.  She loves to be sneaky, especially with candy, for which she will take great risks.  Yesterday, however, I think she just tried to think of ways to make Nana (that's me)as angry as possible.  She succeeded.  They hadn't been home from school long when I was doing something in the bedrooms and then came out to the living room to check on her.  She was on the screen porch where we have a table for arts & crafts and many small bins of supplies and a large plastic bin of paper for drawing & painting.  Everything has to be covered well because rain comes in there profusely.  I am always telling them to keep the paper bin covered because water & paper don't go together.  I had left 2 plastic cups of water out there since the last painting time so they could be reused. A large brush was soaking in one of them because Elsa had failed to rinse it out last time when she went from painting on paper to PAINTING THE FLOOR!  That was a No No.  Of course she knew that.  She is six.    So, I walked out to the porch and noticed the water cups were now empty...where is the water?, I asked her.  She slowly opened the paper bin and THERE before my eyes, were both of the pet ferrets eating some of their food which had just been dumped onto the pile of paper, AND the  cups of dirty, grey water had been combined up to the tippity-top of one container in there too.  I went a little crazy and shouted so loud I think you coulda heard me all the way to the clubhouse and across the lake.  The overflowing (almost) dish of dirty water was just the ultimate.  Lots of paper was wet and had to be thrown out, but the fact that the water was dirty is what tells me she just wanted to infuriate me.  She knows that we give everybody clean water.  (Note to self: NEVER leave water in containers on porch).   Marcos advised me at that point that Mom's method of discipline for similar behavior was to forbid her from touching the ferrets for some amount of time.  She does love to hold them and then I caught her holding one by the tail...grrrrrrr....she knows better.   At some point in the afternoon she drew a blue circle on the red sofa seat cover that her mom had stitched.  I am working on that now with white vinegar.    As a final touch, she used one of her markers from her cupcake set to draw a green picture on her white closet folding door.  I took away those markers.

Last weekend we went camping with the boyscouts.  It requires so much preparation and packing that it can seem a little crazy at the time.  Why am I doing all this for a couple of days?  But it is worth it and the more prepared we are, the more enjoyable it is.  Eliza had a good list from past trips (as well as a lot of things in freezer she had prepared)but I added more things this time...like a bucket and scrubby sponge & dish soap.  I had to use a bar of soap and a rag and set it on the ground beside the faucet on a plastic bag.  Overall, we had a great time and one key factor was that it was a lot warmer than last year's trip.  In fact, it was too hot during the day.  I had not even brought a t-shirt or one for Elsa since it had been such a cold week.  Welcome to Florida.  It does that.  I just forget sometimes.     I sure wish I could attach some of the photos I took but for some reason, my usual method of importing photos is no longer working on this computer.  So I will have to wait for my daughter, who seems to know all things computer, to return.     Marcos caught a good-size trout...the only scout who did...and , Boy, was he ever excited!  I have a photo of that too.      So we slept pretty well in our enormous tent and had lots of help putting it up (den leader, Jay)and taking it down (2 of the dads).  I was grateful for all the time saved.  

On the way home we stopped at the Dollar Store because I need paper towels and I promised the kids One thing each.  Elsa chose one of those microphones that is plastic and looks like a big ice-cream cone and is not electric or battery operated.  It just has sort-of echo power.  She loves to sing.  Marcos chose a pair of little pipes, like bubble pipes, that came with a little ball that he could hold in the air by blowing the pipe.  By the time we arrived at my house to pick up my mail, he decided he had made the wrong choice and that he MUST have a microphone also because Elsa would not share.  So I ended driving Back to the dollar store...ugh....and buying another one in a different color.  Then a good third of the way back they sang Freddie Mercury....OH MAMA....I DON'T WANNA DIE..... at the top of their lungs, magnified by the microphones.  Marcos even knows all the words.  After that they fought for a while and Elsa bopped him on the head a few times with her microphone until I threatened to pull over........finally arrived home....Ah....then the unloading began...and the bathing off all that camping dirt.  Over the next couple days I washed the sleeping bags & clothes and took out the tent and turned it inside out and back again and rolled it up nice & tight and all ready for the next trip in the spring.

Too bad about the photos!  Darn...I will add them later tho and will let everybody know.

My Home Away From Home

Right now my home is in my daughter's apartment near Jax Beach and I am caring for my 2 grandchildren.

My daughter, Eliza, just had one of the most momentous days of her life yesterday (Full Moon in Taurus, incidentally) at the immigration office in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.   After failing their first attempt to obtain a visa for her beloved two years ago, she has worked steadily at gathering proof of their devotion to each other.  Immigration people assume one is a phony until one proves otherwise.  (You can read all about it in her blog: AmorySabor.com).  The man whom she married on her last trip down there is from India and it has been an arduous task to assemble all the necessary documents, as well as an expensive one.  Corruption also plays a significant role.    When she revealed the news of their success on Facebook late yesterday, I could hardly get the words out, I was so excited.  I wept and when I was able to tell Marcos (he will soon be 9), he did too.  The children are aching for a dad and will be overjoyed to be reunited with the only dad they know.  Their original father is Dominican and, as it turned out, had another family.   He dropped the ball, which brought great suffering to the kids.     He stays in touch occasionally but the children barely remember him.    

 So this event will affect many lives.  I am so happy for my daughter and the children and may not have to be here quite as much in the future, freeing up my creative time.  I can't stand to be away from them for very long, though, which is why I am extremely desirous of making another trip to Maine soon.   Grandchild #3, Eli, age 4, is there and I have not seen him since May!...Much too long...In fact, I am hoping my son, Jake, will be getting some land up there before too long where I can start a big garden.  Then I would split my time between the north and the south.

Since tomorrow is Halloween, I will include a photo of Eliza & the kids at a recent Halloween party. (Elsa's smile is not exactly candid..haha). We trick or treat around this nice, safe neighborhood in the apartment complex and I hope they don't get too too much candy- but of course they will.    We need to carve our pumpkin asap.

Next blog will be in November... going camping with the Boy Scouts this weekend and I sure hope it warms up a little.  We were just socked with cold weather while our northern neighbors suffer through Hurricane Sandy.   Just went swimming in the ocean last week and now it feels suddenly like winter!

To the Dishonor of Christopher Columbus

Every time I listen to FreeSpeech TV and the Thom Hartmann show in particular, I learn something new.  Yesterday was October 12 and  the original date of Christopher Columbus day.  Now I know just how diabolical Columbus really was.

He sailed for the New World in search of gold and had told the king & queen of Spain that gold was so precious it could even "lift souls to paradise".  However, when he arrived on the island now known as Hispaniola,  (which is now composed of two nations; Haiti and the Dominican Republic), it was then populated by Taino indians, who welcomed Columbus' ships when they arrived there.  Apparently they had no iron and accidentally cut themselves when examining the Spanish swords.    Columbus found no gold on the island but something just as valuable: people - people whom he could enslave and sell. According to the writings of his own men,  Columbus reported that with as few as fifty men he could subject all the Tainos to do whatever he wanted them to do.  According to a letter in 1500 written by one of his men,  Columbus rewarded him with his own teen-aged Taino girl.   She fought him off so fiercely that he no choice but to "thrash her severely and rape her".  Columbus had started an international child sex slave trade.   He raped, pillaged, enslaved, and massacered many, many Tainos.  On his second trip to Hispaniola, Columbus and his men gathered 1600 indians as slaves, including sex slaves and it was reported that girls from "9 to 10years were in the greatest demand".   Tainos subsequently resorted to mass suicide to avoid being stolen by Columbus' men.

Christopher Columbus Day would more appropriately be called Taino Genocide Day.  

Making Marijuana Legal

I recently discovered the Documentary channel on the Dish network and have seen some excellent, though very disturbing, films.

Recently I watched one about the drug wars in Mexico and the whole gun culture that feeds it and I came up with the obvious conclusion that we must legalize marijuana and make a lot of this violence stop immediately.  But that is not profitable.  I learned that there are at least 7000!!! gun shops along the border to Mexico and the owners are not even required to report their sales.    The Mexican drug cartels are armed by American assault rifles.  They are brought into Mexico by the truckloads from the US and are rarely seized.  It was shocking.  It all has to do with the National Rifle Association (NRA), backed by $250 million, and the gun lobby, which works tirelessly to make the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms powerless to change this situation.    There was an interview with the head of the ATF Agency who basically said that no matter what they do,  the gun lobby wins.    The footage of the carnage in Mexico made me look away sometimes.  The body count is rising and in the last four years, at least 7000 people have been murdered.   One American gun shop owner was interviewed and asked if he knew that his guns were being used for killing in the drug war and he said yes.   Asked if he felt any regret about the situation, his response was No, this is America.      Whaaa?

Incidentally, Wisconsin has some of the least restrictive gun laws in the country and they even showed footage of a big community bbq/picnic where all the men were "packing".  They were all, without exception,  enjoying the picnic with guns stuck in their belts....I mean with little kids running around and all that!!!  I had to wonder if this was the same planet as that one.

I am not against anybody owning a gun (but keep it in a locked box in car trunk or truck if you must keep it with you, for God's sake!)but I am very against ANY individual owning an assault rifle.  I do not know what to do about this problem, honestly.  It is all based in FEAR.  Yes it is.  Fearful people need to wear  guns to a community picnic.  

But the subject was marijuana.  While it is a No-Brainer that medical marijuana should have been legal nation wide before this, and Obama has missed the boat on that one, I believe all marijuana should be legal and let them tax the hell out of it like they do everything else.  They might still kill each other over cocaine, but it sure will reduce the carnage immensely and free up tons of room in the prisons.  And speaking of prisons, the for-profit route we are going in just puts all those criminals back into a position of slavery with little hope to rehabilitate and get out ever.  They need a quota in those places to get their money...and Boy, do they get it.  

Another reason to legalize the cannabis plant is to free up the production of hemp, a most useful and strong material that was once in common use in industry.  Politics & greed caused it to be outlawed but I hope we can swing the whole thing around before long.    It is greed that has caused the drug war fed by gun sales, and since the demand for marijuana will not be going away, there is only one solution.  

I don't have a suitable photo for this article either, so I will again just add one of my drawings/pntngs.  These are my Camelias.  They are not in bloom at the moment but they are budding.

In the Company of Writers

I attended a wonderful event last Saturday at Flagler College, here in St. Augustine.  It was "The Florida Heritage Book Festival" and it was simply delightful.  My only regret is that I was late for the first session and could only go to one presentation at a time from all the offerings!   A long list of authors gave lectures and workshops and it was so difficult to choose from among them.

  I caught the tail end of Hilary Hemingway discussing  her uncle Ernest's life in Cuba, the PBS documentary she is directing, a book she is writing, as well as the upcoming feature film,  Hemingway & Fuentes.    Sounds interesting, doesn't it?  It was and she had original slides on the screen to bring it to life.

   The next writer I chose after reading this description: Deborah Sharp left her job reporting for USA Today to write her Mace Bauer Mysteries.  A native Floridian, she rode horseback across her home state as research for the four books in the series.  Deborah's short fiction and essays have appeared nationally and her commentaries are heard on NPR.     Horseback across the state!!??!!  That's what got me.  How cool is that?  I asked her about it and she said even tho she grew up riding horses, it was a whole lot different in her 50's than in her teens.  Her descriptions had me laughing so hard I cried.  She said sitting in a lawn chair in the wagon pulled by a mule was even worse!   Her description of the ups and downs of her career and the relationship with her husband, a veteran tv news reporter, was hilarious as well.  I really want to read her books, which are mysteries with humor.

Each session was an hour with a break for lunch.  I sat outside at an umbrella table and ate the sandwich I'd brought while poring over the booklet trying to choose the next 2 offerings...not easy!

The next one I picked was a team of two women, Adrian Fogelin & Caren Umbarger, whose presentation was entitled:  From Writer to Author   "Your story: from your mind to the bookstore shelf".   They were both very smart and very funny with lots of experience and wisdom to impart.  Here is what the booklet said about them:    Adrian Fogelin the author of seven novels for middle grade and one young adult novel.  Her latest book is "Summer on the Moon".  Her books have received two Florida Book Award Gold Medals and numerous other awards including one for Italy's most prestigious children's book award.
Caren Unbarger won a Bronze Medal at the 2011 Florida Book Awards for her first novel, "Coming To: A Midwestern Tale".  The book is set in her hometown of Mason City, Iowa, and was inspired by the lives of her grandmothers.  She is a professional musician and string teacher. 

The ladies had questions about their writing processes already formulated that they each answered.  Adrian described her novelist mom stirring at the stove while she reread her manuscript held in her other hand.  She said she started editing her mom's writing and eventually her mother valued her daughter's input.     Caren described finding the mentor of a lifetime in Minneapolis where she traded violin lessons for writing lessons with a man named Alexs Pate, who wrote the book from which the film, "Amistad" was made.   She had many memorable quotes of the advice he had given her.  The hour made me more aware of my own value as a writer, however green and unknown, and the wonderful opportunity the internet provides for getting one's voice out there.

Finally, for the last hour of the day's offerings, I chose to listen to Jeff Ashton presenting "Imperfect Justice: Prosecuting Casey Anthony     An insider's look at the intricacies of the trial and the persona of the defendant."   Here is what the booklet said about him:  Jeff Ashton was on the prosecution team for one of the most-watched trials in U.S. history.  His book, "Imperfect Justice: Prosecuting Casey Anthony", covers that experience and will soon be a TV movie starring Rob Lowe.  Ashton recently retired from a 30-year career as a prosecutor.    How could I resist that?  While admittedly not a writer,  Mr. Ashton gave lots of credit to his co-writer and joked about how everybody, including himself, got an "upgrade" with the choices of actors depicting them in the film.   His discussion of his experience was fascinating.  He invited the audience to present questions to him as he went along and they did.  He was obviously in disagreement with the verdict and was incredulous that the jury seemed to ignore some of most powerful evidence that would have resulted in a guilty verdict.  But, he shrugged, these things can happen and Ms. Anthony cannot be retried.  He did not believe she could ever live peacefully in the United States.

There was also a Marketplace, a large room with author book sales and signings, book-related vendors, and door prizes.  Not all the writers there had presentations but many had books that I intend to order.

So that, in as much of a nutshell as I can reduce it to, was the wonderful day.  I urge everyone to put it on next year's calendar.   It actually began on Thursday afternoon and continued all day Friday at World Golf Village.  Saturday was the free day and I hope to be there again.

Flux

Haven't written anything lately as I have been absorbed with maintenance jobs at home, car repairs, (I certainly didn't do them but stood by and helped a little while a friend did), volunteer-teaching an after-school art class, and now at my daughter's apartment hanging out with the kids.

 I return home early tomorrow for the all-day Writers' Festival held at Flagler College.  I went last year and it was really great; numerous writers spoke in different rooms and it was difficult choosing which ones to listen to.  They were all fascinating and often very funny.  I'm looking forward to it and it's free!  I'll bring a lunch and sit at one of the nice outdoor umbrella tables when we have the free time.

I have a lot of things swimming around in my head about which I may want to write but for now I  will just add a couple of drawings that I did some time ago.

Making a Choice

It is not as though anybody who knows me doesn't realize that my politics are far to the Left and environmentally I am very conservative.    There is obviously only one choice I can make for this upcoming election.  Obama has made some pretty big mistakes but he has also done some serious good.    It certainly appears like this is a contest between the 1% and the 99%, with Obama representing the latter.

A Republican president at this time would roll back already fragile environmental laws to benefit business interests for the very wealthy.  Then there are women's rights for health care, as in Planned Parenthood, which the Republicans would eliminate along with other social programs.  I don't even want to think about what will become of Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security, which are absolutely vital to many Americans.  Veterans were not even mentioned at the Republican Convention.

I have been watching Free Speech TV lately with Thomas Hartmann and his various guests.  He is very knowledgeable about politics and history and I have been learning a lot.  For example, I now understand exactly what fascism is.  It is the merging of government and corporatism; represented by greed for money and power from monopolistic corporate cartels.  They are stronger now than ever.  They are the 99%.  Romney is a Corporatist.   Their tactics include a deliberate perversion of Truth & Fact.  They are trying to pit commoners, like you & me, against each other,  (via race, religion, gender) and therefore keep the commoner in eternal subjection.    I also learned that the richest Americans are stashing  21 TRILLION Dollars off-shore.  These people claim to be patriots and claim to be religious and they are actually parasitic.   Tom Hartmann urges us all to become active and to Occupy Something!

At the same time I want to do the Zen thing and be unemotional about it all and leave it up to The Great Spirit.        

Here is a pencil drawing I did inside my house.

Anxious for Some Things to Change

There is no reason for any country to be dependent on oil for energy needs.  It is all about politics and corruption.  Those are the only factors holding back the flood of talent and ingenuity of human creativity.  For those of you familiar with Mother Earth News magazine, you know that back in the 70's and before, there were photos published in there of guys who were powering their entire farms and vehicles with chicken manure!  Nearly any kind of compostible waste can be turned into energy.  Methane gas is all over the place and I wouldn't know how to harness it, but there are people that do.  That comes directly out of the earth in places and is also created from garbage.  Here we are making huge landfills which could be turned into energy.  I imagine some preliminary sorting would have to take place but that could be done from the get-go.  In New York City, for example, people have to sort their recyclables into paper, plastic, glass, etc and trash is separate.    (I've also read about living rooftops in NYC which are covered with crops...wonderful!...but that is another subject).  

At least there are electric cars now at long last.  But they still require plugging into a source of electricity that is mainly coal-produced.  Coal mining has to be one of the most primitive and dangerous ways to obtain energy in the world.  We should have been done with that years ago.  But we do have some bio-fuels now which is also a hopeful direction.  Why we are growing corn to turn into ethanol is beyond me.  As I mentioned in my last post,  there are miles of dried up corn rows out west right now from the drought.  I understand they can make ethanol out of switch grass.  I'm not sure what that looks like but I bet it doesn't have many other uses.  They can make ethanol out of other products that are not consumed as food for animals or people.  They can run cars on used cooking oil.  Everybody has read about that and I have read that there are some fast-food franchises that are selling their used oil for that exact use.  I know it takes some cleaning/filtering/processing before using in a vehicle, but I have read about it (where else?  Mother Earth News)and it is not very complicated.   People are doing it on a small scale all over the country.   They also need to make some changes to the car and it is much easier to do on a diesel engine. I intend that my next vehicle runs on cooking oil.  I call it a french fry car.   I'm hoping that availability of cooking oil will be stepped up by then.  My present car is getting pretty old.

I Need a Farm

I'm sure everybody is aware (in the US at least) of the drought in the middle and western states.  Meanwhile in Florida we have so much rain that the mosquitos are thick.  Because many of the drought-stricken states are where most of our food in this country is grown, the food supply will be a lot shorter.  Have you seen the photos of many of the corn crops...dried up and dead?  It is really disturbing.   (Please check the website of Dr. Sircus and read "Living & Eating through 2012" - very informative, as all his posts are.  I posted that one on my Facebook page).

I think there may be a renaissance of home gardening more now than ever.  I sure hope so and think it is mandatory to fill in the gaps.  Where I presently live, it is not really possible, although I grow a few herbs and flowers and a couple citrus trees.  It is so shady and growing shadier as the massive trees make more cover at my place.  The soil is typical Florida sand.  Water goes right through it, retaining no moisture, despite having composted here since I bought the house in 2003.  I also have found large amounts of glass, metal, plastics and all kinds of junk as I dig in my yard.  It doesn't make me trust the purity of my soil.  Evidently, previous inhabitants just used the back yard as their dump.

Eventually, however, I may team up with my son in Maine and start a big garden on land up there.  I have grown many different things successfully in Maine before, despite all the rocks.  Growing brussel sprouts, in particular, is exciting because they fill a vertical stem and make an impressive sight.  They are best harvested after a frost, by the way.  When I lived up there, I'd drive to a particular beach next to the Deer Isle causeway and load up the truck with seaweed.  The dried-out seaweed at the high water mark is the kind to get since it is light weight.  Wet seaweed is heavy and stinky.  Needless to say,  I would only go there at low tide.  Once in the garden, seaweed composts to beautiful, black soil.  It is amazing.

Even though the growing season in Maine is relatively short, I grew enough beautiful produce to last for months.  There are plenty of garden pests there, but no comparison to what I have found here in Florida.  Many people do grow successfully here and the weather makes planting times very different from up north.  So wherever I am I try growing anything that seems possible for the area.

Amazing Foods

I am always reading all I can about food and nutrition and gardening and herbs.  I have always believed that we are not necessarily pre-disposed for illness and disease.  If we can keep our immune systems as strong as possible we can have a good chance of resisting those bacteria & viruses.  It does get more difficult all the time, however, with so much electromagnetic energy always surrounding us, as well as unbelievable amounts of pollution including chemtrails.  (If you don't know about the latter, pls google it).  Anyhow, there are certain foods that help a lot.  Miso is one of them.  I have a cup of miso soup every morning, before coffee even.  You may have had it in an Asian restaurant.  It is fermented soybean paste.  Sounds yummy, eh?  But it really can be.  It is very concentrated and salty so I scoop out a couple heaping tablespoons of it into a pyrex pitcher, pour very hot water on it, such as the stock I  have already started to boil separately from vegetable waste (ie carrot ends, pcs of onions, celery, pcs of greens, parsley that is turning yellow...whatever) and then stir the hot miso now & then to dissolve it.  When the stock is done I strain it into another pan and add some wakame.  Wakame is a type of seaweed, or sea vegetable, that expands 7 times from the dried state.  I get it at an Asian mkt and cut it into little pcs with scissors right into the broth.  It is easy to use too much because it expands SO much. It tastes OK...not much taste, actually, but seaweeds are right off the charts for minerals like calcium and iron.  Finally, I add the dissolved miso to the broth and after that I do not want to boil it or some of the enzymes are destroyed.  I pour the soup into 3 or 4 qt mason jars so I have some for about a week or more.  I usually freeze a couple of the jars but be really careful to fill the jar only 2/3 full for freezing AND leave the lid off.  Otherwise, the glass will break.     I reheat a cup of soup each morning or whenever.  Most people would not want it before breakfast the way I do.

It was found after the bomb dropped on Hiroshima that the Japanese people who consumed miso regularly were protected from radiation.  It has the amazing ability to remove some toxins from the body.  I wish everyone would give it to their children from an early age for immune protection.  Of course it can be used in many types of soups or dips as a flavoring agent (makes a killer onion soup).

Another wonderful food/medicine is the sweet potato.  Yes, it helps remove heavy metals (which are everywhere - water, air. etc) from the body.  Please boil (save that water for soup!) or bake your own and feed them to your children.

I forgot to mention in a recent post where I talked about the "limp tail syndrome" that my son's dog had suffered from after his cold dip in the ocean, that I think a good remedy would be to apply castor oil.  Edgar Cayce used to recommend it for healing and Dr. Oz even mentioned it on a recent show.   For humans he was saying it was helpful for pain.  Apply it to the painful area (it is very thick), cover with plastic wrap(to protect everything near it)and then a heating pad.  I intend to try it on my arm.  I told Gabe to try it on his dog's tail.  

I was also reading about vinegar and the many helpful uses for apple cider vinegar for dogs...for their coats, their ears, a bit in their food.  It was very informative and I wish I had known more about it back when I had a dog.

Wow!  Can you see the caterpillar in the picture?  I just went outside to see if there was an herb interesting enough to photograph and noticed that my parsley was nearly all gone...and here is the culprit!  Worth it though.  It will become a beautiful swallowtail butterfly!  I wonder where it will make its cocoon...have to research that.

I will write more in the future about herbs too.  There are volumes out there on that subject and I could relate some personal experience.  We need to know what to do to fight bacteria and viruses alternatively when antibiotics don't work.   There is just so much to learn!

My Own Circuit Training

I try to exercise on all the weekdays that I am home.  Everybody knows that exercise is good for us but it also makes me feel great.    Years ago I taught aerobics and weight training and sometimes yoga while I was still living in Portland, Maine, and before that too, when I lived in Blue Hill, Maine.    Once I relocated to Florida I did not seek that kind of work because it meant traveling to different gyms or health centers, like the Y, just for an hour or 2 each time.  Too much traffic for that.  So I focused on my yoga routine which I have put together from experiences in many classes I have attended, as well as videos.  There is great value in studying with an instructor at the outset so one learns the correct positions and doesn't  develop bad habits right off.    This year I decided I needed to get back to some form of cardio since cycling around here is just not that fun with all the traffic and there is nowhere to hike without driving somewhere.  So, I thought up my home method: 20-25 minutes of a combo of trampoline jumping (a mini trampolene- just watched a video today on "Urban Rebounding"- a class on mini trampolines-how 'bout that?), hula-hooping (I'm good now- just keep trying, you will get it ), & then "stepping", as in the step aerobics of the past. (I found my step & risers at a yard sale).  It does get my heart rate up quite nicely and then I do about an hour of yoga.  It is terrific.  Another practice I am adding each time is rolling on my foam roller (very firm styrofoam cylinder) which I learned of on emails from Dr. Ben Kim.  (He is full of good info, by the way).  Rolling the body over the roller can be rather painful in certain areas because that is where we need it.  For me it is mostly both hip flexors and my back.  It's the next best thing to a deep tissue massage, which I'd love to have everyday if it fit in the budget.  If I want to take even more time I do exercises from fitness magazines targeted for certain body parts.  I like that I can do all this in my living room.  If I always had to drive somewhere I know I would not always get there.

On another note, still sort of about exercise and health, but for dogs, I learned something new recently.  Gabe, my New York City son, has a big, handsome dog named Angus.  He is a rescue and looks mainly like a Rhodesian Ridgeback.  Gabe took him to the beach in Long Island last weekend and said he ran an enormous amount in the sand and then Gabe sort of pushed him into the ocean.  Afterward, his tail was hanging and the vet told him it was a case of "limp tail syndrome" from experiencing the cold water after all the physical workout.  I had never heard of it but the vet thinks it will heal itself.  We hope so. (Wish I had a photo of Angus to post on here now).

Ps  I did climb back up on my porch roof today and tarred over the new leak and cleaned the mud out of the gutter. (No wonder it was overflowing so much yesterday as the rain poured down and was coming into the porch).         Now a PBS show on Dreams is on...SO interesting...
Ta Ta For Now.....

Late Night Quickie

Finally! the internet is on again after hours down and it is 11:20pm.  Time for bed.  But I want to show you a photo of the beautiful Bromeliad in bloom in my yard.  Only one is blooming right now and it is such a crazy flower.  

I did manage to find the can of roofing tar in my shed.  Boiled some water and poured it into a bucket and set the can of tar (not much left) into it so the tar will be warm & easy to spread.  I have a wooden ladder that gets me easily up to the porch roof and then I can get onto the main roof as well.  It has only a slight pitch so not very dangerous, but I am very careful anyway.  I had a good idea where the leaks were (you really can't tell from looking at the old patches up there) from counting the rafters and so forth.  I didn't do the whole roof yet, just where the leaks were, I think.  Glad I did it cuz it poured like mad later on for hours.  When the weather cools off a bit I will do the rest of the roof.

I need to weed-whack the whole yard.  All this rain has created quite a jungle.  Cleaned off my ceiling fans since it cooled off enough to shut them off for a while.  I'm glad I am on high ground  because a lot of this town floods with heavy rain.  

You can see how the water can remain in these leaves, can't you?  But such a nutty flower! Pink, red, yellow & purple!

Thinned out some files today while looking for paperwork.  Boring but necessary at times.

OK  gotta snooze   More later.

Difficulty at the Beginning

That reminds me of one of the hexagrams in the I Ching (Chinese/Taoist Book of Changes).  It has been really difficult to find the time to get back on here again to write altho many ideas went through my head today.  I stayed home all day, which I love to do, without driving anywhere.  I had enough food so I just got busy.  Did a batch of laundry and hung it on the clothesline (I am an environmentalist, after all) only to run outdoor a couple hours later to yank it back in again.  It was partly dry and now it is hanging here and there around the house.

  Kept adding to my To Do list as I went along.  It is pretty long already.  I don't recommend a single woman buying her own house unless she has ample funds to hire people to fix things.  I have some serious plumbing issues which are very expensive to fix and I will describe all that later.  Meanwhile, I climbed into my crawl-space attic today when the rain started pouring down.  I meant to see if there are any leaks in roof at present.   I first put on long pants & shirt, sox & scarf over hair.  It is funky up there.    Well, I was unhappy to find leaks in 2 spaces.  At least it is not bad enough to have shown up on my ceiling yet...but it is just a matter of time.  I need to climb up on my roof with a can of roofing tar and putty knife and go to work spreading a glob of warm tar over the screws in the spots that leak.  I've done it twice before in the last couple years.  I guess the tar wears off.   Summer sun in Florida is quite unforgiving.   I really need a new roof but that is not in my current budget.  So as time allows, I will again cover each of the jillion screws up there on my metal roof with tar.

It has been raining almost daily here lately.  I make sure I have no standing vessels collecting water without being emptied But...there are plants that hold water and allow the breeding of mosquitoes.  Bromeliads are succulents and fall into that category of water-holding.  They have lovely flowers at times and I have no intention of removing them so I have read that I need to drop a bit of oil into the plants to stop that breeding.  Wish me luck on that.  There are quite a few.

I heard a great thing on NPR yesterday.  A young guy in Boston, Jamaica Plain area, started his own business after looking for a job for a really long time.  It is called "Bootstrap Composting" and he collects food waste from city dwellers for a reasonable price and brings it to a farm.  The food waste is composted and his customers can later on reap some of that rich composted soil, if they want.  Otherwise it is donated to the farm.  But get this, he has No Car!  He does it all with a bike and a pull-cart and on rainy days he carries the buckets by hand-truck on the subway!  What a Guy!  Now that is recycling.

Well, that's it for now.  I can go on & on buy then I will be switching subjects so I will save it for another day.     Hugs & kisses to all.