Faith and Spirituality, Myth and Story, permaculture

Angels in the Dark

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70  bar falls 29.98  0mph S dew-point 58  sunrise 6:57  set 7:17

Waning Gibbous Harvest Moon rise  8:32  set 11:01

On Thursday nights I watch Supernatural on the CW.  My lifelong fascination with gothic tales, especially ones involving demons makes this irresistible to me, even more so than Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I also enjoy.  I mention it here because it took a very interesting twist tonight.  An angel appeared.  This is not at all like touched by an angel, this is more like grabbed by an angel.  Anyhow, the entry into the program of the divine element in the supernatural separates Supernatural from everything that’s gone before on TV.  At least as far I can recall.  Should be interesting.

When I went out on the deck tonight, the smell of the dead trees was everywhere.  It’s not an unpleasant smell.  Sort of a green tobacco drying odor.  When it hit my nose though, I rethought my earlier comments.  About not missing the trees.   It feels important to me to do a ritual on Saturday, before we chip them.  They lived with us and we with them for 14 years.  They never asked anything of us and in return offered shade, their presence.  Their passing should not go unnoticed.

Garden, Our Land and Home, permaculture

Peace and Calm

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64  bar steady 30.16  0mph NW dew-point 56  sunrise 6:56  set 7:17  Lughnasa

Waning Gibbous Harvest Moon  rise 8:32  set 11:01

September will be a full out garden and landscaping month.  I have bulbs coming from White Flower Farms, a tree to finish cutting up, then two trees to mulch.  Then I’ll be working with Eco-Gardens to plant and install our new orchard and near kitchen window plantings.

Again, on the economy.  Peace and calm.  Fear kills.

permaculture

The Lumberjack at Home

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73  bar steady  30.18  1mph N  dew-point 47  sunrise 6:54  set 7:19  Lughnasa

Waning Gibbous Harvest Moon  rise 8:02  set 9:41

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Got this one down without hitting the house, the fence or the glass table on the deck.  My merit badge is secure.

This work prepares the area for the orchard and fruit bushes.  Lindsay and Paula came today.  Lindsay’s plan fit our needs to a tee and moves us forward.  I’ll give you a detailed version of it later, but it includes cherries, apples, pears, plums, currants, gooseberries, serviceberries and other fruiting shrubs.  The orchard and the fruiting shrubs will extend from the kitchen bay window all the way to the edge of the woods.

Remember this one from Monty Python?

Oh, I’m a lumberjack, and I’m okay, I sleep all night and I work all day.

CHORUS: He’s a lumberjack, and he’s okay, He sleeps all night and he works all day.

I cut down trees, I eat my lunch, I go to the lava-try.

On Wednesdays I go shoppin’ And have buttered scones for tea.

Mounties: He cuts down trees, he eats his lunch, He goes to the lava-try. On Wednesdays ‘e goes shoppin’ And has buttered scones for tea.

Garden, Our Land and Home, Politics

Lumberjack: The Home Reality Show

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57  bar rises 30.17  2mph NNE dew-point 51  sunrise 6:54 set 7:19  Lughnasa

Waning Gibbous Harvest Moon  rise 8:02  set 9:41

Enough ranting.  The fiscal world will go about its business; Kate and I made our decisions and have commitments that make sense to us.  In the political realm Obama has gone from looking like the candidate for change to staging a disappearing act in the media.  Will the economy help him re-emerge?  Don’t know.  Neither candidate seem compelling on financial matters.  Obama’s good luck is that he’s a Democrat with a tanking economy run by Republicans.  Sometimes luck is all that matters.  Napoleon famously wanted to know if his officers had good luck.  He promoted those who did.

Another episode in Lumberjack:  The Home Reality Show today.  The second acacia has to come down and I have to drop it in a narrow space.  I’m feeling confident.  I’ll let you know how it goes down.

Cinema and Television, Faith and Spirituality, Family, Friends, Great Wheel, Our Land and Home

Chop Wood, Carry Fencing

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After years in urban ministry, economic development, affordable housing and responsbility for urban congregations spread throughout the metro area I thought I knew Minneapolis.

Not so.  When I drove over to ecological gardens, Paula’s home at 4105 Washburn Avenue I discovered north Minneapolis, the one that includes Shingle Creek, the Humboldt Greenway, Victory Memorial Drive.  This is a quiet leafy chunk of the city that seems somehow separate, another urban entity, neither suburb nor city. 

Delightful.  I love to drive around in the city, on city streets, to places I’ve never been.  That chance came to me today and I had a great time.

Back home in time for the nap, but no sleep.  A family I know has a terrible weight on them right now and I couldn’t get it off my mind.  What can I do.  What will they do. 

So I got up and moved old wire fencing Continue reading Chop Wood, Carry Fencing →

Garden, Great Work, Politics

Sombre et Sol

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59  bar steady 29.98 2mh NE dew-point 53  sunrise 6:48  set 7:29  Lughnasa

Waxing Gibbous Harvest Moon  rise 6:15  set 3:35

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9AM Sun/Shade

OK.  All the sun/shade photographs have been printed and I will take them over to Ecological Gardens today.  Just looking at them myself, it is obvious that we have vegetable growing possibilities in the front yard, to the east.  That will affect the plan.

I will do candidate research on the targeted campaigns for the Sierra Club Northstar post-endorsement political activity today.  This consists of compiling information about the candidates and their stands on enviornmental issues.  Should be fun.

This weekend I have to design my Made in America tour.  I have a list of objects, but I have to do some research.

Also, the hemerocallis have begun to call to me.  Move us! Move us!  That has to happen soon.  An order for fall bulbs goes in today, too.  This will replace the daffodils I dug up to plant under the lily and iris plus add some new tulips,

Fall planting has a ritual feeling to me by now since this will be my 17th straight year.

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9 AM Sun/Shade

Faith and Spirituality, Garden, GeekWorld, Great Work, Our Land and Home, Politics

Change and Changes

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68  bar falls 30.06  0mph NNE  dew-point 38  sunrise 6:45  set 7:34  Lughnasa

First Quarter of the Harvest Moon   rise 4:49  set 12:17

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Corn, Bleeding Heart, Impatiens, Beets and Beans at 3pm

This morning I got up, ate breakfast and went straight outside.  Posting in the morning has begun to interfere with other projects.  Even so, I like to do it.  The posting gives a start to the day.  Just too long a start sometimes.

Till noon I cleaned up old wire fencing so we can recycle it on Saturday.  At noon I began the sun/shade survey for our ecological gardens project.  Instead of shading in a map I decided to use the digital camera and print contact sheets of prints shot at 9AM, noon, 3pm, 6pm.  I stand in the same location for each shot.  It takes about 20 images to cover the whole yard.

After the nap I went out into the wide world to collect meds and some ink for my Canon color printer.  This is the first time I have purchased ink for this printer, in fact it’s the first time I’ve purchased ink for any printer other than my HP L4 since 1991.  The cost of color ink impressed me.  High.  Ouch.

About a year ago right now Kate and I attended a conference in Iowa City, Iowa.  Focused on climate change and the issues involved, I came away convinced I needed to get involved in some direct way.  I made a list of things to do at the conference, but as the year has gone by I realize I have gotten a much better handle on personal action. Continue reading Change and Changes →

Sport

The Vikings. Hmmm.

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46  bar steady 30.11  0mph WNW dew-point   sunrise 6:45  set 7:36

First Quarter of the Harvest Moon  rise 4:06   set  none

The Vikings.  Well.  Near the end they had a chance to win.  A good chance.  They stayed in it and did not give up.  Tavaris still looks a bit stunned, but his passing improved in the second half.  Do not why they did not give Peterson the ball more.  Anyhow.  Could have been worse.  The defense did not look as good as the hype.  Roy Wolf at sheepshead last Thursday called a score somewhere in this ballpark.  I took the rosy picture.  Oh, well.

Tomorrow is a physical labor day.  Later in the week, more horticulture.

Started Arthur Machen’s novella, The Great God Pan.  I’m feeling some kind of work with Pan on the horizon.  In addition to gardening, that is.

Art and Culture, Asia

Scarlett, the Young Korean

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62  bar rises 29.99 0mph E  dew-point 42  sunrise 6:42  set 7:38   Lughnasa

First Quarter of the Harvest Moon  rise 3:16  set 11:22

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Back from the Korea tour.  We stayed mostly in Korea. I took the folks through the history of Korea, using objects in the MIA collection.  Scarlett, the young Korean, made excited noises during much of the tour though I don’t think she picked up much.  A cutie, though.

Korea does not get a lot of love academically or art historically, at least in English.  That’s partly because Korean is a difficult language and not many read it outside of Korea.  Many folks also think Korean art derivative, a version of Chinese or, perhaps Japanese.  There is substantial Chinese influence in Korean culture and art, but the Koreans maintain a distinctive aesthetic.  In relation to Japan, in fact, they influence Japan far more than Japan influences them.

Garden, Politics

Red-Neck Socialism

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62  bar steady 29.88  2mph  WSW dew-point 54  sunrise 6:40  set 7:42

Waxing Crescent of the Harvest Moon   rise 1:14  9:58

And they packed up their bags, had one more martini for the road and dispersed to the south, east and west.  The elephants have left the state.  From way out here in Andover it hardly felt like they were here, except for the occasional dissing of Minnesota on the Colbert show. “Could Minnesota be any more white?”  I suppose the event will go down as historic primarily for the introduction of the female rottweiler, Sarah Palin.  She’s a gun-totin’, moose dressin’, pro-oil drillin’ and wolf killin’, state trooper firin’, gubernator and conservative from the only socialist state in the union*.

*”In the state of Alaska, … citizens possess the seemingly unlikely combination of a rugged individualist reluctance to have the government meddle in their affairs with a willingness to accept a nearly $2,000 per Alaskan handout from the Alaska Permanent Fund. I’ve heard this combination referred to as “red neck socialism” and it’s a very Jacksonian, very American attitude.”  from the Glittering Eye

Here’s a red-faced son of the soil, a citizen of the Cherokee Purple Nation:

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