Summer Under the Lily Moon
Succession planting this am. Blessed cooler weather. Who’d thought 85 would be cooler?
More Rembrandt today, hopefully some Ovid.
Category Archives: General
Summer Under the Lily Moon
Sat out back on the deck after supper tonight. Vines, trees, vegetables, grass, flowers all bursting with greens showcasing their vitality. It looks like we have a homestead in the Smoky Mountains.
The dogs came and went, nuzzling then exploring. Rigel ejected herself from the deck when a noisy engine neared our truck gate. She barked. Vega didn’t appear at all, deep in the woods on some mission of her own. Gertie, still recovering from her wounds, stayed around and Kona, the spry old dog, sniffed, wandered.
I want to be like Kona when I’m old. Fit, curious, and able to sleep with the door off my crate. She’s my role model.
Kate made another delicious and nutritious meal. July. Be glad, the days are getting shorter. The sun cannot rake us like this forever.
Summer Under the Lily Moon
Harvested chard, Fordhook Giant, dark green leaves and pale white stems. Two armfuls. Beets, too. Burpee’s Golden, Bull’s Blood and Detroit Dark Red. This is the third or fourth bunch of beets and this was the largest harvest so far.
The temperature not too bad, aided by cooling breezes.
My life has been the poem I would have writ
by Henry David Thoreau
My life has been the poem I would have writ
But I could not both live and utter it.
A Friend’s Response to the “Observation” of the Higgs
Summer Under the Lily Moon
Here’s an interesting response from friend, former nuclear engineer and former Jesuit, Bill Schmidt:
Just read your blog entry about Higgs. Thought you might enjoy reading this from Huntington-Post. Be aware that the top of the page says Comedy. I am especially taken with the wording included in one of the paragraphs about a trail – perhaps an ancient trail. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/
Here’s something no one in a white coat will say outright, “Of course we didn’t really find anything.” But they didn’t. They can’t. Not according to the very rules of their own game. The Higgs boson and all other subatomic particles are too small to be detected directly. What one finds in a particle hunt is evidence. One finds a trail, a trail left behind in the microseconds of a particle’s death throes after it is spun out of a somewhat larger particle that collides at incredibly high speeds with yet other particles under circumstances that can only occur in supercolliders, rare cosmic events…
This all makes me think that this may lead to revisiting and re-imagining faith. All too much faith in 17 mile magnetic explorers who choose to accept only what their machines tell them, based on theories they created to persuade others that they really know what makes all of this tick. Not enough faith in our ability to explore what is between the two notions (the word notions is a pointer to abstractions) of a goddamn particle (undiscoverable) and a god particle that is now named Higgs Boson. Perhaps instead of living 500 feet below ground with their magnets, these guys should take a walk in the woods with the likes of Emerson, Wordsworth, Thoreau, and others. They like the happy Anoka gardener allowed their direct experience to tell them a lot about life, the world, and the way it all works. Or the way it is.
No matter what anyone says, it may all be a great human comedy. Or, tragedy.
Blessings,
Bill
“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”
| — | Ralph Waldo Emerson |
Summer Under the Lily Moon
Gonna be hot. And it’s not a dry hot here in the Northstar state. 97 – 100 with a dewpoint of 75. Yeeeikes. I know, we’re such heat weenies, but I want to stay that way.
Beltane (last day) New Lily Moon
Mounding potatoes this am. They’ve grown very fast in a location I cleared out in the perennial garden a couple of years ago. We have a limited number of full sun spots now and I wanted to make use of it. Kate thought potatoes might go well there since I’ve used up the growing areas in the vegetable garden for them for now. They have to rotate out every four years or the colorado beetles find them. Not fun.
Checking on the bees. Should be ready for honey supers in the next week or so. We’ll see. A bit of weeding. Then it’s back inside for Rembrandt and Ovid. A busy day today.
Beltane New Lily Moon
At 6:09 tomorrow evening the summer solstice arrives. Beltane will slide off into its now truncated cross-quarter holiday length and give way to the astronomical definition of summer. Meteorological summer has already been under way for 20 days, beginning on June 1st.
What’s interesting to me right now is that this year the summer solstice will arrive during a new moon. A full, dark night will punctuate the longest day. After tomorrow, the long slow slide toward the Winter Solstice begins. This movement from the full light of the summer solstice to the long night of the Winter Solstice is, for me, the most sacred and contemplative part of the year.
I appreciate Beltane as introducing the growing season and recognize the importance for all our animal needs that it represents, even so, for me, the trend toward darkness marks a time of greater richness for the soul. I look forward to it.
We have two mildly thunder phobic dogs, Gertie and Rigel. Rigel barks at the thunder, yet also likes to curl up in protected space. Gertie whines. So, last night Gertie slept in our bedroom and Rigel went to her safeplace, an enclosed spot by the door to the garage. With the banging thunder and somewhat anxious dogs, sleep was at a premium last night.
May you live in an interesting June. Old Minnesota proverb. And this is one. As we near the solstice,