• Tag Archives docents

  • Good for the Crops

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Beltane                                               Full Planting Moon

    Much of our garden is a couple of weeks ahead of schedule.  If it doesn’t produce leggy plants that focus on leaves, that should mean increased productivity for the vegetables.  Since we would not have put the honey supers on the parent colony until after the division and since division is normally done on or around May 15th, we’re a couple of weeks ahead on honey production, too.  To paraphrase a canard I’ve seen a lot of late, we write the garden plans in pencil, mother nature, however, controls the eraser.

    One of the chief delights of the docent program at the MIA is the number of intelligent autodidacts you get to meet.    I’m sure there are other collecting points for such people, but it takes a person committed to new knowledge to start the two-year training program and its three years after obligation for tours.  Since many of the people, over half I’d say, are retirement age or close to it, this signals a willingness to take on challenge at a point that many people dream of the eternal game of golf or the everlasting fishing expedition, a forever weekend of quilting bees or an eternity of television induced stupefaction.

    Summer colds have a special insult, that drug down feeling contrasts sharply with the sunny weather and the pleasant temperatures.  I slept poorly last night, but I got up with the dogs this am because they’re like cattle.  You have to feed them and care for them no matter how you feel.  A good thing, really, but it didn’t feel like it at 7:00 am.

    Onto Ovid, then back to bed.


    📂This entry was posted in Art and Culture Bees Friends Garden Health 📎and tagged

  • Every Life Is A Universe

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Beltane                                      Waning Flower Moon

    As you can tell, cybermage Bill Schmidt has contributed again to this blog.  He set me up on WordPress and has updated this software from time to time, including the new photograph.  The old one has only been retired, not eliminated.  We would like to find a couple of more photographs I could rotate over the course of year, perhaps a seasonal array.  Thanks again, Bill.

    In the docent lounge today I saw Wendy talking with Linda.  This was a moment to remind us that we can never tell what lurks in the life of people we see casually from a distance.  These two women talking, not remarkable.  A woman recently treated for breast cancer and another whose son recently died of an overdose of oxycontin talking, more remarkable.  It took my breath away.

    I’ve spoken with both of them over the last few weeks and I can only say that the resilient and yet unblinking attitude they both have is a testament to the human spirit.  We never know the full story of those we meet, even those closest to us, because the inner life exists encased in an impenetrable place, the mind and heart of another.   Still, we do get clues, signals from the interior and they often come in moments of tragedy.

    (Pissaro:  Conversation)

    One of the truest things I have ever read is that each death is an apocalypse for an entire universe dies each time a human dies.  This makes these encounters with it more telling, for the stakes are so high.  So, the next time you see two people engaged in casual conversation, pause a moment to celebrate this oh so simple, oh so magnificent act.


    📂This entry was posted in Aging Art and Culture Faith and Spirituality Friends GeekWorld 📎and tagged

  • Yeah, Mon

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Beltane                                            Waning Flower Moon

    Good bee news on two fronts.  In colony 2, the child colony, I inserted the queen using the slow release method, a piece of marshmallow covering her escape route which she and her new family will eat away over the next few hours.  Hopefully, this slow entry of her pheromones into the colony will encourage this colony to accept a strange queen.  In colony 3, the one begun from the 2 pound package a bit over a week ago, I checked the frames today and found larvae.  That means the queen survived my clumsy introduction of her using the quick release method, basically shake her out on a frame and then close up the hive.

    At the moment, then, I have the parent colony with two honey supers on, the child colony, the division, with a new queen, and a third colony with its new life here under way complete with a laying queen.  The parent colony should produce a good honey flow this summer.  The child colony may produce a bit of honey but its primary job is to become a colony strong enough for division next spring.  That is also the task of colony 3.  The goal is to have two parent colonies next spring and two child colonies.  If I can maintain those numbers, we should have a lot of honey, some to give as gifts and some to sell at the farmer’s market.

    I added my second copper top when I put in the new queen.  Soon I’ll order a copper top for the parent colony and next spring I’ll add the fourth one.  With the polyurethaned hive boxes and  honey supers, the copper tops will make our bee yard an aesthetic addition to the place.

    Earlier today I attended a docent luncheon for Michele Yates, leaving for York, Pennsylvania on June 20th or so.  Allison’s place sits near 50th and France.  Her neighbor’s house has a Sotheby’s real estate sign.  That kind of neighborhood.  Her backyard has stone landscaping and orderly plantings all in vigorous growth.  She has a gracious home and entertains with elan.

    Carreen Heegaard told the story of her 1988 honeymoon, nicely timed to coincide with Hurricane Gilbert.  She and her new husband Eric had chosen Jamaica as a destination because the prices were very reasonable.  They spent the first night of their Jamaican vacation in Peewee’s Bar, perched high above the ocean, Peewee’s being one of the few nearby buildings that had concrete walls.  She described the sound of nails popping out as the train-sounding winds peeled back the corrugated roof exposing all those huddled under a long table to the pounding surf and rain.

    The highlight of her story, which had many, involved their trip to the grocery store after Gilbert had passed.  In Carreen’s  words, “There we were, a Minnesotan (Eric) and a Canadian (Carreen), standing in line with a grocery cart while the store was being looted.”  Says so much about cultural variance.


    📂This entry was posted in Art and Culture Bees Friends 📎and tagged

  • Man About Town

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Beltane                                    Waning Flower Moon

    We were both a bit achy from yesterday’s garden-a-thon, but it’s that good kind of ache that comes from things accomplished, the kind of things outside, those things that often feel more substantial, more real than the reading and writing.

    Today has busy on it, too.  In an hour there’s a going away party for Michele Yates, a sweet woman, an artist, a French citizen long ago, now American for the most part.  We’ll miss Michele, we being the docent class of 2005.  We’re a close group, again for the most part.  We met every Wednesday for two years, not to mention hours of practice tours, parties, that trip to New York, enough time to bond with each other and as a group.  Michele is part of us and she’s leaving, so we need to say good-bye.

    I leave Michele’s party to visit my dermatologist, not exactly a 9 on my thrillometer, but one of those important self-care things, like teeth cleaning and annual physicals.  Dr. Pakzad, a thin, intense guy comes in white coat, hurried but kind, confident.

    In between Dr. Pakzad and the Woolly restaurant evening tonight, I have to get in a nap, queen my divide and check the package colony for larvae.  It’s doable, but it will be a whir.

    Tomorrow morning I’ll go with Kate for her first visit to Dr. Heller, who does the minimally invasive hip replacements.  This visit should determine whether Kate has the right pathology for a hip replacement.  I hope she does.  She throws her right leg out as she walks, trying to find a movement that doesn’t cause pain.  With no luck.

    37

    The Way takes no action, but leaves nothing undone.
    When you accept this
    The world will flourish,
    In harmony with nature.

    Nature does not possess desire;
    Without desire, the heart becomes quiet;
    In this manner the whole world is made tranquil.


    📂This entry was posted in Aging Art and Culture Bees Family Friends Garden Health Woolly Mammoths 📎and tagged

  • Holy, Water. Bathman

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Winter                                              Waxing Cold Moon

    Namaste.  The restaurant.  Where we ate lunch and discussed Stealing the Mona Lisa, an impenetrable book most thought, a romp in psychoanalytical language cursed with the stodgy background of Freud rather than an expansive peyote fueled Jungian.  We entertained ourselves with a good two-hours of conversation on the nature of art, whether art exists when we don’t see it, whether any of us made art and bollocks.

    It’s always a good experience to be with these folks, some idea gets knocked loose and rattles around, sometimes settling down as a learning.  Next month the Walker.

    We’ve had snow, more of the nuisance variety than a real street and artery clogging invasion.  The temperature stays down though so we may continue to get snow for a while.  I hope so.

    Here’s a headline you don’t see every day.  In today’s Washington Post.

    117 Russians in hospital after

    drinking holy water


    📂This entry was posted in Art and Culture Commentary on Religion News of the Strange Weather +Climate 📎and tagged

  • connections

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Winter                        Waning Moon of Long Nights

    One of the reasons the web continues to fascinate me, and it does, lies in its capacity to surprise me.  I read an article in the Economist about Internet Archives.  This is an astonishing effort spearheaded by one man to make the worlds information available on the web.  You may have heard of the Wayback machine, a way of finding lost or neglected websites, but this project has so much more.  It has a lot of live music, an especially active Grateful Dead collection.  It has moving images, including commercials, a quick entre to marketing and cultural cues of the near past.  It also has an incredible number of texts, complete and free.  Worth a look.

    I’ve not had a tour since mid-December.  While I enjoy the down time, I do feel disconnected from the museum.  There’s a tendency, living this far out, to hunker down, particularly in bad weather.  I’m not as comfortable as I used to be heading out in snowy, icy conditions and that contributes to the hibernation.  As I’ve written before, this all helps the writing, getting into a rhythm, focus.  That’s true, but I miss the connection with both the art and my fellow docents.  They have become an important part of my life, one of the social pillars for me.  So, I look forward to getting back at it in February.


    📂This entry was posted in Art and Culture GeekWorld 📎and tagged

  • Feeling Flat

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Winter                                 Waning Moon of Long Nights

    Off to Carlson Toyota this morning with the Celica for an oil change.  Not noteworthy in the course of things, but as I neared Carlson, a funny sound came up from what I thought was the right side of the car.  It was my left tire going flat.  flattire-main_fullWe limped into the dealers and ended up with a new tire on order since I shredded this one by driving on it.  I thought it was an engine problem.  Geez.

    Notice for a docent discussion group meeting went out this morning.  My mid-winter idyll will end when I take off for Denver.  After that life will begin to get busy again.  Fine with me.

    Warmer today.  12.  Feels balmy.  Strange.


    📂This entry was posted in General 📎and tagged

  • A Day at the Museum

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Samhain                                Waxing Wolf Moon

    Long day at the museum.  Two tours, 2 hours apart.  Just got home.  Today was just ok.  Nothing amazing, just solid trooping through the masterpieces and their attendant objects.

    It was good to see fellow docents, chat.  Other docents are mentors, but not me.  I imagine the museum did not want me representing the docent corps to junior docents.  Wise choice from their perspective.

    Tired.


    📂This entry was posted in Art and Culture 📎and tagged

  • Gnashing of Teeth

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Fall                                    Waning Blood Moon

    Back to the gnashing of teeth.  When I went out to plant the garlic this morning, I discovered Vega and Rigel had decided to become gardeners, too.  They dug up beds, they dug up around beds.  They moved a lot of soil, none of it in a constructive manner.

    This almost made me cry.  After some unpleasant words and gestures, a bit of stomping around, I called Dan the fence guy and said, “Dan, I need another fence.”  When he finishes, this yard will have more fence than many cattle ranches.  It will take days just to walk the fence line.  And this all inside an acre and a half.

    Anyhow, I planted the garlic, covered them with six inches of straw and protected them with left over chain link fence.  Later in the day I mulched the parsnips, which will over winter along with the garlic, and the carrots.  I’m going to try storing them in the ground with a heavy mulch to protect them.  In theory, then, I can go out in the middle of winter and harvest fresh carrots.

    The potato harvest is now in, too.  I dug up the Viking Purples (no kidding) and the rest of the white potatoes, washed them off and left them in a large plastic boxes to cure.  They stay at room temperature for two weeks, then downstairs to the coolest storage we have.  That’s outside the house at the bottom of the basement stairs, but still inside the garage.

    Got some nice feedback today on my organization skills for the Sierra Club and on my writing from a fellow Docent.  Also, a good nap.  That all helped.

    Big dogs bring big problems and big rewards.  Can’t get one without the other.


    📂This entry was posted in Dogs Garden permaculture Writing 📎and tagged

  • Friends

    Posted on by Charles Comment

    Fall                                            Full Blood Moon

    “There is no need like the lack of a friend.”   Irish saying

    How many sets of friends do you have?  Not an idle question since study after study shows friendship a vital element of health.  Friends become even more important as we age.  Here’s a couple of examples:  BBC, Science.

    Today at noon a group of friends I still consider new, but whom I’ve actually known for almost 5 years, met for lunch at the Black Forest.  It was those from the Docent class of 2005.  We trained together for 2 years, meeting every Wednesday during the academic year for lectures and tour practice.  The education was fun, since I love learning new things, but over time I’ve found the relationships formed then the most important gift.

    An introverted guy, I need these kind of stable groups.  I’m fortunate right now to have three groups in which I’ve made networks.  The Docent class of 2005 has, by now, blended into the docents of all classes, in particular for me, those who tour on Fridays, my tour day.  I see these folks at continuing education, on tours, in the docent discussion group and in these more casual events that happen from time to time.

    The Sierra Club, the most recent of the three, taps into older networks for me, the DFL political world and the world of community activists, but has opened up a new one in those people whose primary activist commitment is the environment.  I enjoy being around the new generation of political activists, people in their 20’s and early 30’s.  They’re bright, practical, and seem to have a better balance in their lives than I did when I was engaged as intensively as they are.

    The oldest network for me is the Woolly Mammoths.  With the Woolly’s I have 20+ years of twice monthly meetings, annual retreats and social occasions outside those events.  We know each other, each other’s story, our families.  We’ve had fights and reconciled, gone through life and death struggles and will go through more.  As a man, I feel so lucky to have this long term set of relationships in my life.


    📂This entry was posted in Art and Culture Friends Woolly Mammoths 📎and tagged