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A Different Harvest

Aug25
My tragic garlic harvest this year. They seemed to do so well for so long, then at the end they just gave up. You reap what you sow: I wonder if it was because I used bulbs from garlic I grew last year, and they just didn’t have the energy to grow big and strong. Next year, back to Territorial Seeds or a local organic grower. Of course, that’s really this year: the time to plant garlic is next month.

“How many times have you wondered why 44% of the country still supports the president as he directs soldiers to patrol selected cities, orders heavily armed masked men to snatch people off the street, causes prices to rise, gives tax cuts to billionaires, and ends health insurance for millions? That is a complicated question with no short answer, but one of the main reasons is that millions of Americans are hearing lies or don’t know what the president is actually doing … because much of the media has been silenced by or is fearful of Trump.

He knows where his loyal followers get their “news,” and he is making sure those organizations toe the MAGA line.

Trump’s manipulation can be felt from legacy media (see: CBS News and The Washington Post) to local television ownership consolidation to the burgeoning MAGA-mediasphere of podcasts and social media influencers. But it all starts where the press and the president are in each other’s presence on many if not most days.”

Dan Rather, Steady, August 22, 2025

I’ve harvested most of the slicer tomatoes prematurely, because now that the grasshoppers have demolished everything else I didn’t cover, they’re coming for the maters! I put the first haul into a brown paper bag a few days ago and they’re already glowing up with a little warm color.

Our “local” Denver 9 News is on the chopping block. Kyle Clark, the host of the best regional newscast I’ve ever encountered, is making clear to his viewers, objectively, that selling out to Fox isn’t a great idea. Television is inherently dangerous, as Jerry Mander points out in his first book, especially from a political point of view, because“it is the one speaking to the many.” His work was terribly historically informed and prescient, and it’s only gotten more so since this 1991 interview in The Sun Magazine.

“The fantasies of utopian existence promoted by proponents of the technological, industrial mode of life for the last one hundred years are now demonstrably false. That’s not what we got. What we got was alienation, disorientation, destruction of the planet, destruction of natural systems, destruction of diversity, homogenization of cultures and regions, crime, homelessness, disease, environmental breakdown, and tremendous inequality. We have a mess on our hands. This system has not lived up to its advertising; in developing a strategy for telling people what to do next, we first have to make that point. Life really is better when you get off the technological/industrial wheel and conceive of some other way. It makes people happier. It may not make them more money, but getting more money hasn’t worked out. Filling life with commodities doesn’t turn out to be satisfying, and most people know that.”

Jerry Mander, in conversation with Catherine Ingram

One nice harvest surprise was this handful of small russet potatoes, which grew from an organic grocery store potato that sprouted before I could use it. I stuck it in a tub of dirt in the early spring and it grew in the sunroom for a month before it could go outside. Despite predation, against the odds, it came to fruition.

It’s gone from bad to worse and we’ve been prey the whole time, utterly caught in the sticky web of technology and now unable to extricate ourselves. I’m as guilty as anyone, but I’m grateful that mindfulness practice is an antidote that helps me keep some attentional autonomy. As Mander says, television “is most efficient at centralized, top-down usage which imposes imagery and programs people accordingly. The imagery remains in them and then they imitate the imagery. It is a powerful brainwashing and homogenizing machine.”… (and now by extension most of what the internet offers)

Rocky Mountain beeplant is among the most underrated wildflowers, and one of the most spectacular. It’s also a mad bee magnet. I sow the seeds throughout the yarden at the end of summer, and hope for the best. What comes will come.

My voice feels like a cry in the dark. I struggle to nourish hopeful energy because the forecast trajectory is dismal, as laid out in this Bioneers podcast with Thom Hartmann, who “warns of the existential threat of a virulent new oligarchy: the third frontal assault by the ultra-wealthy in American history to use their concentrated economic power to seize maximum political power – and overthrow democracy once and for all.”

Two honeybees of distinctly different colors seem in conflict over a blossom…

Robert Reich names the current president as the culmination of these decades of staggering wealth inequality, explaining that Democrats failed during that time to take actions that could have reined in the power grab. His interpretation adds another nefarious facet to Hartmann’s theory, twisting the script so that the worst of the oligarchs now presents himself as the people’s savior. Reich suggests that it’s not too late, and that if Democrats (and Independents, I might add) would actually unify and undertake specific actions they could regain the reins of the country.

from Robert Reich, Sunday Thought
… but they seem to negotiate an agreement to share the abundant resources, neither taking more than they need and each getting enough.

We reap what we sow. Where we place our attention matters. For forty years Big Money have been sowing seeds that ultimately bloomed into Project 2025 and curried this regime to implement it. While most of the rest of us let our attention wander down the insidiously addictive techno-entertainment wormhole, we failed to notice the rug being slowly pulled out from under our relatively stable democracy. The deceit was intentional and highly effective.

My friend John was a passionate student of history. He knew whereof he spoke when he said, “We lived in the best times” — before the third wave of Oligarchy began to crest. Turns out history is relevant after all. I eschewed its study through all my school years but the more I learn of it now the more this current moment makes sense. When people ask me “How did we get here?” I can now say, “It’s complicated…” instead of throw up my hands in impossible confusion. As my understanding of the history of this country broadens beyond the founding fathers and fourth-grade lessons on Virginia’s conquerors, my despair softens into compassion, and I renew my commitment to mindfulness practice and the skills that continue to strengthen my resilience in this challenging political and social landscape. I’m happy to share.

It’s not all froglets all the time, there are still a few tadpoles left swimming around. But… it’s mostly froglets!

The little froglet in front looks like it’s missing its left eye–and possibly a leg. Amazing how it survives, against the odds, in a supportive, nurturing environment; a community of froglets standing together.
I grabbed the camera to catch these twins knowing I only had a second before they fled. I didn’t notice it was set to manual for moon photography, so the result was a study in whites. I’m grateful for the ready editing technology in the Photos software that enabled me to pull some color and definition out of a careless mistake. I’m grateful for resilience.

Good Neighbors

Aug18
I’m grateful the little bonsai rose is recovering from its grasshopper defoliation.
One day the froglets will grow big enough to eat this grasshopper, but for now there’s a curious equanimity in their encounter. May I bring the same attitude to neighbors who are so different from me.

The froglets are very good neighbors even though their neighborhood is getting crowded. I have to walk ever so carefully, even ten feet from the pond on the flagstone, to be sure I don’t step on one. They’re literally underfoot! They are tiny, and fragile, and not 100% coordinated yet, so their jumps can be feeble and a little wonky; and also, they don’t really understand about giant feet yet, that they need to get out of the way of shadows.

I keep intending to set some coins out around the edge of the pond for scale to show exactly how tiny they are. But for now I’ll just use a cat: the frog above is the same frog as the one below, on the pond edge, just to the left of the furry hip of Topaz.

You can see several stages of metamorphosis in this image, if you look closely at each tadpole and froglet.
(the next morning)

The best cheese sandwich of the weekend was warmed Brie, sliced homegrown cabbage and red onion, mayonnaise, and organic grape jelly on of course homemade sourdough.

It was a lovely weekend, with ample outside time and the barest hint of pre-fall in the air, a slight cessation of the brutal heat and a minute rise in humidity. Wildfires in this part of the state (the nation, the continent) are rapidly getting contained with a little help from the weather and a lot of effort by brave men and women who are good neighbors to all of us. Whether they left homes nearby me to fight these fires or left homes in another state, right now they are my neighbors. The littles and I enjoyed another stunning sunset with our good neighbors to the west, who came to say hello over the fence and lingered for awhile in companionable silence before going home for dinner.

Speaking of neighbors, many people aren’t aware of the shooting at the CDC a week ago last Friday; it wasn’t a mass casualty event so it didn’t generate sensational television coverage. “Only” one person was killed, a police officer. But it was a mass trauma event, for hundreds of CDC staff and their families, and thousands of people who work in public health. Our neighbors. A foremost epidemiologist, Katelynn Jetelina, discussed the attack and its ramifications for public health workers, the regime’s non-response, and how average Americans can demonstrate support for healthcare workers in this essential, and increasingly stressful and traumatizing, field of public service. It’s forty minutes of lucid and moving discussion. Many of my neighbors work in healthcare, a lot of them in our rural hospital system which is on the chopping block with upcoming cuts to Medicaid. Are any of your neighbors healthcare professionals? How can you show them some appreciation?

Speaking of good neighbors, I was grateful this morning to be invited onto a press call about the destruction of the Social Security Administration. My contribution followed former SSA chair Martin O’Malley’s chilling assessment of the regime’s efforts to demolish social security. You can watch the press conference here if you’d like to hear just how badly the regime has already damaged “the only agency in America that runs a 2.6 trillion dollar surplus,” and also hear a couple of regular folks talk about what social security means for them and their neighbors.

Can’t we all be good neighbors to each other? Planet Earth is our only neighborhood, for all of us, human and non-human alike.

This evening, I only counted a dozen tadpoles left in the water. I know there are more I didn’t see, but I saw just as many froglets in one square foot at the edge of the pond. I’m not fond of the algae, but the froglets are, so I’m not about to scoop it out. It’s an essential part of their neighborhood, which is all they have and all they know.

Each Day is a Gift

Aug3

The pond just keeps on giving. More froglets in all stages, some with tails climbing onto the rushes, tadpoles with arms bulging beneath their skin, and some fully transformed. The rushes seethe with them fleeing when we get down there and the water bubbles beneath as they disappear into it. It happens so fast, they’re so tiny, I’m trying to film it but they dive before I can even steady the camera.

The good news is that by now there are so many that even when the masses dive away I can still sneak up on a few. Some look pretty thin and vulnerable to me, others look fat and sassy.

And whose eggs are these strung along the curly rush behind the froglet?

There’s always at least one big mama keeping watch.

The hummingbird feeders are busy, too; there’s not enough time in the day! Come evening, I walked the little pets up the drive a little way, and was startled when I turned around to see this:

The Leroux Fire is less then twenty crow miles northwest on BLM land. With winds it grew from one acre this afternoon to a hundred by dark. Thunderstorms Friday did bring some rain, but also lightning, and this fire may have been smoldering for two days before erupting. Another close call on this mesa with a strike at a neighbor’s, but the Crawford volunteer fire department put out the burning tree before it could spread. We are all so grateful for their commitment, bravery, and skill.

Wake UP!

Jul22

Despite experiencing joy anyway, I often feel wracked with guilt that I’m not making more noise about the corruption unraveling our democracy, not doing more to raise the alarm, not making enough people wake up. It’s because I can’t say it as well as others, and I don’t even want to know about it. But we all must know. If you get a little delight or insight or respite from reading this blog, or even if you don’t, you also need to be paying attention to the political machinations that are demolishing American life as we have known it all our lives. Please keep reading, now, the words of Mark Elias, who likens what’s happening in the US with the musical Cabaret: As a populace, we are sleeping amid our pleasures while the Nazis take over.

POLITICIZATION OF THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: The DOJ is now a political arm of the GOP 
I know I’ve written about this before, but it bears repeating: under Pam Bondi’s leadership, the Department of Justice is a political arm of the GOP, and the attorney general is Trump’s personal lawyer. Right now, we’re seeing that clearly with the Epstein Files saga. As the MAGA base calls for the release of the files, Bondi is protecting Trump — not representing the American people.  This will only get worse. If you want to see where the DOJ’s loyalties lie, keep an eye on Bondi.
TARGETING OPPONENTS: Threatening those who oppose the administration
On Friday, as part of her latest conspiracy, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard promised to investigate and prosecute Obama administration officials for their disclosure of Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 election. Then on Sunday, Trump followed up her warning with an AI-generated TikTok of President Obama getting arrested by the FBI.  This is just another in a long series of threats to political opponents — and it should be taken seriously. With the DOJ acting as Trump’s political weapon, it will go after and prosecute those who defy and speak out against the administration. Don’t dismiss these threats. 
UNCONSTITUTIONAL ACTS: Betraying and defying the Constitution 
Under Trump, the Constitution has become nothing more than a suggestion. Administration officials have been defying court orders left and right, ignoring judges of both parties. Emil Bove, Trump’s former personal lawyer and his nominee to serve on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, told government lawyers they should say “fuck you” to court orders. And back in March, the administration defied Judge Boasberg’s orders to turn a plane of Venezuelan immigrants around.  The administration isn’t following the normal rules. There are no guardrails. Pay attention to who they’re taking orders from — because it’s certainly not our justice system.  
ELECTION MEDDLING:  Interfering with the outcome and results of our elections
Trump and the Republican Party are gearing up for 2026. They know their policies are unpopular. They know the Epstein Files have them in hot water. So, what are they going to do? Gerrymander and suppress voters. In Texas, Trump pressured Gov. Greg Abbott to hold a special session and illegally gerrymander his state’s congressional map. And in Colorado, election officials received calls from a GOP operative asking to inspect election machines and gain access to voter rolls.  The 2026 election isn’t going to be a normal one. Get registered now. Double-check your registration. Make a plan to vote. When democracy is on the line, it’s never too early.

If you’ve made it this far, please keep reading the clarion call from Joyce Vance about the war on women:

“When we said women and people who loved them needed to vote like their lives depended on it in 2024, it wasn’t hyperbole. Despite the hole the Dobbs case, which reversed Roe v. Wade, tore in the heart of so many Americans and the women who have suffered and even died since then from the unavailability of basic medical care, not enough Americans understood how precarious the world had become for women….

Trump is waging war on women in ways both big and small, subtle and obvious. When federal employees are fired, women lose jobs that permit them to support their families. When Medicaid gets cut, single moms, who are just trying to get by, are burdened. DEI gave woman a path to higher paying jobs. Now it’s being closed down. He’s trying to make it harder for us to votewith his Executive Order on voting and the SAVE Act.

But above all, it’s been abortion, the right that both kept women safe and made it possible for them to set the course of their own lives and families. This is an administration that not only wants to end abortion, but has also set its sights on contraception. There is talk of resurrecting the Comstock Actwith the complicity of the Supreme Court. That would make it illegal to mail material that talks about family planning, let alone the drugs like mifepristone that are essential for medication abortion. That means women who need access to medical care to prevent serious infection or death due to medical complications in pregnancy may no longer be able to get it.

The party that claims to be pro-life isn’t. It’s not just the misbegotten refusal to provide abortion, which can be lifesaving in a pregnancy gone wrong. The culture war against women is in full-blown progress. 

Since I’m borrowing the words of others… from Instagram

But now in Tennessee, they’re taking it a little bit further. Unmarried? Pregnant? Sorry, no healthcare for you. According to footage shown by the Tennessee Holler, an unmarried woman who was pregnant was denied medical care by a doctor who didn’t want to treat her. She didn’t want an abortion. She wanted to carry the baby to term. He denied her care because she wasn’t married. It offended his Christian beliefs. We’ve heard about Christian bakers not wanting to bake cakes for gay couples. This is the next logical step in the Supreme Court’s permissive politics towards Christianity. Except that this doctor seems to have forgotten that Mary was an unmarried, pregnant woman when Jesus was conceived.

Apparently, the Hippocratic oath no longer matters, at least not if your patient is an unmarried woman who’s pregnant. Women in Tennessee have sufferedin the past for being denied an abortion while carrying a nonviable pregnancy, only to lose their fertility as a result. But this is next level. This is a doctor denying a patient care because he, HE, doesn’t approve of the way she is choosing to live her life.

We have the opportunity to end this now. There is an election coming in 2026. An election where we will have to fight to register, stay registered, vote, and ensure our votes get counted. But it’s our fight. It’s the fight for democracy. Unlike 2024, when Americans failed to vote in sufficient numbers to keep Trump out of office because they somehow didn’t understand the stakes, we have to make sure every single person who cares about our country—and thinks women shouldn’t slide into second-class citizenship where they can be denied basic, noncontroversial medical care—is on the front lines in this election. In 2024, too many people thought they could use their voice to protest, whatever the issue, by staying home or voting for a candidate other than the one committed to democracy. The results have been tragic, just six months into Donald Trump’s second administration. It’s dangerous to be a woman. It’s dangerous to be an immigrant. It’s dangerous to be a member of the LGBTQ community. It’s dangerous to be someone who has devoted your life to government service if your work involved investigating Donald Trump or promoting DEI. It’s now dangerous to fall outside of Trumpism’s rigid definition of what’s right…. That’s wrong for all of us.”

another borrow from Instagram

And that’s my rant for the week, with deep gratitude for the big, courageous voices on the national stage who are shining the bright light of reality, of truth, clearly on the haze of deception, propaganda, brainwashing, and large-scale swindling that defines the current regime. Time really is running out, and we’ve got to wake up and really drain the cesspool before we drown in it. We can do it! Here are links to some other people’s words, newsletters and articles, to help us wake up and be a proactive citizen.

I’ll be back in a day or two to help us relax and savor the quotidian delights in our private lives.

Dry Lightning

Jul10
Topaz chittered at me when I dared to invade her private sleeping tower early this morning.

Apparently I slept through several hours of a lightning storm before it jolted me awake around six. Wren was panting under the bed. I tried to avoid getting out of bed, rolling over, dozing, dreaming that the fire trucks came down my driveway and I invited them through the gate to get to the woods, and worried how I would ask them to take off their boots to go up in my tower. It was dry lightning, and had been crashing since two or three in the morning, with only a couple of spatters of rain. A perfect fire storm: heavy lightning, no rain. I opened my eyes a couple times to see blazing strikes out the French doors, and finally decided I’d better turn off Do Not Disturb in case there was a fire. Certain there would be a fire.

Not two minutes later, the phone rang. “Yes, what?” I answered, knowing it could be only one thing. Dawn saw and smelled smoke which turned out to be on the canyon rim between her place and mine. I climbed the kiva ladder to the tower and scanned with bleary eyes, but did not see it. My view of the place it burned, I learned when I climbed up again this evening, had been blocked by some other trees. Fortunately, it was just one juniper, and a team of neighbors and at least one volunteer firefighter found it and put it out. We knew there was a forecast for serious winds this afternoon. Several other neighbors reported strikes that they also put out. It was a busy early morning on Fruitland Mesa.

Mr. Wilson took this shot of the folks who put it out. I’m fascinated that they dug all around and piled the dirt up around the trunk. So grateful so many people have their eyes and noses trained on the woods around here, and the threads of connections among disparate neighbors knit into a coherent communication network.

photo borrowed without permission from Rosie’s facebook post: the smoke as seen from her deck.

Only then mid-morning, the Watch Duty app alerted me and others to a fire on the North Rim of the Black Canyon, just twelve miles away, and shortly afterward to a fire on the South Rim of the national park. The North Rim fire didn’t appear to exceed a tenth of an acre, and was contained and put out pretty quickly. The South Rim fire grew exponentially, from 50 acres to 100 in less than an hour, then to 300 in another hour, then to 425 in another hour. Then there was an update vacuum until about 8:45 pm, when it had grown to 1640 acres. In between, around 4 pm, Marla heard from a neighbor who spoke with a sheriff’s deputy on the road that it was 600 acres and the Visitor Center was lost. This hasn’t been officially confirmed, and we pray it isn’t true, but…

This photo was posted on Facebook by Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park midafternoon. I’m grateful there’s still federal wildfire fighters and helicopters available. If the Visitor Center truly is lost, I wonder if the federal budget will allow a rebuild, or if the park will close. What a loss that would be to both Montrose and Crawford, in so many ways. And personally: I was planning to take an old friend out there this weekend if she was able to stop by while she’s in the valley for a concert.

Midafternoon, another fire was reported on the Uncompaghre Plateau northwest of Delta. Altogether, Watch Duty recorded twelve new wildfires this morning in Delta and neighboring counties. Most of them stayed small and were put out. The latest update from the Sowbelly Fire came in as I was writing this: it’s now 2,193 acres. Needless to say, we stayed inside all day. I could barely breathe out there. Honey Badger was so kind, she drove down to pick up my garbage, and made an extra trip to bring my mail from the mailbox because I was expecting a parcel. A couple hours later, when the smoke cleared a little bit, I masked and went out to feed the birds, then stepped out on the deck for a better view. On one side of my big tree, the horizon was just a little hazy.

On the other side of the tree the smoke was thick, blowing from the west and likely fed by both the Sowbelly and the South Rim fires. At the house, it wasn’t too bad, so I took the window of opportunity to take Wren and Topaz for a short walk to our west fence, where I could see the South Rim smoke still billowing. I cracked an east window when we returned to the house just to get a little cool air inside, but within fifteen minutes I could smell smoke again. So the house is closed up tight, except for the two tower windows I leave ajar all summer to funnel heat up and out of the house.

It’s the perfect time to cut the budgets for weather science and forecasting, wildfire prevention and protection resources, and FEMA. FDT. Among other things today, I’m grateful for my practice which has gotten me through a day of challenging external and internal weather, for my community of alert, responsive and competent neighbors no matter their political persuasions, and for an oxygen compressor to fill my lungs overnight.

What is WRONG with You People?!

Jul1
Thank god there was Zoom Cooking with Amy this evening…

I was flattened to learn yesterday that only eight percent, 8%, of Americans understand that the BBB, Big ‘Beautiful’ Bill, includes massive cuts to Medicaid! Hello? Where have you been, you 92%? The bill passed the Senate this morning with a tie breaker from JD Vance who said, “…the minutiae of the Medicaid policy — is immaterial compared to the ICE money and immigration enforcement provisions.” The bill is back in the House of Representatives for voting as soon as tomorrow, because not-my-president wants it on his desk by July 4.

Without our Indivisible zoom this afternoon followed by zoom cooking, I’d have been still an irate mess tonight.

The Senate’s version eliminated a few egregious provisions like the massive public lands selloff, but added things that would cut even more from Medicaid for a total loss to this societal safety network of around a trillion dollars, causing around 12-17 million people to lose their health insurance over time, and three million more would lose SNAP benefits, so if you’re on food stamps you’re gonna get hungry. Many children and seniors will suffer food insecurity and other horrors. It’s a complicated network of interdependence, but these cuts will result in less available and more costly healthcare for everyone, no matter where you get your health insurance.

We used storebought puff pastry and two sizes of cookie cutters to make the shapes, folding the small circles over a glass rim and then smooshing the large circle on top.

The bill is tricky. It provides a few minor immediate and short term tax benefits for regular people, but many more diverse, substantial, and permanent tax cuts to billionaires and corporations. Take a moment to reflect on the differences here: minor and short-term for us, versus SUBSTANTIAL and PERMANENT for the super rich. The combination of cutting many programs that regular Americans rely on for all kinds of things from medical care to wildfire protection to clean energy incentives and protections (and too many more to list here), funneling our tax dollars to the wealthiest few in the nation, and tripling the ICE budget, would increase the national deficit to more than 3 trillion dollars. I’m using the most basic language I can, stripping the complexity down to bare bones, to try to help you see that this bill WILL MAKE YOU SUFFER, no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve been deluded into believing will make your life better. I am silently shrieking inside my head to 92% of Americans and 51% of congress, “What is wrong with you people?!”

Turn the glass upside down and free the dough to make little puff pastry flowers.

Locally here in Delta County where I live, “about 1 in 4 people—that’s 24.1% of our neighbors—use Medicaid, known here as Health First Colorado. Even more striking, half the kids in Delta County schools rely on Medicaid or CHIP. Medicaid pays for much more than doctor visits. It helps cover hearing and vision screenings at school, mental health support, speech therapy, dental care, and more. If the funding is cut, those services could vanish—and families will be left to pay out-of- pocket. Medicaid also supports home and community-based services to help elders stay in their home—all at risk if this bill passes. Finally, and possibly the WORST outcome: A national study also found that Delta County Memorial Hospital is one of six rural hospitals in Colorado that could close if this bill passes. That’s our hospital. Our ER. Our local jobs. The ripple effect on our local businesses. This bill doesn’t work for Delta County. We can still stop it. Call Rep. Jeff Hurd at (202) 225‑4676. Tell him: Vote NO on the Big, Beautiful Bill.” [Thanks Janine, for letting me use these excerpts from your LTE, I couldn’t have said it better.]

Then we mashed up 85-ish grams of blue cheese with half a beaten egg.

The trickiest part is that this will mostly happen over time. The first benefit cuts are scheduled to take place shortly after the 2026 midterm elections. So you’ll see less tax on tips and a few other things right away, but you won’t lose SNAP and Medicaid benefits until you’ve already voted again for the sociopaths who stripped them away. And some of the biggest losses for regular Americans contained in the BBB won’t go into effect until after the 2028 presidential election. That’s right. You will vote yet again for the cadre of creeps who are gutting every federal provision that most Americans rely on for a decent quality of life, before you see that quality of life plummet. Don’t take my word for it. Read the bill yourself, or read the handful of media sources who are actually reading the bill. Listen to some of the keenest analysts break it down for you. That’s not me. I’m just the air raid siren telling you to pay attention right now. And then do something about it: call your congressperson TODAY to demand accountability and truth, and demand that they vote NO.

Then we spooned the blue cheese and egg mixture into the little flower cups.

The healthcare ramifications are really the tip of the cascading iceberg. It is definitely one BIG bill, but there’s nothing beautiful about it unless you’re filthy rich or not even a human being but a big business. And the Big Bill isn’t the only White House decree that is going to make life a lot less comfortable for your kids and grandkids. It’s overwhelming, really. Birthright citizenship can now be stripped away for murky reasons. The LGBTQ youth option on the national suicide prevention hotline has been defunded. The fossil fuel industry wins all around at the expense of clean energy, intensifying the climate crisis. The list goes on. The bill is absolutely appalling and will insidiously, slowly, eat away at all that makes our country truly great. Which, I’m sorry, is not old white straight men.

Brush the dough with the other half egg, and bake in a 375℉ oven for around 30 minutes.

The separation of powers that we learned was fundamental to the structure of our democracy has crumbled. There is just under half a Congress fighting to preserve our citizenship rights, our civil rights, our rights to OUR taxes paying for our basic needs. The other half of the Legislative branch, and the top tier of the Judicial branch have ceded all power to the Executive branch which is run by one miserable old white man and his cult followers. Wake UP, America. You don’t have to be WOKE to pay attention to what’s really happening in the White House. Do not be blinded by the rah-rah bombs bursting ICE fueled distractions. Take back the true meaning of the American flag: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

The finished treats look a little less appealing than I’d hoped, with a slightly brown crust on the green cheese filling, but the pastry browned nicely and they tasted delicious!

I can’t help but wonder if I’ve convinced anyone to learn more about what’s at stake here, and to make their voices heard in the unhallowed halls of congress. I hope so. If even one neighbor calls Jeff Hurd as a result of reading this post and tells him to vote NO on H.R. 1, my hours writing this, my burning rage, will have been worth it. If even a few others in Colorado or any other state are moved to make one phone call, download the 5 Calls app, share this post with a friend, or join the movement to protect our rights, my day will have been made.

Having devoted much time and energy today to this urgent situation, I relax into gratitude. I am grateful for the friends and neighbors who are also working to defeat this Big Bad Bill. I have done all that I can about it today, and there was so much more to this day that was actually beautiful. There was Zoom Cooking with Amy. Papa Blue has been teaching his babies to fly and hunt just beyond the fence, and dipping through the yarden throughout the day. As Amy and I enjoyed our supper, Papa Blue flew in for a sip at the birdbath which sits on the post that Amy mosaic’d many years ago.

Down at the pond, the tadpoles keep growing, and growing.

And the day started out with a wildfire up on Mendicant Ridge. I had just noticed the smoke and opened the phone to message the Bad Dogs who live below the ridge, and saw a message from them asking if I could see the smoke. This inspired me to create a What’s App group for about eight neighbors: we all have different perspectives, and among us can spot the valley, the mountains to the east, and the mesa to the west. We can each see a piece of the puzzle, and none of us the whole thing. It’s another great example of interdependence. The chat buzzed throughout the day with updates as the Crawford and Hotchkiss volunteer fire departments controlled the blaze in rugged, steep terrain; just the kind of place a fire likes to lose control. Some could see the chopper dipping into the reservoir to haul water, some couldn’t stop watching it, and some felt it shudder through their bedroom. I’m grateful for my neighbors watching out for one another, for the firefighters, for the technology that allows all this interconnectedness. I’m grateful for the Watch Duty app that also relies on volunteers and a network of observers to issue wildfire alerts and updates nationally, since a lot of federal wildfire and weather experts are already or soon will be out of jobs and those warning systems will dry up. Everything is connected. Your wellbeing depends on everyone else’s.

Wild Things

May25

I’m grateful for the kindness of neighbors this weekend. I needed to borrow bacon for Zoom Cooking with Amy, so I called over to Pork Central and while I was there picking up bacon I borrowed a hummingbird feeder. I had to take down the oriole feeder they were using because the holes are too big and too many native bees were drowning in the nectar; these hummers are territorial, and kept coming back to the empty hook admonishing me.

The honeybees have arrived at last, en masse, to bring the pink honeysuckle to buzzing life.

Today I realized I wouldn’t have enough bird seed for the new feeder to last until the sacks I ordered from Grand Junction arrived, so I called the Hitching Post in town to check their holiday hours. “We’re actually closed today and tomorrow,” she said, “but what can I do for you?” I told her I was out of bird seed and I thought they were feeding babies, but they could wait a couple of days. She said she’d be downstairs for a little while if I wanted to come get some. This great little store I’ve mentioned before, always has one of anything you could possibly need, and they were so generous to open for a moment for me today. I thanked her profusely, and gave her a hunk of Teddy Roosevelt clove cake I’d baked last night when I picked up the seed.

I’ve been grateful watching the frogs’ eggs develop day by day, the little black blobs taking the shape of tadpoles. My calculations were off, though: I didn’t expect them to start hatching until tomorrow, but they actually started Thursday night. I spent all day Friday watching and filming, and got a good first-sunburn-of-the-season to show for it. Since then I’ve been wearing long sleeves, and watching in awe as the egg mass empties one cell at a time.

The tiny tadpoles break free of the mass and spin around for a minute before latching onto the curly rushes with their tiny teeth. Over the past few days one nest has emptied almost completely, and the other larger nest is more than halfway done hatching. Video to come.

I’m grateful for sunshine on red flowers in the dry woods. The other evening this patch of scarlet gilia caught my eye as we walked toward home on the Breakfast Loop. Then this evening we chose to walk the Medium Loop to the canyon, and a flash of red drew me up off the trail into a cactus patch.

The prickly pears aren’t blooming yet but the claret cups are! It feels early, they used to bloom in June. In just the few moments after my first glimpse from the trail, clouds moved in and shadowed the flowers’ glow by the time I reached them.

Along the rim the little buckwheats are in bloom. Most of them are cream colored but there are a few with this sweet rosy hue. And farther along, another sunlit glimpse, another cluster of claret cups peeking out.

By the time we reached the cactus patch along the main trail home, the one I always try to catch in bloom, the sun had dipped low behind deep clouds. But now I know they’re all blooming I’ll be out again tomorrow chasing that little thrilling flash of red through the trees.

A mystery encountered: many small limbs broken off a young piñon pine. I didn’t stop long enough to look for tracks or fur, but I’ll check again well before dusk tomorrow. It doesn’t look like buck damage but it could be; or it could have been done by a bear. Or who knows? The forest is full of wild things.

Good Neighbors

May13

The lilacs keep on giving. I’m trying this simple recipe for lilac cordial. One cup of lilac blossoms, juice of one lemon, half a cup of honey, and a liter of distilled water, shaken daily for a week. I put it together last night. We’ll know more later.

I’m exploring with some friends if there’s a distinction between gratitude, and living gratefully. We met tonight to discuss that, among other things. It may be as simple as the difference between a noun and a verb, but it deserves some unpacking. One thing I was grateful for this morning was being able to call my good neighbors and ask 1) for an asparagus refill, and 2) to borrow their garage and tools so I could fix my car. Though probably any of my neighbors would help any other in a pinch, I’ve had unpleasant encounters with a couple of them recently. So I was doubly grateful that I could call and leave a message with those requests, and it was my lucky day. Mary called me back in three minutes, having just come in from collecting wild asparagus along the fenceline, and Fred was already moving his truck out of the shop.

Why I needed to fix my car is another story, but the under-bumper-guard was ripped off and dragging. Fred examined it first, but I wanted to fix it myself. The Trans Handy-Ma’am always says, “You’re worth the time it takes to learn a new skill.” And now that I can get down on the ground I want to do so at every opportunity. And, as I heard a drag queen say the other night, “Of all the opportunities I’ve had in my life, this one is by far the most recent.” So with Mary handing me bolts and Fred’s new socket set and Wren supervising, we got ‘er done: the car is now safe to drive to Phil’s for a professional opinion and long-term solution.

I returned home with a pound of fresh wild asparagus, blistered it some in olive oil, laid it gently over sliced cheddar in a warmed spinach tortilla, and drizzled it with my new secret sauce: mayo, Grey Poupon, and balsamic vinegar. Then I piled on some chopped romaine, and some heirloom arugula that’s colonized the flagstone patio, rolled it up, and toasted it.

Despite the wind, I enjoyed lunch on the patio with a new Kindle book, and then played ‘Wren catch’ with the crunchy asparagus and romaine ends. It really was my lucky day. Things didn’t go quite as planned, but under the circumstances they couldn’t have gone better. I’ve felt waves of warm fuzzies wash through me all day, for having good neighbors, good communities, and good conversations. As well as a good dog, and a promising science experiment in the windowsill.

(Click or double click to play video)

We the People

Apr18

I’m grateful there is trash pickup service at the top of my driveway, and for the generosity of neighbors, and for the beautiful view when I took the garbage up. I was grateful to learn last night that Sen. Van Hollen was able to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia after all. His success “revealed the absurdity of the administration’s claim that they couldn’t do anything to reverse their mistake. He broke through the gulag’s fake shroud of mystery,” commented my friend Ted. Abrego Garcia is a symbol of thousands of other innocent victims among the more than 100,000 people the regime claims to have deported since the inauguration. 60 Minutes reported on a young gay makeup artist, a legal asylum seeker in the US, who was also illegally sent to El Salvador. Andry Hernandez Romero fled Venezuela because he was in danger as an out gay man. Imagine what he’s being subjected to in the mega-prison. A U.S. born citizen was arrested and jailed for crossing from Georgia into Florida despite his birth certificate being authenticated. This is just the beginning, if we the people don’t make it stop.

There’s another national day of protest tomorrow, despite rumors that the regime is set to actively target some of the organizations mobilizing these mass demonstrations, including Indivisible. AP reports that the regime says anyone who hasn’t committed a crime is safe, yet in the next breath quotes Musk as condemning Indivisible as “criminals.” Doublespeak. Indivisible has been discussing contingency plans with attorneys and other activist groups in the event that any of them are charged with crimes.

It’s even more important for me to balance the so-called news with deep truths from wise elders, so I listened to this interview with Brother David Steindl-Rast on “How to Be Grateful in Every Moment (But Not for Everything).” He has been through a lot, seen a lot of chaos and suffering in his 98 years, and still, he reminds us, in every moment we can find some gratefulness, if only for this breath. I was keenly grateful for my breath frequently today, as it came more easily than it has for awhile. Maybe the snow knocked down some of the airborne allergens.

Wren giving me the (very cute) stink eye for keeping her in the donut, but that was yesterday. Today she is free! and loving it, and being a very good girl. Her leg is mostly healed.

Persistence

Apr16

The wild plum in full bloom yesterday with stormy sky behind. I’m grateful for these precious days outside in the yarden, and for time inside gathering online with several communities, and for sleeping pretty well most nights and for adventuresome dreams. Everything feels so fragile right now. All I can do is keep going, practicing courage and resilience in loving this life and engaging in healthy resistance where possible. The regime has gone far beyond the pale, crossed the rubicon it’s said, with its predictable but no less shocking willful disregard of Supreme Court orders to return the kidnapped Maryland father from the gulag he was shipped to in El Salvador: They have acknowledged it happened because of “an administrative error,” but pretend they can’t undo it. Did these people base their playbook on Orwell’s 1984?! Or any of the other dystopian fictions of the mid-20th Century? It sure feels like it. Too horrible to be believed. Remember this name: Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Pay attention to what becomes of him. A Maryland Senator tried to make contact with him today in El Salvador and was denied access to visit or even speak on the phone with him. Abrego Garcia is a practice case for the US, dipping its toe in the bloody waters of a coming wave of disappearings if Americans do not rise up to quell this dictatorship.

Topaz on her birthday walk this week, passing one of my favorite junipers I think of as a star, opening out in all directions. She turned ten years old on Monday. What a good kitty.

On a lighter note, federal worker still employed are facing chaos and despair as reported in The Atlantic. There will be events and marches around the country this Saturday, and another big National Day of Action on May 1. We are at an inflection point. We need to amplify, amplify, amplify the truth about the imminent collapse of the country we have known all our lives at the hands of the biggest conspiracy we’ve ever seen, bigger than anyone has ever seen, a conspiracy forty plus years in the making to turn over the US to a fanatical fringe of religious zealots. . I worry every day about the ramifications. We must persist in vocal protests of ever greater magnitude. And, I hold active hope for the possibility that this great upheaval will trigger the downfall of the patriarchy which has run this planet into the ground for the past several thousand years. If only women ruled the world. Most people who voted for Kamala are suffering the pain of their awareness of what’s happening; most of the people who voted for the other guy are probably buying the propaganda and not even aware of this urgent constitutional crisis; and the ONE THIRD of eligible voters who didn’t vote for anyone last fall might be wishing they had. What really scares me is the feeling that most Americans still have their eyes closed, their heads in the sand, numbed by the TV shows that have nefariously prepared them to accept this exact world.