For the past few years, I have used sleeping outside as a many leveled therapy. At first, it was to escape: my messy house, my messy thoughts, my insomnia and even depression. I found that to go outside and slip into bed was to remove myself into the world of nature, which soothed, forgave and comforted me. I got over being depressed and continued sleeping outside to marvel at the bird sounds that woke me each morning and to fall asleep with the sounds of the wind and the tide waters from MacKaye Harbor down below my rise of land.
For the first year, I just put a mattress on the porch and threw a tarp over the covers so that if it rained, I could still stay out there. It was a bit damp and crinkly and sometimes I gave up and came inside. A dear friend saw how I was doing this and gave me a wonderful gift: a sailcloth that attaches to the eaves of my roof and ties over the bed to the porch railing. Now I can easily stay outside in all weathers and do. Something about sleeping outside: snug and warm in the rain, makes me feel giddy with pleasure and just a bit smug.
This time of year, mid-May, the smells from the crab apple trees and other blooming bushes are luscious. The robins and the crows and the geese chorus away and all manner of other birds I can't identify add their two cents worth. The cat comes and curls up too. I highly recommend this therapy and feel I am awfully lucky to have the chance. May all of us get enough outside time and may we also find ways to slow down and not use as much gas fueled transportation as before. It doesn't make sense anymore, does it?
Tuesday, May 10, 2011
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Flags in Washington State were at half mast for young soldier, but what about Osama?
Upon hearing about the murder of Osama Bin Laden
May, 2011
These words, sent from Laurel to her parents ~
"I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Simple joys of tribal connection
Singing last night in dear friend Lorrie's house, welcoming new family: Marjorie, Diano and Niema there. (I have a feeling I'm not spelling all those names right!)
Seeing and being with loved friends and sweet black dog, good healthy food. Listening to Niema direct us all and call her adult friends by the names she chooses. My favorite is "Kenny Fugi" for Kenny Ferrugiaro.
Oh, how sweet it is
To be wishless
Without a sign
An empty mind...
Joe Reilly, spirit boy
Seeing and being with loved friends and sweet black dog, good healthy food. Listening to Niema direct us all and call her adult friends by the names she chooses. My favorite is "Kenny Fugi" for Kenny Ferrugiaro.
Oh, how sweet it is
To be wishless
Without a sign
An empty mind...
Joe Reilly, spirit boy
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
La Push and now
What a lovely weekend, striding up the Coast in the sunshine. Wild Mama Ocean, makes me dance and sing and celebrate bare feet. Brought back some rocks and baby driftwood pieces. More clutter, but so beautiful! I knew a Reed professor who built a loft in his living room and put his bed up there with a ladder going up, the feet of which were planted in bucketfuls of beach rocks. I like the idea but if I went to all that work, I'd never move them to sweep. Practicality rears its ugly head!
And now it's overcast again in the morning
and back to work
and sadness over one dear one's sorrow
joy over the news of another's surgery completion
picking nettles
walking to the low tide
building a fire
running a bath
listening to two dueling frogs close by
end of another beautiful day
And now it's overcast again in the morning
and back to work
and sadness over one dear one's sorrow
joy over the news of another's surgery completion
picking nettles
walking to the low tide
building a fire
running a bath
listening to two dueling frogs close by
end of another beautiful day
Sunday, April 17, 2011
Best pie I've ever made
Ingredients:
one pie crust, previously made, defrosted from freezer and rolled out for bottom crust. Butter a 9 inch pie pan and make the crust all nice and pretty. Preheat oven to 425.
Three little bags of last year's frozen rhubarb (a gift from JoJo Tran, Seattle, more about him later.)
One big bag of frozen organic strawberries, from summer of '09, needing to be used.
Candied ginger, cut up small, maybe 1/8 of a cup
some lemon juice
1/2 cup organic sugar, a combo of date and cane I think
4 T. flour
1/2 t. salt
Mix all that up in a bowl and let it comingle for awhile. (Of course, a little later in the season, I'd be using fresh rhubarb and strawberries. But believe me, this totally worked.)
Pour it into the pie crust, put a baking sheet in the bottom of the oven to catch any spills and cook for 20 minutes.
Make a crumble top by mixing up some softened butter, a cup's worth of oats, flour, quinoa flakes or whatever you've got, could just be flour, some sugar, not much, and a dash of salt. Play with that until you've got a nice crumbly mixture.
Ok, now here's the interesting part: I had some amazing smoothie left over with pineapple, yogourt, sour sop fruit and papaya in it. I mixed some flour and tapioca in that, swirled it around in the blender and poured that over the pie. You could probably do this at the beginning, and cook the pie for 30 minutes before putting on the crumble but I didn't think of it until halfway through, it worked fine. I got it out of the oven, poured the smoothie mixture into the filling, patting it around with the spoon to even it up, and stuck it back in the oven for another 10 minutes: 30 in all.
Then I took it out: crumbled the crumble mixture on top (I had too much mixture, have to figure out something to do with it later, maybe just add it to oatmeal for breakfast) and put it back in the oven for 12-15 minutes to brown the top. Take out, let cool. YuMMMM.
This was a hit over at Nick and Susie's tipi singing party last night.
JoJo Tran is a lovely young Vietnamese man who accidentally got in hot water with the Vietnamese government by showing some Navy Seals where a POW camp might possibly be, over fifteen years ago. He fled to America, becoming an illegal immigrant in Seattle, torn away from his wonderful wife Saray and Tano, his infant son, back in Vietnam. It took him fifteen long years to get legal. There were no guarantees: he became an incredible gardener: teaching others how to garden in local pea patches, a Quaker: garnering friends who showed up to support him at his hearings and finally, with the Quakers' help and the testimony of one of the original Seals, he was granted citizenship in this country (after having been turned down numerous times and faced with possible exportation back to a government which would commit him to prison and probably execute him). Recently, he was able to get his wife and son here as well. I met them last week, they came for dinner at my house, the guests of my dear friend Richard, who brought them up for an American spaghetti feed and a tour of Lopez. JoJo contributed the rhubarb for the above pie, and Saray prepared the sour sop for my smoothie, thus making this pie truly unique.
I look forward to more pie adventures with odd ingredients. Oh, I put some currants in the crumble mixture, but I wouldn't recommend that, as they tend to burn.
one pie crust, previously made, defrosted from freezer and rolled out for bottom crust. Butter a 9 inch pie pan and make the crust all nice and pretty. Preheat oven to 425.
Three little bags of last year's frozen rhubarb (a gift from JoJo Tran, Seattle, more about him later.)
One big bag of frozen organic strawberries, from summer of '09, needing to be used.
Candied ginger, cut up small, maybe 1/8 of a cup
some lemon juice
1/2 cup organic sugar, a combo of date and cane I think
4 T. flour
1/2 t. salt
Mix all that up in a bowl and let it comingle for awhile. (Of course, a little later in the season, I'd be using fresh rhubarb and strawberries. But believe me, this totally worked.)
Pour it into the pie crust, put a baking sheet in the bottom of the oven to catch any spills and cook for 20 minutes.
Make a crumble top by mixing up some softened butter, a cup's worth of oats, flour, quinoa flakes or whatever you've got, could just be flour, some sugar, not much, and a dash of salt. Play with that until you've got a nice crumbly mixture.
Ok, now here's the interesting part: I had some amazing smoothie left over with pineapple, yogourt, sour sop fruit and papaya in it. I mixed some flour and tapioca in that, swirled it around in the blender and poured that over the pie. You could probably do this at the beginning, and cook the pie for 30 minutes before putting on the crumble but I didn't think of it until halfway through, it worked fine. I got it out of the oven, poured the smoothie mixture into the filling, patting it around with the spoon to even it up, and stuck it back in the oven for another 10 minutes: 30 in all.
Then I took it out: crumbled the crumble mixture on top (I had too much mixture, have to figure out something to do with it later, maybe just add it to oatmeal for breakfast) and put it back in the oven for 12-15 minutes to brown the top. Take out, let cool. YuMMMM.
This was a hit over at Nick and Susie's tipi singing party last night.
JoJo Tran is a lovely young Vietnamese man who accidentally got in hot water with the Vietnamese government by showing some Navy Seals where a POW camp might possibly be, over fifteen years ago. He fled to America, becoming an illegal immigrant in Seattle, torn away from his wonderful wife Saray and Tano, his infant son, back in Vietnam. It took him fifteen long years to get legal. There were no guarantees: he became an incredible gardener: teaching others how to garden in local pea patches, a Quaker: garnering friends who showed up to support him at his hearings and finally, with the Quakers' help and the testimony of one of the original Seals, he was granted citizenship in this country (after having been turned down numerous times and faced with possible exportation back to a government which would commit him to prison and probably execute him). Recently, he was able to get his wife and son here as well. I met them last week, they came for dinner at my house, the guests of my dear friend Richard, who brought them up for an American spaghetti feed and a tour of Lopez. JoJo contributed the rhubarb for the above pie, and Saray prepared the sour sop for my smoothie, thus making this pie truly unique.
I look forward to more pie adventures with odd ingredients. Oh, I put some currants in the crumble mixture, but I wouldn't recommend that, as they tend to burn.
Friday, April 15, 2011
weirdnesses of modern medicine
I really admire Dr. Prins. He doesn't care about lawsuits or appearances, he knows he's a good doc so he just tells it like it is: "you didn't have ANY bad cells in this chunk of stuff we cut out of you." Great. And I haven't even paid the bills yet, or recovered from the asthmatic effects of the pain meds. Hmmm. So, are the bad cells somewhere else, did we miss 'em? Or, did I cure myself before showing up for surgery Monday morning? I'm pissed that the surgery may have been unnecessary, but working to balance that out with the lessons I'm learning: stay away from Ibuprofen, that I'm asthmatic even though I've never expressed symptoms before, and that when you have hours to kill at home in bed, you can start a blog and read weird books a few pages at a time. Oh wait, I already knew that last bit.
things of note for now
Things to remember, people really: Kiba and April as they go through their life changes, Alia and Michael, as their family expands by one miraculous little girl, Greg E. and his family, as they look forward to their summer together and live in the present moment, Russel and Madrona, as they gear up for "the season": studying and protecting our island and its surrounding seas, Aimee, as she searches for the perfect ski pack, Bob and Janis and the other wonderful souls who are learning how to be skilled Lopez EMTs, Ron Metcalf, as he readies himself for travels through England (his blog is called Travels with Ron, check it out, and Alia has one too, called The Alia Trip), Polly, as she navigates the medical world to stay healthy and vital. Each day I am grateful for the way people share their lives with me, the lessons observed by this generosity and the ways in which we reach out and share. Like our radio station, KLOI, and how people take the time to get on it and share their favorite music and thoughts: John Waugh and his "my two cents" is precious and so well done, Gary Alexander and his endless knowledge about musicians and composers, Shantparv and his hippie philosophies every Sunday night, Sue Dumond and her wonderful modern musical discoveries, Josh Ratza, many others. Thanks, all! May we get the most out of our beautiful world now, right now.
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