a salute to trees

post #473
           I am not following the president impeachment happenings each day, though I do try to stay informed since I am, in general, a bit of a politics junkie. However I'm finding the toxicity spills over everywhere, with much that stuns and dismays.  Cruelty tears me up. (Kids in Cages??!) Not facing the changing climate, in particular, makes no possible sense at all to me. (Fossil fuels forever? I don't see how or why.)
         I don't want to take time tonight to make any kind of long list. Where my house is located, we don't talk politics a lot and when we do It doesn't feel unfriendly. My Kentucky county has, until Trump, always voted for the Democrat for president. 

         My monthly writers group of over 20 years enjoys giving a joint donation every year instead of gifts to each other at Christmas. This year we decided to find some way to express support for actual ongoing projects that are trying to do something on the ground, so to speak, directly related to the climate. Here are two articles we use to research our decision. I don't include either one in its entirety, so I hope it doesn't end up being too confusing to be helpful.

article #1: How to Stop Freaking Out and Tackle Climate Change

Here’s a five-step plan to deal with the stress and become part of the solution.

By Emma Marris

Ms. Marris is the author of “Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World.”

• Jan. 10, 2020. New York Times

You are scrolling through the news and see yet another story about climate change.

Australia is on fire. Indonesia is drowning. At the same time, Donald Trump is trying to make it easier to build new fossil-fuel projects.

As you read, your chest tightens and a sense of dread washes over you, radiating out from your heart. You feel anxious, afraid and intensely guilty. Just this morning, you drove a gasoline-powered car to work. You ate beef for lunch. You booked a flight, turned on the heat, forgot your reusable grocery bags at home. This is your fault.

As an environmental writer, I’m often asked for guidance on coping with climate change. I have thoughts. Even better, I have a five-point plan to manage the psychological toll of living with climate change and to become part of the solution.

Step 1: Ditch the shame.

The first step is the key to all the rest. Yes, our daily lives are undoubtedly contributing to climate change. But that’s because the rich and powerful have constructed systems that make it nearly impossible to live lightly on the earth. Our economic systems require most adults to work, and many of us must commute to work in or to cities intentionally designed to favor the automobile. Unsustainable food, clothes and other goods remain cheaper than sustainable alternatives.

[The rest of the article is available if you have access to a NYT subscription or a library.

Credit...Evan Cohen

There's much more to the article, but I want to include here an earlier article that was helpful for us, from VOX, December 18, 2018, by Sigel Samuel:

article#2: Want to fight climate change effectively? Here's where to donate your money.

        The article features 5 options, and we are going for the first one, called COALITION FOR RAINFOREST NATIONS.  If anyone wants help locating the article, please let me know and I can dig around and send a link.  

       Note: Since I do believe that trees are essential for life on earth and irreplaceable, and since I will probably end up writing other posts on this topic, I am also going to feature a tree each time. I revere trees. Here is one of many photos with trees that I've made.  The photo was made in England; it's an oak, in January. Thank you, tree. We need everyone of you.

      Stay warm, keep your cool, be bold, encourage bravery, appreciate a tree.

had to be there, and humor helps, as does the unexpected

post #401
       Am starting on my eighth year of posting on this blog!  Once a week for most of the time! I say bravo to my crazy self, and to all the pleasure I get from focusing on story telling, with photos, each time. Tonight I am going to hunt up some of the images that I just happened to see. Just happened to have my camera with me. Just had to be there. No Photoshop. Just luck and a thrill and eyes open.

A favorite -- I had returned to my car after visiting with Sandy, my neighbor and friend.  After getting into my car, I looked around to prepare myself for backing up on a hill and a curve.  This is what I saw instead! Just sitting there next to me, on the truck tire. Waiting for me, I presume. My camera was on the front seat next to me. I slowly lowered my window and equally slowly picked up my camera and faced it out of the window. She never moved. It turns out she was pregnant at the time, so maybe she was just enough slowed down not to be bothered by me. I title this photo "on the way."

This is somewhere between a found photo and a quick snapshot. My writers group was meeting at a Panera's, and sometimes I just can't resist. Two poets at work, a quick moment saved, and some fun.

This cracked me up. All these people coming to the Louvre Museum, in Paris, to see the Mona Lisa, and this was how the scene presented itself. I was almost embarrassed to add my cell phone to the collection. All that mystery in the painting, a bulletproof glass in front of it, and no opportunity to connect with the art itself. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Mon Dieu!

 

Talk about the unexpected! Why I noticed this when about to get in my car, in the shed, I will never know.  My eyes at the ready, as they say. I had never before seen such a big snake in the wild, and I had no idea what he or she was up to. Well, up to the rafters, of course. I risked taking the time for a photo, with my handy camera, thinking the snake looked very comfortable up there and wasn't about to get activated.  I decided it was big and black enough not to be a copperhead -- a big black snake or a cow snake -- and I lucked out.

Well, this photo is being included because this birthday card showed up in my mailbox, hand delivered, and I thought it hilarious. What a lot of careful work!  Thanks again, Jean!!

     This photo has also been on my blog before, but I thought it a good example of what happens when you set the remote for a group picture, run to get into the photo, and have no idea what crazy whatever your beloved family members are plotting. 

 

This is from the summer before. I got to the pond just as J. was able to pull off one last throwing--three--cousins--into--the--air in the pond.... This photo still makes me laugh. The kids are too big anymore for this to happen again. I feel lucky to have caught this quick and happy moment.  

experimenting under the Denver Christmas tree. What would happen if.... How would it work.... I love how it turned out.

        This British sign is still there. I saw it again a month ago. I hadn't gone out looking for a sign, or something quirky, or something humorous, but there it was, and the eyes got it. 

        I've managed to use up this day already, so I will do another similar post soon.  Next week I get to share some Halloween ones.  And an outdoors wedding from last night.  This is all by way of trying to stay grounded as our midterm elections get ever closer to happening. I want so badly for things to turn around for the USA. I want to see the American can-do spirit show its power. I want some concentrated attention spent on taking our changing climate situation very, very seriously. I'm so tired of lies, lies, lies, and not just the president's. I don't see anything good about separating young kids from their families. And then losing them. Please vote and stand up against all the attempts to make voting harder rather than more universal. 
        As the ACLU says, vote like your rights depend on it.  Ain't that the truth.

a salute to my writers group

post #275
         Today I want to honor and acknowlege the writers group I am part of.  We have been meeting for ages, usually monthly, and usually for at least 4 hours. The group has its origins in the Appalachian Writers Workshop in Hindman, Kentucky. This past Friday the weather was warm, and we were all able to be there -- which is not to be taken for granted. The light was right, so I couldn't help myself from taking a couple of photos of each person as we worked around our favorite table at a Panera's in Lexington. 
         Sometimes we do meet in less public spaces. That's when George Ella will have her guitar to share a song she's written. We each bring something we are working on -- poetry, essays, parts of a novel or a memoir, manuscripts for picture books, even sometimes book reviews or excerpts from our personal journals. Although I do more photography than writing most of the time, I work with words as well; they helped me come up for the title for my recent exhibit, What Caught My Eye. There's a high level of trust and of appreciation for what we each literally bring to the table.
          Well, I hope they will all continue to trust me!  I didn't ask their permission to put this on my blog nor did I pose any of the photos. It just felt like a good day to catch us all at our work on words, which of course is usually a solitary endeavor. I hope my effort here works to give a feeling of how much it can mean to writers and artists to learn from people we trust and rely on to help us move forward. In addition, it's plain wonderful to be with friends who believe in each other.  We miss Lou, who passed away, but her wisdom and words remain a part of our ongoing conversation.

George Ella

Leatha and Martha

Marie and Leatha

Jan

Poets win!

post #233
       Biggest news in Kentucky this week??  Well, just today, maybe, it is that our University of Kentucky basketball team still hasn't lost a game this season.  However, in writing and reading and poetry circles, it is definitely the great news that a name often mentioned on this blog,  GEORGE ELLA LYON,  has been appointed Poet Laureate of Kentucky!!  Clicking on her name will bring up a wonderful write-up about her, and the photo they use is very good, even if I didn't take it myself.  Congratulations to George Ella  -- and to the UK basketball team.  Such happy news.
         This week has needed its happy news, since

• I went five days without the internet, until 11 a.m. today,
• which led me to notice a few hours ago that our Sen. McConnell is still dragging his feet on the appointment of Loretta Lynch as the new Attorney General, for no good reason,
• and our state legislature has done very little while in session.
• I am in the middle of a case of laryngitis which makes me sound horrible on the telephone, where I needed to be quite a bit in order to get my internet back on.
• I did have a wonderful visit with my son and his family last weekend, and I did have a dentist appointment and a haircut once I returned, 
• and my writers group met on Friday, in Lexington, where we fetted George Ella with laughter and tears and a cake (thanks, Martha!) and some fabulous fruit (thanks, Leatha!) and our usual sharing of words we have been working on. 

        So I am going to do here today what I had planned to do last week, which is to share an earlier blog of mine, #122, in honor of the one of the beauties of winter, now soon over.  I hope you will have time to revisit my homage -- to our wood cook stove -- which follows.

        Here's to happy news whenever and wherever you find it and can share it.

post #122

     
      In honor of chilly and icy weather, I decided to share photos of a wonderful member of our household staff -- the wood cook stove that was in the house when we bought the place forty years ago.  I have been known to take the stove for granted, but it's usually of great interest when someone visits our home for the first time.  We have it connected via a stove pipe to its chimney in the winter.  In the summer, however, we take out the stove pipe and push the stove up against the wall behind it as a way to provide additional space for summer comings and goings.  We don't rely on it for cooking, but we can boil water on it, cook potatoes or cornbread in the oven, or keep a pot of soup warm all afternoon -- if it is cold enough outside to make it worthwhile to build a fire.
      In the following photos, our kitchen area is close behind me.
      

the stove in use today, water boiling and a pan of water providing steam into the dry heated air

firebox on the left, oven in the middle, and, formerly, a water tank on the right, which, unfortunately, rusted out even before our time and doesn't seem easily replaceable

oven door  --  the gauge isn't actually all that accurate

The wood goes on this side, so my husband cuts it to fit the size of the opening.

To see what is behind the white door on the left, see the next photo.

wood burning in the top, ashes falling to the bottom, drawer comes out for periodic emptying

close-up from the last photo

wood in, lid still open

Here's a fire from last week, wood burning hot.  Often a slower fire can last the night.

yes, indeed

My husband, Frank, took this next photo Saturday morning, at one of the waterfalls.  Thanks!

       

    Photos two years ago of this same waterfall are on my blog here.  John Flavell took them, and today I want to thank him again for sharing the photos and for enjoying using our wood stove so very much.  I can also share that yesterday John won first place at the Kentucky News Photographers Association for the Best News Picture Story/Essay -- on the aftermath and recovery of West Liberty following the March 2nd tornado.  Bravo, John!! Click here to see these winning photos.