Bicyles, Sun, Music, Ice Cream & Cake

This is going to be difficult.... It was a year ago today that I lost my Mom rather suddenly. It was five days after my birthday and I was just finishing up driving the Al-Can highway while moving Anali & Peter home from Alaska when I got the call. When I got home my birthday card from my Mom was there but I just couldn't open it. Tonight I finally did and she had included a twenty dollar bill, the paper clipping from my college graduation 30 years ago and wrote that she was proud of me and loved me with all her heart. She also wrote to "have a nice time on the mountain" as she knew we were going to climb a glacier on my birthday. Tears were flowing as I ate my last slice of birthday cake tonight....

I like this quote!

"The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet." --James Oppenheim

Leisure by William Henry Davies

Leisure

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare,

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

---William Henry Davies

Looking for Buttercups

The pockets of snow and ice cling grudgingly to the warming earth. Like mini-glaciers the retreating snow exposes compressed pine needles and dead grass covered with a thin gray layer of mold. However, along the south facing hillsides small patches of green grass are experiencing rebirth. The golden glint of buttercups were no where to be seen. Along the trail the piles left by mother and son moose are concentrated in a short section in an exposed, south facing opening.

The robins and magpies call out at dusk and suddenly I hear the first tree frogs, their voices sounding like pieces of dinosaur eggs being scraped together. Walking steadily up hill in the deep gloaming I see a flash of movement as a silent Great Horned Owl leaves its perch and glides away into the dark.

J Ross Wilde

Sick of Fog Yet?

I can handle winter and the snow. What I tire quite easily of, however, is fog day in and day out. Yuck! Doom and especially Gloom. Well, getting outside nearly always cheers me up and the last few days the weather has been nicer. Well, at least the fog burns of by late morning!

Two days ago 11 Canadian Geese were flying ENE over our house. On my hike down to Latah Creek yesterday I saw a huge gathering of Robins. At least a couple hundred of them enjoying the sun along the warmer south facing hillside where most of the snow had melted off (still a foot and a half at my house). There were a group of prancing deer by the cliff edge as I approached the bottom of the hill. Then a Bald Eagle flew over me, lifting my spirit towards Spring!

Another Quote from "This Moment on Earth"

"The most fundamental responsibility of any government is to protect its citizens from physical harm. Sometimes that harm comes from hostile foreign powers, or from terrorists, or from criminals. But as this chapter shows, it also comes from toxic materials, from air and water pollution, and from those who carelessly expose others to the real and horrible consequences of their own greed or negligence.The environmental justice movement was founded on the simple expectation of American citizens that their government will fight, not tolerate, such harm. Taking up that fight does not involve an expansion of government, or an intrusion of government into private matters, but a vindication of public trust in democratic government itself." from "This Moment on Earth" by John Kerry and Teresa Heinz Kerry

This is from Chapter 3 that speaks 'truth to power' and chronicles Majora Carter's struggle to bring change to her community (essentially a minority community that became a major dumping ground for NYC) via the Sustainable South Bronx organization.