Light/Breezes

Light/Breezes
SUNRISE AT DEATH VALLEY-Photo by Tom Cochrun
Showing posts with label Hill Side Gardening. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hill Side Gardening. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Her Special Thumb....What Direction is This?

junction of forces
 Leffingwell Landing North, Cambria
8:30 am

     That's where we are, at a junction of forces. There is a lot at play. 
      
       An atmospheric front moves through the scene above and it changes things; how people feel, the light diffusion, humidity, wind and more. The Pacific is a grand energy and power of its own. It tunes the temperature, winds, and carries storms and is the world to marine life. The land stands by uplifts and movement and rises from the beach to the mountains and rock, pastures, wild life, forests and climates.
        This nation, at this time, is in a similar frame and depth of complexity-a junction of political forces and history.

what direction is this?


        
        Founder Benjamin Franklin signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. 
     He was asked after the Constitutional Convention what sort of government had the delegates created.
      "A Republic, if you can keep it."
       Franklin said when you bring an assembly of people for the benefit of their joint wisdom, you also assemble all of their "prejudices, passions, errors of opinion, local interest and their selfish views."

     History is stitching into the weave that binds this democratic republic. We are at a rare place and power now collides.
     The Legislative and the Executive branches have launched legal/constitutional disputes. The Parties are wrestling for their own souls and they are at a bitter war with each other. Citizen dialogue is dysfunctional and mean. Legal scholars debate who has power and who can do what to whom. Some of the corporate media are hysterical and act as cheerleaders. Social media is manipulation, assault, and role playing. Federal agencies are under a dismantlement or allowed to atrophy and crumble. The US is under cyber and thought attack.
      The Mueller Report did not end the loudest drama. For better or worse, it is a beginning of a new round of contest, vibrating through our Republic, if we can keep it.

her special thumb
     I'm fortunate to love an artist, who is also a gardener.  Lana's mother could grow anything and was forever puttering in ornamental beds and vegetable gardens. Daughter is like Mother. She continues to transform our place on the ridge to a sanctuary for mind and soul. Peace grows here.

into lana's garden
      Here's our annual visit to Lana's spring Garden.
      I hope you can take a few moments with these images to savor and enjoy the detail of how she composes with color, light, shape and texture.   







   It was a hope-to have bearing citrus trees, at our home. The ability to pick fruit on the back hill is a kick for a midwestern kid. 

















    Lana is amazed at the robust growth of the artichoke plants. I relish consumption. 

    For someone who grumbles and grouses about weeds, she certainly has a winsome way with photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom Plantae. She is a plantae painter.

     See you down the trail. 

    
     


     

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

EARTHY MATTERS

WHEN LOOKING DOWN COUNTS
     They are comparing it to the California Gold Rush-the search for meteor pieces and ironically near the original California gold fields.
      $1000 a gram is apparently the going price and according to a great LA Times article the mood and vibe up around Lotus Park and El Dorado County is reminiscent of the Gold Rush indeed.  Prospectors, hunters, investors, hustlers are all scouring over the countryside and jamming bars and motels. The 4-5 Billion year old meteor pieces are obviously rare and thus highly in demand.  The plot thickens.

DAY BOOK
HILL SIDE GARDENING
      Our home on a ridge doesn't afford much flat space for the kind of Indiana gardening we used to enjoy.  So, we borrowed a page from those who do hill side terrace gardening and have created a bit of flat space.
     Lana is doing remarkable work in replacing ice plant with other succulent plantings on the slope.  
     With the loan of a good old Midwestern Roto Tiller from our Indiana ex pat friend Mike Griffin, we've "flattened" a bit of the hilltop. We tilled the slope until we had enough plowed soil to smooth out and level.

We have named this bit of newly flat ground
"Indiana."
Stay tuned for "garden updates."
See you down the trail.