life speaks

     Much has been made about nature since we've been living through a pandemic. The earth has been clearing and healing. We are reminded of forces more powerful than human. Many good minds note this is an opportunity to learn. How are we doing on that score?

are we listening?

      We were warned not to push "re-opening" at the risk of set backs. Impatience, hubris, economic pressure and failed leadership landed us in a death spiral and so we are closing again. The scene from Washington is frankly insane.

moments of pause

       But for now, a montage of vignettes of nature, normalcy,  life, listening, and living.

       If you are familiar with humming birds, you know hyper speed is their normal. I was arrested the other day by how this creature landed on a vine that embraces our front gate. It came to a full stop, something I've not seen.

       After a stunning and disbelieving couple of minutes, it dawned that I should get a shot.  I worried my motion in the kitchen window would send it off. The little creature stayed there for another five minutes, taking in the morning sun splashing against the Santa Lucia Mountains. We shared a glorious morning pause.

morning sun

    Lana painted this, Morning Sun, in 2015. It hung in a couple of gallery exhibitions and then we put it out of sight and mind.
     Just this week a friend, who manages a winery and who saw the painting back then, inquired as to if she still had it. That set off a search by an artist who is better at creating than managing inventory. Let's say her files do not rise to the Smithsonian, or Library of Congress, so we spent time looking through the physical inventory, checking records of sales, looking through her computer archive of inventory images and calling around. In the meantime Miguel called to ask what she had learned. "Still searching," was the response.
      A call to her friend and "broker/representative," a dealer in fine art, object d'art, collectibles and such, discovered Morning Sun. Thank you Carolyn. 
      I was happy to get reacquainted, enjoying her brush work. From the time we dated when she was a budding art student, I've told her, I am her greatest fan.
     I also enjoy her gardening.

gardens are also good for the soul

      As I have been padding the front walk these last days I've admired the progress of this beauty.

     It is a lily that reminds me a bit of the orchids she raises.

      Our vegetable beds have produced an abundance of snap peas, lettuce, micro greens, artichokes and our beloved favas, that our grand daughter is developing proficiency at "shucking." 
     The shot is a few weeks old, because the fava's have been harvested and we are now watching the tomato experiments.  Stay tuned.

between sea and sky 

with a large marine bank looming

    Boats are rare, close in, on this stretch of the central coast's notoriously dangerous waters. As I watched the little craft work north on the big water, pictured in the frame below, I was brought back again to our national ship of state. 

      

s o s

     It certainly must be obvious to even his base and the disgusting Republican Senate that Donnie the Dope, as other Republicans call him in advertising, is insane and incompetent.

      But he is dangerous too. His attempt to divert hospital virus data from the CDC is a naked exposure of his strongman tendencies. It is a page from a banana republic dictator or Russian ruler playbook. He wants to control and manipulate vital information. 
      He must know he is a cornered rat and that makes him more unpredictable. 
       We may be fatigued by the virus, and certainly by Trump world, but now is when the resistance and our resilience must be in high gear.  Some 100 days until the election and who knows what the mad king is fevering in his sick and perverted mind.
        The homestretch approaches and only diligence and participation can extract us from a netherworld of betrayal, failure, traitorous actions, lies, racism, fraud, perversion, ego, insanity and death woven by Donnie the Dope!

a good guy

Here is the guy who gives orange a good name.

       It is almost as if Hemingway's gaze says, get rid of that rat or I will. 

       Resolve is the implement of war against what has become an unimaginable perversion of American life. We cannot lose the will to expunge all things Trump Republican.

           Stay safe and stay well. Take care of each other. Remember, pay attention to life.

       See you down the trail.

Take It In....

    It's been a vibrant and colorful spring on the California central coast and our Iris has been resplendent.
    Spring has a way to bump us, to revive our outlook and to pay attention to life, often so beautiful and always moving on.
    The loss of Judy, a life long friend, and a golden anniversary bumped us too, and sent us looking through shots of the old days.

    We picnicked in a clearing in the southern Indiana woods where we would soon build a home. We were practically kids, I think,  as I look back...

    Tucked away too was a photo of our first garden. It was planted when we lived on the Indianapolis east side. Lana came from gardening stock, I did not, which explains why I did the sod busting and she did the skilled work. 
   It turned out to be quite a good garden and gave us the itch for "land," and getting closer to nature.

   We're old boys now. Terry in the red cap is in North Carolina, Dave is on Sanibel and we're on the west coast.
   Back in our more hearty days, even Indiana winter didn't stop us watching grill master Dave and his red weber.

    No doubt you are struck by how impossible it all seems, this advance of the calendar. So, as my dad used to say, "make the most of each day," indeed, take it all in, and with a sense of joy.

speaking of taking it all in

   I wish all US citizens, regardless of tilt, would sit and read the Mueller report. Forget the shill you've heard from you know who and his apologist. Read the report, read the details, read the facts.

   It's clear federal prosecutors and members of the house have. The investigation has legs, and no amount of bs or lies will change that.

parting beauty

     With the color, the return of longer days, a brighter sun and the sense of rebirth, it's clear why spring has been, since ancient days, a time of celebration and renewal.  So, take it all in. Take it deep within. These are days to celebrate life.

       See you down the trail.

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. 

    

     

     

NEW FACES, NEW ETHICS-CAN WE GET A "NEW NORMAL?"

real oversight

   For the first time in two years Congressional oversight, a key to the Constitutional principle of Checks and Balances, appears to be in place.

   The new breed Republican party spent two years being acquiescing lapdogs instead of watchdogs. The power shift in the House means there's a new Sheriff and posse with a new purpose.

"we are better than this"

    The most powerful thing I heard in the Cohen hearing were the words of Committee Chair, Elijah Cummings when he said, "we are better than this."

    Cummings said what most US citizens think, we want to get back to "normal." Cummings called it a "new normal...where democracy stays intact."

     The Washington Post, which has been a running fact check, says the man who is president has lied 8,718 times in his time in office. Republicans, sadly, abandoned their old values, and have failed their party and the nation by letting things get so far out of line.

     seeing the difference

    The peoples interest, all of us, democrat, republican, liberal, conservative, independent, even the disinterested were well represented with Representative Katie Porter raised a question to the Chairman of Equifax. This is a great recent moment in public service. You can watch how it was noted on a news network or you can link directly to the clip in the next line of copy.

    

See a great Congressional moment. Link here

  

or see it in the video from a news channel

          That is the kind of accountability and hard questions this nation needs and deserves. There is no ideological edge, no partisan blather, no b.s. to that kind of oversight. 

      There was a time when the best interests of all were considered above partisan or ideological ground. That is what we need to get back to. 

    public service is more than politics

it is a real skill

      Anyone who knows anything about real politic has warned that the rouge president is doing damage by his ignorant blundering in foreign affairs. But he is such a defective, he is sure he knows better than experts, who have spent their life in diplomacy, negotiation, and real deal making. 

     North Korea has again gotten the upper hand. And while Senate Republicans have enabled a power drunk and traitorous stooge, he has continued to preside over a decimation of the Department of State and the national intelligence community.

    Those days may soon be over. House investigations have only begun. There is the coming blizzard of federal prosecutions, state and local investigations and prosecutions and there will be a field of democrat presidential hopefuls and quite likely a republican challenger who will also hold this very bad man's feet to the fire. The difference of rhetoric and vision will be stunning.

    History will be ruthless. Analysis and logic will be very unkind, not only to the stooge but to those who aided and abetted him and those who continued to support him even after they saw him for the fraud he is. And dear readers, that information is coming in, compounded daily and we've only just begun with real oversight in place. And some of the new crowd are playing by new rules. I refer you to the picture above.

how does your garden grow?

      The winter lettuce crop has been fantastic. 

    Lana has done a great job up in Indiana. That is the flat and tillable soil at the top of our hill.

     We are enjoying a good rain season and the succulents approve. 

     If you reside where winter means snow, ice, cold, gray and a longing for spring, these green shots may bolster your spirits.

      Maybe by then we will be closer to what Chairman Cummings said, "...back to the democracy we want."

     See you down the trail.