CUTE UGLY AND FROM CUBA

CUTE UGLY

    How can you not love a face like this?

     Little junior or sissy turkey is out for a walk and test flight. Wild Turkeys are among the population of abundant wild life here on the ridge in Cambria. The practice surface in this case is our roof.

REMINDER TO THE DONALD

   Dear Mr. Trump,

       It is an ancient wisdom and is also a Biblical lesson, "Reap what you sow."  Or if you prefer consider Newton's law or the law of Karma-for every action there is a reaction.

       Or closer to your own idiom, don't say stupid things or people may begin to think you are an egotistical idiot. That would be more people may begin to think that.

CUBA

    If you like to travel I hope you'll get to Cuba now that we have begun to normalize relations. As a toast of celebration here's a post from June 2011. Enjoy your Daiquiri. A further exploration of the extraordinary island follows below.

THE DAIQUIRI- 
AND THEN,

THE PAPA DOBLE 
Popular history affixes the creation of the daiquiri to a group of American
mining engineers who were working near Santiago Cuba.
The Daiquiri beach is near Santiago.  A bartender at the Venus bar in
Santiago is credited with making the first of the rum drinks and giving it the name of the beach.
But then the Daiquiri moved to Havana
and the Floridita Bar.

It was here where the Daiquiri met Ernest Hemingway and
where the story gets interesting. And where the Daiquiri grows up.
But first a little back story.
The paintings below hang near my kitchen.
The top painting, if it looks familiar, is a study of a Monet painting in London, 
painted by my eldest daughter Kristin.
She is a superb artist and created the piece as a student.  We like it, hung it
and often explain it to people who think it looks "familiar."
The painting below is a watercolor that I purchased from a street artist
in Havana.

This is the Havana corner as it is

and this is the water color.

The Floridita was a Hemingway favorite.  It was here

the bartenders followed the writer's directions and created

what some call the Hemingway Daiquiri.

At the Floridita they call it the

Popa Doble

2 1/2 jiggers of white rum

juice of 2 limes

juice of 1/2 grapefruit

6 drops of Maraschino cherry liquer

NO sugar

served frozen.

These descendants of Hemingway's bar tender friends can still build a 

great Popa Doble. According to legend, Popa or Poppa would pop
quite a few in one sitting.

The writer spent a lot of time at the Floridita.

His original bar stool, a the end of the bar, near a wall, has been

preserved and chained off.

Hanging above the stool is a bust and an Oswaldo Salas photograph of 

Hemingway and Fidel Castro the day Hemingway left Cuba for the last 

time.  One of my prized possessions is a copy of the photograph

signed by Oswaldo Salas.

Getting the photo and getting it out of Cuba is the story
for another post.
Cheers!

   If you are interested in Cuba, here are links to previous posts from that amazing Island nation.

The Cuba File Archive

• The Old Man and The Sea-meeting Hemingway's Captain
• Cuban File-Street Scenes
• Cuba File-The Shrine of St Lazaro
• Inside Hemingway's Home

   See you down the trail.

NEW CHAPTERS-IN IT TOGETHER

PLANET KINDRED

     We're in new territory now. California is in the fourth year of a drought and experts say the state has never been drier, though that may not be true. It's problematic.

      The tree above is a neighbor, one of many Monterey Pines in this area's unique pine forest, one of three natural such forests. I'm worried about the tree and many of its kindred.

     The drought has exacerbated other problems and some predict a mortality rate of 40-80% of the forest. When trees die and suffer so does the abundant wild life in the area.

      We've shared the ridge with this tree and a few that have died and thinned the copse. We've watched a marvelous cycle of life now in peril. 

      First we hear the plaintive cry of a young hawk, then in time we watch flying lessons and still later we watch the aerial combat of hawks and families of crows who have also lived here for generations. Wild turkeys seek refuge in the shade, bob cats, fox, deer and many species of birds roam or roost here. Skunk, raccoons and squirrels are here. Mushrooms spring in the under thicket, wild flowers patch their way into and share the sun. When an old tree goes, life changes in profound ways.

      This blue planet is in the midst of changes and so it has always been. Woodworkers and scientists tell us areas of California have endured droughts that extended decades. Decades! Historians have written of extended droughts that ended eras of cattle ranching. There is a theory the last 100 years have been the anomaly, wetter than normal. 

      We are all in this mystery together and largely we are powerless. We can respond and we have. People of our village have reduced water use by as much as 45%. A newly built system uses waste and brackish water to supply a percentage of our needed supply.

      Meteorologists discuss a Pacific Decadal Oscillation, intense high pressure and variations in the jet stream though, regardless of cause, we live with uncertainty. In our time on the ridge we've seen 37 inches of rain in a season and as low as 8. The last four have been the driest and that brings us again to our trees. 

      It has become necessary to thin the forest of dead trees, to reduce danger. Problems; how to get it done, how to pay for it, what to do with the old wood? Citizens, elected representatives and a variety of experts are in a kind of scrum to chart a course of action.  
     California Governor Brown has renewed the water restrictions and serious people are asking even more serious questions about what this means to California's agriculture, which feeds the nation. Many look to the Pacific and see what could be a water supply, but not without cost and process and politics.

     The good citizens of this marvelous and vast state move toward a future with unmeasured dimensions and uncertain challenges. This is a state of enjoyment where so much of life is lived outside, where the light is vivid and saturated like the colors, aromas and flavors of diversity. These are people who have built technology empires, entertainments and lifestyles where relaxation, kicking back, hanging out bespeak attitudes and spirit.  But it's a new time. Changes are coming.

      Our approach to forest management is likely one of those changes.  Neglect and inattention did not create the problem, but they did not help.  Earlier cutting, thinning, better stewardship and management would have dialed back the fire danger.

      In our village a forest management plan was written years ago, agreed to by levels of government and regulatory agencies, but it has never been funded.  Shame on us!  It is too late for too many trees. I hope my neighbor will survive and I hope we may learn in the uncertain future that we all have a stake in every aspect life on this blue marble.
      Pollution in China, nuclear radiation in Japan, overwatered golf courses in the desert, neglected forest management, toxic waste in rivers, whirlpools of plastic in the oceans, chemicals on lawns, lack of conservation, and on and on, are all ultimately local issues in every community and threatening problems to all life. They respect no boundaries.

   We are all in this together.

    See you down the trail.

THE KILL IS TOO WIDE

MOST AMERICANS HAVE NO IDEA

     Tom Knudson's investigative series in The Sacramento Bee this week is highly recommended reading.

      Link here to the read the 3 series.

     Knudson writes about the little known Wildlife Services

branch of the Department of Agriculture.  The Wildlife Services branch is a killing service funded with an annual budget of $72.5 Million.

      As Knudson writes

"Sometimes wild animals must be destroyed-from bears that ransack mountain cabins to geese swirling over an airport runway. But because lethal control stirs strong emotions, Wildlife services prefers to operate in the shadows."

       In my view, it is the information about the manner in which they "operate in the shadows" that is, in the least, troubling if not damning.  Animals that should not be destroyed, are.  Policies and operating procedures are violated, information is hidden or often covered up and humans have been injured as well.  Link above for an eye opening and well done journalistic effort. As one of the sources in the piece is quoted "99% of Americans don't have a clue about this agency."

     Those of you who have followed this blog may recall one of our areas of interest since moving to the far west is watching this area of human and wildlife interaction.

      Link here for a June 2011 post about the killing of mountain lions and the balance of big horn sheep in the Sierra.

DAY BOOK

CAPTURED MOMENTS

 

See you down the trail.