Fresh Air

    Lana and I have chuckled about what the woman at the garden center must have thought when we showed up back in the spring of 2007 asking about a wonderful plant with which we were smitten.

  After our amusing attempt to describe it, she realized we were talking about Echium, or Pride of Madeira. 
   We moved in January, from a bleak and dreary Indianapolis winter and were bowled over by the vibrance of California winter blooms and Echium was, to our eyes, an exotic.
  When she heard we wanted to "buy" a start she said, "If you have some near by, you might just wait" for it to spread. We didn't know then what we've learned in the last 12 years-it grows mightily and has to be kept cut back or it takes over.  Still, we love it every year at this time as it displays it's arrays of color and hue.

stars of wine country

  The field crews, who work for the viticulturist or wine grower are the unsung heroes of wine country. Here they are doing a late winter/early spring trimming of the vines.

      In the fall these crews will return to harvest, displaying a skill and speed that is stunning.

    We caught these people in action in a region of the Paso Robles appellation know as Pleasant Valley, near San Miguel, north of Paso Robles and east of the 101. It was a good outing for us as we spend most of our wine country visits in the "westside." It stretched our horizon. 

     Navigators Mike and Sue tracked us to a mom and pop winery that is opened on rare days and by appointment.

     The Mom and Pop purchased the land for a retirement home, and thought they might "raise a few vines." He works for a big Winery, she's a writer in tech. Years later they still live upstate and their retirement is still a few years off. They didn't build a home, they built a winery.

   Cinquain Cellars is an award winning artisanal winemaker and is developing a loyal following. 

   The Pleasant Valley wine trail opens with wide vistas and a gentle undulation.

   And it is diverse. The Villa San Juliette Vineyard and Winery sits near more "barebones" neighbors. Out here on the east side, as everywhere in the Paso Robles appellation, there is a range of style, vibe and wine. 

saturday school

   On a recent Saturday in the westside, Denner winemaker Anthony Yount, standing to the left of the chef, conducted an introduction to winemaking and a wine-food pairing seminar. 

        Back in another era I would have bristled at the idea of spending a Saturday in school. With wine and food as the content, I bristle not so much.

land of the free, home of the brave

     Soon we may all have a chance to put our eyes on the Mueller report, at least in some redacted version. I hope everyone takes an interest. Hope so, but some will refuse to read it. Why? 

      It is immoral to separate a child from parents and have no good way to match or record keep. It is evil to keep a child from parents for two years, or longer. 

     Did you see where the American fool told people his father was born in a German village. (Would that be the Bronx?) 

     Is he truly delusional or just a lying chimeric collusion of feculence?

     Aren't either, cause enough to haul him out? Seriously.

     Can't rodent control or crime prevention or no contact with reality be grounds for impeachment? You don't think so? Why?

    Even a cat named Joy seems fed up. 

     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. 

    

     

     

A Kid Like Ja-A Man Like Mueller-Stars in the Rites of Spring

   It's the spring of 2019 when our fancy turns to Big Dances and Big Probes and media palaver--but there are clouds on the horizon

and there are secrets! Will America be allowed to peer into the secret web of intrigue and investigation

  and learn what the Mueller probe learned? Will the grand galloomps of the administration and the republicans of the Senate

(A facsimile of the DOJ gallops and the McConnell Senate Republicans)

   allow their paymasters and employers (that would be US citizens) to learn what Mueller has learned? Well that brings us to the RIGHTS OF SPRING.

   The old birds are clattering...

   and chattering and the bets are on.

    A safe prediction from your old blogger-it's going to be another fight, another circus, another chapter of America in decline, America yelling, America divided. 

    Democrats will ask for full disclosure, Republicans will resist. The President will blather and tweet and lie. The House will continue their investigations, Federal prosecutors will continue their prosecutions and investigations. There will be legal challenges and court filings and hearings and this thing could go on for, dare I say it-years!

    We have primal forces at work here...like

   sea against rock, wind against sea, power versus power,

   infinite force against eternal existence. 

       Unlike nature, these human struggles devolve to aberrant behavior; deceptions, tricks, deceits, fraud, larceny, and abuse of power. 

      Greed, avarice, and venality have never been far from "individual 1." Diligence, devotion, public service, sacrifice and intelligence have never been far from Mr Mueller. 

      The substance of the two-year investigation will come out. This is the US, with whistleblowers, leakers, people of conscience, investigative reporters, packs of competitive journalists and a citizenry for whom all of this was done.

    Who are you betting on? Which team do you find yourself rooting for?

well...

     Presently I'm rooting for my bracket picks and celebrating another Cinderella story. This is the time of year the of NCAA championships where there is always a peoples favorite, a human interest story, the little Davids taking on the Giant Goliaths, the valiant struggle of appealing characters striving against great odds. Stars emerge and shine. We find new heroes. We cheer and we cry with the heartbroken warriors who leave the court denied a dream. This too is the Right Rite of Spring. 

     I thank Mr Mueller for the decorum, diligence, dignity and scrutiny he brought to that other arena. Smart people will continue his work. But right now I'm on my feet, cheering and fist pumping for a kid named Ja. And for all the kids who play their hearts out. It's good there are still champions, good to be reminded we play the game by the rules, good to know that in the end when history posts the scores, cheaters loose, and liars get busted. And it is reassuring to see people being good sports both in loosing and in victory.

    See you down the trail.

      

      

       

Passings and Legacy

Moonstone Beach, Cambria CA

    It happened this week, the passing of two men who made big differences. In the way of things, there is a confluence in my life. 

 I knew them and I was inspired by them. I still am.

Photo by Charles Bennett, Associated Press

      Birch Bayh was the quintessential Indiana public servant and one of the most historic and arguably effective members in the history of the US Senate. He passed at 91 and leaves a legacy that has led some to refer to him as a "modern founding father."

     Bayh was the author of two constitutional amendments and creator of Title IX. He also authored what could have been a third constitutional amendment, the ERA. These are accomplishment of historic proportion, shaping the constitution, the spine of this democratic republic.

    The 25th Amendment deals with Presidential disability and succession. The 26th Amendment lowered the voting age to 18. Title IX prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in any educational program or activity that is federally funded. It was nation changing. 

    Bayh was an architect of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 1965 Voting Rights Act and the Juvenile Justice Act that required separation of juveniles from adults in prison. He was co-author of the Bayh-Dole Act that allowed small businesses and universities to own inventions that were developed using federal funds. It helped lead to the technological explosion that has fueled our modern life and led to new business horizons in communications, and technology.

    Bayh led the Senate opposition to Supreme Court nominees Clement Haynsworth and George Carswell. He was a contender in the 1976 Democratic Presidential nomination. Birch Bayh was a three term Senator and father of Evan Bayh, Governor of Indiana and a two term senator.

    I covered and got to know both men. They were different personalities. Evan ran one of his father's election campaigns. Birch Bayh may have been one of the best "retail," one-on-one politicians ever. Before social media, candidates spent more time talking to individual voters in person. Birch would light up a room and if possible spend time with everyone, sitting with them, putting his arm around them, leaning in listening, shaking hands and having true conversations. It was a marvel to see. 

    He was a veteran, a Purdue graduate where he was President of the Class, played baseball and was a champion boxer. He was elected to state government in his 20's and had a stellar career and impact before being one of the youngest men elected to the Senate.

     After the Civil Rights act was passed, he and his friend Senator Edward Kennedy were on a flight between Washington and Massachusetts when their light plane went down. Bayh extricated his wife Marvella and then freed a trapped Edward Kennedy, who suffered a broken back. Others on board were killed.

      It was a privilege to know and a joy to joke around and talk with this plain spoken, down home leader. When I think of America being "great," I think of Birch Bayh and his indelible influence on this nation. He is one of the giants in the human rights movement.

    Friend, colleague and inspiration, Bob Foster, on the right in the photo above, lost his long hard fight with Leukemia this week.

   Frequent readers will recall Bob's contributions to this blog

beginning in August of 2011 as he chronicled his harrowing wait and experience with a bone marrow transplant.

   In the picture above, Bob and I were a morning team on the radio, seen here doing a remote broadcast.  Bob had a wonderful career in radio and his great love was live sporting events. For a number of years he was a premier play by play man in Hydroplane racing and other sports.  

    Bob had a good run in the advertising world, but after complications of his disease was sidelined for a while, only to come back to his first love, radio sports.

     He was on the air and running a sports talk station in Iowa at the time of his passing. In the last couple of years he had battled pneumonia and this week that is what took his life. It is the same disease that claimed Birch Bayh.

    In September of 2014 Bob was having a triumphant moment and sent this post.

Photo Courtesy of Iowa State/Bob Foster

Never did I imagine that I would again be testing the wireless broadcast system on the sidelines at Jack Trice Stadium before a Big 12 game.  Resuming duties as a game site producer on a Big 12 Football radio broadcast seemed no longer possible.  Saturday afternoon was very emotional.  I wept several times and knelt in sprayer of thanksgiving before the game began.  Now, I am better prepared mentally and emotionally to approach with intensity the game broadcast at Texas on 10/18.  It is all because of Jesus I am alive.

Bob Foster.

      Bob was a man with a strong faith and as you may recall from his earlier posts, even when near death and an uncertain future, he said he was blessed to be able to lift the spirits of others who were facing challenges.

    His wife Diane told me when he took his last breath he had a smile of relief. His timing was always perfect.

     Life always moves forward. New generations go to meet their future. There are, however, those who precede them who make their path a little easier.

      Birch Bayh and Bob Foster leave wonderful and positive legacies. They loved and cared about others. 

      See you down the trail.