Summer/Fall Garden

This is just some of the veggies we raised this summer. Also turnips, dragon carrots, lots of beets - white and red, sorrel, mustard, arugula.  Fresh and nutritious.

Carrots from library seeds

Greens in pots: tats, kale, spinach

newly planted elm trees in our new elms grove

Amaranth in pot in sun porch

Amaranth again

My experiment with greens in pots indoors

amaranth again

more amaranth

more amaranth

greens in pots

greens: tats, kale, mizen, spinach, raddichio

 

Life in a Pandemic

We've been sheltering in place during this terrible pandemic. We are fortunate that we are retired and don't really have to go anywhere.  We stocked up early but already had quite a store because John, being a Red Cross volunteer, believes in being ready for a disaster.  We were thinking earthquake not virus. Speaking of earthquakes on March 31st we felt the effects of a 6.5 earthquake centered in Stanley Idaho about 300 miles east of here. The house moved, curtains swayed, and it set off the grandfather clock. That was the excitement for that week.  All the while the pandemic was becoming really serious.

So I've been taking drawing lessons on YouTube during this time. One of my efforts is here.  I'm thinking to draw the cover of my work in progress, Wings of the Dawn, set on the Oregon trail in 1853. It would involve a covered wagon. The heroine is going to California to escape her past in New Orleans. So every morning I'm traveling the Oregon trail in 1853. It requires a lot of research which is interesting.  My biggest takeaway from the research was that the over landers were crazy to pull up stakes and move 2,000 miles west.

 Above I'm setting in the first garden seeds which have finally sprouted. I've planted beets, two kinds of peas, kale, carrots, spinach, and turnips in different raised tubs.

To the left are some of the greens I grew inside for my baby greens garden. (See previous post) They are quite yummy and turned out well.  I grew radishes, kale, sorrel, spinach, tatsoi and cauliflower, which needs to go into the garden but we are still having freezes.

 Here is a Russian Olive tree with a magpie nest over our pond.  A larger photo is below. The nests are an amazing collection of woven sticks that withstand strong winter winds and storms. Magpies renovate old magpie nests. This one hadn't been used in a while. But a noisy threesome moved in this spring. They are now setting on eggs, hopefully.  We both love magpies. They are very noisy and funny and smart.

 Here's the big blue spring moon last month looking east from our place.

This is one of the lilies John bought me for Easter. I also have a drawing of this. My drawing instructor says to practice, practice, and practice on things from real life.

 Fairchild enjoys a tough afternoon of sunbathing.

First radish from the greens garden. We got about a dozen. I sautéed the greens with olive oil and garlic.

Snow Geese on Sewer Ponds, Hines, Oregon

My friend, Terry Keim, sent me this photo today. She lives in Hines and walks on a nature trail that goes by the town sewer ponds.  What looks like snow on the ground are actually snow geese on the sewer pond. They like the warm water and I've heard you can trace migrating geese from city to city on their sewer ponds.  Terry is active on Facebook and posts her photos, poems and observations on a regular basis. Thank you, Terry.

Baby Greens Garden

Last week when it was sunny I snapped a photo of our baby greens garden. I started cool weather plants on our sun porch which is not heated but gets warm durning the day.  My idea is to grow "baby" greens which seem to be all the rage now. I can snip them off before they get big and have salads for us. I also sprout mung beans in a jar which are great in salads. I'm growing seeds from that the library gave out for readers to grow. I got tatsoi, radicchio, sorrel, radishes, bunching onions, cauliflower, and kale. The idea is to let some go to seed and give back to library.  I also planted spinach and three different kinds of tomatoes from seeds we saved. I also planted a row of spinach in one of our raised beds and the snow will be good for them. I'll plant more spinach outside this week. I've already transplanted some of the greens into bigger pots.

Greens are a little bigger.  Photo below shows a robin outside the window look for a bite to eat.

I've transplanted quite a few more and they are growing well. I planted more spinach, lettuce and peas in the raised beds outside. We had a few radish greens already. But the plants need to get a little bigger.

My World Today

It's Sunday March 15, 2020 and we've awakened to snow the last two mornings.  This morning it snowed most of the morning.  John went to mass against my recommend to stay home and self-distance.  In just two weeks our world has turned around. Now the corona virus dominates the news and has changed everything.  We bought in food. I don't go to town anymore than necessary. John went to water meetings this week, did the mail, bank, post office and library routine and shopped for groceries.  I'm having a great deal of trouble putting weight on my right leg and so it is hard to get around. I use my new, spiffy roller walker pictured below.

 Here's my world: books to read beside my reading chair, walker by the chair. On the table is my beading stuff. I'm making a necklace that Aunt Nancy made for me that broke into prayer beads.  It's white outside because it's snowing. We don't use the telescope now because it's a wee bit cold to be out at night.  Stars are gorgeous though on clear nights. Space station has been going over in the mornings about 6 AM.

Winter White outside the dining room window. Left is avocado plant we started

Looking out of the window east into the snow. The plants sit on my beading table. This past week I saw my first robin. The magpies are enhancing a nest in the Russian olive tree by the pond.  The king birds are back and of course the sparrows and starlings never left.

Hot Springs

It seems long ago now but the first week in March John and I went to the Crane Hot Springs abut 45 minutes south of us.  The weather was sunny and up near 70 so we went on a Monday and Friday after our aborted trip to the CCL conference in Vancouver, Washington.  It felt good to bounce around in the pond and move my legs.  The water was comfortably hot, the breeze a little brisk.  It's a big pond where the water entering is boiling hot and by shooting it up and circulating it cools down. We took noodles to help us float around.

My hat says "Make Earth Cool Again". I got it at the Citizens Climate Lobby Conference. I'm very cool and modern.😊

Winter 2020 Reflections

Winter 2020 Reflections 

I've published ten novels over the last ten years that include mystery, utopian sci-fi, and one romance. I've written poems, made a guest appearance at a high school poetry class, and created two workshops. One was Finish the Book and the other was Publish the Book. I produced a workshop on screenwriting and helped produce and fundraise for an actor-screenwriter workshop. I've attended Willamette Writers conferences, where I discovered self-publishing. I've attended a writer conference at Yachats on the Oregon coast in 2009 produced by Jane Kirkpatrick. 

I started in Washington DC Romance Writers back in the early 90s. It was through romance writer workshops that I learned character development, voice, and plot. I belong to the local Harney Basin Writers group which is a great group for feedback on one’s work in progress. Past a point one has to just write.  I no longer attend the weekly writer meetings. I'd rather write. I no longer go to workshops. I'd rather write. I no longer produce and fundraise for writer events. I'd rather write. 

Now at the grand ole age of seventy-two, I'd rather pursue my art. I am in the process of backing away from community and civic volunteer involvement, opening up space for drawing, beading, writing, and music. From head center to feeling center. From certainty to exploration.

I love making interesting necklaces with beads. I love beads and the feel of them. I first learned beading from my friend, Marlis Hodges, who I met in the Houston Gurdjieff work. I used to work with seed beads. I used to make earrings and bracelets. I used to bead clothes, fabrics, and pillows. Now mostly I make necklaces with semi-precious stones like turquoise, rose quartz, agate, carnelian, tree agate, garnet, jasper, onyx, amethyst. I used to decorate necklaces with silver, Bali silver, copper, and some gold beads. But now I don’t buy semi-precious. I am using what I have accumulated over the years. I bought out my Aunt Nancy years ago when she got out of the beading business. I work now in less expensive beads like shiny, faceted glass beads and base metal spacers. I enjoy finding old necklaces, taking them apart, and using them for new creations.

I love writing. I have four different projects started. One is a mystery set in Bend Oregon, working title, The Three Sisters. I'm working on my memoir, The Ditch Witch Blues, which is a fun project. It won't be for general circulation. I'll include photos. Then I'm struggling with Wings of the Wind, a novel set in 1853 when an octoroon woman goes West on the Oregon trail. It has led me to study black history, especially William Loren Katz’s black histories for young readers that have lots of photos. I now read black fiction authors like Ta-nehesi Coates and Toni Morrison. I read Ibrim Kendi’s book How to be an Anti-Racist. Toni Morrison is a huge influence and inspiration. I read Sulah. She helps me understand how black women think, feel, and view their world. 

Another project is the fifth book in the Deovolante sci-fi series. I got stuck on space time after about 50,000 words. It wasn't making sense so I'm reading Carlo Rovelli, my favorite Italian physicist. He wrote The Order of Time, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, and Reality Is Not What It Seems. I found his email on his website and emailed him to say how much I enjoy his books. He answered and said, “Thank you, Marjorie!! Carlo”. I was thrilled! He gets me to thinking about reality, space and time, which informs my science fiction writing. He says, “Space is granular. Time doesn’t exist. Things are nowhere.”

I am playing the piano again. John got interested in centers through a Cynthia Bourgeault post on Richard Rohr’s daily meditations. She points out that arts and music are the first thing cut from school curriculum. They come from the feeling center. It made me realize that I need to play the piano again. I am starting with the Gurdjieff/ De Hartman music. Working at the art gallery, I listen to All Classical Portland. I need more feeling center food.

I have stopped reading headlines because they are too depressing. Mass psychosis. On the way into town, which is half an hour drive, I listen to Portland jazz radio KMHD instead of OPB news. Tosca is playing now on All Classical as I sit at the art gallery. I see how it touches me. Bourgeault also talks about how white society is stuck in its head or the thinking center to the detriment of other cultures, who are more moving and feeling center. Black soul music comes to mind. White society has a lot to be remorseful for, and they aren’t. I am. I only recently came to understand white privilege. 

I like to draw and have for years in sketch books and on drawing paper. I like colored pencils best then crayons then No. 2 pencils. I hope my friend Terry Keim, who is a fabulous artist and drawer, will help me improve my craft. I draw fences, trucks, trees.

I want to devote some of each day to beading, writing, music and drawing, to my art, to creativity. This is my wish.

In my inner work, I see that I cannot do.  That I am asleep. I see my certainty. I ask the question “What is pulling the strings?”  I wish for intentionality.  Seeing my automaticity, I am freed to seek intentionality through self-remembering. 

2/26/20/mt