Green Thoughts

I don't know your weather, where ever you might be reading this, but in Kent right now we have approximately 15 inches of snow.  Oh, joy.  All the white stuff has me thinking of nothing more than green.  Spring.  Garden.  Dirt.  There's the real joy! 

I'm so happy to have seeds on the way, a new grow light for the basement, seed trays cleaned, starter arrived, and getting labels made up.  Usually I just plant seeds and then forget which variety is where, so it's a big surprise when things are ripe, because by then I have *no* recollection of what on Earth I planted.  And by "surprise" I mean huge frustration trying to figure out what seeds to get and which ones we disliked.  Oops.  So this year I'm trying labeling.


All the excitement has had me talking gardening with plenty of people, one of whom was only too happy to tell me all about his compost system.  That's a few hundred dollars.  And made of plastic.  And uses worms.  And comes pre-assembled from northern California.  And has a small heating element to keep things going even in winter.  He was shocked when I suffered a bought of oral diarrhea in an effort to tell him that this whole thing is NOT SUSTAINABLE!  I don't care how much compost he makes with this thing- it's not the ecological wonder that he thinks it is.  How many issues can you count with this contraption? 

Which gets to one of my pet peeves.  I'm thrilled that "green" and "eco-friendly" are popular and sustainability is "cool" right now.  But will "green" go the route of alternative music- filled with sell outs and loosing all meaning?  What will be the sustainability equivalent of the Metallica-Napster melee?  Ugh, that makes my heart sick.  Green is supposed to be "simple" in the sense of fewer components and ingredients.  No, that might not always be easier, but it should be cheaper, and doesn't require fancy new gadgets.  Hrmph!

In other news, Baby by Nature cloth diaper store has moved to http://www.babybynature.org where we're having a bit of an issue switching over the old site, but it'll be coming shortly.  Also, http:www.lifeofnature.org is on it's way (slowly) to coming into being, but populating the forum and designing that is turning out to be a bit more than I had thought.  No matter what, fun things are on the horizon!  Which should keep me too busy to wallow in self pity too long. 

And our household will be growing soon- with Galluceria sp. beetle farm for purple loose strife control, more bees, and small poultry- quail and chicken.  I'm so excited!

I promised pictures

So here they are. It was an I love my job kind of day. These were out at the research wetland the university made as mitigation for a little Woopsy-daisy when they built a new rec center.

Fishing spider

Sparganium sp.

Yep, dragonflies. Doing it.

Muskrat.

Bumblebee. Helping a flower do it.

Yes, my mind is in the gutter. But how can it not be with all the life going on out at the wetland. And one last pic, just because. My favorite bug.

Gardening!

Here's our veggie garden accomplishments, side garden will be posted later. We came home to little flowers on the pea plants- just in time for bees on Monday! We have veggies popping up all over, including a few volunteers from the compost heap, I believe. In other news, Kent now has a group on Neighborhood Veggies, so check it out for plant swapping/veggie sharing/co-op news, among other things. Yeah! This weekend has been an outdoor weekend, and my back is killing me, hope you had as much fun as we did. I finally got my new telephoto lens, Sigma 100-300, with macro! How freaking cool is that?

And before you ask, yes I did do work as well, this happens to be the first time Dwight had set foot in the garden. Don't think he's all that just because I stopped a few minutes early to grab the camera. ;-)

Names changed to protect the innocent

For those of you that know me, you know I've had some stresses lately that have been putting a cramp in my style. Things not going the way I had planned. Small disappointments, and lots of them. Nothing disastrous, but annoying, and eventually those little annoyances become like piranhas and slowly nibble you to death. Death by nibbling is not fun, by any means.

To try and alleviate this nibbling, nagging feeling I went for a walk today. I'm out of town, trying to make this into an adventure so I'm doing what I can to keep busy. I headed out about 6 AM or so, went to the park I had my eye on, and started hiking. It was a smallish park (or so I thought), maps available, multiple trails with fun names like Overlook Pass, and Waterfall Loop. Having this odd obsession with water that I do, I headed for the waterfall one. I figured I'd go, get some pictures, have some fun, do a little birding, and start my day out right. I've been needing a day that starts out right.

And at first it did. But then, as is wont to happen with my adventures, a shiny object crossed my path, and I set off after it. I'm not bright, I can deal with that. You can too, apparently, or you wouldn't be reading. Unless you just like laughing at this life I call mine. The shiny object, if you were wondering, was a summer tanager. I hadn't seen one in the wild before, but I'm 95% sure that's what it was.

Well, before I knew it, I was in sight of not a single trail, and surrounded by fairly steep ravines and headwater streams. Not steep if you're prepared for them, I'm sure, but at 7 AM in mules and lounge clothes, carrying a camera and binoculars among other things, they looked steep. Not a person in sight. Not a single sound of a car. Nothing remotely trail looking. Hmm. So I kept walking. It's an urban park, I couldn't really get lost, right?

The walking kept getting harder, more slipping, more landing in creeks, less time spent on pictures. Less, not none, mind you- I still got some great shots. The option of going down anymore decreased as I got closer to the river that the creeks were feeding into. The option of going up did not look any easier. It finally came to a point where I slung the camera on my back and shut it off so I could concentrate on climbing. About four hours after I went in, I came out of the park. With the help of a couple of kind police officers and after a few calls. Aside from some bumps, bruises, dirty clothes and a few minor scrapes, I came out undamaged. It was not my proudest moment.

However, I learned a lot of little lessons, and was reminded of some I already knew. First, as much as I love the detail, sometimes you have to step back and look at the bigger picture. One can make serious progress that way. And motion is not always appropriate, sometimes life requires stillness and thoughtfulness. Following that, forward motion does not always get you closer to your goal. For those times, you may need a little backwards or lateral motion. Sometimes you have to put away the things that are dear to you in order to protect them. It would be nice if we could share our lives fully with what we love, but it's not always practical or in anyone's best interest. Finally, there comes a time when you're falling and you just need to give in, sit down, and enjoy the trip down. Of course there's also the observation that sometimes the best time spent has nothing to do with what you thought it did, but that's one that I know very well and could never forget.

Hope your weekend has been wanderful as well!

Delays

Well, I could officially scream right now. It's been since Tuesday that my computer has been in the shop. And I'm sick of sharing Dwight's computer. There. I've said it. I don't like to share with my husband. I want *my* computer with *my* favorites and *my* files and *my* data. Just so I don't sound like a completely petulant child, I have revisions to my prospectus due ASAP. Hard to do revisions when I don't have my statistics package and data. The technician "thinks" it might be the cooling system. That was Thursday AM. No updates since, and no updates that I haven't called to beg for. Blah.

On the positive side, we went to the zoo today! Cleveland Metropark Zoo. Not my favorite, but I did get some good shots (I think). A whole carpet of trout lilies on the big hill. Magnolias were about spent. Starlings are back in town in a big way. I want to mist net a schload of starlings, stupid trash birds. They make me want to swerve the car. I dragged out the 35 mm camera for the first in a long time. Turns out my telephoto lens and my digital SLR don't play well together, and I really wanted some telephoto shots of the animals. I had almost forgotten the zen of 35 mm. Watching. Waiting. Checking the lighting. Rechecking the light. Checking different angles. And then finally shooting the perfect shot. And the anticipation of seeing the final product. It encourages thoughtful living and patience, in my opinion. Not all about instant gratification and disposable drive space like digital. I also happen to think that 35 mm still gives a better quality picture- the analog versus digital debate. Then again, I'm also a vinyl (records, not pants) girl. Don't worry, I promise as soon as I have my computer back you can see pictures. Until then, live a little more thoughtfully and delay your gratification. :-)

Yesterday was a great day too. Ken and I went to Munroe Falls Metropark on an adventure. More great shots from there- Indian springs, rue anemone, turtles (and turtle sex!), fish, a wood pecker, tons of chipmunks, and more spring beauty. Add to that Soil and Water Conservation trees coning in (pawpaw, raspberry, cranberry, and elderberry), a new edge to the ax, and the John Gorka/Susan Werner concert, waking up to a surprise note from an absent friend, and it was damn near perfection this weekend.

But wait, you say, the weekend's not even over! I know, and I still have more fun planned for tomorrow. Dwight will be stuck at the library reading and I will be finishing up cleaning (spring cleaning in warm weather- I love it!), working out at Lavendar Lane where we have a CSA share for this year, and a special grocery trip to Mustard Seed Market. I should probably also do this month's frog call survey and start getting stuff around for the field season. I'm going to need lots of wood and some assembly before Rana clamitans start seriously calling.

Really, the only downer is watching Kung-Fu Panda for approximately the 80 millionth time as we speak. Not exagerating at all.

Oh, and I almost forgot! I'm currently taking recommendations for a telephoto lens that fits a Canon Rebel EOS digital. Any suggestions? I like 100-300, so something in that range. Thanks in advance!