Full Aiea Moon
7-9-17
This full moon is Sunday. The full moon rises around sunset Saturday, about 8pm. Since my bride, Mimi is visiting family in Aiea, Oahu, Hawaii. I am forced to celebrate alone. Aiea an area or small town that lies against or is part or Honolulu and is on a grand hill overlooking Pearl Harbor. Simply a beautiful view and I imagine a terrifying place to watch the Japanese attack on Pearl back on that day.
I was thinking about witnessing this significant moonrise from eastern Loreauville if I can find Eddie at home on a Saturday night at 8pm. I might bring my own bottle and my new Burrito Chair and sit in his backyard alone anyway. I wonder how big Ol Eddies dog is? Oh, and does he bite hard?
Because of attitude issues with Hotmail and ununderstandable rules, I am forced to change the venue of this post. For a simple gardener like myself, a low tech kind of dude, this is really hard stuff. I will try my best to make it as easy as I can on all of us.
How about a little Wendell Berry y'all?
The Peace of Wild Things
When despair for the world grows in me
and I awake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Saweeeet Wendell!
"Find the shortest, simplest way between the Earth, the hands and the mouth." Lanza Del Vasto
Y'all, that was short, simple and so true.
6-20-17 A named tropical system in the gulf, usually means ungodly amounts of rain and some wind for us. Big rain in my section of lower Upper St. Martin.
I just crossed the Vermilion River on Prairie Road, I'm headed towards Cypress Island Road, St. Martinville. As I pass the front of what I call the Fournet property I pass the base of that big cellular tower on the right. I look up into the top branches of that "tree" and it is full of buzzards, kind of like I imagine those Cypress trees at the old Buzzard roost in Carencro must have been in times past.
6-21-17 Summer Solstice y'all. Today's day seems just like the days have seemed for the last two weeks and they will seem for the next two. Oh my, it is summer y'all and things seem to drag on, ya know. Anyway this is the shortest night of the year and the longest period of daylight. Yay us! From here on it will be shorter and shorter days. Important stuff if you are a plant trying to decide when to grow or flower or go dormant or any of that important stuff.
6-23-17 Headed to the River, False River, New Roads, Louisiana, home to Ernest Gaines. My sister, one of my sisters, Marci and her husband Bobby have fine "camp" on the water there which is perfect for family resting and healing. In the back seat, to keep Mimi and I from being bored are Mya, Mags (grandaughters) and Kate (Mags' buddy). This is one excellent way to keep my driving safe ie to have four women supervise me. Oh and we had to bring Boots our 9 week old tuxedo cat to keep us from not having enough to do. This dude, Boots is 90 miles per hour for hours then a we stop for a long nap then 90 miles an hour for the rest of the day.
Three fine afternoon showers, lots of light and sound and wet, made me "so sleepy".
I visted the local farmer's market, well farm stand, these folks grow all of their own, more tomatoes than I could shake a stick at. Very cool y'all, lots of sweat equity invested here.
Mags my singing soccer goalie granddaughter (14) gave me and some other people a concert, well I felt like she was singing just to me only to tell the truth. Did i tell you she is my granddaughter? Go Mags!
We were joined by Amy, Rachel and Joey and families. What a grand time.
6-26-17 Tomorrow a showdown between utility arborists, politicians and citizen tree owners, Lafayette City Parish Government chambers. This is a very old conflict, no obvious solutions.
"A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees." William Blake
"Trees are the Earth's endless effort to speak to the listening Heaven" Rabindranath Tagore, Fireflies, 1928.
Those quotes from a fine book loaned to me by Sweet Laura Racca Bowen, The Man Who Planted Trees. A story of Lost Groves, the Science of Trees, and a Plan to Save the Planet. Jim Robbins
6-27-17 Lots of sun, great day, attended LUS, Trees and Utility Conflicts and What to do About Them meeting. Not sure anything was resolved except that the citizens voices were heard.
6-28-17 Dinner with the Broussards, Harvey and Opal (yes, that Opal!) was so wonderful. Two tables down from us was a gathering of the Bonin Family who were celebrating Mr. Don's 89th. Don's son Pat is one of my biggest fans in the Central Berry Region, President of my Fan Club. Thanks for all the support Pat.
The award winning chef of Restaurant St. John, Bonnie Breaux came to our table to share the tale of her winning dish "Crackling Encrusted Black Drum With Lump Crabmeat and Fennel Marmalade and Potatoes Abita (beer)", Bonnie also delighted in telling us how she beat the pants off of all the testosterone encrusted competition.
6-29-17 A bunch of us traveled to a stakeholders meeting in Jennings. The event attended by farmers, agricultural service folks and Dr. Poudel's Water Quality Studies Team. The researchers have been investigating the water quality in one nearby watershed. The farmers farmed that watershed, the farm service people served the farmers and the researchers looked at why water quality in the watershed was good at times and not so good at others. There was lots of healthy interaction. One of the presenters talked about rice farmers, yes rice farmers! Some of the same guys in the room were experimenting with using cover crops to reduce soil erosion. The results of their use of cover crops are proving to be that in addition to reduced soil erosion, they were experiencing increased organic matter accumulation, better soil structure and improved crop nutrition. Now that is progress folks, still lots of work to do but that is progress.
Planted Roselle Hibiscus, Earleen's Green Cotton and Nankeen natural Brown Cotton (pre-civil war heirloom) in front of Hamilton Hall on campus, my children (students) need to know what cotton looks like.
Thanks to Charles Allen for the list of possible summer greens published in his spam email. Along with Roselle I have planted field peas for its young edible foliage, Red Spike Amaranth, New Zealand Spinach (Tetragon), Molokeyhia, Malabar Spinach and Raddichio from that list. All of this should make my salads interesting again.
7-3-17 Fireworks at Sugar Mill Pond. Mya came with us and it was three hours of sitting and waiting, being family and talking and laughing and eating festival food for just 15 minutes of spectacular, non-stop, explosive wonder. So glad we went, it was a great investment of our time.
This perennial 4th of July quote from Charles Allen "Remember if you have a fifth on the fourth you might not go forth on the fifth."
Cool quote:
"The more I handled things and learned their names and uses, the more joyous and confident grew my sense of kinship with the rest of the world." Helen Keller. From Hope Jahren's Lab Girl. Thanks to whoever suggested this wonderful read from one of my FMA folks. I work in the School of Geosciences (lots of brain power) and when i mentioned reading this wonderful book 3 or 4 of the faculty have read it and one guy had actually worked with Hope. Small world!
7-4-17 Happy 4th y'all! Italian sausage hot dogs, grilled eggplant, corn on the cob with fresh strawberries on home made sponge cake. Oh my I'm starting to sound like an old guy with all this food talk.
Time to head out. Get out there Saturday night. Don't forget your kids, old people and favorite beverage. Laugh, tell stories, listen, love, soak in the wonder of the ecosystem and enjoy not being inside.
peace love possumhugs,
BT
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