windthread

as it always has been,   certain kinds of READING 

takes me away.   I cannot stop.  All i want to do is READ.  I no longer live "my life",  but am living an entirely different life.  It's why i gave up fiction.  a long time ago.   Except for Louise Erdrich.   

i have been living in Mississippi,  Florida and Louisiana.   then, traveling by rail and in one instance Buick Roadmaster to L.A.,  New York City,  Milwaukee,  Chicago.   I have been living 3 lives,  two of men,  one woman's.   I have seen through their eyes,  their lives as they unfolded so far.  am on page 327.  There is over 200 pages more until i will return.   

I have been thinking thoughts that never occurred to me to think before.   Thoughts that, really,  could never have formed with the little INFORMATION i had/have.   i am seeing how SMALL my understanding of the HISTORY of my lifetime is,  and most important,  how the HISTORY of those years are being played out,  LIVED by all of us NOW.   we are Ripening,   we,  the citizens of this Amerika place.   We are gaining an inkling of WhatItIs….has been…and is Coming.   I admire,  respect,  LOVE,  enormously the author.  it was 15 years in the researching and writing.  an epic,  as is said,  that opens OUT into this 2020  dream into nightmare we might choose.  

i look up, now and again to this Cloth on the wall this small room space away and am in even more wonder at this life i am living that i will return to in the next couple days.  

as penance for all this Reading,  i built two trellis' this eve for the Malabar,  two different kinds.  One for the Wall Garden,  one for B Garden.  I scrubbed water tubs and filled fresh.   I sat on the ground in the middle of things and let Them chew at my hair and lick the saltsweat off my skin.  Filled 6 buckets with manure/earth and set on the edge of the drive down from here,  to load into the truck next time i go to Alyssia's.   and in typing this,  i see that my evening was very Productive…way more than my evenings usually are.  Smile.  maybe the guilt is a good thing?   

an area beyond what is visible or known

i  spend time looking at the angel in various places and ways

began reading.  R E A D I N G…..every word,  slow,  letting the images form in my mind….  The Warmth Of Other Suns

…the Epic Story of America's Great Migration.   You remember,  i mentioned listening to the On Being podcast interview with author  Isabel Wilkerson,  June 18th.   It took her 15 years to research and write.  I am on page 57 of 544 pages.  

received last time Alyssia was here,  the seeds i'd ordered…just 4 packets,  just to plant now and see what happens.  All are heat tolerant,  so,  maybe.  The one that interests me most is Malabar Spinach.   grows vine~like,  requires a trellis.  All is eaten,  leaves and stems,  pinching tips encourages branching.     "stem tip cuttings can be rooted,  overwintered inside and transplanted out again the following year or kept as houseplants."   , this last will appeal to Alyssia.  

i spend as much time as they want,  scratching and petting the little Goats…they are so Beauty Full…in physical being and in Nature.   Black has genetics from somewhere that give him a very different self…he is tall and slight bodied,  boned,  very elegant….which is emphasized by his complete blackness.  He has affiliated with Onday,  the Eldest.   

Hinterland,  an emotional and mental hinterland.   i drift there.

we startled EachOther.    at first.   I moved a bowl that had been in place a long time and at first,  in the first nanosecond just saw movement,  but then….Her.   She stopped.   There was eye contact.   and then just a long Pause.   we beheld EachOther.   We were still.   And then She went along.  and i continued Giving Water.    in a way….we were together.  it felt good to me,  knowing She was there.   I hope it meant someThing to Her.   

it's the beak of the Crow that indicates

Crow

it's specific,  its shape   to say    Crow.

the Flowering….it's been curved,  leaning,   i'd wondered if i should stake it somehow,  i wondered if the watering of the Plants nearby had caused the leaning and if i should DO something?,  but then…today….

NPR  All Things Considered   July 4      Artists Take To The Skys  to protest mass detention.   Many  artists and activists hired fleets of airplanes to SKY WRITE messages over centers of mass detention.   My favorite,  the one that rang like a bell in just dawn of a new day…

No Te Rindas

don't give up

a FULL MOON  rises and bears Witness

from some store…the  Stupice tomatoe,  mixed reviews on Google   but HERE,   PLant Grows and GIVES tomatoes,  small,  like  ping pong ball sized,  in clusters,  very tomato y  in taste…but most notable,  in the 100 Plus degrees,  set fruit.

grapefruit tree…everywhere,  new growth.   The yellow of older,  mature leaves?????????

and then.   At B garden…the Borage,  this years Borage from seed.    Blooms beginning….I think,  Borage…Courage

today was Shopping day….for Alyssia and i stay at her house in town with Emrie and when she got back,  we left again so i could put gas in the Truck.     You can imagine from this how much gas i've used in the last 3 months,  4?     But we went together so i could watch her protocol.   We stopped first at the Post  Office.  My  BeLovEd Post Office and there was ONE person coming out beside Alyssia with a mask.   One.    On to Lakeside Gas and Grocery,  my Place that i found to anchor me when i arrived here in California 3 years ago now,  my BeLovEd lakeside grocery and it was the usual Bizzy hub of shopping,  food,  propane,  gas,  and NO ONE.    NO ONE beside Alyssia honored with a mask.  NO ONE.  Zero.   Northern  California,  USA.   ZERO.

all.    ALL this.   ALL THIS.    i could repeat that a million times to say what it is i see this PLANT doing…..the DOING,  just to Be.

am so taken by this Angel….in an odd form of electricity,  a truly ODD FORM….sailing…..

plumcot pit

bell pepper

from the trampled Goat dirt just outside,  toward the Morning Tree.   There's a lot of broken glass.  small pieces.   Jenny's man picks them up while she and i talk on and on.   He hands them to me by a palm full.   and then,  there was this

i saw an egyptian boat,  an Angel within,  sailing sailing across the river styx ….but then….no,   couldn't be, but the association was a Key and Good….an "angel"  ….spirit…..from the Other World that is simultaneous and ancient  ….   a SIGN.

First close Fire of this Season…ten miles away….standing at Sunny Ray and Jack Flash's fence  Alyssia and i watched the smoke plume rise.  Watched on the phone alert things….the evacuation there on those roads,  but then contained.  75 acres.   Here it goes.  

National Geographic  6/2020 issue    Gabriele Galimberti    portraits of people in there homes for the quarantine in Italy.   He placed two stands of photographic lights in front of a window outside a dwelling.   He retreated so the people inside could safely retrieve the lights.  Shouting through the window,  Galimberti directed the positioning of lights and people,  then made his photos.  Quarantine portraiture.

Diorama

This is Greta Tanini and Cristoforo Lippi …"normally live apart but found themselves together in the shuttered city.   "We prefer to remain in isolation rather than taking risks or endangering the health of others.", she says.

Some time back,  maybe a year or more?  i began to follow a woman,   Cecilia Mary Gunther,  a New Zealander who had married a man of mid-west farm people.  She became a farmer.  Determined to be organic and kind.  Raising cows, chickens, ducks and pigs,  feed for those.   Recentlly,  months,  she began working part time at a grain mill nearby for extra cash the farm needed.  This parttime turned into much more and really her life is now fulltime fulltime.   She used to blog daily but now every now and then.   Today,  said  "…create systems that are long term.  No more hunkering down and waiting.  Get busy.  Let's literally design our lives to create safe living spaces and inclusive caring practices that include all our neighborhoods."    I read the words and tho am not sure how to translate them to something i know,  they caught and held my attention.  I read them  several times.           The kitchensgarden.com    Nanette turned me on to her.

beings are Here,  that i never see,  that remain unknown to me?,  but that are residents Here……?………..