Myth For My Tale Bone

The Moon and the Winds have conspired to clear the skies often during the past week. With the season definitely shifting from end of summer to nearly fall the morning is cool and energizing. I am grateful for the energy and physical comfort to be able to walk around our neighborhood. The 'Ole phases of the moon gift us with moonlight days, I spot her as I step out through the curtain and take myself up the hill toward Anderson Farm. Community gardens and the flush blooms of dahlias are such gifts at any time but to see them first thing upon waking? A promise of sweet potential. Not far from the gardens the fields of fenced grass keep the big and beautiful bovines in place. I see their tagged ears, and know they're marked for steaks and hamburger. But not yet, not yet. Seated in the driver's seat of our Subaru, the Bunnies stayed close for awhile, but have moved on, leaving me instead in the momentary company of a very brazen Crow. He or she landed just above me, le...

“It was through her actions of reciprocity, the give and take with the land, that the original immigrant became indigenous. For all of us, becoming indigenous to a place means living as if your children’s future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it.”- Robin Wall Kimmerer Summer is moving to fall. The deep dry of grasses are showing signs of greening; the infrequent rains and the moisture of Salish Sea air contribute. The Bunnies continue to mate, multiply and survive on the handouts from us campers and their search for grass roots. This clan hollows out any rise in the sandy ground to get at the barely succulent roots to keep them alive. Watchfulness is another of their stay alive predispositions. One resident feline hunter prowls the campground. We call her Devil Cat. I sit at the large wagon window to observe the morning’s regularities and see the Bunnies on their hunches as D.C. makes her rounds along the g...

  `OHE This versatile and giant member of the grass family is able to grow more rapidly than any other plant. After two months of growth it is the size it will remain for its lifetime. Bamboo, as well as niu, coconut , is one of the most useful and practical plants for humankind, providing water storage, food, raw materials for household and garden use, musical instruments and more. `Ohe is said to be one of the "canoe plants" brought to Hawai`i Nei by early Polynesian settlers in their oceanic navigation. This plant may have originated in India or Java. - Canoe Plants of Ancient Hawai'i  'Ohe: practical and useful grass. And what of Ulu? Ulu Mahalo to Kealopiko for this graphic, depicted on their blog. Link to read more. We are, once again, on the land near Langley where Bunnies reign and humans camp. As I wrote here , this move seemed a different kind of move and it truly was.  Our respite of several weeks in the care o...

"I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree."- Trees by Joyce Kilmer Last night we watched a movie , munched on grapes, blueberries and pistachio nuts. The night before was a night of big wind and blowing rain. Pete had just finished sanding one side of the vardo. We knew there was a storm coming, scanning the weather on an iphone is one of the ways to keep track, and the other source of forecasting came when we were out beach walking. "Big wind coming tomorrow," the old codger neighbor guy said on his way to the low tide line. "Up to twenty miles." He was on a mission to net crabs but had enough neighborliness to share the weather. Earlier in the day, while Pete sanded, I drove down to the beach parking lot to avoid the sand dust and read my book. Just as I was settling in, and after I set up the handwritten sign 'Guests of the Ashfords' a man with ear protection, a sweaty tee shirt and been-at-work blue jeans circled the S...