Birds I saw

today before leaving the house:

1. a party of blue jays
2. a banditry of chickadees
3. a mourning dove
4. a ruby-throated hummingbird
5. a brown thrasher
6. a gross of rose-breasted grosbeaks
7. a cardinal
8. a miscellaneous sparrow
9. a downy woodpecker
10. a common flicker
11. some grackles

(unfortunately some camera troubles are preventing pictures today)

Endurance

Sometimes it's just not worth it.

This poor Caspian Pink tomato is not surviving the unusually cruel treatment I've subjected it to. In the first week of June I had an opportunity to come up to the house, dig up a weedy garden plot, plant some tomato and herb plants and then completely abandon them to their fate for the next seven weeks. We've had a very wet summer so far and the weeds, as they are wont to do, have gone wild. Surprisingly, the other tomatoes, Sweet 100 and Celebrity, are holding up fairly well with some decent fruit. The herbs have taken up with the weeds and are thriving in the neglect. Which is lucky for them, as they are not going to get much attention from me unless I happen to be ripping their leaves off for tea. I'm thinking about next year's garden.

We've moved

So after packing all the stuff, cleaning the new house, moving the stuff, unpacking the stuff, and cleaning the old house I'm declaring us officially moved. I think I won't do that again soon.

Now the business of getting the new garden ready for vegetables begins.

On Peak Everything

I've just spent the last 68 minutes watching Richard Heinberg speaking at a Pie and Politics event in Wisconsin on June 25. He's a mild mannered professorish man with a powerful message. He talks about how life will change, ready or not, and why. This may be a good introduction to the whole peak oil thing for skeptical friends and relatives, as it doesn't sound nearly as scary as Matt Savinar's introduction over at Life After the Oil Crash. That is until you think about it. Perhaps the fact that Heinberg is just so darn nice and mainstream (not that I've met the man - this is how he comes across on video) that makes his message frightening.

Why bother watching, though? After all, what's the point of torturing yourself with this knowledge if the consequences are inevitable anyway? (a paraphrase of something my mother said a while back). Well, because the mainstream media aren't going to explain this to you, and politicians aren't going to tell you this, and big corporations sure aren't - and the politicians and corporations are going to spin the message until it's pure fiction and then they'll ask you to vote for them or invest in their company and maybe you will. And then you'll be complicit in whatever happens. Like the deaths of innocent people in Iraq or the devastation of the environment in northern Alberta. That's why.

Too much stuff

We're getting ready to move and once again we're discovering just how much stuff we own. M (age 11) declared "I'm so downsizing!". That must be a sign of the times. L is the sentimental one in our family; unable to part with plaques, old uniforms, old family furniture or binders full of outdated training material. My weakness is books, but I'm getting better. The wonderful thing about moving is that it provides a great incentive to pare down and have a fresh start. So I'd better get back at it.

Peasant Dreams

An unconventional peasant

Today is the first day of my new career - peasant. I'm genetically suited to this profession as I come from a long line of peasants on both sides of the family. As of this afternoon, I'm officially off the payroll at the safety critical non-share capital corporation (insert happy dance here)!

And more pictures from Norway

M hard at work learning how to build a house as was done 3000 years ago.



M felting wool.


Mari Boine is a Sami singer from Norway. She gave a breathtaking performance at the opening ceremony.


The only graffiti we saw in Stavanger was vegan graffiti. Not that we saw many vegans. How could you be vegan with all that amazing cheese?


M at another workshop. She's learning how to spin wool here.