Well, for a couple of days it was near 60 degrees and the evidence of spring was popping out all over my front lawn. I was able to start some of the trimming and clearing of winter debris from my garden. I was a happy camper. Tom literally was a happy camper, spending another weekend in the woods with a hiking group from Ohio.
And then we woke up to this the other morning.
That was actually the worst of it (it was actually beautiful!)--central NY got more than we did--and the sun has melted away most of that by now. It isn't warm, though. We're back to daytime highs in the 20's and overnight lows in the teens (maybe even single digits tonight), and I'm back under my blanket, reading books. Let me know when it hits 40 again!
The calendar says spring, so we know winter has to let go in the near future. I'm narrowing down my choices for the veggie garden and deciding whether I have enough windowsill space to start some plants from seed after all (and wondering if the cat will leave them alone if I do). We went out for yoga on Wednesday morning (Tom is taking this series of classes with me), stopped at Labyrinth for a delicious bowl of soup for lunch, and then picked up some more reading material from the library. Yep, that was our big day this week. Winter isn't our social season.
The world has been such a hellish place lately that I've been thinking we need to address our personal preparation for disaster. We won't have a devastating earthquake or nuclear meltdown here, but tornadoes and other severe storms are not unheard of in this area. Nearby towns were struck last summer, and our next door neighbor in Cleveland lost five trees in her back yard. (Fortunately, they missed her house.) At the very least we should be prepared for a power outage. Water. Food that requires no refrigeration and very little cooking. Matches and candles. We experienced some of this during the blackout in the summer of 2003, and for a couple of days, it wasn't too terrible. What if it was longer? What if the ATM's stopped dispensing cash and the gasoline pumps stopped operating? How well would you cope?
I've been getting outdoors a little bit more now that temps are rising above freezing and the snow is shrinking (slinking?) away. It's very springlike today. I can see the tips of my crocuses and daffodils peeking above the soil as if to ask, is it time yet? Of course the back yard is still a great sucking pit of mud.
The disaster in Japan continues to be frightening and overwhelming, but as always, life goes on.
ACTION ALERT! The latest assaults on our environment and attempts to poison us (aside from the radioactive chemicals from Japan that will be making their way into fish, farm animals, and farming soil, and therefore, plants) come locally from Sealand Waste with a typically shortsighted plan to greatly expand their landfill in the Frewsburg area for disposal of construction debris. Never mind that there is already a landfill in Ellery that can handle this kind of waste. Never mind that runoff from the proposed site is likely to contaminate the Conewango Watershed with chemicals like arsenic. What's a little arsenic in your fish and drinking water?
The NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation will soon decide whether to issue a permit to Sealand for the landfill, and they need to hear from many of us why this is a very bad idea (and there are many reasons) before the deadline of MARCH 25. Send letters to David Denk, Regional Permit Administrator, NY DEC, 270 Michigan Ave., Buffalo NY 14203-2915 or phone 716-851-7165. More information for making your case is available on the Carroll Concerned Citizens website.
I filled my bird feeders the other day and the word got around quickly. The feeders were soon emptied. The herd was moving away from the house by the time Tom got the camera, but they were close to knocking on the back door when we first saw them. (Maybe they wanted to say thank you..) Today I'm refilling with a different blend, safflower seeds with hot chili peppers--which birds are supposed to love, other animals not so much. We'll see if this reaches its intended recipients this time.
I'm thinking more about this year's garden, which I'm going to have to buy plants for because I don't have room right now to start seedlings indoors. I'm wondering if I'll be able to get heirloom plants--certainly not from the "big box" stores--the kinds that produce seeds that will in turn produce plants like the parent plants. It's something I feel I have to learn to do (seed saving) in order to save "real food" in the age of Monsanto. There is definitely a cold frame in my future, maybe even a small greenhouse.
How tenuous are the intricately built trappings of our modern civilization. We believe that we can tame and control the forces of nature at our own peril.
The news and footage from Japan is stunning, overwhelming. I don't know what else to say.
I hate when I have to sully myself with anything political these days, because I've been so disappointed, disillusioned, and disgusted with politics in the past. And I really used to believe that involvement could make a difference.
But it's hard not to notice, unless you live under a rock, the horrific toll being inflicted upon average ordinary people worldwide by those who deem themselves the Masters of the Universe, those privileged elite who are looting and pillaging the earth for wealth and power at the expense of everyone else.
Well, their megalomania is finally taking the whole damned planet down. They, Dick Cheney and his oil and gas industry spawn, are poisoning a critical necessity for life on Earth, our water supply. In the process of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to release natural gas deposits, presumably to deliver us from Middle Eastern oil and meet our energy needs with domestic resources (that's the cover story), they are causing catastrophic collateral damage and then absolving themselves of any responsibility for the consequences. Oh, they make a self-righteous show of claiming that they compensate people for damages by magnanimously replacing their undrinkable well water with a brand new hauled in supply. But it misses the bigger picture--that all of the water on Earth is connected, from groundwater to streams, rivers, lakes, and the oceans, and if they keep adding toxic chemicals to the system, they are going to poison us all. That toxicity doesn't go away. Livestock need water, plants need water...there are so many ways for the toxins to spread that we might as well be injected with a chemical cocktail of glycol ethers, benzene, hydrochloric acid, strontium, etc and speed up the process.
Or we can make it stop. But our government officials even at the most local level need to hear from their constituents about this issue--in fact, the local level may be the only place a citizen can expect any real action to take place anymore-- and those constituents need to be well informed.
There is plenty of information available on the internet, and anti-fracking groups are springing up in our area. An Anti-Frack organizing meeting will be on Tuesday, March 15, 2011 at the Barker Library in downtown Fredonia, N.Y. from 5:30 - 7:30 pm.
You can sign the petition to Gov. Cuomo for a statewide ban on fracking in New York here, but don't stop at that. This IS a matter of life and death, much more important to any of us than the latest news on Charlie Sheen. (I do wish the media would stop exploiting this man's mental health crisis.)
The documentary GASLAND is a good introduction to what has been happening under the media radar for years. You may have seen this last year on HBO, but if not, it is available on DVD now (we got it from Netflix) and should be seen by everyone who cares about human well-being. Some groups hold screenings followed by discussion. I understand that the filmmaker is available for talks as well. There is lots of information at the film website if you click on the link.
On a related subject (related in that people have to stop lying down and letting themselves be stomped into the ground by the rapacious psychopaths who are in charge these days), it really lifted my spirits to see Michael Moore in this YouTube video speaking truth to power in support of the Wisconsin protesters over the weekend. He can be outrageous, but, dear GAWD, these were things that NEEDED to be said. If you all haven't figured out by now that we the ordinary peeps are never going to be part of the charmed inner circle that the rules don't apply to, then I don't know what to say to you, except...get over it.
