Yellow Beauty.....

As Fenway and I walk around the neighborhood or as I drive through the area to do errands or visit friends I've noticed a growing number of small signs planted in front yards. "NO MOW MAY!" I'm assuming this is an effort to let wildflowers bloom this month so that bees and other insects can find pollen.

Pulling dandelions with a special forked tool that was supposed to get the root (HAH!) was one of my fifth-sixth grade summer chores. My dad wanted all the offensive yellow dots out of his perfectly groomed lawn, as did his neighbors.

But when I began, as an adult, to notice the wildflowers around us....on highway trips, on walks in the woods, while planning to weed one of our own flower gardens I began to develop a different view. I bought a small wildflower identification book and it was always in the glove compartment of our car. If we, when the kids were little, were driving from Chicago area to Massachusetts to visit grandparents the book helped pass the time. We learned to identify many blooms on the fly and when we'd stop for a picnic lunch or stretch-your-legs break we'd let the kids pick wildflowers and back in the car we'd page through the book to identify them. Then we'd write the date and location in the margin of that guide. 

Dandelions took on another level of beauty. The bright happy color, the astonishing number of petals, the transition from bloom to blow-away-puff. The shape of the leaves....they were just so pretty.

I woke up this morning to a few fun dandelion facts on a Facebook post. 

• ‘Dandelion’, their common name, has been derived from the French phrase ‘dents de lion’, which means lion tooth. The shape of this plant’s leaves resembles a lion’s tooth. 
• Dandelion makes the only flower representing three celestial bodies during different phases of its life cycle – sun, moon, stars. The yellow flower of the plant resembles the sun, the dispersing seeds of the plant resemble stars, and the puff ball of dandelion plant resembles the moon.

• Animals like butterflies, insects, and birds consume the seeds or nectar of dandelion.  
• The dandelion leaves are 2 to 10 inches long. A rosette is formed by these green leaves at the stem’s base. Dandelion leaves appear tooth-like at the edges.  
• Dandelion plants can reach a height of 17 inches.  
• Dandelions are pollinated by various types of insects. Yellow flower of the plant becomes a puff ball which comprises many fruits known as achenes. Dandelion seeds have a disk-like extension which serves as a parachute and helps dispersal by wind.   In folk medicine, dandelions are used for treating liver disorders and infections. Tea made from dandelion serves as a diuretic i.e., facilitates urine excretion.   
• Dandelions are also called pioneer plants or ruderals – the first plants to colonize any disturbed lands (like land after a wildfire).   

6:45 am - time for Fenway and I to do the first-thing-in-the-morning walk. He will have ears up looking for rabbits....maybe I will count the yellow dots.

 

A New Sleeping Pill....

The past ten days (nights) or so have been a little tiring. I'm temporarily taking a drug that can cause sleeplessness....and for me it does, big time. I can usually go to sleep about the normal time, 10:00 pm but I wake about 2:00 am and that's it for the night. I've tried deep breathing, I've tried turning on the light to read for about 30 minutes, I've changed position, I've tried to shut off my brain. But yawn!

Dragging through the day with about four to six hours per night has left me feeling absolutely exhausted. But two nights ago I came up with another idea. I've been reading Professor Heather Cox Richardson's "Letters from an American, a nightly newsletter that chronicles current events in the larger context of American History," on Facebook. Writing about our current political/American situation from the point of view of someone who is a recognized expert on American history, she puts what's happening today into a context that helps me see that, yes we've gone through something similar in our Country's history....or not.

And she does two weekly one-hour videos on the same Facebook page. On Tuesday she spends her time answering questions sent in by readers. (At this point she has more than one million readers/listeners from around the world.) On Thursdays she does an hour "course" on a segment of American history. These classes can run for six weeks or so to cover the topic. I feel like I'm sitting in her classroom at Boston College and have learned so much of the American history that I sort of skimmed when I was in high school and college. And I've also read two of her many books about US history.

The other night I realized that sometimes, if I am listening to her lecture while in a reclined position on the couch or the bed, I fall asleep and miss the last half. So in the middle of the night I went to her Facebook page, turned the sound down to low and re-started a recent lecture....and was lulled back to sleep! Two nights in a row Professor Heather Cox Richardson has helped with this stupid insomnia. What a relief!

I know she did not plan her presentations to be sleep-inducing, and I do listen to each episode when I am awake....but the repeats are comforting me back into a place where I can grab another hour or so before getting up in the morning.

The first thing I do is put my cell phone in the recharging platform....as I sleep the phone goes to zero. It's worth it.

Thank you Professor Richardson! Zzzzzzzzz......

Not the Best...But....

I picked up at book at our Eastcastle Place library - easy to do as I walk past this room at least ten times each day. It's sort of like a big "Book Box" that pop up on town streets and are filled and emptied as people share books. This library has many books I've already read, but others from authors I like, or that just look interesting.

So a few days ago I grabbed the paperback Remember Mia by Alexandra Burt. It was a mystery involving a kidnapped or murdered seven month baby....you don't know the truth until near the end of the book. And it wasn't the best book I've ever read even though it did keep me turning the pages.

A few sentences seemed to strike a cord. On one page the main character is talking to a psychiatrist and he asks her to consider the concept of happiness before their next visit. He states, "Happiness is therefore not a permanent state of being, but more a moment in time." I re-read that sentence thinking that I've had so many happy moments.....but a vast majority of just "regular" moments. Maybe the happy ones wouldn't stand out if they didn't seem different and more intense than the normal day-to-day.

And later in the novel I was struck how the author painted the picture of a small upstate New York town. "The roads, lacking white center lines, followed along the hilly terrain, flanked by small wooden houses, roads worn, not so much by traffic, but by time. Concrete cracks wove their way along the roads like snake trails. Some of the cracks were filled in with black tar, some left to deepen and lengthen. The narrow sidewalks, distorted by tree roots, were broken up by T-shaped power-poles with power lines draped from one pole to the next. The poles were ghostly onlookers of a parade canceled decades ago. The houses were covered by drooping roofs and surrounded by chain-link fences keeping old, arthritic dogs at bay.....The entire neighborhood was dangling lightly off the edge of being deemed ramshackle."

I could see this small town and easily feel the mood created by the author's words. 

I love when a book, even not the best book, takes me somewhere I haven't been.

Yesterday.....

We sat and watched the national news at 5:30 before going down for dinner. David Muir sits at the anchor desk and his lead off story was that President Biden had made a short speech in recognition of Americans lost to COVID. We have topped the staggering number of 1,000,000 deaths in the United States alone. Flags in DC were set at half-mast.

The focus of this particular story was the children left behind. Statistics show that more than 250,000 children lost a parent or primary caregiver since COVID first crossed into American in early 2020. 250,000 children from pre-school through high school and some were interviewed and talked about their lives since losing their mom or dad, or primary caregiver. The high school students talked about their new responsibilities as "parent" for younger siblings and the sadness, stress and anxiety accompanying their now new need-to-be-adult lives.

It was a difficult feature to watch....all these children who are also victims of the "China virus" that was supposed to be "gone by April". 

Admittedly, I watched it through a lens focused on the possible and perhaps probable roll-back of the 50 year old Roe v Wade decision....and with that, the loss of a woman's right to choose to carry or not carry a pregnancy to term with the advice of her physician.

Oh yes you Right-To-Lifers....let's protect those unborn embryos from the moment of conception.....but what are your plans for the babies born to women who are unprepared to parent (maybe they are 12-13 year old "women"), who don't have biological fathers who stick around to share the responsibility of parenting? Oh that's right....the sperm had nothing to do with it....woman's responsibility to take care of birth control (until that's illegal).

I watched this news segment and wondered too what kind of support these COVID children are receiving from our GOP flooded government and Country? Are they forgotten? Will they have help with child care needs? Will someone help provide for their education, for jobs, for meals on the table or do they have to scramble to try to put together their own support network.

Oh great MAGA voters who talk out of both sides of their mouths....protect those unborn children they have all the rights of any child....until they leave the womb. Then, you're on your own baby.

Rant for the day....and I usually DO not go on and on about political stuff, but at this point I feel anyone who does not like the direction of the RINO Republican Party (not the Party of Lincoln or my parents Republican Party) better start making a LOT of noise in any way we can.

RINO....

DON'T READ MY LITTLE BLOG TODAY.....GO TO FACEBOOK AND FIND HEATHER COX RICHARDSON'S PAGE AND READ HER ENTRY. IT'S IN BLACK AND WHITE WHAT IS HAPPENING IN WASHINGTON AND AROUND OUR COUNTRY TODAY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF AN AMERICAN HISTORY SCHOLAR.

PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY AT BOSTON COLLEGE....EIGHT BOOKS ON AMERICAN HISTORY, AN ALMOST DAILY ENTRY IN WHAT IS CALLED "LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN".....TWO WEEKLY VIDEO "CLASSES"....TUESDAY'S ANALYZING EVENTS IN OUR CURRENT POLITICAL WORLD EVALUATED AND EXPLAINED FROM AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE....THURSDAY'S A HISTORY CLASS WHERE I'VE LEARNED MORE ABOUT AMERICAN HISTORY THAN I EVER DID IN HIGH SCHOOL OR COLLEGE.

HEATHER HAS BEEN RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF USA TODAY'S WOMEN OF THE YEAR FOR 2022. IN A RECENT ARTICLE BY SUZETTE HACKNEY HEATHER IS QUOTED:

"My theory is you can't make good choices about your life unless you understand the facts of your life," she said. "I'm a firm believer in democracy and on the incredible importance of a lot of different perspectives on different issues. But unless people are operating from the same basis of fact, they can't make good decisions about their lives or about their country. If you can't figure out what's up and what's down, your only answer is to shrink and to hope that somebody makes good decisions for you. And that's a real burden to carry." 

I DON'T KNOW HOW I DISCOVERED HER BUT I AM SO GLAD I DID....BUT TODAY'S LETTER WAS A BARN BURNER AND MAKES ME WANT TO WEEP/SCREAM/MARCH/VOTE!

IF YOU DON'T DO FACEBOOK YOU PROBABLY WON'T EVEN SEE MY RANT FOR TODAY....BUT YOU CAN ALWAYS GOOGLE HER "LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN".

PLEASE!

"This is no longer your mother’s Republican Party, or your grandfather’s…or his grandfather’s.

Today’s Republican Party is not about equal rights and opportunity, as Lincoln’s party was. It is not about using the government to protect ordinary people, as Theodore Roosevelt’s party was. It is not even about advancing the ability of businesses to do as they deem best, as Ronald Reagan’s party was.

The modern Republican Party is about using the power of the government to enforce the beliefs of a radical minority on the majority of Americans."

Where Am I?

Fenway and I walked out of the building's front door and I was "blinded"..... looking up I saw, for the first time in maybe a week, blue sky! Sunshine! Our April has been so dull and gloomy I didn't recognize the neighborhood.....

...but I'll take it!

One.....

Just after Russia invaded Ukraine a wonderful and expert quilter in Germany, Claudia Feil, put out a call on Facebook. She asked anyone interested to make 8.5 inch blocks using the colors of the Ukraine's flag and send them to her. She planned to make quilts for the Ukraine families coming across the border into Poland and other countries to escape the war. When anyone puts out a call on Facebook the response can be pretty amazing.

Every few weeks she will put up a new post showing the piles and piles of squares that are flooding into her quilt shop. Today's information said she had received more than 15,000 squares and finished 765 quilts. She's posted some pictures showing smiling children who hugged a bright mostly blue and yellow quilt. The families come across borders with almost no personal possessions so I can only imagine what getting one of these small gifts means to them.

I made maybe eight squares and sent them, along with another 20 made by guild friends, to Germany in March. Every time Claudia posts pictures of finished tops I scroll through and it warms my heart to see how quilters all over the world responded to this ask. Quilters doing what quilters do.....creating a little bit of a cloth hug to share with someone else.

And today I spotted it.....one of my squares! It was combined with many others but I recognized the fabric and the way I made the square featuring two sunflowers. 

I hope this war ends soon....although that is probably a naive expectation. I hope these quilts provide just a little taste of home and the assurance to a family that the world is thinking of them.....and we won't forget.

PS.....if you are curious, Google Claudia Feil, German quilter and explore!