Frost!

This has been the earliest in my memory of such an early frost- in October! We hated getting out of bed with our dog warmer who runs hot at our feet. This morning there was a white glaze over the pastures and steam coming up from the pond. The beans, tomatoes, eggplants and basil are toast. The collards, broccoli, cabbages and lettuce are loving the cool weather. Peppers are peaky looking, but might pull through. I think this blast of cold will color up the oranges before we pick them starting in November.
It's cold in my studio but I need to work on quilting homework for my class in traditional quilting. I still hate it; it makes me think of Legos, and I never liked them. I have been making quilts for many years but they are wild and definitely not traditional. Now I am learning the elements and the cutting and measuring and pressing. At first I was completely lost, but now I can cut and measure like crazy. But it's not me.
I went up to Lacoochee Community School today for the monthly community action committee meeting. By now I know so many of those kids and adults. Way more families are now on Title One Lunch, close to 100%. People are hungry, crime is up, money is scarce, everyone needy. These folks are all Obama supporters, hopeful for change. I signed up to read to kids and help with an afterschool drama project.
As I left off a huge box of fired and glazed clay pieces left over from the summer program I run here, a staff member told me that I could get a grant to use a van for next summer's program. A day like this makes me aware of how many people in this country just keep on doing little things to help out. They feed, teach, drive, do useful things.
I think I will just die if Obama is not elected! I have been canvassing, sending money, anything. I so hate the lies that McCain puts forth to the naive voters. Obama is so amazingly idealistic, American, and intelligently thoughtful.
Folks, vote now!

Silvio's Birthday

Here we are, our family, celebrating a birthday for one of our middle grandchildren. I am aware as I take this photo that our family is now the modern one. Seated around our table of sixteen people we have people of all colors and ages; we have gays and lesbians, single parents, step-parents, adopted people, and lots of different languages. We are firmly family and love these events. Everyone cooks and lends a hand. Dan fired up the grill for steaks and fish. Antonio caught many fish in our pond and everyone ate them with great relish, I made the birthday cake, and Maria made an excellent flan. My son Ben, made the loaves of bread, Andy made the potato salad and Diego, our fifteen year old grandson, moved all the tables together and set everything up so we could eat in unison. Pablo found waterlilies to grace the table. Tory helped all around. We picked greens from our garden for the green salad. We sat down together, replete with food and love.
This is Sylvio's day and I want to make it perfect. He hasn't been here in months and I have missed him so much. After dinner I announce that we must all go outside in the dark and play a raucous game of "Watcher in the Road", a traditional family game that involves running up and down the dirt road, lots of hugging, and 'strategy'! Silvio loves this, and so does Quincy, the youngest grandchild present. After a couple of rounds of this we walk back to the house and look at the stars so brilliant overhead and all of us feel replete with the good food and fun and love for each other. My husband and I hug each other in the dark, so blessed with this family that is nowhere what we ever thought it might be.
Later, I go with Silvio to the guest house where he is staying. He wants me to tell him a ghost story. We hunker down and I begin my yarn only to realize what a little guy he is, and I have to backtrack and say this is only a story, NOT true. But we have a wonderul conversation about how people make up stories. By the time I leave his eyes are closed and he is cosy under his covers.
How I love these grandsons! Pablo, the middle one, looks uncannily like Obama. His oldest brother, Diego, is my favorite because he is the oldest and the first under my heart and everyone knows this. But I am so blessed with them all!
It has been a few days of not being so obsessed with politics so it seems like a vacation.

My new book is out and you can order it online at Orders@xlibris.com. All proceeds will benefit SunFlower School in Gulfport, FL.

Days of Global Warming

We spent much of this last month talking talking and listening to many people - scientists, philanthropists and others who are greatly concerned about global warming and what it means to all of us who live on this planet. I believe that this issue is paramount in our considerations about life here on Mother Earth.
In Vancouver, B.C. we met with more than a thousand people from around the world who are working on this problem. As you can see from the photo, taken from our hotel window, we are an urban and technological people. It was strange to be in such an environment, even for a few days, when we rarely saw the light of day in that convention center in the bowels of the drab earth. It seemed like the future, and we hated it enough to leave a day early to get back to our life in the sunshine with lizards and our food garden and flowers and the frass that is now falling from the caterpillars in the hickory trees. In every session we heard about the dire condition of our natural places. We also heard about many projects going on worldwide to mitigate these.
After the sessions, Andy and I talked our heads off like we were in our twenties. We thought about our own life and how we could keep on smallifying our footprint and making a difference. We spoke of actualizing our desire to put in more solar power and include our neighbors.
Coming home on the plane I sat next to a couple of old women from Venice, Florida who had been to Las Vegas on a few days vacation to gamble and take in the shows. My head was so full of huge issues we must all pay attention to, I couldn't think of a single thing to say to these people who are only concerned with what's fun now.
These are strange times. Like so many, I have been consumed with politics, and my view has changed over time. I still passionately believe that we must have a change in direction, and Obama is the clear choice. But I now understand that people must have something they can 'hang onto'. For most, it is the compelling issue of personal economics and their fears. One issue voting must take a back seat to the issue of having food on the table and a way to put your kids through college. Gay marriage and abortion are small issues by comparison. I am still alarmed to think that a serious candidate, McCain, would be so cynical towards women to have selected Paylin as a serious person for his running mate. I hate to see all the lies and sort-of lies in the t.v. ads. I'll be glad when all this is over and we can get on to what is really important- the state of our planet.

The Emperor's New Clothes (not!)

O.K. I can deal with "Eye Wrack" and "Eye ran". But I cannot deal with more years of "Newcular". We've been there too long. Gov. Palin was just pitiful last night. Certainly, she did have energy, and certainly she is beautiful and buff. But, that said, this woman has no business being a heartbeat away from the presidency. And this is clear to anyone with even one clicking brain cell.
A few columnists and editorials in major newspapers have questioned her preparedness and knowledge, and many have refuted her claims of this fact or that. The thing is, Sarah Palin just doesn't know squat about presidential politics or history or science or anything else. What she does know is that the base of the Republican ticket wants celebrity, emotion, snarkiness, and a lot of references to god stuff and the lowest common denominator of American culture.
As a woman who came up in the seventies, determined that our daughters would have every opportunity, I was deeply offended that she played the "Mom card" so inappropriately. Yeah, we are all soccer moms, or have been. Now, there are even soccer dads! Yeah, we all have been in those shoes. But right now, we need someone who gets the nuances, has done the study, and had the experience. We don't really want or need to have a vice president (or god forbid, a president) whose experience and expertise is so constricted. The emperor has no clothes on. We all need to speak up.
Enough on that. The last couple of days have been glorious- cool to cold in the early mornings and verging on hot in the middle of the day. We Floridians all comment on the wonderful weather. Yesterday I bought myself a new bike, a cool powder blue old lady type cruiser. I am loving it as I pedal along the dirt roads enjoying the sights and sounds of the country. As I swish by in front of the house I see the giant mutant cosmos in full throat, covered with butterflies, and then I pedal on by the cattle pens and around the pond. I can already feel my thighs protesting so I slow to watch the sand hill cranes squabbling in the pasture.
The vegetable garden is producing huge quantities of lettuces and herbs. My small grandson, Quincy, planted a row of beans when he was here over the weekend and I see that they are poking up. The grasshoppers have been eating the chard so I put major effort into screening the chard beds. The cardinals and grosbeaks crab at me for doing this. The hummingbirds have gone back to Mexico as have the chimney swifts. At dawn we hear the migratory whipporwills, in contest with the resident barred owls. The huge golden orb weaver spiders who festoon our porches are almost at the end of their ropes, so to speak. They are plastering their egg sacks to the eaves, in readiness for the spring. These ladies are tired, their webs look disheveled and ragged and they are ready to hang it up come the first really cold spell. We hear the coyotes howling most nights and when we are in bed and close to sleep we hear the small scufflings of nocturnal creatures outside.