Happy Sadie Hawkins Day!

 

This is me of course, in the most wonderful moment captured from last year. But feeling the love, the wonder of nature in all her different aspects, and making memories!

I am only posting now because, a. I don't want to worry people, and 2. I should give fair warning when backing out of my usually daily posts. 

But hey, three or 4 blogs is quite more than any one octogenarian should handle. And I will keep adding something sometimes, but am enjoying going to the art studio, and taking photos around town, waiting patiently for spring, so...less daily posts!

Plus I'm a helper for friends who need rides after having shoulder surgery...or when cars are in the shop. And I'm doing the lunch program almost every day at the Senior Center...which was a really good idea for February that got me up and out of the house, and met new people. My new friends from Wisconsin are going home this weekend. It's nice that they came to visit her sister here for the whole month of February.

Anyway, I'm busy. Thanks for reading, and you know I'll post something whenever it hits my heart to do so!

Do leap over something to commemorate the day!

Today's quote:

 “Every worthwhile book contains many faults, and every worthwhile writer commits them.” lexicographer Eric Partridge

Lest we repeat history...

The wife of a migrant farmer in California, 1938. She had six children and told photographer Dorothea Lange, "People just can't make it back there [in Texas] with drought, hailstorms, windstorms, duststorms, insects. They'll all be here in another year or two. People exist here and they can't do that there. You can make it here if you sleep late and eat little, but it's pretty tough--there's so many people"

That was then.

-----------------

Coming soon to an earth near you...

Global warming   Human-caused global warming is fueling longer droughts and extreme weather events that are posing problems to communities around the world. Scientists say Mexico City, a sprawling metropolis of nearly 22 million people and one of the world's biggest cities, may be just months away from "day zero" — when the taps run dry for huge swaths of the city. Experts say this comes as a result of several years of abnormally low rainfall, longer dry periods and high temperatures that have added stress to a water system already straining to cope with increased demand. In the coming weeks, Mexican authorities are expected to introduce significant restrictions on the water pumped from reservoirs ahead of the intense summer months.  -------------------- As posted on CNN 2.26.24 https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/25/climate/mexico-city-water-crisis-climate-intl/index.html -------------------------- I immediately thought of how the migrants wanting to get into Texas across the Mexican border are already being turned away at gunpoint. There's not much hope for them to get to California either, like the woman shown in Dorthea Lange's photo. Are you starting to get the point? We're in this together, and it's not going to get better. It's history repeating itself on a global scale.  Yes it's daunting. But it does need to give everyone everywhere a wake-up call. This time there's no California on the horizon to save us. ----------------------- And celebrate a bit today as the birth anniversary of... "the novelist John Steinbeck, born in Salinas, California (1902). He's best known for his novel The Grapes of Wrath (1939), about the "Dust Bowl" farmers who had to migrate to California after a drought had destroyed their land. To research the book, he bought a an old bakery truck, filled it with blankets, food, and cooking utensils, and joined the migration himself, so that he could meet and talk to people without being conspicuous. The novel won the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1940 and Steinbeck went on to win the Nobel Prize for literature in 1962." Thanks Writer's Almanac

The best laid plans...

 You've all probably "been here, done that!" I call it being de-committed. There's probably a verb for that, but I couldn't think of it.

Dr. appointment was scheduled by my Care Coordinator for my regular Dr. The system is that I talk by phone with CC. When something comes up that may need a personal visit, I get an appointment. Well, Mon. morning at 8:10 was all that was available.

However, things didn't come together as planned.

I got up, stood in my bedroom looking at clothes laid out, sipping hot coffee, trying to decide why I wasn't moving. My feet were firmly planted in place as I could look out the window, turn to put the coffee on top of the dresser, and just stand there. It was an odd moment.

Then the phone buzzed, and it was the Dr. office. I answered to find out the Dr. couldn't make my appointment at 8:10. Could I change to Wed. at same time? I said sure. I changed my phone calendar appropriately after hanging up.

Continued with a sigh of relief, having a free morning once again.

But...and always there are things still hanging on one to consider, aren't there! I had volunteered for a job much bigger than I thought myself capable of performing. 

Ah ha. I did have a bit of wisdom with this age. I looked around me, and saw how much I am behind in doing things I really want to have done. So I wrote an email, after thinking about it another half hour, trying to decide if anyone else would have good advice on my decision. No. I was it. I was in charge of Barbara. The email I sent said I couldn't volunteer to do that task, and I hoped I could find something that fit better for my abilities at 81. I know that doesn't mean I'm incapacitated...but it's a slippery slope here, and I keep having more medical problems, and sporadic good health in between. Are there more days fighting physical problems than being able to do what I wanted to do? Sometimes I wonder...but as of today, at this minute, it's kind of equally balanced.

I then took another big step and backed out of the wonderful environmental group where I have little to contribute, but my laptop to run zoom on. Nope. I need to just not do this. A commitment was again de-committed!

Three big changes all on Monday before breakfast.

So I sat watching the sun bathing the ridge and the branches outside my window...and the strange bird fluffing itself up then just sitting (napping?) for several minutes outside the window. Sorry, this is all a phone camera could do, and I think it was a robin. 15 minutes later it was still there. Why I wondered? By the time I got the laptop open to write the emails, it had gone.

Lunch today is still planned at the Lakeview Senior Center, and then studio time working on clay. I have several images in my imagination to build as dinosaurs, er dragons!.

But I have noticed another new thing about this elder. I'm having trouble typing regular words...the spelling just isn't coming out right unless I change it several times. Oh no. Am I having TIA's? That's kind of what I expect will next happen to me.

OK, not to be a debby downer...because after all, I have gratitude for a wonderful day (getting into high 60s) and a good lunch prepared by others, clay studio, driving a safe car, listening to the Grateful Dead (thanks Tom the Backroads Traveler).  Here's a wonderful track if you like them...( 2:35 long!)

December 31, 1989 - Oakland Coliseum - Oakland, CA

Today's quote:

I find it difficult to feel responsible for the suffering of others. That's why I find war so hard to bear. It's the same with animals: I feel the less harm I do, the lighter my heart. I love a light heart. And when I know I'm causing suffering, I feel the heaviness of it. It's a physical pain. So it's self-interest that I don't want to cause harm. -Alice Walker, author (b. 9 Feb 1944)

What Gabby says

 From our friendly gun shot survivor, former congresswoman, Gabby Giffords... 

"A decade ago, it would’ve been nearly impossible to imagine this kind of victory. For decades, the NRA had an iron grip on our politics and avoided accountability.

But thanks to our movement and our tireless organizing, we’ve toppled the NRA from their seat of power. They are a shell of the organization they once were, entrenched in scandal and extremism.

And this is just the beginning. Legislative victories like the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act marked a turning point for our movement to save lives, proving that we can end the NRA’s toxic grip on Congress.

But we cannot get complacent. The NRA still has millions of members and tens of millions of dollars. They are still fighting in the courts and at the state level to overturn our progress — including overturning the Republican-backed legislation that was passed after Parkland."

I just early voted in our local primary last week. Those judges are important seats in carrying forward ethical justice.

Talk about overcoming adversity... Ukraine!

From Letters from an American, Heather Cox Richardson, on Feb. 23, 2024 

"Two years ago today, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky made a passionate plea to the people of Russia, begging them to avoid war. He gave the speech in Russian, his own primary language, and, reminding Russians of their shared border and history, told them to “listen to the voice of reason”: Ukrainians want peace!"

Instead, Putin "trumped" up a posture of a completely Russian devised invasion from the Ukraine, for which he invaded them.

"But rather than collapsing, Ukrainians held firm. The day after Russia invaded, Zelensky and his cabinet recorded a video in Kyiv. “We are all here,” he said. “Our  soldiers are here. The citizens are here, and we are here. We will defend our independence…. Glory to Ukraine!” When the United States offered the next day to transport Zelensky outside the country, where he could lead a government in exile, he responded:

“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.”

That statement echoes powerfully two years later as Ukraine continues to stand against Russia’s invasion but now quite literally needs ammunition, as MAGA Republicans in Congress are refusing to take up a $95 billion national security supplemental measure that would provide aid to Ukraine. 

Instead, Republicans spent the day insisting that they do not oppose in vitro fertilization, the popular reproductive healthcare measure that the Alabama Supreme Court last Friday endangered by deciding that a fertilized human egg was a child—what they called an “extrauterine” child—and that people can be held legally responsible for destroying them. Since the decision, Alabama healthcare centers have halted their IVF programs out of fear of prosecution for their handling of embryos. 

The good news for the Republicans is that their frantic defense of IVF means that the media has largely stopped talking about the news of just two days ago, the fact that the man whose testimony congressional Republicans relied on to launch an impeachment process against President Joe Biden turned out to be working with Russian operatives. House leaders have quietly deleted from their House Impeachment website the Russian disinformation that previously was central to their case against Biden. 

But today, as Republican House members remain on vacation, President Biden announced new sanctions against Russia, and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was in Ukraine, where he challenged House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to pass the national security supplemental bill. “The weight of history is on his shoulders,” Schumer told reporters in Lviv. “If he turns his back on history, he will regret it in future years.”

“Two years,” Ukraine president Zelensky wrote today. “We are all here…. Together with representatives of Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Egypt, Estonia, the EU, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, the Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Türkiye, the UAE, the United Kingdom, the USA, Viet Nam, as well as international organisations….”

Slava Ukraini."

Overcoming adversity.

I quote Heron Dance Art Journal, from an interview between Michael Toms (At The Leading Edge) with Marsha Sinetar (author of Do What You Love, And The Money Will Follow).

"Studies of children from abused home situations or who have mentally ill or otherwise dysfunctional parents show that about fifteen percent grow up to be well-adjusted.  These kids make a bond to themselves. People who overcome great difficulties have a trusted, trusting relationship with themselves. They know that if all else fails, they have a sacred entity within themselves -- what Saint Peter calls the inner man of the heart. They are aware of the inner core of themselves that is always there, that never ages and dies."

      

Dragon-slayer old lady!

 Hiring myself as a house cleaner.

The mold problem has arisen again...this time in the water pitcher with a Britta filter. (Photos over in the Black Mountain blog.) It's kept in the refrigerator, which sometimes lets my yogurt grow mold also, if I'm not digging into it (big container) every other day. I can't very well complain to the management about the refrigerator, since I have a kitchen full of dirty dishes...they'll just think I'm a lousy housekeeper, which I am. WAS. Going to be better!!

So I went out to breakfast this morning (since the 8:30 dental appointment was canceled at 7:30). And decided to pull up my big girl panties and tackle the mold problem, which obviously makes me sick.

It continues in anyplace it ever has been...no matter how much scrubbing or chemicals are used, unless it's killed deep inside and never allowed to get wet again. So...that means daily cleaning (or stoppering) of any of the drains around. Drains grow pink mold coming up from PVC pipes) And the places I can't reach like inside the air handler.

I'm thinking of setting up a schedule, to tackle each area daily, to be the mold avenger in my life. Geese, what a pursuit. But hey, I am the mother of dragon-slayers...and grandmother to some also. So I'll put on a dragon-slayer mask (psychologically.)

Will I have time? Of course I will. I'll trade off one hour of housework to one hour of things I already love to do, like blog, meet friends, work at studio...etc.

So I'm off to spend an hour devising my schedule for the rest of this week!

Whew, not much time left, is there?

What will work in our future

 Sustainable is the minimal standard we should have.

Watch Lalita Booth talk, a straight-forward clear thinking way to look at changing our future for the better. I admit that she covers a lot of subjects, and moves quickly through her talk.

"Lalita Booth, MPP, MBA speaks at the Four Futures for Mountain Farmland Symposium on the inclusive wealth formula as a tool for thinking through land use in the North Carolina mountains."

(Talk description from YouTube)

--------------

And I was super surprised to meet her at the SWAN water meeting last Friday. (SWAN, Swannanoa Watershed Action Network). Her input into the discussion was as amazing as this talk, and she took notes and offered to design a chart to cover some of the new ideas that were proposed for investments from carbon credits into sustainable land, farms, watershed drainage, and whatever other investments we could think of.

I hope to see her again. I feel like a kindergartener next to her incredible ways of thinking. Plus she farms nearby using all of these techniques. Plus her father, Ian Booth, was there, who gave me a link to climate.org where a climate change networker can find lots of information. How about a list of worldwide conferences on climate change? I signed up for the newsletter, so you might be getting some of their info here.

Today's quote:

“Activism is my rent for living on the planet.”
― Alice Walker

From Emergence Magazine

 My Sunday newsletter offers a glimpse from the pages of this wonderful journal. This week there's an interesting conversation. I'll give the first few paragraphs, and you can follow the link (I hope.)

“Life fades into nonlife so gradually that it’s actually hard to locate a border, let alone police one.” — Merlin Sheldrake

What are the bounds of a self? Is a single redwood in a forest separate from its fellow beings, from the ferns and bats that inhabit its branches, the mycelial web underfoot? What about the lichen encrusting its bark, itself a composite of algal cells living among fungal filaments? Can we imagine a subjectivity for the wider forest ecosystem, the collection of selves that make it up? How might we define these entities’ agencies, interests, or rights?  Honoring the Wild Proliferation of Earthly Perspectives with Merlin Sheldrake and David Abram In this conversation, cultural ecologist David Abram and mycologist Merlin Sheldrake explore the many kinds of selves that make up our world and reimagine the frameworks through which we define their rights and well-being. Published in partnership with the More Than Human Rights (MOTH) Project, Merlin and David’s discussion ventures past the realm of the known, entering a playful space of possibility that recognizes the inseparability of the fluxing multitudes that compose—and decompose—the biosphere. DAVID ABRAM:  "...We were all drawn together by our bodacious love and concern for the wider and much wilder community of earthly agencies, for the whole cantankerous collective of what you so aptly call “entangled life.” And this made for a very convivial gathering indeed, surging with reflective insights and conundrums, but one that also held space for grief—the grief that most of us were carrying in relation to the vast and unprecedented losses in the human and more-than-human community—and also for some music-making. Each of these are necessary ingredients for any sort of wisdom—for thinking, that is, not just with our abstract intellects, but with the whole of our creaturely selves, reflecting with the entirety of our feelingful, intelligent organisms. Our sensate bodies, after all, provide our sole access to all these other animals, to the plants and the fungi, to the rainforests, the rivers, the surging winds and the gathering storms. MERLIN SHELDRAKE: I found this convergence enormously inspiring. I was left with a sense that interdisciplinarity is a superpower. This is a recurring theme in the history of life: by coming together, radically different organisms can extend their reach and achieve things that none of the individual players—whether bacterium, alga, fungus, animal, plant—could achieve by themselves. Lichens are wonderful examples of this. When a volcano creates a new island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the first things to grow on the bare rock are lichens, which arrive as spores or fragments carried by the wind or birds—likewise when a glacier retreats. Whenever it was that lichens occurred for the first time, their very existence implies that life outside the lichen was less bearable...."  Here's the link to the whole conversation: https://emergencemagazine.org/interview/honoring-the-wild-proliferation-of-earthly-perspectives/?utm_source=Emergence+Magazine&utm_campaign=fe3a5842d5-WildProliferations%E2%80%9420240218&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_73186f6259-fe3a5842d5-357088886

50% less deforestation in the rain forest of Brazil

 

Reuters image

In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Brazil's environment ministry said this was the first step in achieving its zero deforestation goal.

The rate of deforestation in Brazil's Amazon fell by nearly 50% in 2023 compared to the previous year, space agency data suggests.

Brazil's environment ministry said it was the lowest recorded deforestation rate in the last five years.

Though smaller than in previous years, the deforested area is still more than six times the size of New York City.

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pledged to end deforestation by 2030 when he took office a year ago.

Preliminary data from national space agency Inpe showed 5,153 sq km (1,989.6 sq miles) of the Amazon were cleared in 2023, down from 10,278 sq km in 2022.

President Lula promised to restore the Amazon rainforest and chase down climate criminals during his speech at climate summit COP27 in 2022.

Rainforest destruction had surged to a 12-year high under his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.

It also stated that the government remained committed to combating illegal practices in the Amazon.

Growing inspection efforts by environment watchdog Ibama were key in bringing about the fall, the environment ministry added.

Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva said the falling rate was a "reflection" of Ibama's ongoing work in the rainforest.

The Amazon is a crucial battleground in the global fight against climate change.

It is often called "the lungs of the planet" due to its essential role in the planet's oxygen and carbon dioxide cycles.

The rainforest is home to about three million species of plants and animals, and one million indigenous people.

Around 60% of it is located in Brazil.

SOURCE: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67962297.amp

Today's quote:

The Super Bowl is a massive extravaganza of sports, music, and (for those watching on TV) advertisements. Worldwide, sports and sporting events emit as much as a medium-sized country -- so it’s encouraging to hear that all the electricity that ran Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas came from a 621,000-panel solar farm in the Nevada desert. The Las Vegas Raiders have a 25-year contract with NV Energy, the company that owns the solar farm, CBS News reported.

Katharine Hayhoe in her weekly "Talking Climate Newsletter"

The First Supper (second chapter)

 A continuation from yesterday's post, where a comment brought to my attention that I didn't know what the statues were made of.

So I looked at the site again and found this:

Detail of “The First Supper (Galaxy Black)” (2023), bronze, black patina, and gold leaf, 217.3 x 928.6 x 267.9 centimeters. Installation view of ‘Entangled Pasts, 1768-now. Art, Colonialism and Change’ at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. All photos by Jonty Wilde, courtesy of the artist, Perrotin, and Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland.

As detailed in the article I quoted yesterday:

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/tavares-strachan-the-first-supper/

The First Supper

 A sculpture 

" ...in London, the Royal Academy of Arts presents an impressive life-size reimagining of Leonardo da Vinci’s iconic tempera mural, “The Last Supper,” replaces the Renaissance painting’s subjects with Black scientists, activists, artists, and other prominent figures.

https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2024/02/tavares-strachan-the-first-supper/

History lessons easy to take

 Black History in Two Minutes...a series written and narrated by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr.

This week on The Open Culture Email I read about this:

"We’re nearly halfway through February, which the United States of America also knows as Black History Month. Perhaps there are relevant subjects on which you’ve been meaning to catch up, but you haven’t quite got around to it yet. If so, never fear: in the next couple of weeks, you’ll have plenty of time to binge-watch the Youtube series Black History in Two Minutes.... it has so far covered everything from Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth to the Civil War and emancipation to the civil rights movement and school integration.

Those of us who went to school in the US — and especially those of us who did so after the institution of Black History Month, in 1970 — will remember those subjects having been discussed in the classroom. But even within the brief confines of two minutes (sometimes sprawling out to three minutes and change), Gates introduces facts most of us will never have heard."

 There were over 90 short YouTubes listed when I checked it. Seems like a great opportunity to enhance my education (before 1970 - before integration even!!) about Black History. 

Screen shot from number 90 "Elite Black High Schools"

I've noticed many times a day - watching TV shows or even streaming movies, playing solitaire games, there are lulls of 30 seconds at a time for advertising. So I thought, what if I accumulated all those lulls in my entertainment into learning time...I could see several of those YouTube videos each day!

Sharing with Sepia Saturday...which is all about history!

Today's quote:

I believe that the first test of a truly great man is his humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his own powers. But really great men have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other man and are endlessly, foolishly, incredibly merciful. -John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (8 Feb 1819-1900)

The Dunning Kruger Effect

 You have probably heard of this, where someone is so stupid, they think they're very smart. 

For more information on the actual testing which gave the effects scientifically.

If you want to skip this, I'd just mention that most of us think we're above average drivers. That's a bit impossible, since say 75% think they are above average...which is scientifically impossible, since 50% is average! Here joke tellers are measured.

Today's quote:

"Writing saved me from the sin and inconvenience of violence." Alice Walker, author.

Cathy Holt's South American ecological visits

 I have a list of blogs I read. And I know some of them will be brief, and some will be deep and long. So I choose which ones to read based somewhat on the amount of time I have.

I set this one aside to read when I knew I wouldn't be interrupted, and would be able to give full attention to her words. Cathy Holt used to live in Asheville NC, and gave various workshops about communication. They were always very inspirational. Then she moved to South America. And now she blogs occasionally about things like bio-gas, and ecological sustainable living, and how communities of people support each other's ideas. They are incredible to me.

Here's the latest.

Cathy Holt on Columbian Ecovillages  

I hope you look at this blog/newsletter. I'd love to hear what you think.

I was most impressed by learning about plants making music.

Tracy Chapman

 Here's the first time she played it, at the 1988 Nelson Mandela 70th birthday concert.

How an Unscheduled, Last Minute Performance of “Fast Car” Shot Tracy Chapman to Stardom in 1988

https://www.openculture.com/2024/02/how-an-unscheduled-last-minute-performance-of-fast-car-shot-tracy-chapman-to-stardom-in-1988.html

"Chapman had already performed her 3‑song set at that day’s celebrity-studded Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert, sandwiched between Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie’s comedy act and prototypically 80s Scottish soft rockers Wet Wet Wet.

She had played:

 Why?

Behind the Wall

Talkin’ Bout a Revolution 

"The audience got to hear “Fast Car” thanks to the unwitting involvement of surprise guest Stevie Wonder.

The R&B great went to Wembley Stadium straight from the airport, unaware that his synclavier’s hard disc, containing all the synthesized music for his act, had not made the trip.

This colossal oversight was only discovered when he was heading toward the stage. Unwilling, or possibly too overwhelmed to come up with a workaround, he declined to go on, leaving organizers scrambling for an artist who could hustle to the mic to fill time.

Chapman and her solo guitar must have struck them as a technically uncomplicated solution.

No one can fault her for seeming a bit breathless at first. How often is an emerging singer-songwriter called upon to save the day by stepping into a legend’s shoes?"

Thanks Open Culture email!

 Today's quote:

Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.

MAYA ANGELOU Yes I know it's valentine's day. Hope yours is full of love!!

Snow White with Betty Boop

 For those who may have seen this...you weren't born yet when it first appeared in theaters...1933!

Cab Calloway and Betty Boop in Snow White!

Take a 7 minute break to see and enjoy this slightly hallucinogenic version of the story.

Today's quote:

Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments. -Isaac Asimov, scientist and writer (1920-1992)

NOTE to commenters:

I was unable to reply to comments, or even to add my own, last night when I read your comments. Sorry.

Self examination

 I just saw this last week, and liked imagining doing it myself. So I'm sharing it.

I walked along Flat Creek in the woods the other day. Picked up a stone that had been smoothed with water over many years. Threw it into the water with a wish that at least some of my problems could be washed clean. Picked up another stone to remind myself to consider this exercise.

Try this reflective exercise to connect with a sense of wholeness: Imagine a jar of pebbles. The jar represents you in your wholeness. The pebbles are each part of you — your birth, relationships, lived experiences, losses, triumphs, and your stumbles. As you imagine these pebbles, pick one hidden behind the others. What is this aspect of you that remains out of sight? Have you tended to it recently or does it remain hidden from you? When you bring it forward, what does this rarely observed part of you have to say about who you are? How does it help you discover yourself more fully? How might you give thanks that it is there in your jar? How does taking this pebble out of the shadows allow the others to be seen in a new light?

Miscellaneous (again)

 

The tapestry of Pooh

A nice house blessing.

And how about a beautiful house? Can you imagine being inside on a sunny day? Lots of fun with colors!

Today's quote:

Change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things.

BARACK OBAMA

Caral-Supe Peru - occupied between 2600-2000 BC

 Another ancient South American civilization!

The Sacred City of Caral-Supe in Peru, is at least 5000 years old. It includes 6 pyramids, the largest of which measures 150x160 meters (about 492x525 feet).

Caral-Supe, also known simply as Caral, is one of the oldest known civilizations in the Americas, located in the Supe Valley in present-day Peru. It is remarkable for being part of the Norte Chico civilization, a complex pre-Columbian society that flourished between the 30th and 18th centuries BCE. This makes Caral one of the oldest centers of civilization in the world, contemporary with the rise of urbanism and statehood in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley.

Caral is considered to be the most ancient city in the Americas, with radiocarbon dating indicating that the site was occupied approximately between 2600 BCE and 2000 BCE.

The city is known for its sophisticated urban planning and monumental architecture, including six large pyramid structures, residential areas, plazas, and an amphitheater. The largest pyramid is known as the Pirámide Mayor.

The Caral-Supe civilization was a complex society with a strong emphasis on agriculture, fishing, and trade. The absence of fortifications and weapons suggests a peaceful coexistence among the inhabitants and with their neighbors. Their economy was based on the cultivation of cotton (for fishing nets), squash, beans, and guava, and they engaged in trade with distant regions.

The people of Caral-Supe are credited with significant achievements, including the development of quipu (a system of knotted strings used for record-keeping and communication), advanced knowledge of astronomy, and hydraulic engineering techniques for irrigation.

Its recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage Site underscores its global importance as a cultural treasure.

SOURCE: https://www.facebook.com/cosmos.university.official

Wikipedia adds this:

Caral-Supe civilization

"...included as many as thirty major population centers in what is now the Caral region of north-central coastal Peru. The civilization flourished between the fourth and second millennia BC, with the formation of the first city generally dated to around 3500 BC, at Huaricanga.

"Since the early 21st century, it has been recognized as the oldest-known civilization in the Americas, and as one of the six sites where civilisation separately originated in the ancient world.

As often happens, Ruth Shandy was the Peruvian Archaeologist, who partnered with an American couple, Jonathan Haas and Winifred Creamer, in hopes of obtaining more funding. However the Americans then published the find under their names, and only gave Shandy a footnote, so Shandy sued them for plagiarism.

"Haas and Creamer were cleared of the plagiarism charge by their institutions. The science advisory council of the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History rebuked Haas for press releases and web pages that gave too little credit to Shady and inflated the American couple's role as discoverers."

Wikipedia