What I'm discarding, and nature, are on my mind.

 Today the furniture goes...

While I wait for Habitat for Humanity to come truck away the dining table, a book case, two dressers and a couple of little shelves, let's consider what's happening in the rest of the world.

A woman athlete made some waves in the news while I've been watching a few World Cup games. Well, I don't watch sports news most of the time, I admit.

The Ferris Fire - this view from his ranch in Cortez, Montezuma County, CO - by Larry Don Sukla

Craggy Pinnacle Trail from David and Julia, Appalachian Mountains. Even without rain these trees just fog everything up.

Not my tent, but a reminder of all the people out enjoying wilderness this time of year.

Some of the small things going to the thrift store this week! Of course the watches don't work. And some of these pieces were my mother’s.

Speaking of watches, did you see the new fangled timepiece which uses numbers by name, arranged alphabetically?

This week a man at lunch time asked me the elevation of Durango CO (my soon to be new home) and I just answered "Mt. Mitchell." Thus my recent trip to the 6640 foot peak in North Carolina was to help me acclimate to the higher elevation where I'll soon be living.

When I dare to be powerful – to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.

AUDRE LORDE Sharing with Sepia Saturday!

“Whenever you are creating beauty around you, you are restoring your own soul.”

- Alice Walker

OK before the furniture is picked up a special coffee meeting is scheduled, to meet fellow blogger Mary Moon. Just had to add this bit of earth shattering news...hold onto your hats, big event here!

It's not over till it's over

  Sharing some thoughts from the other day...

I posted on my Inner Workings blog from the newsletter "The Flowers are Speaking" in her article "At the Edge of the Woods," by Mary Porter Kerns.

This is what struck me first as I read through it. And I reread this paragraph several times. 

I am comforted in one way, with a strong sense that the Earth will be fine—our Great Mother Earth will always generate new life. Yet, my grief in knowing we are losing the worlds that generations of our ancestors knew and loved is overwhelming when I allow myself to think about it. It is scary to contemplate how all that we depend on for our food and shelter might be radically changing over the coming decades. And so, I usually don’t. I may even delude myself occasionally into thinking that since I am in the later years of my own life it won’t affect me. But of course, it will, because my life is bound to the lives of my children, all the descendants of those beings currently living, and the worlds we will all be born into again and again.

 The lifespan I'm currently experiencing had become so overwhelming, I forgot about the lifespans of other things and reincarnation.

Needed to get back to nature, eh?

Kerns said: "...as she dealt with the invasive species of Oriental bittersweet, she listened to its voice...

Oriental bittersweet and their beautiful orange berries shared this wisdom when I sat with them at the end of last season, but I had not fully digested their wisdom until now. They said, “Allow us to help you trust that a new balance will come. A new equilibrium often takes longer to achieve than the span of a single lifetime. Let us help you sit with your discomfort. Remember that new life always arises from the ruins of the old. For now, trust that each curve of our vines holds our desire to create new life from the dirt that holds us both.”

This made me copy the whole article, because it's so rich in its simplicity. Dealing with unwanted growth - anyone with cancer can identify with this probably.

Or just disease processes of any kind. Or discomfort from unexpected avenues.

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Sharing with Thankful Thursday, and Skywatch Friday

I did go back to nature...as best this ole body can do these days. Drove up to my favorite lookout (Tanbark Ridge, 3175') on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Breathed fresh clean air (with whatever pollen was still floating around). Set up my folding chair and settled in for a half hour of higher altitude breath work.

Besides occasional tourists stopping by to take their photos with the mountains, there were occasional jets overhead. A faint contrail can be spotted in the sky. But I mainly looked up with that sparkling little round cloud among all the mares' tails.

The slide above the fronds of the bush shows the roadway of the Parkway on the other side of the valley. And if you look very hard (and have a better screen than I do, maybe you can see the car which just is to the left of the mudslide. The next time I go I think I'll put fresh batteries in the old Nikon which at least has a zoom capacity. Where I can connect its photos is the question, since I no longer have the computer where that app worked. We shall see if the card reader works, and if I even have a card in the camera.

What fun things to do when I should be seriously taking care of more business-like parts of life. But today is rest.

Having a flexible mind makes navigating life much easier, as you are not thrown off course easily.

And I went back again on Tuesday for another half hour, catching some sun on toes and shins for a half hour. Breathing wonderful highly oxygenated air from all those woods. Hot for that half hour, but our weather is due to get wet again, so changes of plans.

“[In] all this inky black void, the Earth was there with this beautiful blue hue to it. The blue marble.”
—Frank Borman, astronaut

My sunrise photo from the Parkway, May 20, 6:52 am. This will be my next header...

Peacemakers 5 - us!

  

Signs and symbols...

,

From the internet...feel free to share!

Remember that the happiest people are not those getting more, but those giving more.

H. JACKSON BROWN JR. Check out Yesterday's Pages on The Ukraine.

Beauty and love (and Good Trouble)

 

My neighbor's planters with abundant flowers!

Summertime at Lake Tomahawk, 2025

An unframed version of wedding photo of Michelle and Russ Heym, April, 2000. 

Some of the wonderful people at my son Marty Heym and Barbara Baker's wedding in May, 2019. Barbara is in the great white hat. Marty on far right with bow tie. I know Beverly Baker is in center with the black lace dress. But the rest of the folks are unknown to me.

Hiking in Colorado, 2025, here Kendra uses 2 poles on rocky trail.

I love this with Kendra stretching her hair out while by her left elbow Zora has her tongue hanging out. They made it to this wonderful flower-flung place of rest!

Family portrait with Zora dog, Kendra and Tai Rogers, 2025 July.

Today's quote:

We cannot have harmony and balance in our lives if we forget to include the Earth and natural rhythms in our lives.

An old photo:

Myself as bridesmaid for my friend Rosie, in 1962. (Dress was pale blue chiffon which I never wore again.)

Today there will be demonstrations of "good trouble" as taught by Congressman John Lewis.

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Personal update!
I found it!

In a file folder between "Pets papers" and "Pottery," was one called "Papers - Important." And there was my original birth certificate. I received it from my parents when I got my first passport in 1963.

I do hope that will serve, it has numbers and a seal of Texas.

Climate Change and Emotional Support Tree

 

Nicely captured day lilies, from the internet.

A 30 second note on Florida's heating up...since I have a half dozen relatives in Florida, I do think of them when seeing this.

Data Scientist Corner   Florida’s Climate Future is an interactive online platform that leverages public data from the world’s leading climate scientists, offering an at-a-glance comprehensive overview of the climate challenges faced by counties across three risk areas that impact Florida’s economy and family budgets. This new tool is aimed at helping Floridians understand and respond to the unique challenges posed by climate change. Facing rising energy costs, more frequent flooding, and extreme heat, Florida residents are asking questions and need clear information to assess their specific risks and prioritize actions to protect their communities. Florida’s Climate Future showcases how risks vary across counties and regions for Florida families and businesses. In 2023, record-breaking temperatures contributed to dozens of heat-related deaths across the state. As wildfires become more likely and extreme heat becomes more common, the video above explores how a changing climate is putting Floridians’ health, safety, and future at risk. Read More

SOURCE: VOLO Foundation Climate Newsletter -------------- The good news: Wind and solar together generated more electricity than coal in the U.S. for the first time last year, and coal’s share of the generation mix fell to an all-time low of under 15%, according to a Tuesday report from the think tank Ember. “2024 saw the largest-ever increase in solar generation in the US (+64 TWh),” said Ember. Wind production grew by 32 TWh, while coal generation dropped by 22 TWh. These solar additions marked “the second largest increase of any country, after China,” according to the report. “Significant capacity additions spurred by the Inflation Reduction Act have begun to feed through to generation increases. Wind generation rose as a result of improved wind conditions from 2023 as well as a moderate increase in wind capacity.” There's more in that article by the link.  SOURCE: Utility Dive -------------- VOLO also gives this: RESEARCH “Fire Weather” Is Happening More Often Amid Climate Change Due to climate change, hot, dry, and windy conditions fueling wildfires are becoming more frequent across much of the U.S., especially in the West and Southwest. This is turning what was once a seasonal threat into a near year-round challenge. A Climate Central analysis found that some areas, like parts of Texas and California, now face these conditions up to twice as often, making fire weather a near year-round concern. Read more ------------ In Stressful Times, Nature Can Help In June 2019, while working on his family’s 40-year-old tree farm in Monee, Illinois, Tristan Shaw spotted a small Chinquapin oak tree and decided to carry it around with him all day, in a drawstring bag on his back.  “I felt a kinship towards it,” he says. “I have some stress and anxiety from owning my own business and farming. My buddy tree helps puts me at ease, feel like I have someone in my corner, and it always brings a smile to other people’s faces.”  Shaw’s emotional support tree accompanied him around town in suburban Flossmoor, Illinois, to restaurants, bars, grocery stores, the post office and beyond. After eight months, he planted the little oak on his farm and started growing a new buddy tree to carry around.   Tristan Shaw and his Emotional Support Tree SOURCE: Environmental Defense Fund's Vital Signs Today's quote: We can remember that today we can be a gift to each person we meet, just by looking at them with eyes of love. Terry Patten ----------------------- A little clay southwestern house given recently to a friend. ------------- If you live anywhere in the southeastern US, you may have had rain for Memorial Day. We did, and I had a usual bad night of coughing whenever it rains.  I tried to dry out the apartment by turning the mini-split to ac...but it had it's own mind apparently, and switched to heat, even though I set it to "cool." I even set it to the lowest available temp, and it would start out cooling, then when I wasn't looking, heat came out. So I heated the place up to dry out things...it's not that old a building, but they slapped new siding on top of the old outside, and who knows where drips come in. I have noticed the floor has really cold drafts, especially when it's windy (as there's  a space between my floor and the downstairs apartment's ceiling and just a metal flashing to cover the outside edge of that space.)  Anyway, I then talked with various staff of the pulmonologist office, and they said they should get samples of sputum before I see the PA. So I was smart (sometimes I am) and went to my local doc. across the street to pick up the 3 sterile cups to use (on three different days) rather than driving all the way to Asheville to get them at the pulmonologist's office.  And last night, no coughs. No possible samples for the test, which will show hopefully that my lungs are now without the little bad guys the antibiotic was treating.  But they gave me a July appointment because they wanted 6 weeks for the test results to come back from the lab.  Geese, I am well again folks. This should last till the next rain at least!

Assorted inventions

 

The old 1875 trestle that used to span the Genesee River at what is now Letchworth State Park

Kuwohi is a sacred place for the Cherokee people and is the highest point within the traditional Cherokee homeland, formerly known as Clingman's Dome.

1964-65 New York Worlds Fair, as we were zipping by in the opposite direction

Denver and Rio Grande Western 315

Creole, Charles Nicholson's 1927 schooner. Largest wooden sailing yacht in the world at that time, at 214'

April 2024 stats...

Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM), in lunar landing configuration, as photographed in lunar orbit from the Command and Service Modules

Nothing man-made is as intriguing as the continuing marvel of the natural world, where patterns are evident showing us how nature long ago figured out the best, most efficient, and most beautiful way things can be made.

Today's quote:

W

e all have our time machines. Some take us back, they're called memories. Some take us forward, they're called 

dreams. -Jeremy Irons, actor (b. 19 Sep 1948)

How fragile it is, looking down at the sky

A really neat video...
in case you haven't noticed, I love science, and astronomy especially.

http://www.upworthy.com/some-strange-things-are-happening-to-astronauts-returning-to-earth?g=3

This is a bit long to watch, but has some great views of earth, not to mention letting us know what the astronauts thought when returning to earth.

The thin veil of our atmosphere is part of how fragile this planet earth is.  Another part is how it must look to those who have been honored to venture off it's surface into space, to see it hanging in that immensity of black.

We who walk around on the surface...or dive into Gaia's waters...only have a mental image of how this great planet is actual twirling around on its axis while driving through an orbit around a star.

It's not emotional.  Though certainly it triggers awe for those who write poetry and music, who are artists and worship trees and nature.  I continue to be moved by nature. But I can only imagine what the astronauts experienced.

I added this post to Skywatch Friday, you can't get much more sky!  Every time I look for my listing, it isn't included there.  But people keep telling me (see comments) that they came from there.  Must conclude that I can't see my own blog listing there.