Mesa Verde in the snow

  The very south-west of Colorado where it meets Utah and New Mexico is where Mesa Verde is located.

What a great view, during wintertime. Mesa Verde people would have had fires going in all their fire pits...and wear their warmest clothes. Food would have been stored in special rooms, and would be shared by all. This would be the time of making crafts inside the houses...pottery, basket making, weavings, making instruments and weapons to hunt with, sewing clothing.

For the summertime views from my visit to Mesa Verde in 2019, look here. That's the one with all the dioramas and reading of history.   Here's one of looking at the mesa houses, Spruce Tree House.

Today's quote:

To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.” Kurt Vonnegut 

More info on the triple goddess, Brigid (Bridget)

 Brigid is a triple goddess – the goddess of healing symbolised by the element of water, goddess of the alchemical force of fire, and goddess of poetry. In this respect she represents every woman and our unique talents, skills and qualities. Too often we put ourselves in boxes, limited by cultural stereotypes in an effort to fit in. Brigid urges you to develop and express all your gifts.

By Courtney Davis, Bridget the Triple Goddess

  Brigid embodies mastery represented in the perfect balance of fire and water, symbols of the masculine and feminine, known in Eastern traditions as the yin and yang or ida and pingala. As we strive for equality today, Brigid reminds us that we must also heal our inner feminine and masculine. As within so without, as above so below. She is a reminder that duality and separation are illusions. Unity and harmony are our true nature.

Raising her day to a national holiday is also a welcome recognition of the equality of the feminine with the masculine in society. Because of her very strong association with fertility and the natural world, Brigid is also the perfect patron of the ecology movement. She can become the Mother Earth figure of the awakening consciousness of the beauty and fragility of this Earth, and our human dependency on this Earth, and our interconnectedness with all the other species sharing the planet with us.

— CHARLIE FLANAGAN TD, Former Minister for Foreign Affairs and Justice 

SOURCE of Article, Who Was Bridgid?  by Herstory Founder Melanie Lynch

Bridgid and Imbolc

 A great new national holiday in Ireland! Brigit's Day on February first! Here's an article from the Irish Times yesterday.

Brigid the Triple Goddess, by Courtney Davis

Imbolc, another term for this day, was to celebrate the earliest spring milk in the sheep...which in our area don't lamb for another month. But ancient ways cannot be ignored.

All of our first histories were oral history. Until someone started writing down the old stories. So earliest stories may differ from place to place.

Brigid was honored as a goddess first...of smithcraft, poetry and healing. The most miraculous events in her life were retold at this time yearly. She taught her skills to other women - midwifry, or metal working, or writing of poetry. She is noted for teaching people how to keen after losing a loved one. And she is noted as the person who first used whistles to send signals to mates during nighttime battles (I won't go into why she ended up in a battle.) 

Brigid, the bright firey red one

Once she asked the king for an area where she could build a nunnery, or maybe to raise her animals and crops. The king smiled (you know that kind of smile) and said that she could have all the area her cloak could cover. Like that was a gesture of good will!

But Bridgid had a magical cloak, and when she threw it out over the green hills of Ireland, it covered the whole of the island (or at least as far as the eye can see.) 

The Catholic chuch came into Ireland later (you've heard of St. Patrick?) and yet there soon was this wonderful Saint Brigid. Her good works seemed very similar to the goddess Brigid. There was a physical well where healing might take place. And an eternal fire that was tended by the followers of the Saint, only women allowed. The story was that they would tend the fire for 19 days, and then on the 20th Brigid herself would keep it burning. The original well still exists, and the place where fires were tended.

That the whole country of Ireland has made this a holiday speaks to the love of the Irish toward their historic goddess/Saint.  And having February 1 as her holiday gives a good celebration that's needed in grey winter...though with a promise of spring.

Of course there are rituals associated with Brigid. Kindling a fire. Blessings with pure waters. Blessing of the candles (fire sources). Reading poetry. Tying little ribbons, clouties with wishes for healing on branches of trees at her well, or other trees. Putting your own mantle (or any fabric) across a bush the night before Brigid's day. Making tiny straw Bridgid crosses or little effigies of her.

I'll be at a Brigid's ritual on next Sunday afternoon. 

And then there's this...completely separate from all that's gone before:

idiolatry noun: Self worship.

A better diagram of the Doughnut Economics model - or just different

 A friend from the Swannanoa Watershed Action Network posted this on Facebook a few days ago. I asked to share it (kind of.)

The Doughnut Economics model of our lives was first presented by Kate Raworth...and shared in a TED talk where she highlighted that the idea of progress progressing forever upward is absurd. So a regenerative model is easily circular.

Here's is one that I saw today...

And the flexibility of this model is that you can put which-ever important values belong on the inner. human level, and the environment and sustainable economic development on the outer level.

Here's another model with other elements.

This one focuses only on an ecological ceiling, but includes housing on the social foundation.

OK I admit that for the last 6 months, this model has been the carrot on the end of a stick in my life. I have recently shared with you some people that took 3 years to accomplish putting their community into this model, to see what would happen. See my post about Birmingham UK.

This is what I want most to learn about. The Swannanoa Watershed group has a workshop guideline that is in the process of editing. It's amazinly detailed.

Three months ago feels like a year ago

  OK, this is my brainstorming...not quoting anyone who has better ideas.

Time really has changed drastically for me in the last, say, six months.

I was having lunch with my friend C, and we had gone with others on a particular outing. We both thought it must have been a year before the last. It definitely was a loooong time ago in both of our memories.

I pulled up my calendar and there it was, early October 2022. I had aready said that was our first trip in my new car, which was purchased sometime last Aug. or early Sept. Not a date I remember right off hand.

So we remembered the first place we went, that we made purchases there, so no difficulty remembering those details. It still felt like forever back in our lives, though by the calendar 3 months ago.

And then I remembered next we had had lunch at the Country Club...which had also slipped our minds. And then, wasn't there one more place we went?

Oh yes, the apple orchard! We had apple pie a la mode, and watched some clog dancers just practicing to a band that was just starting its set. I really don't remember how we came home, though it was along familiar roads about 30 miles away.

But why did it feel so long ago to both of us?

We thought about November. I think it just rolled along at the regular rate of doing things. Nothing special. I was engaged in a couple of interesting committees, had a few Dr. visits for this that and the other. I shrugged off Thanksgiving, and when my minister asked me if I had had a good one, I said "No." But it didn't really bother me.

Then there were the holidays...where time kind of stopped for both of us. We had major anxieties about the holidays (and we're not even related) mainly dealing with families. It was as if we fell into a well, where time went terrribly slowly, while we pushed ourselves to do what we thought we could, and just stopped at other things.

That well of time lasted till sometime in January, but I'm not totally out of it yet. I had my usual fever of no known cause, off and on, which happens every winter these days. It wasn't bad enough that I couldn't go to committee meetings and do blogs. And I did wrangle some antibiotics for the "if it gets worse- take before pneumonia" stage.

But then I lost my appetite a couple of weeks ago. So after 6 pounds lost, I went to my doc (whose office is across the street) and we tried an antidepressant. It didn't get me back into meetings. I keep on the blog, but you all don't know if I'm dressed or not!

I cancelled several medical tests...it was just too hard to drag myself into clothes, driving the 15 miles to Asheville, and dealing with all those people. I did one load of laundry...out of the 4 sitting there. The dishes are all dirty and my maid (me) hasn't done but one sinkfull. But that's one of each of those things, which might be a regular thing to do for other folks.

I also refused about 3 invitations from my friend for lunch. But yesterday I finally said yes, and we have a good habit of catching up with lots of things...deeper than the weather. The wait staff at the restaurant were a bit impatient, but it's not a rush at 3 o'clock. So that's when the trip in Oct. came up and we started looking at our time experiences.

We definitely saw a rush that peaked about the time we collapsed into our respective depressed and time stopping wells. And we see that some things are better for each of us. It's so slow to get out of this well. As C. said, it's like gaining weight is so easy, then it's so hard and tedious to lose weight with the diet you believe will work...but it takes a loooong time. For me the antidepressants have been stopped after reviewing some side effects with the doc. I also did the dishes today so maybe I'm getting better.

Another friend and I were talking about something I did when I retired 15 years ago. She said I definitely shouldn't expect to have that kind of energy now do I? Well, I said, it would be nice to be able to at least do what I did in 2019.

That meant lots of road trips. I won't go into details but I went to New Mexico and Colorado on one trip, to Columbus Ohio on another, and Tampa Florida for Christmas. Oh and there had been a wedding in Flordia in April also the same year, and of course I drove down and back!

I think because so much happened in 2019, my time was expanded to take it all in. It just was full to overflowing.

But the point of this rambling is that my passage of time speeded up, then practically stopped, and so just 3 months ago feels definitely like over a year ago.

And I just found this on FaceBook (what a source!) Can't be denied. So as of today we're moving into spring...don't have to wait till Feb. 1!!

Zero Waste Living?

How to Get Started with Zero Waste Living

Choose better and less packaging to eliminate superfluous waste.

 Zero waste is a movement that has gained popularity in recent years as people strive to reduce the amount of trash they generate through everyday consumption. The ultimate goal is to produce no trash whatsoever, but as that's challenging in today's world, zero waste can also refer to individual, standalone efforts to replace disposable products with reusable ones.

Reducing one's waste is a noble aspiration these days because the quantity of trash being generated globally is staggering – and very little is recycled. The average American produces 4.5 pounds of waste daily.1Estimates of plastic recycling rates range from 9% to 14%, but of that a mere 2% is recycled effectively, meaning it's actually turned into something that's as useful as its original form.2

Bea Johnson, the author of a book called "Zero Waste Home" (which is widely regarded as kicking off the modern zero waste movement) describes the mantra as "Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rot." The most important thing is to refuse offers of over-packaged items and superfluous junk that you'll then have to deal with in the waste stream. "Refuse" is a powerful act of protest that sends a message to the world about where your priorities lie. "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" are standard phrases, followed by "Rot," which refers to composting. Buy products and packaging that will biodegrade at the end of their use and leave no trace of their existence; plastic does not readily biodegrade and does not fall into this camp.

There are several ways to embrace zero waste living. Here are some beginner-friendly tips.

Shop With Reusable Containers and Bags

Learn How to Make Things From Scratch

Buy Items With the Least Amount of Packaging

Wean Yourself Off Disposable Products

Create a Zero-Waste Kit to Carry With You

Compost Your Food Scraps

Strive for Progress, Not Perfection

Zero waste living takes a bit more work and planning to execute, but it pays back in money saved and waste eliminated. It's deeply satisfying to see your trash bin shrinking (and your compost heap growing) and to know that you're doing your part to keep the Earth clean and healthy. 

Excerpts from Treehugger Newsletter Jan. 24, 2023

By

Katherine Martinko

  Updated March 16, 2021 10:27AM EDT

Sources:

1. LYTKOWSKI. "Think Twice Before You Throw Out Your Plastic Water Bottle". Dumpsters.Com, 2020.

2. "The Story Of Plastic". The Story Of Plastic, 2020,

A nineteen minute film for ecology and human interactions

 A really great networking idea...not sure if the film will load...

Impact Networks

So  there are two links. I do hope one works!

Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions - win a prize

The Keeling Curve Prize Is Awarding 10 Climate Solutions $50,000—Here's How to Apply

The annual award is accepting submissions for 2023.

The Keeling Curve Prize is an annual award that aims to help solve climate change by helping fund projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The winners receive unrestricted grant money to support projects that reduce, remove, or replace planet-heating pollution. This year’s prizes have doubled to $50,000 and there’s still time to apply. 

Run by the nonprofit Global Warming Mitigation Project, the Keeling Curve Prize has awarded a total of $1,250,000 over the past five years to 50 projects that are all working towards solving the climate crisis. This year, 10 different projects can win a piece of the $500,000 total prize. Two winners will be selected from five different categories of solutions: Carbon Sinks, Energy, Finance, Social and Cultural Pathways, and Transport and Mobility.

To select winners, applications are reviewed by a team of analysts and the prize’s advisory council to determine a group of finalists. A panel of judges then votes among the finalists to make the final awards. 

"Applications are reviewed and scored by a panel of 12 climate experts, so the more evidence you can provide to demonstrate how your project or program reduces greenhouse gas emissions, the better," Megha Krishnan and Hannah Odell tell Treehugger. Krishnan is the communications manager at the Global Warming Mitigation Project and Odell is the organization's development director.

Krishnan and Odell say that doubling the size of the prize will provide nonprofits and companies with significant funds to accelerate their critically needed solutions. "Be it installing access to renewable energy, advancing nature-based projects, piloting new technologies, or advancing other innovative decarbonization programs, this funding will catalyze growth and climate action on a global scale."1

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

The deadline to apply for this year’s Keeling Prize is February 10, 2023. Learn more about the application here.

Published in Treehugger Newsletter - subscribe to this free newsletter if you wish to read the rest of this article.

by Margaret Badore

  Updated January 23, 2023 12:06PM EST

1. Sources:

2. Krishnan and Odell. Email to Margaret Badore. 20 Jan. 2023.

3. "Keeling Curve Prize purse to double in 2023, accelerating climate solutions worldwide." Keeling Curve Prize. 14 Dec. 2022. Press release.

Bone flutes carry forward/backward in history the miracle of music

 August 2020 post of this photo and these words.

"Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World" ~ Steven Johnson

'Roughly forty-three thousand years ago a young cave bear died in the rolling hills on the northwest border of modern-day Slovenia. A thousand miles away and a thousand years later, a mammoth died in the forests above the river Blau near the southern edge of modern-day Germany. Within a few years of the mammoth's demise, a griffon vulture also perished in the same vicinity. Five thousand years after that a swan and another mammoth died nearby.

We know almost nothing about how these animals met their deaths. They may have been hunted by Neanderthals or modern humans. They may have died of natural causes or been killed by other predators. Like almost every creature from the Paleolithic era the stories behind their lives and deaths are a mystery to us, lost to the un-reconstructible past.

But these different creatures, lost across time and space, did share one remarkable posthumous fate. After their flesh had been consumed by carnivores or bacteria, a bone from each of their skeletons was meticulously crafted by human hands into a flute.

Bone flutes are among the oldest known artifacts of human technological ingenuity. The Slovenian and German flutes date back to the very origins of art. The caves where some of them were found also featured drawings of animals and human forms on their walls, suggesting the tantalizing possibility that our ancestors gathered in the fire lit caverns to watch images flicker on the stone walls, accompanied by music.

But musical technology is likely far older than the Paleolithic. The Slovenian and German flutes survived because they were made of bone but many of the indigenous tribes in modern times construct flutes and drums out of reeds and animal skins, materials unlikely to survive tens of thousands of years.

Many archaeologists believe that our ancestors have been building drums for at least a hundred thousand years, making musical technology almost as old as technology designed for hunting or temperature regulation. This chronology is one of the great puzzles of early human history.

It seems to be jumping more than a few levels in the hierarchy of needs to go directly from spearheads and clothing to the invention of wind instruments. Eons before early humans started to imagine writing or agriculture they were crafting tools for making music. This seems particularly puzzling because music is the most abstract of the arts. Paintings represent the inhabitants of the world that our eyes actually perceive: animals, plants, landscapes and other people.

A brief lesson in the physics of sound should help underscore the strangeness of the archaeological record here. Some of the bone flutes recovered from Paleolithic cave sites are intact enough that they can be played, and in many cases researchers have found that the finger holes carved into the bones are spaced in such a way that they can produce musical intervals that we now call perfect fourths and fifths.

In the terms of Western music, these would be F and G in the key of C. Fourths and fifths not only make up the harmonic backbone of almost every popular song in the modern canon, they are also some of the most ubiquitous intervals in the world’s many musical systems. Though some ancient tonal systems, like Balinese gamelan music, evolved without fourths and fifths, only the octave is more common. Musicologists now understand the physics behind these intervals and why they seem to trigger such an interesting response in the human ear.

An octave, two notes exactly twelve steps apart from each other on a piano keyboard, exhibits a precise 2:1 ratio in the wave forms it produces. If you play a high C on a guitar, the string will vibrate exactly two times for every single vibration the low C string generates. That synchronization, which also occurs with the harmonics or overtones that give an instrument its timbre, creates a vivid impression of consonance in the ear, the sound of those two wave forms snapping into alignment every other cycle.

The perfect fourth and fifth have comparably even ratios: a fourth is 4:3, while a fifth is 3:2. If you play a C and G note together, the higher G string will vibrate three times for every two vibrations of the C. By contrast, a C and F# played together create the most dissonant interval in the Western scale: the notorious tri-tone or ‘devil’s interval, with a ratio of 43:32.

The existence of these ratios has been known since the days of ancient Greece. The tuning system that features them is often called Pythagorean tuning after the Greek mathematician who, legend has it, first identified them. Today the average seventh grader knows Pythagoras for his triangles, but his ratios are the cornerstone of every pop song on Spotify.

None of these concepts were available to our ancestors in the Upper Paleolithic. And yet, for some bizarre reason they went to great lengths to build tools that could conjure these mathematical patterns out of the simple act of exhaling. Put yourself in that Slovenian cave forty thousand years ago. You have mastered fire, built simple tools for hunting, learned how to craft garments from animal skins to keep yourself warm in the winter.

An entire universe of further innovation lies in front of you. What would you choose to invent next? It seems preposterous that you would turn to crafting a tool that created vibrations in air molecules that synchronized at a perfect 3:2 ratio when played together. Yet that is exactly what our ancestors did.’

Wonderland: How Play Made the Modern World ~ Steven Johnson

* This entire book is incredible. Highly recommended - by Facebook shared by Jim Collier

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

This was shared by myself on FB, only to have a skeptical friend mention that unless they'd been eating psychedelic mushrooms or plants, it's unlikely that they'd "go to great lengths to build tools that could conjure mathematical patterns."

However, pleasing sounds would easily be recognized by a creator, whether they knew the theory behind them or not. And I wish to remind modern musicians that other scales are often of different notes i.e. Asian music and pentatonic scales.

He thinks the climate crisis is hysteria

 I'm staying away from politics. Again.

But we (Swannanoa Watershed Network) were asked if we knew any farmers to go meet with Rep. Chuck Edwards. Not me. And the article in the Asheville Citizen-Times had not one mention of farmers. Guess they had better things to do. 

And I am curious as to how many of your friends/associates also think the Climate Crisis is hysteria.

Here's a summary of what he said:

"Rep. Chuck Edwards, (R) speaking in Asheville, defended tourism, backed a debt ceiling increase said there was "a lot of hysteria" around climate change.

" ... the Henderson County Republican visited ... the National Centers for Environmental Information ― an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration whose scientists won the Nobel Peace Prize for work on climate change.

Edwards said: "I believe that the mission at NOAA is admirable in that we should continue to collect data ― data that can be used for commercial purposes ― in addition to taking a closer look at what's going on with our climate. I think that we also have to realize that there is a an awful lot of hysteria being built around climate change right now. Statistics that I see regularly are that we've not seen the earth's surface change over the last 100 years more than a degree. And that leads me to proceed with caution. (My underlining.)

"(Fact check: Government climate scientists say that rise has actually been 2 degrees Fahrenheit − a little more than 1 degree Celsius.)

"Edwards: We transitioned from stove wood a number of years ago and now we're transitioning largely from coal to natural gas, and I think we will see a transition from natural gas to nuclear, supplementing that with some other alternative sources, but solar and wind are not the ultimate solutions a lot of folks would want you to believe. I believe that we need to look for clean-air, clean-water, clean-energy sources, irregardless of climate change. (my underlining.)

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

So that's what our representative in Congress will be doing for 2 years. But he's a lot better than Madison Cawthorn, who he replaced, both Republicans. The interests he mainly represents are corporate, not the people around here.

Today's Asheville Citizen Times just reported that Edwards has been appointed to 3 committees...here's the headline.

Edwards joins Greene, firebrands on Oversight Committee; also Infrastructure, Budget

How Climate Change Makes Winter Weather Worse

 PBS Newshour shared this.

Just 200 Million

 Today (Monday) I read on CNN a short blurb about people many miles away, who woke up in the entire country to this.

220 million

That's about how many people in Pakistan were left without power this morning after a countrywide outage. Pakistan's national grid went down at around 7:30 a.m. local time, the country's Ministry of Energy said, adding "system maintenance work is progressing rapidly." Power in some cities has since been restored, but many others remain impacted.

Watch the infrastructures of the world, a friendly voice told me many years ago. They are having a hard time keeping up with population growth and spread.

So I keep an eye on things like this. Check how many bridges have been repaired, as well as the usual pot-holes. See about the number of water-line breaks around you. How often is internet interrupted? And black-outs where electricity goes out, how long do repairs take? Generally speaking my area has been spared winter's woes up to now, so highways are unsullied from plows and salt.

Today's weather was forecast to have rain and snow before dawn, a few hours of it. I needed to drive 15 miles to a medical test, leaving just at dawn from my home on a hill. I was very cautious considering the slopes from the steep hill as passable...though just sliding downhill might happen, I would like to end where the stop sign is, not in a ditch.

So I canceled the test. I explained that I would have been driving on unsafe roads, when I rescheduled it.

In reality, no rain nor snow came in the night. I knew when I looked out the window at the same time my appointment had been...and the sun was shining, with a few fluffy clouds against the blue sky.

So that's another bit of wonderment, why do I make my plans based on weather forecasts anyway? I usually will be able to discern what's actually happening...but not at night. The snow is still forecast within the hour, but after being over freezing for a few hours, with sunshine, I dare say it will just get things wet. Will I drive after that? It depends on how I feel. A woman's intuition is as good as any weather forecast, I figure!

And I could post later whether there was snow or not, but I won't.

Why you might want to care about Africa's Carbon Sink

 

Oil, Gas Exploration and Deforestation Threaten Africa's Great Carbon Sink

The planet’s largest remaining carbon sink is at risk.

In the center of the African continent, an immense and vital forest currently thrives. As the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest, the Congo Basin covers six countries and around 500 million acres–an area one-fourth the size of the contiguous U.S. It is a haven for both human and natural diversity, hosting more than 150 different ethnic groups and one-fifth of all Earth’s species. It directly supports the livelihoods of the 60 million people who live in or near forest areas and feeds 40 million people who live in adjacent cities. And, as the planet’s largest remaining carbon sink, it is essential for efforts to prevent the worst impacts of the climate crisis.1 

It is also, increasingly, at risk, as two recent reports warn. One, a first-of-its-kind regional assessment from the Forest Declaration Assessment, found that deforestation in the Congo had increased by nearly 5% in 2021.2 Another, from Rainforest Foundation UK and EarthInsight, details the threats posed by planned oil and gas extraction in the region.3

“The Congo Basin Forest is at a crossroads,” lead author of the first report and senior consultant at Climate Focus Marion Ferrat says in a press release shared with Treehugger. “Deforestation has been low compared to other tropical regions, but we are seeing an upward trend of fragmentation and forest loss since 2020. If this trend continues, we risk losing the largest remaining intact forest in the tropics along with its immense and irreplaceable value for biodiversity, climate, and people.” 

Read the rest of the article by a subscription to Treehugger

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

By Olivia Rosane published in Treehugger Newsletter January 3, 2023

Sources:

1. "Congo Basin." World Wildlife Fund.

2. "Regional Assessment 2022: Tracking progress towards forest goals in the Congo Basin." Forest Declaration Platform.

3. "Congo In The Crosshairs: New Oil and Gas Expansion Threats to Climate, Forests, and Communities." Rainforest Foundation UK.

4. "Forests Absorb Twice as Much Carbon as They Emit Each Year." Global Climate Watch.

5. "Regional Assessment 2022." Forest Declaration.