Henry Real Bird writes and rides

I liked this NPR story enough to write about it. It is an article about Henry Real Bird, Montana's Poet Laureate. Instead of "talking to schoolchildren or promoting poetry through local libraries, Montana's poet laureate Henry Real Bird decided to carry out his duty the true Montana way. The cowboy and member of the Crow nation is on a 500-mile horseback trip, halfway across the state, handing out books of his poetry along the way." His poetry highlights the nature of his circumstances and his surroundings, you can read some here.

Here's a poem I wrote from this inspiration:

Reading about cowboys who write poetry and have names like Henry Real Bird
and travel Montana on horseback distributing words and stanzas and life.
Seeing it all from the back of a horse, weaving through the tall Buffalo grass
feeling the prairie grasses part in remembrance of the seagrasses they once were.
Shaking hands from above, accepting crushed chokeberries and bannock bread,
trading out horses to stave them from exhaustion.
He distributes his work like salvation,
hoping the seeds take root in the fertile ground of some young Montanan,
so he can complete the cycle too.
“It's a beautiful place when people come and they hug you and they bless you to continue on and asking for a safe journey.”

It's been too long

So wow, it's been awhile, huh? Lots has happened. An oilspill on our beautiful Gulf coast, some personal growth, a year older. I've been writing a lot lately and really am picking up this blog again as a way to document my writing in a public forum. My problem, always, is that I'm spread so thin; I like too many things, and I have trouble focusing on one long enough to hone my skills. I'm very much the butterfly like that, a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none. Sooo, writing. Passionate about it. Love it. Mostly poetry and trying to get more comfortable with prose, short stories, etc... Would eventually like to write me a novel. To really throw myself out there. I guess this is the first step. The nut, if you will. Shel Silverstein's words have been floating through my head:
“If you are a dreamer,come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean-buyer. If you're a pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!”

You've come and long way, Victory Garden

Check it out: I am pleased as a new parent over the success of our Victory Garden! These pictures say it all. It's mid-May and the tomatoes are coming along nicely. Daytime temperatures are already in the low 80's (nighttime temp's are low 70's) so this is perfect weather to grow tomatoes, which prefer nighttime temperatures between 68-75.2 degrees F. If you miss this window the tomatoes are reduced to vegetation and won't produce flowers. As our temperatures here in northwestern Florida are quickly approaching the upper range of acceptability I am thinking of installing some heat-resistant or heat-tolerant hybrids such as Sunmaster or Heatwave. I would love to find a heat-resistant heirloom variety, which I may be able to find locally through Everman's. But for now, there are a multitude of flowers on every plant, especially the grape tomato, which is also the biggest in terms of vegetation. The cherry tomatoes were the first to ripen and we've already eaten a few of the sweet, delicious fruits. I ate them right off the vine, warm and fragrant. The grape tomatoes aren't far behind in ripeness and the roma are coming along, obviously larger, they have a longer maturation period.

The peppers are a bit slower to mature than the tomatoes. Peppers, regardless of the variety, like it hot. We starting our plants a bit early (March!) so it's taken them longer to reach reproduction. Currently we have a few inch-long banana peppers and the bell varieties are behind the banana in ripening. We have red and green peppers but I heard recently that the only difference between green and red bell peppers is that the green are unripe and will turn red given the chance. The peppers were also slow to grow b/c we had something eating the crap out of the leaves and small fruits. We were never able to positively i.d. the culprit but I think it may have been snails or other nighttime pests. Conditions have improved because a) the garden gets more direct light sunlight for longer (strengthening the plants) and b) we began using a combination of white vinegar, dish soap and water in a spray bottle. I spray around the base of the plants (never directly on the leaves) and in-between the rows. I am very happy with the results. Not only is the solution pesticide-free but has curbed the unidentified muncher(s) AND killed many of the weeds. I usually apply it between waterings once or twice a week or as needed.

My latest worry are the damn killer squirrels, which were quite a nuisance last year when I had tomatoes in planters. Once the tomatoes begin to ripen (redden) the squirrels would come and "sample", i.e. take a bite out of every one and leave the rest to rot on the vine. Much like humans and sharks, tomatoes aren't a squirrel's food of choice-but that doesn't stop them from tryin'. When and if squirrels become a problem I may use cayenne pepper, which I hear is a good, safe mammalian deterrent. Or I may possibly construct a circle master (scarecrow) which is a tried-but-true solution.

Here are some great websites that helped (recipes) for organic or chemical free pest and insect solutions:

http://www.organicgardening.com/

http://www.organicgardenpests.com/

http://www.no-dig-vegetablegarden.com/organic-garden-pest-control.html

blah blog

It has been awhile, yes? Change is in the air. Spring. Newness. Life. I've been slinking around online, picking up craft ideas and soaking up the general brightness. I was particularly inspired by this and this (same person). I've never wanted to decoupage before in my life, but I'm thinking I'd like to head to Michael's immediately after work and get some glue and get going. I have a travel case sitting in my hallway as I type, waiting to be taken to Goodwill. Looks like it won't make it after all. I haven't felt extremely project-y lately. Too many distractions. But I believe the tide is turning (as it always does). Must. clean. house. first. With spring comes spring cleaning, and boy, is my house in need of spring! Not feng shui, not good energy. and without good energy, there can be no inspiration, no creativity. the muse has been trapped by the evil dust bunnies- rabid for revenge and scared silly over the impending swifter.

I think I'm also going to join up w/Flickr. why not? FB is so tedious to upload. too many pics. Speaking of pics, here are a few from this weekend that I am especially proud of.

Victory Garden: take two

We finally planted our Victory Garden this weekend! Keeping it simple, here's what we planted: Green bell peppers, banana peppers, red bell peppers, cherry, grape and roma tomatoes, large and small-leaf basil, pineapple sage, cilantro, parsley, sage, mint, lemon thyme and sunflowers! I am super excited, especially after reading how even the First Family will have their own Victory Garden on the White House grounds! Here's to growing your own food!

Destin-ation

It's been a long while since me and the fam have brushed the dirt of this one-horse-town off and hit the open road. Due to the inhospitable economic climate it may be longer still before we're able to do any significant traveling so we decided, for my daughter's 11th birthday and just for the pure hell of it, to take a day trip. A day trip for someone living in Northwest Florida can be geographically limiting in options-sure you can get to New Orleans, Orlando (yuck), or even ATL in a day but it's really not very reasonable to return so soon (and why?!) I can remember when having 24 hours off was plenty of time to squeeze in a drinking binge to NOLA-sleep on the way back (if you were lucky enough NOT to have to drive) and return ready to work a double the next day. Regrettably I'm no longer 19, and nowhere near as resilient as I once was, so long story short, we chose Destin, Florida as our daytrippin' Destin-ation of choice (check out the name-play I'm sure that's original).

Destin is known for its beautiful beaches, swell shopping, and central location. It is not near as posh as Grayton Beach, Seaside, or Rosemary Beach along Route 30A, but not nearly as skunky as Panama City or Orange Beach either. It has plenty to occupy your time, or at least your view, as you crawl along the congested Hwy 98, wondering "are we there yet?" Destin was historically a sleepy Greek fishing village, the town is named for the first white man (of course) that came to the area in 1850, Leonard Destin. The borough became known as "The World's Luckiest Fishing Village" and really is an incredibly beautiful local, it must have been a site to see, before condos and Alvin's Islands rapidly reproduced everywhere.

Destin has lots to offer but here are some of the reasons we chose to visit: The Gulfarium, Commander's Palace, Fresh Market, and SilverSands Outlet Mall (I am an American after all and they have a Banana Republic, damnit). The Gulfarium (yes, that's an aquarium for you yankees) was spectacular. I'm usually too soapboxy to enjoy the circus or even a small zoo but the Gulfarium was pretty great. They have been in operation for over 50 years and have animals that have been born and raised there 30+ years. Everyone appears happy and healthy. Check out some of the pictures below, one of our traveling companions was moved enough to cry and baby talk to the dolphins, which was confusing but sweet. Unfortunately, Commander's was a bust and we opted to keep it real (real cheap) and instead go to The Donut Hole which is located on Hwy. 98 and has been apparently open since God was a boy. Instead of munching on Gulf fish and Blue Crab Courtbouillon I had a dry veggie burger and watered-down coke. The fries were good. After all the fresh air, sea spray (and last night's hangover) it really hit the spot.

The outlet mall was packed. So much for the suffering economy. Apparently, it was spring break (yea!) and the weather was turning a bit nasty, which brought all the pretty people out in droves to spend money. I did get a cute navy blue, boat neck cotton short dress from the Gap for $9.99 (which I could likely have gotten at home) but it fit the "luckiest Greek fishing village" theme so I decided to take the plunge. Returning home, we stopped by Fresh Market, which isn't quite up there with Whole Foods (which we don't have here either) but pretty damn close. I got some beautiful soft cheese (not as stinky as I would have liked), a few bottles of very decently priced red wine, fried okra (you heard me!) and a variety of other delicacies (mostly from the bins-I love those bins).

We returned home in the early evening and I got to wear the Greek fisherman dress to a small, intimate gathering where I met a group of visiting Hungarians who were enamored with the fried okra and became sentimental over tales of dolphin baby-talk. Only in America. All in all, a great day.

Gimme your stuff!

Gimme your stuff is a website that allows folks to trade items-often internationally-with (hopefully) little cost. I am uber-interested in trading items with someone from another country and I'm not picky (but I AM a little specific!) I live in Florida (not Miami, Pensacola, which is really closer to Alabama) am a 34-year old woman and I like artsy, craftsy, nature crap.

Here's what I've got in spades:

nature stuff (seashells, pine cones, etc...)

craft stuff

postcards

photography (mostly nature, local=northwest Florida)

books/magazines

fabric

homemade shopping bags (I make them out of various fabrics and Purina dog food bags, very cute)

clothing (size 12)

knitted scarves (home made!)

earrings (silver and various stones-also home made)

Hemp jewelry

tea, incense, soap, oils

vegetarian/organic foods

wine/beer

Also: I am capable of getting anything Americana (Levis, coke, bud, candy) so please let me know if you're looking for somethin' specific

Here's what I'd like:

Pretty much the same as above (Americana excluded)

anything from your home/country

home made stuff

fabric

craft stuff

foods