I “got” three haiku on my walk with Finn this morning. Because it isn’t raining or blisteringly hot, we could make the full loop. More time to hear my thoughts.
Rather than save these for month’s end, I’ll share today. And BTW, I had the wrong link for Robert Hubbell yesterday. Fixed it.
Moss adorned stone walls, dressed as royally as a queen in purple silk.
Often prickly, I sometimes push people away. But really, so what?
Tear-downs signal wealth. This one released a stink that lingers still, weeks on.
Yesterday’s Robert Hubbell newsletter was a very amplified version of the comments here on my last post (thank you everybody who commented here! No acts strike me as too small). Hundreds of people wrote in about what they’re doing about climate change. It’s worth a look.
Third Act is an activist group that organizes boomers, recognizing that many have resources that can be wielded to make a difference.
About boycotting fossil fuel industry in your investments, this was from The Financial Times yesterday:
Did you know that there are now “climate crisis therapists”? This week’s New Yorker article entitled “What to Do With Climate Emotions” talks about them. And of course, about the dilemma of being alive today and paying attention. The following paragraph is from that article.
“It may be impossible to seriously consider the reality of climate change for longer than ninety seconds without feeling depressed, angry, guilty, grief-stricken, or simply insane. The earth has warmed about 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit since pre-industrial times, and the damage is irreparable.”
From NYTimes, The Trillion Gallon Question
Today, it’s raining. Finn and I walked the shorter loop on account of it. I’ve just baked a chocolate cake and made mint cream cheese icing for a special somebody’s birthday (which is later in the week but since it’s just the two of us we’ll eat cake every night for days!)
We had family over to celebrate early this weekend. I don’t like to post pix of myself but since this reminded me a bit of one of my recent favorite TV shows (The Bear), here I am.
You know it’s bad when the hottest day in the history of tracking temperatures was beaten the very next day.
July 4. Then July 5.
This collage used photos from NYTimes Sunday piece wondering if California dams will hold.Below is a flagrant copyright violation. Does it matter if I do so intentionally and with attribution?
Four of the scariest words in the English language these days: faster than previously thought.
In a conversation today: recycling is promoted as a distraction from the fossil fuel industry.
Somewhere I read that becoming a vegetarian is more consequential than even switching to an electric vehicle.
We don’t invest in fossils fuel companies. A small step, one made without personal sacrifice, but one hopefully making a difference.
In the Northeast we are not under the heat dome that is causing so much suffering in the southern part of the country. But it has been too hot to walk Finn a couple days recently. Better to lay low.
Meanwhile, we have to fight.
How are you staying cool (if it’s hot)? How are you managing the deluge of bad climate news? What, if anything, do you do to minimize your contribution to global warming?
P S on another melancholy note, Lawrence O’Donnell gave a moving and elegiac speech mourning the Supreme Court recently. It’s very much worth a listen (google his name and SCOTUS and it comes right up).
Reading my book again. Primary take away: it’s really good and I shouldn’t give up (good thing that’s my takeaway because I checked Query Tracker this morning and there it was in red : 49 queries, 100% rejected). It’s also good to reread to catch more typos or content questions.
Mixing cowries and pawpaws? Must research a little more and then fix.
Still life. I’m gonna make a heart for myself. What do you think of that?
I continue to populate this one with windows and roof outlines. With all the dire climate news this and last week, part of me wants to either : fill in all blank areas with scarlet red stitches or surround the piece as is with some of the Global Warming sections I have downstairs. They’re full of hot colors, swirls for storm maps, out-of-control vegetation — all overstitched with words like “hoax” and “try raking the forest.”
What is THIS?Sweetspire everywhere!
Happy fourth everyone! I may listen to Frederick Douglass’s speech as read by James Earl Jones over on YouTube later this afternoon.
SEASON: Two weeks from midsummer and already we see signs of fall. This, at least, is nothing new. But the ordinary rain falling on an otherwise ordinary Sunday tamps down extraordinary Canadian smoke. It still plagues the Northeast.
ANCESTORS: It’s always befuddled me, this notion of wanting contact with dead relatives. Kind of spoiled the idea of Heaven too. You don’t need to ask why. But here’s what I’m trying. It’s so simple.
When I make dough now — always a tricky proposition for me — I channel an unnamed ancestor from the west coast of Ireland — County Cork, let’s say, where my MGM Alice Healey’s family resided. I feel the dough though her hands. Sometimes I close my eyes. She knows what to do even if I don’t. How to fold the dough. How much flour to shake on the counter. When to stop.
I don’t know who she is but I can imagine her — wry-humored, stout, with grey eyes. She grieves the loss of her sons and daughters before they even set sail for America. She can milk a cow and jerry-rig a fan. Her name could be Bridget or Mary.
This morning, the result? One of the best batches of buttermilk biscuits I’ve ever made!
Notes:
I used Elizabeth Germain’s recipe from one in a series of small books published by Cook’s Illustrated.
Somewhere I recently learned NOT TO TWIST your cutter. It wrecks the air flow or something.
