Sunday, May 29, 2022

retreat into nature and art


We got 4” or 5” of rain over four days from three storms. They're saying the rain came too late for the feed corn crop which tasseled already and the silk is turning brown but apparently the ears aren't developing kernels. The cotton was dying in the fields but is looking much better now so it may not be a total loss. The cotton field at the end of my street has large patches of brown where the little cotton plants had already died. It's been a bad year for tomatoes in people's gardens too having gotten too hot and dry too fast. They were going for $4 and $5 dollars a pound at the Farmer's Market on Saturday and they were all fairly small. Guess I won't be making my own tomato sauce this year, not with those prices and the basic scarcity.

I did stop to chat with one purveyor. He was selling his tomatoes for $4 a pound and I picked out two sort of medium sized tomatoes as we talked about how badly everyone's plants were doing this year and learned that he is one of the two men that bought the house that the people I buy my coffee from used to own. Janet and Jeff import organic fair trade coffee beans, roast them when they get an order, and then send it out. They bought a place in the Valley and moved several years ago. But this guy was a big man, tall, not overweight but solid, wearing a cowboy hat and I didn't notice right away but he had a pistol in a holster on his hip manning his booth at the Saturday Farmer's Market. I wonder what he thinks, wearing that gun, that he's going to be the hero, the good guy with the gun? That he's going to defend his vegetables from a would be thief?

And just a day or two after Uvalde someone posted on the local FB chat that some teenagers were pulling pranks like turning on outside faucets. One woman commented that they better hope they don't get shot. I was appalled, that someone thought shooting at a teenager because of a prank and possibly killing them would even occur to someone. But that's the country we live in now. Someone annoys you, maybe pisses you off, and that's reason enough to use lethal force.

Despite the rain, which cooled down temperatures for about a day and a half, it is so hot out there. And so of course our AC quit working Friday late so it was an after hours call on a holiday weekend. Yay! Just under $500 but we have cool air.

Saturday I planned to either work on my watercolor or the box. I did neither. But we did watch the first three episodes of Stranger Things season 1. I'm hooked. We also started watching Night Sky last week. Did I already mention that?

I am mentally, emotionally exhausted, angry with this nation's plunge into moral depravity fueled by the NRA and gun manufacturers and our greedy politicians who don't see the dead, only the money, who ridiculously attempt to justify these military grade weapons and hollow point ammo for the general public. So I'm going to lose myself in nature and art and leave you with pictures from the big backyard this morning.

Looked up yesterday late afternoon to see this tattered luna moth right outside my window.

Three views of the west side long flower bed. First image nile lilies, second image three elephant garlic flowers clustered together. Third image double orange daylilies in the foreground. You might remember I didn't get a single bloom out of these last year due to the arctic blast that sat on us for two weeks in the spring.



 

15 comments:

  1. Nature and art are going to keep our ores in the water. Beautiful furry moth.

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  2. Linda Sue is right. The rest of it is all too much.
    It's hot here too. Could be hotter though. Nile Lilies are sometimes called Agapanthus which is actually one of my favorite words. Yours sure are pretty.

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  3. Love all your flowers. I tend to hide in the garden from the world. I don't feel isolated as much as insulated. I still watch the news (NOT FOX!) and nighttime talk shows, but it is a little overwhelming. The answer is so simple, yet the stupid politicians can't seem to grasp the answer. All of them. We are only 4 miles from Georgia and there are TRUMP signs everywhere. I feel like we have fallen into the land of stupidity. It is hard to find like-minded people to associate with. I prefer my animals and my garden.

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  4. I appreciate you anger and outrage and exhaustion and your flowers and your art. I feel scraped bare by this world, this broken country, at the moment but knowing I am not alone, helps.

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  5. Above comment was from 37paddington, forgot to identify myself.

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  6. That Luna moth and your beautiful flowers are the best balance to the insanity of these times we are living in. I plan to make my voice heard at the ballot box and in the streets if necessary. Enough bloodshed and violence, Enough!

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  7. I can only imagine the mental fatigue you are going through and the feeling of powerlessness. Nature has always been the best balm of all for me and I hope it will be for you too.

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  8. That is a big luna moth! Aunt Laura's iris are in full bloom in the garden. I'm sorry for yours!

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  9. I'm glad you got some rain. We need some here too. That luna moth is beautiful! I haven't seen one of those in many years.

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  10. Just as well you have your garden and your studio! Right now, we have the same flowering plants here but not your hot weather and no gorgeous luna moths.

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  11. Thanks for the luna moth and flower photos! So pretty. I feel as you do about what is going on in our country. Honestly, who needs a gun while selling tomatoes. Outrageous...

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  12. Your garden is lovely! Yes, we are all depressed and angry that life means so little unless it is an unborn group of cells.

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  13. Thank you for the beautiful Luna moth and comments. Your beautiful glass is the opposite of the ugliness in this world and we need it more than ever. As a fellow glass artist you always inspire me. thank you and bless you always

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  14. "Someone annoys you, maybe pisses you off, and that's reason enough to use lethal force."

    Sadly, yes, but I think the woman might have been expressing worry rather than a desire for kids to be killed. Three days ago, a homeless car camper threatened my neighbor with a gun right in front of my house. The possibility of death from gunshot ever looms before our eyes anymore.

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    1. Perhaps but the admin on the group thought it threat enough that they took down her comment and gave her a warning. Words have power and may also give tacit approval to some who only need a little encouragement. We have tolerated violent rhetoric as being protected free speech. Maybe it's time we stopped doing that. Maybe it's time we tell people immediately that that is not to be tolerated. Maybe it's time we as a society use societal pressure to shame this kind of speech, that it's NOT OK to consider a gun an acceptable solution.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.