Candlemas & Critter Shadow

Posted on January 31, 2022 by Ann Lovejoy
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The comfort of candlelight is especially welcome in winter

Spring Or Snow?

This coming Wednesday, February 4, is Groundhog Day, when supposedly a shadow can predict whether we’ll experience six more weeks of winter or enjoy an early spring. For all of us who are eager to get back into the garden, a groundhog in New England is unlikely to provide useful information, but between NOAA and the Washington State Climatologist, it sounds like the Pacific Northwest is in for more cold and a lot more wet weather. Western Oregon is likely to have a similarly wet and cool few months, and Californians may also get some drought relief, definitely good news. Rain is certainly welcome to our native plants, which have been stressed badly by recent extreme weather events. It’s also welcome in our gardens, especially if temperatures drop, as plants can handle far more cold without as much damage if their soil and root zones are moist. It still sounds a bit ridiculous to suggest that gardens might need watering in winter, yet I’ve come to realize that dealing with facts is more effective than remaining a creature of habit.

Like so many Christian Era holidays, Groundhog day coincides with an ancient pagan festival, Imbolc. Traditionally, Imbolc is observed on February 1 and marks (more or less) the halfway point between The Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. To smooth the transition between old and new, the beloved ancient Celtic goddess Brighid took on the identity of Saint Brigid, enabling people to continue to find comfort in her care for people and animals. Whatever the weather, Imbolc marked the start of the lambing season, often a time of fierce weather, and shepherds needed (and still need) all the help they could get to bring weaker lambs to safety. Instead of Groundhog Day, many countries observe Candlemas, and ceremonial candle lighting has been woven into traditional Celtic practices as a sign of hope in dim dark days. The flicker of flame is always fascinating the the human eye and in tiny houses like ours, where there’s no room for a fireplace, a candle serves as a reminder of warmth and light and the coming of spring.

Spring On The Wing

The traditional festival of Brighid celebrated the ‘quickening of the year’, and the promise of new life on the way. Despite snow and sleet and wild winds, underground, life is stirring and roots are waking up. As I slowly tidy up the garden, carefully checking for egg cases and chrysalises, I find fat shoots poking up. When I do, I don’t remove all the dead top growth but leave enough to provide a few degrees of frost protection on sub-freezing nights. Some plants look truly dead and prove their passing by pulling up easily, roots and all, with barely a tug. Others aren’t so obvious and since there’s no hurry to clear them away before the arrival of warmer days wakes them up (or not), I leave them in place to recover or pass on. It’s too cold to stay in the garden long, but when there’s a sun break, I dash out and putter until the clouds return or the sun slips behind the trees. Even at midday, the sun is so low in the sky that my little yard only gets a few hours of direct winter sunlight at best, so every minute I can spend in the garden now is precious and healing.

As I work, I hear the sweetest bird chatter all around me, a sound shut off by the closed windows of winter. It reminds me of how cut off from nature we can get when we isolate indoors, insulated from natural light and natural sounds as well as cold and damp. I look forward eagerly to being able to leave windows open again, hearing the sleepy bird chorus at sunset and the joyful bird song at daybreak. My cat has better hearing than I do anymore and she lets me know when the birds wake up, usually by jumping on my head if I’m slow to rouse. Though annoying, I’m actually glad to wake up with the sun most of the time, as it feels like another natural rhythm, right alongside the swinging seasons of the year.

Covid & Wholesome Snacks

One silver lining of our recent covid experience is that somehow it removed all desire for sweets. Actually, the shift might predate that and have more to do with the anxiety attacks that landed me in the ER before Christmas. It’s a novel experience to find myself actually acting consistently in my own best interests, something I haven’t been managing very well over the past few years. This unexpected benefit also includes a renewed desire to get outside and walk, another lifelong habit lost to pandemic scares. I wish I could claim that the wholesome changes I’m experiencing are the result of will power but truthfully, they aren’t, unless they’re an expression of a deeper will than my conscious one. Perhaps the human will to live is waking me up to better behavior; if so, it’s very welcome!

One result of this behavioral shift (long may it last!) is finding only healthy meals and healthy snacks appealing. Several recent studies suggest that eating an ounce or two of daily walnuts is especially beneficial for older brains, helping to fend off cognitive decline. Now that’s something I’m strongly in favor of (!!), so I’ve been experimenting with nutty snack recipes. Almonds are also good, but my aging teeth aren’t up to the crunch challenge anymore so softer walnuts, pecans and peanuts (both also loaded with brain-pleasing phytonutrients) are in for the win. Turns out that an ounce of walnuts is about 1/4 cup, a perfect snack serving. A lot of snacky recipes are sweet or complicated to make or involve unhealthy ingredients. So far, the family favorite is a mix of lightly toasted nuts tossed with a spice blend that can be changed to please your palate. See what you think!

Savory Spiced Nuts

2 teaspoons avocado or olive or favorite oil
4 cups nuts (I use walnuts, pecans and peanuts)
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp granulated garlic (or garlic powder)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper or smoked paprika
1/4 tsp sea salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine oil and nuts in a large bowl and toss to coat. In another bowl, combine spices, stir well and pour over nuts, tossing to coat evenly. Spread nuts in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 6-8 minutes. Stir nuts and return to oven for an additional 6-8 minutes. Longer baking makes for crunchier nuts, so experiment with timing to find the way you like them best. Cool and store in a tightly covered jar. Serving size 1/4-1/2 cup per day.

If you want a sweeter treat, try this mixture or adapt it to your taste:

Sweet Spiced Nuts

Follow the recipe above, substituting this mixture or a similar blend of spices.

Sweet Spice Blend

2-3 tsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp nutmeg or cardamom
pinch of sea salt

Crunchy, savory or sweet, nuts are great for the brain

 

 

Posted in Birds In The Garden, Care & Feeding, Climate Change, Garden Prep, Health & Wellbeing, Native Plants, Recipes, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living, Vegan Recipes | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Choosing A Commemorative Plant

Posted on January 24, 2022 by Ann Lovejoy
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Snowdrops can become a lasting legacy plant

Welcoming The New Or Honoring The Departed

Today is my beautiful granddaughter’s sixth birthday. As I prepare a little after-school party for her, I’m remembering the day she arrived. It’s still deeply moving to recall her birth, which happened at her home, surrounded by loving family and friends. Just a few months previously, some of the same people had honored the death of my mother, also at home. Home births and home deaths have become rare in this country, yet witnessing someone being birthed or someone walking on are among life’s most profound experiences. Certainly there are situations in which either birth or death should occur in a hospital, yet removing both from our direct experiences can create a sense of detachment, an absence of knowledge that makes these universal human experiences seem foreign. Obviously both birth and death can be messy, scary processes, but they can also be so beautiful, so REAL, so human.

When I remember Kate tending and bathing our newest baby, I also remember how she and I bathed Mom and dressed her in her favorite fleece nightie for her last departure from home, so shortly before my granddaughter was born. In our part of the world, that loving service isn’t often carried out at home, by family, but in many places, it’s an important rite of passage woven with meaningful rituals. Surely something is missing from a life that does not willingly include the earthy realities of birth and death. Until America got brainwashed by the funeral industry, women traditionally handled the tasks of bathing and clothing, of vigil and celebration and mourning. Both the medical industry and the funeral industry promoted the view that both birth and death were too perilous to be managed by amateur women, and that tradition was largely lost.

Beautiful Arrivals & Departures

Though many people are put off the idea of home births because of the messy aftermath (definitely understandable), laundry is not really all that daunting if family and friends are around to help. Obviously it’s a lot harder if women don’t have that warm community support but helping each other build a web of strong connections is part of being an elder (or so I like to think). Being willing to be part of such a web is a great gift, one which brings even greater rewards. I’ve heard many people say that they wouldn’t be comfortable at a birth or death because they are worried that they might not know what to do or just how to do it. It’s true that a tiny baby seems so fragile and mysterious, while the newly dead are still warm yet so clearly empty of life. Though natural and normal and part of every life on the planet, both states can certainly be intimidating to the inexperienced. In reality, bathing and dressing are simple, peaceful tasks that are both earthy and sacred.

Our family often celebrates births and deaths by planting something. For beloved critters, I like rosemary for remembrance, choosing hardy, enduring varieties like Arp, which can live for decades. For people, I may plant a favorite tree; my dad and Bud both loved Japanese maples, so that was an obvious choice. Sadly, neither original planting flourished, which is a reminder to pick something hardy and well suited to the site, because losing a memorial tree can feel doubly sad. After those trees were lost to verticillium, we planted a beautiful Purple Prince crabapple for Bud and a shapely weeping sequoia for my Dad. Where there isn’t much room, we’ve chosen hardy shrubs; for my mom, we planted a winter flowering witch hazel, Hamamalis x intermedia Pallida, with soft yellow flowers that smell delicious on winter days. We’ve planted memorial roses as well as camellias, rhododendrons, and even a splendid Midwinter Fire twiggy dogwood, now the size of a small tree.

Celebrating Arrivals With Sweetness

It’s fun to celebrate birthdays with plants as well. I’ve giving my granddaughter some snowdrops to add to her growing garden. Long lived bulbs like this can persist for decades, even centuries, so they may spread and create a legacy of beauty over time. We also honors births by planting something fragrant, or a plant with powerful, positive association. My son, her dad, was also a January baby and everywhere we’ve lived, I’ve planted a native Scouler willow, which was blooming when he arrived. For my grandson, I planted Cotinus x Grace, a superb smoke bush with fantastic color from early spring into late fall, as well as a lovely coral orange rose from the grocery store. These little roses often prove very hardy when planted in the garden. His has been in the ground for eight years and is now about three feet high and wide. He also has a pear tree planted along with his placenta in the backyard of his own home, a tradition meant to make sure that children will always find their way back home. His sister’s birth was honored with a lovely, ruffled pink camellia in the front yard, which is just starting to bloom after the cold snap.

My long-time gardening group, the Friday Tidies, has been developing and caring for the gardens at our local library for over twenty years. During that time, several of our number have walked on and each time, we planted something that would remind us of our dear departed. We’ve often discussed what kinds of plants we would each prefer when our times come, and many plumped for crabapples, especially the newer disease-resistant varieties. Our library gardens now include Centennial, a very handsome small tree with truly tasty, sweet-tart fruit, as well as Golden Raindrops, a cut-leaf form with small but profuse bright yellow fruit that lingers well into winter. To commemorate a lost baby, we planted Tina (Malus toringo ssp. sargentii Tina), a lovely small tree with a perfect canopy and daintily spreading branches. AKA Sargent Tina, this shrub-like tree tops out at around 6-8 feet if grafted and 8-12 feet on its own roots, offering the usual rosy bud and white flowers as well as red fruit and warm fall color. For myself, I’d like a healthy, compact crabapple, to provide for pollinators and birds and add a little beauty to the world. How about you?

In warmer climates, amaryllis can be as hardy as snowdrops

 

Posted in Gardening With Children, Health & Wellbeing, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Of Covid & Valentines

Posted on January 17, 2022 by Ann Lovejoy
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Brighten your corner with a card or note

Why Wait For Valentine’s Day?

I was recently invited to send Valentine’s Day cards to people who might not get any. I love that idea and decided to start making some. After all, the grandkids aren’t the only ones who like to mess around with craft supplies, right? Fortunately we are very well supplied with colored pencils and there’s even a couple of boxes of blank cards on nice card stock with matching envelopes. I feel far more creative in the garden than in drawing, but hey, valentines are hardly about great artistry or astonishing creativity. Hearts and flowers, right? I drew a bunch of hearts, added a few flowers and started coloring them in. I’ve been doing one or two a day and finding it almost meditative. It’s actually a bit like using a coloring book, simple and soothing and surprisingly satisfying.

Soothing is good, because there’s still so much going on that staying serene is taking every trick and tool I’ve got. Local covid rates continue to climb and clinics are so short staffed, they’re basically telling people to stay home and assume you’ve got it if you get symptoms. When our home tests were negative, we learned that most of them don’t pick up omicron well. Again the professional advice was so isolate, hydrate and take over-the-counter analgesics as needed. My daughter and I had similar symptoms; headache, sore throat, muscle aches, little fever bursts, sniffles. So did several neighbors and we all decided to assume that we had covid and stay home. As symptoms came on, I made several batches of soup and that carried us through the days when napping was more important than meal making. Happily those days were few and we’re all on the mend from whatever it was. Actually, I’m thinking we really did catch the virus because of two things: for the past week, I’ve had no appetite, which is pretty unusual, and it hasn’t come back yet. Even more unheard of, the idea of eating anything sweet has been and still is repugnant. That, like so much else that’s going on, is simply unprecedented!

All Kinds Of Service

Yesterday, our annual community MLK event was presented as an online offering with some amazing speeches, especially a heartfelt and rousing one on service from Doctor Karen A. Johnson, the first Director of Washington State’s recently formed Office of Equity. What a powerhouse of a woman, so smart, so warm, and so genuine. If you get a chance to hear her speak, definitely do. WOW! Afterward we got an online walking tour of the Bainbridge Island Museum Of Art, which is currently featuring some powerful and very moving exhibits. BIMA focuses on local and regional artists, many of national stature, and the staff also puts on a stellar array of online panels and programs with an equity emphasis. Listening and watching, I was thinking about the way that art has become such an active and interactive medium with strong influences way beyond the shelter of academia. Our local wonder woman, Akuyea Karen Vargas, just won a Governor’s Luminary Award for decades of work with underserved youth, often using art as a tool for self expression, and as deep, healing therapy for wounded hearts and spirits.

Several of the artists in yesterday’s presentation mentioned that they consider their art as equity work and as a gift to the beloved community. Many of the keynote speakers noted that, for activists, MLK day is a day ON, not a day off, a time to honor MLK’s legacy in action as well as words. As Dr. King said, “Everybody can be great, because anybody can serve.” Sometimes the idea of service may seem intimidating, but really, service comes in all shapes and sizes. Though we are still in quarantine, I was able to pass along a big bag of warm hat and scarves and mitts made by the Senior center knitting group, to be offered along with warm meals and hot drinks to homeless people. We’ve been piling them up for two year, as local agencies weren’t accepting in-kind contributions, so there will be a lot of warmer heads and hands today, covid or no covid.

Little Gifts, Big Impact

If knitted hats can be considered a gift of service, I suppose even Valentine’s Day cards might be as well. In fact, I know they can, because during the earlier pandemic lockdown time, writing notes and cards to shut-in elders clearly made a big difference to their feelings of isolation and anxiety. Sometime if I couldn’t think of anything new or clever to say, I’d cut out jokes or pictures of beautiful gardens from magazines and paste them into a card with a few words, like, “Wish we could be walking in this lovely garden” or “This joke is so bad it made me snort tea through my nose.” You know, uplifting thoughts.

As the lethargy of our mystery illness slowly ebbs, I’m realizing that having a week absolutely off was something I’d really like to try again when I didn’t feel like napping all day. I’ve never been big on vacations, and at this stage of life, my home, my garden, my family and my community supply pretty much everything I want. However, I do have a tendency to jump in and do what seems to need doing and sometimes that means I’m putting more on my plate than I can actually handle. Maybe it’s time to see that my plate isn’t as large as it used to be? Maybe it’s time to slow down a bit and make space for someone else to jump in? Maybe only doing a little is plenty now? I’ve been remembering a dear Quaker neighbor from my childhood: I loved to visit her, because she was always calm and welcoming and actually listened. When I would pour out my fears and concerns about the world (this was during the civil rights movement, when the evening news was horrifying), she would often say, “None of us can solve everything, but we can all brighten our corner.” Amen, sister!

 

Posted in Care & Feeding, Crafting With Children, Health & Wellbeing, Social Justice, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Covid & Community

Posted on January 10, 2022 by Ann Lovejoy
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Simple & speedy chicken soup, good for what ails ya

The Beautiful Community

For the past few months, I’ve been helping to plan an annual community event celebrating the social justice legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. For the past few years, this event’s been growing and gaining strength as national events spurred more awareness and action. This time, as covid19 cases exponentially grew, our event plan changed weekly, from a community march (always popular and moving) and many in-person activities to an all-on-line format. I’m sure the result will be rich and well worth watching, but it obviously can’t have the impact as marching and singing and listening to amazing talks and music and poetry with people of all ages does.

I always love that this annual march is less against than for: For human rights. For social and economic justice. For the health and wellbeing of our planet. For universal health care. For reproductive freedom. For free public education. For freedom of religion. For freedom of speech. On and on, of course, and things we want FOR the Beautiful Community, FOR the most wholesome, healthy, free and just life we can create together. Some people have been saying they feel like The Movement has died. I don’t see that. During the previous regime, people were incensed and aroused by the constant barrage of Bad News and there truly was something to be horrified by pretty much every single day and that clearly got people galvanized into actions galore. There’s still plenty of bad news, but now there’s also good news. There’s good news as lost ground is retaken and good news as positive steps forward are slowly being made despite so much pushback and resistance.

Nurturing The Beautiful Community

Locally, I love seeing the Beautiful Community MLK talked about in action. Though the pandemic has made it more difficult for us to gather in person, social justice work has gone online and is more organized and focused than ever. Students are organizing everywhere and using today’s tools with awesome ease and competence. Grandparent are rising up and regaining our activist chops, and groups such as thirdact.org are helping us oldies (as in people over 60) support democracy and work for environmental reforms.

A lot is happening, locally, nationally, internationally, and though a LOT more needs to happen, it’s important to keep our focus on the positive track. Respair, right? As I’ve been reading through various MLK speeches, a few great quotes are still resonating with me and hopefully with you too. Which ones sing out to you?

“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.”

“Before any other action we take, we must remember to move forward with love.”

We’re supposed to wait five days before testing…

Emergency Soup

On a less cheery note, I was accidentally exposed to covid19 on Friday. As soon as I found out, I aired out the house, washed everything down, showered, and started the countdown to symptom time. Once the initial shock wore off, though, I was surprised not to be more freaked out about it. It seems inevitable that most or basically all of us will get it at some point. Maybe that will actually help us develop the elusive herd immunity? However it plays out, I’m deeply grateful for the vaccines that are making this extremely contagious virus less damaging, especially for us oldies (now I’m 70 I’m definitely practicing my elder persona). Now that I’m isolating again, I’m very grateful to live in a Beautiful Community where help is just a phone call or text away. I only wish everyone had such support, and could find and afford home tests (they’re almost impossible to find around here now).

Though I still felt fine this morning, around noon, wham. Uh oh.
As those cold-like, flu-like, not-very-comfortable covid19 symptoms proliferated, I started making emergency chicken soup, a proven comfort food for my family all my life. Luckily I had some cooked chicken on hand, chicken broth in the freezer, and garlic and greens from the garden to give it extra punch. This soup took me all of 10 minutes to prep and as it simmered, I kept leaning over to breathe in the steam. Apparently that’s what makes chicken soup so good for flu fighting, so if you’re vegetarian, any favorite hot soup should do the trick.

Simple & Speedy Chicken Soup

1 tablespoon olive or avocado oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon minced rosemary
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1-1/2 cups chopped peppers
2 cups chopped red cabbage
4 cups sliced kale
1 cup chopped broccoli
2 cups cooked chicken, chopped
4 cups chicken broth
1 tablespoon fresh thyme sprigs

In a soup pot, heat oil, onion and garlic over medium heat. After 3 minutes, add rosemary, salt, celery, carrot and peppers, cover pan and let braise while you chop the greens (and reds). Add cabbage, kale, broccoli, chicken and broth, cover pan and bring to a simmer. Simmer on low for at least 20 minutes. Serve hot, garnished with thyme. Serves 4.

Onward, right?

Posted in Care & Feeding, Health & Wellbeing, Recipes, Social Justice, Sustainable Gardening, Sustainable Living | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments