Ripening

 

 

This is the first year, ever, that I've taken up the backyard effort to grow vegetables. I'm a little nervous, so, wish me luck.

Transmitter

Last night I had the occasion to eavesdrop on my only child playing upstairs with walkie talkies. She was playing by herself. The noise of it was particularly hilarious.

International Mud Day

Morning Stand-Up

This summer I've shared the pleasant company of my daughter each morning at breakfast. We've fallen into the habit of standing in the kitchen, waiting for the toaster or the coffeepot, and telling jokes. 

This morning the post-joke banter went something like this...

N: So, mom, sounds like you know a ~lot~ of "a so-n-so walks into a bar..." jokes.
Me: Yeh. I hadn't thought about it, but, I guess I do.
N: Mmm-hmm. [pause, pause, pause] You know I can't tell those on the playground, right? I mean, I'm eleven and all. 
Me: You can change the setting of the joke, you know. The barroom isn't required for the punchline.
N: Oh, good. Because, if I told a lot of bar jokes...you know...people would wonder...not about me...more about you. 

Tree Effects

I've lived for a long time with the philosophy that there is no problem, no mental funk that a good hike can't cure. I practiced this philosophy for the better part of my college experience by studying trees. Refined the idea over a habit of weekends and holidays doing the same.

Japanese scientists have studied the biological effects what I'd guess intuitively from a walk in the woods. They found reduced stress levels in the body, decreased blood pressure, and a strengthened immune system better able to fight tumors and viruses.

Researchers at Columbia University correlated trees in urban neighborhoods to a lower incidence of asthma. Similar studies indicate that anxiety, depression and even crime are lower tree-lined environments.

I stand at one of those life moments where things shift quickly. Everything feels uncertain. As a result I've spent a great deal of time wearing hiking boots. Over the past year I have visited a stand of redwoods, hiked an eastern deciduous forest, picked apples from an orchard, run a swamp stomp, watched leaves bud and studied the fissures of tree-bark. I have caked my shoes in mud. I have giggled to throw the front door open extra wide just to bring in a little more fresh air. 

So I was pleased to hear Geoffery Donovan, a researcher with the U.S. Forest Service, recently suggest we consider that trees might not be just an essential part of the natural environment but equally essential to our well being. It was one of those moments when someone else, someone I've never met put words to an idea I had. Better than that Mr. Donovan puts statistics and findings behind what I could only guess. He goes on to say we could start thinking of trees as part of our public health infrastructure.  

There's an expansive way of thinking that happens when I go for a hike. A way that breathing becomes less constricted in a stand of trees.  A dimmed vision of my failings when immersed in something larger. Obviously, I like hiking. Regardless of my position on a map the effect of forests will always help me arrive at a better space in my head.  

Only Occasionally

There’s an age past which fevers and nightmares stopped bothering N so much. She stopped the default to cry out, or crawl into my bed.

A fierce thunderclap the other night, though, was the undoing of her sophistication. She flew into my bed in one whoosh, fluffed up the pillow, and slept the night through. In the morning I took a moment to admire this amazing young person that, only occasionally, still needs her mother.

Forwarding Address

Photo Credit: ERIN DUERR / Lincoln Journal Star

So, my favorite neighbor moved. Lincoln's Bike Kitchen set up shop down the block two years ago. The Kitchen offers tune-ups, parts, frames, and free bikes in exchange for volunteer hours. This past March the idea of The Bike Kitchen outgrew the confines of the two-bedroom house across the alley from me. 

Crowded conditions at the old place forced some bikes to be left outside -- come rain, sleet or snow. Being exposed to weather like that wears down the life of the ride. 

The new location is bigger. It lands The Bike Kitchen with 2,000ft2 worth of warehouse at 1635 South First St (former home of Gongs Unlimited). It sports wall hooks for bikes, wheels, frames, tools and allows several people to work in the space at once.

The Grand Reopening occurred this past weekend but The Bike Kitchen throws open its new doors every Sunday from noon to 4 pm. and Monday from 5 to 9 pm. As always The Kitchen is looking for volunteer mechanics, foreign language translators and anyone with help or bike donations to offer.

To help cover the costs of the new building, the Bike Kitchen will rent space to local artists and musicians. Local theater group, Wet Rats, will be the first to use the space, performing a play about Joan of Arc on Friday and Saturday nights in June.

Birthday à la Grandave

Thanks, Jen, for making this fabulous video!

The birthday-boy's quote of the night: "I'm officially eligible for the Senior's Discount at Village Inn!

 

 

Wet Weather

The air was wet, the sky all purpled up. I know what it looks like when rain is coming. I know dry and warm is inside. 

But I had that wondering. That sense that I'd miss something if I didn't wheel up. Mix in my irrational sense of optimism and I was a goner. I convinced myself the rain could, or would, hold off entirely. With one click of the chin clasp on my bike helmet I shrugged and thought, at most, maybe, maybe it would be just be a light sprinkle. 

I got soaked clean through. A cold rain that started off with fat plops before opening up a full downpour. The surprise wasn't the storm itself but the sweet, giggly feel of it. The way my toes flinched against my sandals. The swishing noise of my bike tires against the puddled up pavement. The spray that comes from wind shaking around a tree full of wet leaves.

I rolled up to my destination. Drip dried on the porch for a moment. Rubbed my cold cheeks that were stiff from smiling. I forget how much I can love wet weather. 

Hidden and Alone

Outside Denton, Nebraska

"The solitude of the prairie is like no other, the feeling of being hidden and alone in a grassland as open as the sea." 

-- Richard Manning (Grassland: The History, Biology, Politics and Promise of the American Prairie)

...all my sweaters are snagged

Portrait Series

N's Artwork, 2012

N's artwork display gets switched out on her birthday each year. There's a room off the kitchen she makes into a sort of a gallery space. It's easy enough to squirrel away the painted up pages arriving home in her school backpack. 

Birthday cake in the oven we take out all of her artwork I've saved over the previous year, resolve to display some and recycle the rest. 

She curates, I stand on a step stool with push pins. This is the latest series. I've enjoyed it very much.

Summer Start

The sun came out yesterday after weeks of rain. 

Swinging the garage door open after a long bike ride I felt thrilled and exhausted. 

After showering up I smiled to realize my time on two wheels brought me my first bug-bite and my first sunburn of the season.