Tuesday, January 31, 2012
LOOKING DEEPER
Sometimes it is hard to tell ─
Is lime-green pond scum beautiful?
It is when you know it means
water is present.
It is when you peer through a microscope
and see graceful filaments and a home
for myriads of shimmering protozoa.
Sometimes it is hard to tell ─
Is polluted air beautiful?
It is at the close of the day
when you enjoy hazy, lazy sunsets.
It is when the setting sun
glows burnt-orange or hovers
as a burnished copper disk.
Sometimes it is hard to tell ─
Is an oil slick on a damp driveway beautiful?
It is when one notices an iridescence
of peacock plumes and rainbows.
Sometimes it is hard to tell ─
Is the swoosh of busy car traffic beautiful?
It is when it reminds you of wind-whispers
passing through pine boughs, or distant
waves breaking upon a pebbled beach.
It is when it is a harbinger of
a loved family about to arrive.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
CHECK IT OUT !
Clem wrote an op-ed news commentary and sent it to MinnPost.com. Check it out!
Here is one way to view the piece:
http://www.minnpost.com/community_voices/2012/01/25/34582/what_if_presiden
Such fun!
Here is one way to view the piece:
http://www.minnpost.com/community_voices/2012/01/25/34582/what_if_presiden
Such fun!
Saturday, January 21, 2012
The Case of the Horizontal Amaryllis
Near the end of November, it got too cold to keep our three season porch open to the rest of the house. The major task in closing it up for the winter was to bring in all the plants that thrived there during warmer months. One of the plants was an amaryllis, which had bloomed beautifully last winter. Although we have never been very successful at getting these bulbs to re-bloom, we keep trying. So we had put in the porch last spring to allow its leaves to regenerate the bulb's strength.
When we brought it back into the house, it was time for its second phrase. The theory is that such bulbs need a period of rest. We clipped its leaves and stopped watering it. Then it sat neglected on the kitchen counter, while we got busy with the holiday season. Finally we moved it into a closet - in the dark - where we promptly forgot about it. No water meant dormancy - at least that is the theory.
When the temperature (outside) dropped to almost zero Fahrenheit, Clem went to the closet for a warm wool blanket to toss in the backseat of the car. Just in case . . . In Minnesota we prepare for all contingencies in the winter.
When he opened the door, he recoiled in horror. What was this long, white thing stretching across the shelf. Then he shouted for me to come and see. It seems this fat bulb had its own trajectory in its life journey, a mind of its own. Whether it was watered or not.
The amaryllis had decided it was time to grow and had sent out its flower stock, a fat stem about two feet long. It had a flower bud on the end ready to open. Only there was another shelf about four inches above its winter abode. Going straight up, which is the usual custom of these gorgeous flowering plants, was out of the question. So it sent its stem out horizontally.
We now have this bizarre-appearing specimen out in the light and have given the determined plant water. But it shows no inclination to gravitate upward. It continues its defiant behavior to conform.
Hence, a household discussion has ensued as to the best course. Perhaps we need to build it a crutch to hold up its weight? And where might we let it continue what it has begun - as it occupies a strange space several feet long by now? (We wouldn't want it to watch television and daily updates of the equally strange GOP political campaign for President -it already having enough strange ideas of its own). And will its blossoms also be rotated ninety degrees from the norm - meaning one faces straight down, one faces straight up, and the other two parallel with the floor?
Or is all of this just one more symptom of an upside-down winter, in which we have no snow and temperatures are in the forties, while the rest of the country is struggling with major snowstorms, flooding, tornadoes, wildfires, and closed airport runways?
When we brought it back into the house, it was time for its second phrase. The theory is that such bulbs need a period of rest. We clipped its leaves and stopped watering it. Then it sat neglected on the kitchen counter, while we got busy with the holiday season. Finally we moved it into a closet - in the dark - where we promptly forgot about it. No water meant dormancy - at least that is the theory.
When the temperature (outside) dropped to almost zero Fahrenheit, Clem went to the closet for a warm wool blanket to toss in the backseat of the car. Just in case . . . In Minnesota we prepare for all contingencies in the winter.
When he opened the door, he recoiled in horror. What was this long, white thing stretching across the shelf. Then he shouted for me to come and see. It seems this fat bulb had its own trajectory in its life journey, a mind of its own. Whether it was watered or not.
The amaryllis had decided it was time to grow and had sent out its flower stock, a fat stem about two feet long. It had a flower bud on the end ready to open. Only there was another shelf about four inches above its winter abode. Going straight up, which is the usual custom of these gorgeous flowering plants, was out of the question. So it sent its stem out horizontally.
We now have this bizarre-appearing specimen out in the light and have given the determined plant water. But it shows no inclination to gravitate upward. It continues its defiant behavior to conform.
Hence, a household discussion has ensued as to the best course. Perhaps we need to build it a crutch to hold up its weight? And where might we let it continue what it has begun - as it occupies a strange space several feet long by now? (We wouldn't want it to watch television and daily updates of the equally strange GOP political campaign for President -it already having enough strange ideas of its own). And will its blossoms also be rotated ninety degrees from the norm - meaning one faces straight down, one faces straight up, and the other two parallel with the floor?
Or is all of this just one more symptom of an upside-down winter, in which we have no snow and temperatures are in the forties, while the rest of the country is struggling with major snowstorms, flooding, tornadoes, wildfires, and closed airport runways?
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Found: The Blue Sweatshirt
This summer's remodeling meant a certain amount of chaos in our household. As the confusion subsided, missing things surfaced and found their rightful place. However, I came up short with two items. My favorite old navy-blue sweatshirt, worn just enough to be comfy. And the ceramic soap dish by the kitchen sink.
Numerous searches produced nothing. We figured the soap dish had to be somewhere in the house because it was not the sort of thing one took to lunch or out for the evening. The sweatshirt was another matter. We even queried friends, thinking we might have left it somewhere. Finally I gave up this fall - and purchased another navy-blue sweatshirt from our local Target store. After all, $6.95 would not break us up in business.
This morning the temperature had dropped to its first minus zero degrees (Fahrenheit) and I reached in the closet for a clean sweatshirt. Putting it on, I was puzzled. For a sweatshirt bought new in September, this one felt quite worn. I went back to the closet - and produced a second navy-blue sweatshirt. It had been there all along.
Have you ever looked for something and later discovered it was right there in plain sight?
Maggie, our new kitten, just discovered the cursor on my computer screen - right there in plain sight. Something I'd never given a cursory glance (pardon the poor pun, I couldn't resist) except when it slips out of sight at the edge of the screen. Maggie simply cracks me up, even though she is a a huge nuisance as I try to enter things or read what I have called up. She cocks her head and follows its path, as adorable as anything can possibly be. She stretches her head a bit, sometimes putting her paw on the screen. Sometimes I make the cursor go round and round in a big circle as fast as I can - and her little head follows the action like some Bobble-head doll.And I am convulsed with laughter.
Then she takes one step too many unto the keyboard - creating a jumble of letters or worse, erasing whatever I have been working on. I scoop her up and put her on the floor, where she doesn't stay long. After all the cursor is right there - in plain sight.
Now about that ceramic soap dish -- it must be somewhere - in plain sight . . .
Numerous searches produced nothing. We figured the soap dish had to be somewhere in the house because it was not the sort of thing one took to lunch or out for the evening. The sweatshirt was another matter. We even queried friends, thinking we might have left it somewhere. Finally I gave up this fall - and purchased another navy-blue sweatshirt from our local Target store. After all, $6.95 would not break us up in business.
This morning the temperature had dropped to its first minus zero degrees (Fahrenheit) and I reached in the closet for a clean sweatshirt. Putting it on, I was puzzled. For a sweatshirt bought new in September, this one felt quite worn. I went back to the closet - and produced a second navy-blue sweatshirt. It had been there all along.
Have you ever looked for something and later discovered it was right there in plain sight?
Maggie, our new kitten, just discovered the cursor on my computer screen - right there in plain sight. Something I'd never given a cursory glance (pardon the poor pun, I couldn't resist) except when it slips out of sight at the edge of the screen. Maggie simply cracks me up, even though she is a a huge nuisance as I try to enter things or read what I have called up. She cocks her head and follows its path, as adorable as anything can possibly be. She stretches her head a bit, sometimes putting her paw on the screen. Sometimes I make the cursor go round and round in a big circle as fast as I can - and her little head follows the action like some Bobble-head doll.And I am convulsed with laughter.
Then she takes one step too many unto the keyboard - creating a jumble of letters or worse, erasing whatever I have been working on. I scoop her up and put her on the floor, where she doesn't stay long. After all the cursor is right there - in plain sight.
Now about that ceramic soap dish -- it must be somewhere - in plain sight . . .
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Politically Correct Gardening?
Gardeners have always been a congenial bunch of folks. Something about getting out and collecting dirt under the fingernails coupled with the satisfaction of seeing things grow. Now according to the newspaper, gardeners have gotten a bit testy. Even dividing each other and themselves into several camps.
Sigh - does everything need to generate polarization?
It seems there are "traditionalists,' stereotyped as middle-aged genteel ladies with nothing better to do than putter in their gardens and cultivate their roses. (Such loaded language. No I am not making this up. Go to the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Variety section, January 11th).
Then there are the aggressive no-chemical veggie growers, generally younger, who preach about damage done to the planet by rose-growing ladies who don't have a cue. At that point, I had read enough. I put down the paper without finishing the article.
What have we come to?
Over the years, part of the enjoyment in gardening has been comparing notes with other gardeners with varying perspectives. Growing my mind as well as my garden. Experimenting and reading, especially during winter months when the garden lies dormant. Now, if the article is correct, militant gardeners are sorting themselves into various camps!
If it were only about gardens and gardening. We could sit back and have a laugh about people getting bent out of shape over each others gardening practices. Methinks it falls in the category of taking something too seriously.
But I wonder if the whole thing is part of a larger pattern, in which we make our differences into pietistic adamancies. I am right and you are WRONG. Gone is the creativity that arises out of diversity, something badly needed in our world today. I insist everyone share MY perspective.
When I was growing up, there was the Cold War. We could conveniently deposit all our animosities on the terrible Communists. Now folks from Russia read this blog. And the two of us have traveled to their country several times, a place no longer labeled as enemy. Perhaps therein is a partial explanation. The human tendency to categorize the good and the bad no longer has huge unknown geographic expanses. We are globally connected in a complicated world.
So instead have we turned on each other? Tea Party and Occupy folks - who actually share some common concerns. Congress and State Legislatures functioning like two bull elk during rutting season, who sometimes cannot disengage and starve to death locked together?
Politically correct anything? Who ever coined that phrase? Shades of McCarthyism that we think we have moved beyond its damage to people who thought dfifferently.The important gardening question is not over a refusal to use chemicals on a garden or loving roses. The question is: why would any gardener want to demonize anyone else who loves to dig in the dirt and watch things grow.
Hrrumph!
Sigh - does everything need to generate polarization?
It seems there are "traditionalists,' stereotyped as middle-aged genteel ladies with nothing better to do than putter in their gardens and cultivate their roses. (Such loaded language. No I am not making this up. Go to the Minneapolis Star Tribune's Variety section, January 11th).
Then there are the aggressive no-chemical veggie growers, generally younger, who preach about damage done to the planet by rose-growing ladies who don't have a cue. At that point, I had read enough. I put down the paper without finishing the article.
What have we come to?
Over the years, part of the enjoyment in gardening has been comparing notes with other gardeners with varying perspectives. Growing my mind as well as my garden. Experimenting and reading, especially during winter months when the garden lies dormant. Now, if the article is correct, militant gardeners are sorting themselves into various camps!
If it were only about gardens and gardening. We could sit back and have a laugh about people getting bent out of shape over each others gardening practices. Methinks it falls in the category of taking something too seriously.
But I wonder if the whole thing is part of a larger pattern, in which we make our differences into pietistic adamancies. I am right and you are WRONG. Gone is the creativity that arises out of diversity, something badly needed in our world today. I insist everyone share MY perspective.
When I was growing up, there was the Cold War. We could conveniently deposit all our animosities on the terrible Communists. Now folks from Russia read this blog. And the two of us have traveled to their country several times, a place no longer labeled as enemy. Perhaps therein is a partial explanation. The human tendency to categorize the good and the bad no longer has huge unknown geographic expanses. We are globally connected in a complicated world.
So instead have we turned on each other? Tea Party and Occupy folks - who actually share some common concerns. Congress and State Legislatures functioning like two bull elk during rutting season, who sometimes cannot disengage and starve to death locked together?
Politically correct anything? Who ever coined that phrase? Shades of McCarthyism that we think we have moved beyond its damage to people who thought dfifferently.The important gardening question is not over a refusal to use chemicals on a garden or loving roses. The question is: why would any gardener want to demonize anyone else who loves to dig in the dirt and watch things grow.
Hrrumph!
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Advanced Technology II
Every month or two, we send out a newsletter called Nagel News to 300-400 people. A nice way to keep people in touch with some of the things we are doing.
It has been a labor intensive effort. Some of the newsletters go in the mail since some folks either do not use email or don't want to receive the newsletter via email. The rest go by email - which we would like to encourage as more ecological than paper copies. However, being careful of privacy issues has meant sending out small batches to people who know each other, so as not to give out email address to strangers.
We decided to tackle the issue head-on in this new year. We could not figure out how to use the Undisclosed Recipients approach. So we turned to blind copy - which means the only visible email addresses that people will see would be Clem's.
So far, so good. We did some digging around into various options for sending email and got the computer to cough up directions for sending blind copy. After experimenting, we were ecstatic! We figured it out. And were mighty pleased with ourselves.
Here is where the tale gets funny.
Clem proceeded to send out large batches of emails of the newsletter. One small problem. He was so excited, he forgot to add the attachment. It wasn't long before he began getting emails that ranged from "no news is good news?" to "apparently winter boredom has set in." After groaning, we both decided that the only thing to do was to laugh at our computer proficiency - or lack of proficiency.
After another round of emails, this time including the attachment for the newsletter, Clem learned back in his chair and declared, "Ah, the first lesson in technology for 2012. I wonder what I will learn next!"
And if anyone is interested in receiving the newsletter, just send your email address to Clem (cnagel@cpinternet.com). And we can guarantee (I think) that no one else will know you have been added to our growing list!
It has been a labor intensive effort. Some of the newsletters go in the mail since some folks either do not use email or don't want to receive the newsletter via email. The rest go by email - which we would like to encourage as more ecological than paper copies. However, being careful of privacy issues has meant sending out small batches to people who know each other, so as not to give out email address to strangers.
We decided to tackle the issue head-on in this new year. We could not figure out how to use the Undisclosed Recipients approach. So we turned to blind copy - which means the only visible email addresses that people will see would be Clem's.
So far, so good. We did some digging around into various options for sending email and got the computer to cough up directions for sending blind copy. After experimenting, we were ecstatic! We figured it out. And were mighty pleased with ourselves.
Here is where the tale gets funny.
Clem proceeded to send out large batches of emails of the newsletter. One small problem. He was so excited, he forgot to add the attachment. It wasn't long before he began getting emails that ranged from "no news is good news?" to "apparently winter boredom has set in." After groaning, we both decided that the only thing to do was to laugh at our computer proficiency - or lack of proficiency.
After another round of emails, this time including the attachment for the newsletter, Clem learned back in his chair and declared, "Ah, the first lesson in technology for 2012. I wonder what I will learn next!"
And if anyone is interested in receiving the newsletter, just send your email address to Clem (cnagel@cpinternet.com). And we can guarantee (I think) that no one else will know you have been added to our growing list!
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