small gardens & small government

 Hey all, long time no write. Cooper will play the role of Puck in this version of A Mid Winters Night's Dream. Six happy weeks brings in another season. But oh, methinks how slow this old season does wane.   The music is Big Al Carson and The Blues Masters  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C00JmxMYv1U The version I'm listening to started with 'Members only" as solid and sad a modern blues tune as one could write. Perhaps you can find it I couldn't and didn't want to slow the burst of desire to write down with a deeper search of Youtube. The blues is really just a leftover stack of CDs from yesterday. I was going to change it to some Billy Joel for reasons I'll describe later, but Aretha Franklin hadn't played yet and that would be just wrong to not listen to the queen.   It's Colorado, so winter yesterday meant I was in the backyard in a tee shirt trying to build a dry stack stone wall for the garden. Today is a heavy white snow rapidly piling up...

The morning is mellow, Cooper's at my side expecting more than the bite of my breakfast he just had. The music is a bit of a cheat with a Youtube link to Reina del Sid.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqq9yXmgils I was listening to her this morning courtesy of her Sunday morning connection she sends out to her Youtube subscribers.  Youtube morphed that over to a young Emmylou Harris and a beautiful Cajun riff and then on to a duet between Emmylou and Dwight Yoakam.  Country music should be required (Department of Country Music - DoCM anyone!) to have either a peddle steel guitar, a fiddle, or a distinctive voice like Dwight's.  The path Youtube lead me down was so pleasant I had a hard time breaking away to walk the dogs. I'm glad I did as the quiet of the morning was even better than the music. I even stopped myself from whistling to enjoy it. I don't know if the quiet was a real thing with our cold snap causing my neighbors to stay snuggled under the covers on t...

 The Very Best of Harry Belafonte  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O98x7Zpjx4M is actually striking a good note to plink a few notes on the keyboard. We'll have to see if the rest of my choices for music blend or are distractions.   Last week's sinuses weeping from the smoke devolved quickly into an ugly little cold. Besides making the owners of Kleenex and NyQuil wealthy I've accomplished very little. I can best describe it without getting gross as feeling like someone shoved a large pizza up my nose. Oddly, there are moments within a cold when you feel wildly manic and think "jeez let's just get caught up right now".  Two minutes later your swaying and thinking "ooow going down". Certainly not conducive to running that heavy equipment they always warn you about - but that wasn't really on the agenda anyway so.   The garden has kindly provided this week without demanding too much.  The recently planted arugula is going great guns and gave Deb...

    I'm up early this morning so the music is to be dictated by Youtube with a modicum of direction by me. The blue tooth speaker (connected to the stereo) I have is just that a speaker with no connection for headphones. With Deb still sleeping headphones are .. well just a good way to stay married. OK how 'bout a gentle start to the day Alison Krauss  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swOLCLrqBn8 .    The early start on the day really has to be blamed on wildfires.  Thankfully the fires are not real close but spread all over the West.  The closest is in northwestern Colorado Steamboat Springs. I've heard one in Montana is over a million acres. A million is one of those numbers that sticks in your head, but honestly I can't visualize it nor do I have any clue how many millions of acres are in Montana. I've been to Montana tho' so I'm guessing it's not quite the whole state burning.  That all said it's the smoke. The smoke from most of the forest f...

  Some years back my brother Glen and our families owned some apartments in Houston. Perhaps to get me out of his hair Glen sent me off looking for some now forgotten something on the other side of Houston. People for some reason don't think of Houston as the 4th largest City in the US. That's by population drive around it and it's bigger. Like all things in Texas their traffic jams are bigger. So I'm sweating my brains out (In Houston you begin sweating when you step out of the shower in the morning -Just saying!) in a truck with no A/C, in a construction zone with the street going from 3 lanes to one and people fighting for the next inch like it's the last food on earth. The street is completely gone, just orange cones and caliche potholes filled with water. Needless to say I'm cursing my brother, God, and the guy in front of me. I mean I'm a good person why oh why God must I suffer so... 'course just then I see a guy in a wheelchair stumps for legs tr...

 Apologies for not posting a blog last weekend. I actually wrote a draft but it was coming out in scattered chunks and more confused than usual.  Could have been the equally scattered choice in music I pulled from the bottom of the 'Friends of the Library' sale bag. I have learned that music not only helps me write but does effect what I write, weird. Kindly, the Google blog site (perhaps with my Luddite help!) managed to not save those ramblings. Thus these are fresh from the garden ramblings not re-worked composted malarke!   I just came in from spreading some mulch in the garden and thus my mind was on heat when selecting the music. Nuyorican Soul https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yaGFMG6rMY is a mixed bag of artist but includes some Tito Puente and seems to have a good Latin jazz rythmn. I'm following it with straight Tito Puente and his Latin All Stars. With a big glass of iced (eclipse sun;~) tea that should cool me down and get me ready to go back to the garden. ...

No music today. OK I'm listening to Dwight Yoakum but no music for you. I'm not trying to be the music Nazi just running out the door to the cabin this morning. Before leaving I wanted to tap out a little something in case I get back too late in the weekend to put things together. Or perhaps this is a little need to wrap things up should the US and No.Korea start lobbing things at each other. I remain hopeful that won't be the case but we live a half block from what I think is the largest federal facility in the Western US. Thus I've always assumed that our neighborhood is on at least a couple of target lists. My neighbor has wisely commented that we are lucky in that we won't survive two seconds after a nuclear attack.  So let's go with hope.   For those of you who considered the sunflower buds I mentioned as edible in the last blog I apologize the cooking instructions were off. The correct instructions should be; Take young flower buds blanch for 3 minutes. P...