a little red hen

Old stockings

Steve asked in an email, "Still blogging or only Facebook?"  Excellent question, of course he would ask.

Short answer, I keep hoping the spirit will become actual.  Long one has to do with my expectations of this form when I began in March 2006, the height of enthusiasm for the blog form.  Happily joined with peers known as Elderbloggers.  Though I did not like the title.

What did I want from it?  To connect with other aging women wondering about life after work, women who lived in other cities.  Through incredible luck + synchronicity, spouse and I had been able to retire from a too-big house in Baltimore to a right-sized apartment in Manhattan.  The move jump-started life as a conceptual artist.   Began modestly with an essay, "Composting in Manhattan," written in a weekend writing class.  Moved along in various permutations to knitting 150 red wiggler worm interpretations and This Dirt Museum:  the Ladies' Room, an installation at Queens Botanical Garden--opened eleven days after 9/11/01.

As blogging receded in popularity among younger people, seemed to offer me less juice.  Moved again 2009--last one--Portland, Oregon.  Couple of years ago jumped into Facebook primarily to connect with local political scene.  Found Amy Meissner, fiber artist in Alaska.  Amy along with Steve in D.C. inspired today's post.

In The Final Boxes of Mystery Amy ended her crowdsourcing Inheritance Project.  Having discovered her on Facebook midway, I went back to the beginning.  Women's stockings led to the image here.  Why did I keep for too many, many years discarded hose--mine and my stepmother's?  First to use as stuffing for knitted animals for our first child, Rachel--the one who lives in Portland.  

But she was born in 1968.  Why so long dragged from place to place?  To make necklaces for my installation in another century?  Truly cannot remember except that I still have this one--think it was pantyhose--copper wire and tube, vintage bead.  Have I found  the where and the how for walking forward in these dark days?  

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Ecovative: Mushroom Magic for the planet

Ian Frazier is writer whose work I've followed for some time.  Goes back to reading Family.  Admired his interweaving of his own family's long history with that of the U.S. Still living in Baltimore in 1994, I read it as we thought about moving back to New York.  What was our connection to place?   Of many thoughtful comments on Good Reads, I like this: 

"frazier's gifts as a writer shine in this climb through his family tree. deadpan, folksy, soulful, urbane...captures the complexities of his family's unique history within the context of our country's history. lots of real people and their small eccentricities. ON THE REZ is another great Frazier book.

"Bags in Trees," Frazier's 2004 New Yorker piece, toward the end of  my own intense engagement with kitchen composting advocacy in the Big City, made me sad we had not met.  And I was about to leave again.  We had so much in common.  His heroic effort to solve the plastic-bags-in-trees sin in all five New York boroughs was a crazed match with my own kitchen composting dreams of the late 20th/early 21-century. Like him, I'd had to let go of my mission: to convince high-rise apartment dwellers that sharing their personal space with red wiggler worms would delight.

And then...  In the May 20 issue of the New Yorker, Ian Frazier led me to my next chapter in my new romance with--mushrooms.  In "Form and Fungus," he asks a provocative question between the title and his name:

Can mushrooms help us get rid of Styrofoam?

Through a number of pages, he tells an amazing tale, true, on how two young students at R.P.I., a rigorous engineering college in upstate New York, took a design class, "Inventor's Studio" and made an important discovery. Turns out that the mycelium, vegtative structure fungi of mushrooms, when added to agricultural waste, processed with the application of heat will produce a substance similar to Styrofoam.

Big difference:  Ecovative, as the new product is called, will biodegrade within a month--in contrast with Styrofoam which stays forever.  In addition to the wonder of the invention, the entire story resonates with student-teacher interactions that will make anyone feel good about caring instructors, imaginative young people. And Frazier's signature topic:  family.

Next I watched Eben Bayer, co-inventor with Gavin McIntyre, describe how it's made on a 2010 TED Talk, "Are Mushrooms the new plastic?"  Was very excited, as I always am by environmental transformation.

Reader, I bought it--a boxful of Ecovative... Mushroom Material Sample 3-pack, and Surprise Sample Box, and Material Sample 3-pack.  Here is one piece, back and front, 5/8-inch thick, 10 1/8 x 8 1/8 inches.  Arrived at the end of May. I had no idea how I'd use it.  

2013 & what's to love?

It is as if I have bought into the worldwide, or at least nationwide malaise of the end of 2012, the start of 2013.  That's about how long it's been since my last appearance here. Do you look for reasons for how you feel--something in the air, something beyond your personal space? I do.

There's the personal/political that always envelops me.  There were so many things pleasureable in December 2012.  Introducing two granddaughters to the idea of giving to others as a way to mark the New Year.  We spent a December Saturday night looking at the possible animals that could go from Mercy Corps to help families in other parts of the world.

Elie was convinced she was getting her very own sheep.  That's a four year old.  Zoe, always the older, clarifying sister, explained otherwise.  Later the two of them visited our retirement community which surprised me with a screening of the original "Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs"  film.  Elie was only momentarily frightened by the Wicked Queen, and probably the menacing music.  Then enjoyed it along about 20 other children.

Family--I am very fortunate-- was a soothing distraction from Hurricane Sandy and the gun violence here in Portland and in Connecticut. Stunned by all that, it turned out that sulfa medication was part of the reason for my two-week lethargy.  I'm beginning to return to a more energetic feeling.  And school started again! 

 

Black Sheep Gathering with Zoe, day one

If...if...if only all my days could be something like the past weekend lost in fiber.  In Eugene, Oregon, of all places.  Nothing against Eugene, please, in the 1990s the publication site of "The Worm Digest."  On one of our visits to Portland before relocating, we made an unforgettable overnight stop when I was their east coast correspondent.  

Zorba was the intense and gracious Editor whose futon we slept on in his living room.   Ron has never forgotten this; we were only 60-something then.  Very granola place, still felt like the1960s.  So it's no surprise that the vibes are different--even from the perspective of Portland.

In 2008, we took our oldest grandchild, Zach, with us when he was six years old.  We discovered then that a child companion alters the experience.  Shepherds, sheep ranchers are eager to encourage children to touch the animals being prepared for showing.  Now his younger sister Zoe was six; it was time for an out-of-town overnight to "see the sheep."

Thursday afternoon we took her to get a haircut. She had one side braid her mother had made when we arrived.  Clueless grandma had no idea that "braids" at a salon would turn into a glam "French braid" production.  Cute but did not last through swimming practice.  They were gone by Saturday morning when we picked her up.

By late afternoon we were in Eugene and braidless Zoe met her first sheep up-close.  Joanie Livermore of Double J in Oregon City noticed that she did not need much encouragement to help clean the sheep's coat  for showing the next day.  Busy taking pictures, I missed out on touching the animal's skin under the curly white fleece and feeling, as Ron reported, its warmth.

How do the old folks engage with the Gathering?  Ron has a special fondness for Black Sheep as the place he bought his beautiful spinning wheel from Wallace van Eaton of Yakima, Washington. Already in his eighties back then, Wallace has not been a vendor for the past three years and we learned he still lives there though retired from hand crafting wheels.

Ron looks forward to buying roving at the event for his spinning.  It's a good place to have exchanges with other fiber enthusiasts about his knitting and weaving.  He always carries along some button hats and small woven tapestries.  Zoe was a willing model.  Several people will receive a hat for the winter in the mail.  No,  never sells them.

 

What will we say about the murder of Trayvon Martin?

Speech to the Young : Speech to the Progress-Toward

Say to them,
say to the down-keepers,
the sun-slappers,
the self-soilers,
the harmony-hushers,
"even if you are not ready for day
it cannot always be night."
You will be right.
For that is the hard home-run.

Live not for battles won.
Live not for the-end-of-the-song.
Live in the along. 

--Gwendolyn Brooks

(1917-2000)

“I want to write poems that will be non-compromising. I don’t want to stop a concern with words doing good jobs, which has always been a concern of mine, but I want to write poems that will be meaningful…”  Women's History Month Profile (link has Brooks' lively reading of her most noted poem, "We Real Cool."  You will wish others from that evening had been included.)

In 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American awarded a Pulitzer Prize.

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Spent the morning in a struggle with how to post about my sadness and bewilderment.   Watched this clip of Morning Joe on MSNBC.  Reverend. Al Sharpton speaks for all as he expresses determination to keep in the forefront of our consciousness this latest act of American racism. He leads a rally and march in Sanford, Florida, Thursday, March 22.

Knew what to do on seeing photo and poem of Langston Hughes at TGB.  Hat tip to Ronni Bennett. 

 

Chinese New Year greetings: John Fu & Warren Buffett

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This morning's email brought a dramatic, red, Chinese New Year greeting from John Fu in Copenhagen.  He was a college student when we met in Xian, China eleven years ago.  Determined to get his next degree in the English-speaking world (he was a proficient translator in 2000),  he got his MBA in Denmark where he now lives and works as a business consultant.  We had hilarious experiences with Chinese government officials he helped me to interview in Xian.  I wanted to know how they were dealing with garbage issues. Did they have a problem?  Mayo, as they say in Chinese.

As we sat in a cab on our way to Xian officialdom,  John asked what was in my backpack.  Unzipping the green bag, I pulled out the world's smallest kitchen composter and a red knit worm to explain my kitchen composting mission.  "Oh, so this is your religion," was his insightful reply.*

Dedicated capitalist that he is, John will surely be delighted to be headlined with Warren Buffett performing at a charity fund-raiser.  If you can read Mandarin, let me know how the translation works.  When I went to YouTube for the embed code, I found such ugly, racist comments!  Opened another window on why the U.S. is in deep stuff politically and socially.  Of course, you already knew everything about that from at weeks of the Republican side-show that dominates every TV news program. 

But I digress.  Busha Full of Grace raised my consciousness about the Year of the Dragon.  Currently this spunky, knitting Grandma is nanny to a Chinese family. To expand her knowledge of the celebration, her search led to the ten important facts she posted.   "No sitting in a bedroom" knocked me out;  Number 10, "Songbirds are Good," was more expected.

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*To honor my "religion," John Fu had a chop mark made  with "compost"  in Mandarin.    For "This Dirt Museum: The Ladies' Room," my 2001 installation, I  enlarged the image,  added the word in Spanish. It had a prominent spot in the show and still hangs in our apartment.  Shown here with a few of the 150 red worm interpretations I knit for the exhibition.  [You too can have a chop; order here.]

Though amused by the idea that my intense practice of transforming  kitchen green waste into a useful, earth-enhancing amendment might be considered highly spiritual, perhaps a "religion," John's response has grown on me.

When we moved to our retirement community, a woman in the mail room invited me to join the Green Team.  What a vintage designation my NYC self thought.  Not that at all I discovered.

 We now live in Portland, Oregon, sustainability-intense city where you never forget your reusable grocery bag.  [See latest "Portlandia" episode.]  Once again we kitchen compost.  I am very involved in encouraging neighbors to do likewise.  No longer do red wigglers in our living room transform the stuff, but the intention is the same.

 

Urban Gardening: minus land & muscle?

Back in the day when I was  East Coast correspondent for  "Worm Digest" and connecting with red wiggler worms in our New York City apartment, the number one question people would ask:

  What do you do with the compost?

Second most asked was by those with some knowledge of compost possibilites:

Do you have a balcony?  [for indoor plants in spring and summer]

Think about the mentality of New Yorkers--and many city dwellers--around Question One.  It's all about collecting stuff and getting rid of it rather than re-using it.  Environmental consciousness-raising needs to look at the questions asked.  Often these focus on why would a person do something that creates more work for him/her?   [photos: myself wearing knit red worm in NYC kitchen taling about kitchen composting & famous Wormware visiting the Grand Canyon]

Question Two (I had neither balcony nor houseplants) continues to have relevance for me in conversations with  folks in the sustainability world.  Portland, Oregon, my final home, is very big with the S word and its many applications. At the Saturday Farmers Market at Portland State, the big one, I volunteered for a few hours in connection with their observance of  National Food Day, officially Monday, October 24.

Carolyn White, PSU instructor for "Food Affairs,"  another Chiron class (student designed and led) I'm taking, was in charge.  The text for the course, "Menu for the Future," has been developed by NWEI (Northwest Earth Institute) in a way to encourage discussion. Articles by leading writers on food and its production are followed by questions:

Michael Pollan struggles with actually eating his Monsanto potatoes....Would you feel obligated to tell guests these were what they were being served?

Most essays are thoughtful and important. Missing for me is the urban piece:  that's where most live and when your only choice is a large supermarket, how do buy more organic foodstuffs.

Farmworker Housing Development Corp (FHDC) was the table next to ours.  I had a chance to talk with Jaime Arredondo about their work to improve the living conditions of migrant and seasonal workers in Oregon.  The need is enormous for affordable housing; 500 wait in the mid-Willamette region for affordable apartments they build and manage.

The inclusion of FHDC for this event impressed me since I've not seen a comparable group at Union Square Greenmarket in NYC though the efforts through food initiatives --making their produce more accessible to people on food stamps and beyond their numerous sites--have increased in the last few years. You can sign the petition HERE to ask Congress to "fix America's broken food system."  Fair conditions for food and farm workers is one the organizers goals.

Recent college grad (left) purchased "Menu for the Future" for her environmental work in Salem, Oregon, where she recently moved.  She is the umpteenth person I've met who finds the state capitol not too exciting.  Similar reports  on Desparately Seeking Salem  when first read  last year but that blogger seems to find more possibilities lately.  Maybe she can connect with this newcomer...not easy being green, as the saying goes.

Urban Farm Collective table with handmade sign and straightforward tee-shirt.  Patient woman there told me about senior housing in north Portland with its own community garden and tried to tell me there had to be a way for me to grow my own food.  People here not used to hardcore urbanites who are also challenged to bend much.  Make contact if you're ready to sign on for the 2012 season.

Ron arrived with our Zabar cart filled with veggies from Grow Portland, a group we met last year, admired their work developing small, city-owned plots for farming.  Supported at the start by the "seeding change for small businesses," of Northwest Mercy Corps they had funding to work with women and men from many countries--Bhutan was one--who had spent too many years waiting in refugee camps.  They also have expanded to help  small scale growers become part of CSAs (community-supported agriculture), are looking for more to add the coming year.

Being around all this on-the-ground sustainability, seeing how many young people are drawn to it, I enjoyed an energy boost.  I got this nifty button from the young women (where are the men...occupying portland?) at the table for  Food & Water Watch,  folks like Carolyn Wright, you and me, who think we must demand that Congress puts together a Fair Farm Bill.  Next session, people!

Support fair conditions for food and farm workersSupport fair conditions for food and farm workersSupport fair conditions for food and farm workersSupport fair conditions for food and farm workersSupport fair conditions for food and farm workersSupport fair conditions for food and farm workers

 

Making bread in public...will you join me?

Oh, I am way behind in writing about my new idea to repair the world (tikkun olam again). 

KNEADING TO KNOW brought together ideas from two classes this past term at PSU, "World Population and Food Supply" and "Street Art class plus my recent dive into Sourdough bread baking.  Being in the class gave me the push I needed. I'd been wondering whether it was too late in this life for another one.

This effort would be much more modest than This Dirt Museum and Knit One Red Worm, more doable by non-crafters that Knit a Condom Amulet.  KNEADING TO KNOW is for all who eat bread, could be encouraged to make their own.

In early April, each of these professors received a plain brown paper bag with a slice of sourdough bread inside.  That was the first step.  Only slightly public (photo of my slipping the bag onto Hunter Shobe's lectern in "World Population" class). With excellent synchronicity, Rosemary, who gave me the sourdough starter, is speaking to him.

Beginning with  the "Bread not Bombs" image as the  organizing idea and image,  Kneading to Know joined my earlier declarations to become Manifesto #3: [Double-click on  images to enlarge]

 

What occurred next speaks to art as community...stay tuned.

 

 

 

 

Not doing that again--sustainability in real old life

My neighbor B.P. (not to be confused with the infamous oil company) suggested at a community meeting that we needed to stretch our recycling efforts.  She demonstrated her suggestion by holding up plastic berry boxes that she stated could be washed and returned  to the store.  Audience exchanged dubious glances.  "You could also," she continued, "take them to the Farmers Market and put your raspberries in them."

I thought that was hilarious.  Then checked myself.  Wasn't it my idea back in 1998 that New Yorkers could kitchen compost with red wiggler worms?  Didn't I use similar little plastic boxes to create the "world's smallest kitchen composter."  Many laughed,  suggested it was undoable.  Challenged, especially now a resident of the most sustainably-conscious city in America, Portland, Oregon, I would try out her idea.

More than that, Saturday, June 17, 2010, would be my uber-effort on the container front.  In keeping with the local ethic and encouragement in stores, we've become more dutiful carriers of canvas bags.  Still find it a bit uncomfortable to simply drop the unwrapped aspirin bottle into my purse and not wonder if the "Thief!" electronics will sound as I leave the drugstore.  But the Farmers Market at PSU is the place to feel righteous about dispensing even with canvas:  I have seen people  do it.

You know how everyone is very polite in PDX?  That's how it was with the young man at the blueberry table.  Explained that I was just going to transfer the berries from the little green paper box to my plastic one.  "Think they will fit?" I anxiously asked Ron.  "Sure."  He's patient too.  Well, they fit but it's a trickier maneuver than I'd imagined; quickly gathered up wandering berries as the line behind me grew longer.

Lost a few berries, felt womanly righteousness.  Spent more time than usual in figuring out how to arrange food.  Took along a shoe box in the Zabar cart...yes, there is one plastic bag for the apricots/peaches.  Ran out of canvas...gets more complex around items that need to be held while selecting, then weighed on purchase.    

My message to B.P. is that the effort was informative for my future.   But  the berry-box-reuse notion is history in my house.  

Maybe B.P., a former elementary school teacher, and I (once one of those too) could do is design a class, "Transformative Sustainability," a/k/a  "Right-thinking Bagging Techniques for the  Older Person." Respectful, conscious of age-related limitations. 

Watch for an announcement in the Oregonian where a major grocer's  anti-plastic-bag  initiative hit today's front page. [Be sure to read the online comments following the story...are they what you'd expect?]

Compost Redux: Sustainability Notions in a CCRC

 Earlier this week, I had lunch with Marian M, chair of Terwilliger Plaza's Green Team.  I'd attended one of their monthly meetings and wanted to know more about their efforts to increase our CCRC's sustainability.  

[Aside:  "Sustainability," we have learned, is a major Portland buzzword.   This link to an EPA definition is a reminder that "Nearly 80 per cent of Americans live in urban environments..." Probably anyone in the U.S. reading this--city or suburb.]

Learned that the Green Team was formed by residents about three years ago.  Proper battery collection and the reduction of lighting in public rooms have been among their projects. Often recycle innovations involve more complexity and   planning than you would imagine. Disposal of old television sets during the 2009 digital changeover was one of these.  Most recent, and very impressive, is a grant Terwilliger has received to study the Green Roof idea as another possibilty.

 Shared with Marian about my own work "Composting in Manhattan" and her response was revelatory.  Seriously:  the GT has initiated an outdoor compost collector behind the building.  No red wigglers simply a straightforward arrangement.

Delighted with the chance, I disposed of the beet ribs (are these gorgeous beets) from a recent dinner.  Placed dried leaves over them, poked a bit.  Voila!  Composting in PDX, very satisfying.  Thanks to Marian and the GT, no more Bloom veggies/eggshells/coffee grounds down the chute.

Maybe more compost jewelry, knit red wiggler worms in the future.  My imagination travels to a chorus of Green Team composters...elegant Terwilliger residents of both sexes decorated with beads from beets as they make poetry and music about the satisfaction of latelife composting.

The future of Terwilliger sustainability looks promising.