Last Minute Plantings July 14, 2008

So that little jungle of seedlings I wrote about earlier are nagging to get into the ground before I leave and they are a top priority, along with some cuttings I started a few weeks ago. My irrigation methods are quite primitive which I like because I get to hang out with my plants and monitor their progress, HOWEVER when you leave it is all in jeopardy. My husband is good with the watering, but he will need help and the boys are not very helpful when it comes to that.

They turn the nozzle to jet which is traumatic for the plants, but fun for them. I let them start a little 3 sisters plot (Corn, Beans, and Squash), and we spent so much time getting it ready, from sifting out compost, double digging, beautifully spacing and organizing the seeds….The first time I watered it in and turned over the hose, for them to keep up. Well, when the beans, corn, and squash popped up all in the same spot I was a bit baffled.

Being the detective that I am I noticed an irregular amount of mud splats on the wall behind the plot. I said nothing but waited and spied the next time they watered. The jet stream had dislodged the germinating seeds and  because of the huge puddle it formed they all floated into the same spot and replanted. I let it go…hey, it’s their plot, they can do what they want. I was tempted to fix it but they need to understand that life requires patience, you rush it and it just won’t turn out the way you want it.

I guess I do need to get other types of irrigation to be fair, water wise, and more effective. Leaky pipes will probably do the trick but I enjoy hand watering, I can see whats going on.

So  anyway the little seedlings had been moved out recently to harden off and adapt to the great outdoors, and much to my delight the tray is swarming  with bees. I was really happy about that. There is plenty of lavender, sage, salvia, and such already established but there is like a bee for every flower. There must be a hive nearby. Hopefully at a friendly home or at mine.

There is a passage in a book that I like but don’t remember, when the author describes honey oozing out of someone’s walls and the room smelling sickening sweet and practically vibrating from the buzzzzzz. To me it is a comforting image.

just buzzy looking for distractions…

dan de lioness

P.S. Any book suggestions for a flight that lasts 23 hours??? (fiction)

African Implosion July 9, 2008

The day of my departure is getting closer. I am so excited that I can’t allow myself to imagine what it will be like in Africa anymore, for fear that I might implode. I just fill my day with tasks, books, and gardening, alot of busy work. The reality of returning to the land where my ancestors were sold or stolen into slavery is monumental for me. Although my intentional effort is for the benefit of others, it is a very personal and emotional journey for me. I have always dreamed of the first time my eyes see Africa, wondering if I will blink for fear of missing something, and first time I fill my lungs with African air, and the first time my feet touch African soil, and it brings tears to my eyes. I feel honored to be the one from my family to return, it’s like I’ve been given a mission to restore what was lost in my family.

In a very real way this place has called me back home, and I am running back into its arms and embracing the good and trying to help improve the bad. Realizing that that I have for all these years personified the continent is wild. I never realized it before. In the African American community we call it things like ‘Motherland’ or ‘Mama Africa’, but the reality is that it is an actual place and not the Black version of Camelot. I hope more of us make an effort to touch down and experience it.

indescribable,

dandelioness

The Bees and the Balance June 23, 2008

This weekend during a heat wave that rendered me completely useless, I stumbled upon an episode of Nature Silence of the Bees (KCET) about Colony Collapse Disorder and it’s suspected causes. Recently a few of the kids in my neighborhood threw rocks at a hive and I was pretty mad, trying to explain and educate these kids made me look like ‘that mom’ and probably once again embarrassed my kids….so of course I made them watch the program too… along with one other captive. A few parts were pretty heavy but they got the message loud and clear. My kids understand to a certain extent, I have several plants whose flowers did not get pollinated and they have no fruit, but nothing beats perspective.

There was a segment in which they showed a village in China whose overuse of unregulated pesticides killed all of their bee population…the bees have not come back. They still grow pears but they pollinate by hand using chicken feathers and dried pollen that they hand collect. Complete terrifying insanity!!! You can’t send a man to do a bee’s job. They are the link to food variety and flowering plant life which is the majority of the things we should eat, fruits and nuts. Grains are wind pollinated for the most part but talk about a drab carb diet.

Its not just the bees. They are not the first warning that we need to change our food system. One of the theory’s mentioned as a possible cause was mono-cropping. The idea was that the bees were being malnourished by only feeding on one type of flower. Imagine if we only ate potatoes, everyday, all day, for a month. We would be pretty weak and sick, it doesn’t take long to become malnourished. So just another possible theory. There are many more. Check out the program if you get a chance the full episode is available at :

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/by-title/introduction-2/38/

“Life hangs delicately in the balance” ~ 70’s era nature show narrator cliché

I like it because it is so true and can be applied to every aspect of our existence on this earth. Balance in the garden is natural and right.

seek balance :: find happiness

dandelioness

Yellow Fever, menengitis, and typhoid, oh my! or Shot Damn! June 18, 2008

I have spent the better part of this week combing the CDC website (thanks Joseph) to see what vaccinations to get and it is really pretty scary… I don’t like needles, and I don’t like to be sick, and this time I just really can’t afford to be sick. So I will clench my teeth , practice my Lamaze breathing, and try to be a big girl.

I have been reassured by some of the other ‘lifers’ that I know living there that unless I am just totally reckless in food choice, drinking water sources, and behavior, I probably wont get sick even without the vaccs’. The Girl Scout in me insists that I’d better be prepared. So, shots it is.

Another thing that I need to do for the sake of disease avoidance is sew up my sleep sheet. Basically two twin flat sheets that are sewn to resemble a thin sleeping bag. A nifty little contraption that I used at hostels in Europe. No matter where you sleep, 5 star or 0 star, it is nice to have a barrier between you and borrowed linen.

I might even treat the fabric with the mosquito spray stuff used for netting, another thing I might take. I seem to send dinner invitations to mosquitoes, and they always RSVP. There aren’t any in Addis so there I’m cool, but anywhere else if there is a mosquito, she will probably bite me, and I hate getting shots.

denah hun!

dandelioness