no title yet, because ...

 It is always such a scramble in my mind, that list i started making of ideas for posts here, i am not even looking for it. anyway,  This morning I was pointed out again by life, how my husband is much more observant. It always makes me realize that is why I am big into meditation, wishing i had such life skills.

So what happened; Tuesday we got water from the creek, 5, 5 gallon blue jugs. In winter we put them inside ( it is still winter here) Yesterday i put on my boots which stand beside the water jugs and the laces were soaking wet. All i think ; oh snow much have been carried in on the bottom of the jug a melted. Which really seems unlikely, they were soaking wet these laces... This morning my husband is looking at the floor, we have black outdoor carpet in this indoor porch area, he says. Is the carpet wet? I right away being my usual self, of being annoyed by him always pointing out problems, that in my eyes are often not there. 

Some 3 gallons of water had leaked onto the floor!  I moped it up as good as i could and put newspapers down. We do not have forced heat, so it might take a bit of time to dry it out good. 

To me it does tie into something else i have been wanting to write about.  How hard it is to be your better self? I do have one example and like to share it here, not because i am so good, but more  that there is hope even for me.

What also came up today, my dental hygienist cancelled on me, and the next available slot is in June! Now i was just doing an experiment in looking after my teeth better. and where my hygienist recommends for my teeth to be cleaned every 4 months, i just happen to try out 8 months and  brushing better. those 8 months are now 10. scary stuff, on i brush 

This is my method; I brush only once a day ( i know), in the evening. I brush with those tablets , i brush with a bamboo brush . I brush into my gums, on a angle you know what i mean? I go over it all, All surfaces, 3 times at least. brush down a bit and extra in the gaps. I floss, regular floss at the moment, but i like the silk floss, it seems to take more stuff out (plaque and food remains) . I will reuse my floss for a few days, because i do not have gingivitis. If i found a lot of food that way i will brush again. Then!  only by asking the hygenist! i am using a syringe , to push water under my receded gums. I do not need an electric water pic. ( I asked her for an alternative, as i do not use much electricity) 

The government recently increased our dental coverage, that is all good i suppose, but i feel taking care of my teeth is first and foremost my own responsibility.

 How come i only had my wake up call at age 47? At 47 i started taking care of my own teeth very seriously, afer a wake-up call in the form of terribly receded gums. I never did the treatment but started caring for my teeth and with good results i have to say,  Now 25 years later, my gums have somewhat grow back, and i maybe had two or three cavities over the years. As i never brushed till age 13, my teeth are not poster perfect, but hey i am 63 now, and  i still have 25 teeth,  3 or 4 are crowns. Some teeth have not much left to them, but i can bite and chew very well.

After brushing i only have water and a chunk of fatty cheese, before sleep.

Maybe i brush again now, after lunch... 2 extra months... wish me luck, or better yet tell me what worked for you.

2 happy sequels

 On the trail just a while ago,  I happen to run into the neighbour and her dog. Or should i say the dog and my neighbour. We even walked together a bit. "Good doggie", amazing.

So all is well in the world. The 3 dogs I had problems with over the winter, all is resolved quite miraculously. And I would say, by just seeing one of the 3 dogs, the dogs  are probably happier for it too. It can 't be nice to be a growling,  barking, chasing cars kind of dog.

 How did it resolve you might ask. I kept pretty polite all through the ordeal, but  I was clear and out spoken, that the behavior of two of the 3 dogs was unacceptable. 

Our problems with the dogs had worsened when the owner of the neighbouring property had gone on a holiday.  Leaving his dogs home in the care of other people. When he came back after 3 weeks dog no 3 did not recognize him and  the dog did his spiel of running around his car (driving on the public road, approaching the property). My dear neighbour,  obviously, now saw the outrageousness of it. And even apologized. But problem solved; all dogs behave now in a more neighbourly fashion. One has an electric collar.

Maybe I even try to climb the hill behind the neighbours property again, I  haven't gone there  this winter, as i do not like to be chased and barked and growled at  by dogs.

meditation and love, wink wink, i try.

And the second sequel on the harvesting of cambium, i feel i found a happy way, not  feeling destructive. using branches and bringing home the top of a small tree from  far in the forest.

And listening to a talk, Bruce Bennett on  'the Galapagos of the North.' Our Boreal forest  here in the Yukon are expanding, at the cost of a type of grassland. So maybe i do something for the  endangered grassland species by eating a lot of Pine and Spruce.

sun sun sun and white snow, below zero  days again, but glory never the less.

trauma to the tree

  Harvesting Spruce Cambium/ Inner Bark.

Yesterday, after 3 days of above zero Celsius temperatures, i suspected the spruce sap to be flowing.

And it was, as i sliced of some bark, beautiful  bright green sap appeared, the colour exquisite, i had never seen it like that, because i used to do most my harvesting  in other seasons often after the tree had been blown down by a big wind.

But yes peeling the tree like that , on this beautiful day, felt very wrong.

In the photos i added, you will  also see last year's scar, it did not kill the tree, but a little scrape like that is not much of a harvest.

What to do, this tree is on my property, i am not breaking laws, but still i am the care taker here, the keeper of my wild place.  

For Fire Smart around the house, this tree eventually should be cut down for firewood.

I  do believe we could eat much more food straight from the wild.

 Buying in the grocery store does not feel painful, or growing vegetables in our garden even feels satisfying at the least.

But when  harvesting wild it does feel invasive.   Yet a tree probably did grow where your shopping came from originally  and  that tree was killed for you.

The dilemma that we all  have to eat.

Maybe if you live in a neighbourhood were they are planning to cut life trees for what ever reason, and you can't or do not want to stop the killing, maybe yes we could at least eat from those trees before they go.

This morning i chewed and eventually swallowed  some of the fresh inner bark. I like it.  It takes a bit of getting used to, like i have said before, it tastes like wood!

( i have written previously about the many uses of inner bark) 

And today i will try harvesting from branches. Way less invasive! yes?

letting go

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jozien/

Ha! I was able to delete 2 accounts so far. I am working on  the 3th, my flickr account. I just received a lovely email from their support team. I do have  to email something to prove that i am actually the owner of that account. 

So what i am saying, this deleting is a bit of work alright, but i am going steady.

I left you the link, because i think there are actually some nice photos on it, and it does pain me to delete the whole account, I   toss with the idea of leaving a handful of photos on it, just for my self for later. haha to me that is the big joke, somewhat of a sad one. Like my mom hanging on to her stuff, and now she gone,  it seems only one of her offspring did a take a real  interested in keeping her stuff. Yes many photobooks.

And yes my sister having gone to a family reunion last week, send me a lovely picture of  my grandparent, opa in a housecoat i still have, see one of my photos on my rose garden blog, i am swinging it by the river there in 2010.  I see now that i already deleted the picture she send me last week ( i am proud of myself, for getting the hang of it, this deleting) The photo she send me was my grandparents in their housecoats in  1961. Did  i write about this housecoat just recently, it is a heirloom i have from one of my grandmother's brothers who died in early adulthood.

Last month Tilly here, we exchanged more of this story and such stories of the past.

What i am trying to say, yes there is value in keeping some of our past, for our self and for future generations.

But how do we pick and choose? How do you pick and choose?

working hard

 I am  still working hard to delete delete delete.

I feel before i focus on the bigger problems of the world i should always first look at the things i still need to do for mother earth.

And is it bigger? Which one is smaller. Is it about size? or like, that I like to say; you are either totally content with something or not, a little friction felt is still negativity..

Recently  with a few friend we tackled the idea of  being invasive or even killing for the sake of science.

 What is the use of having a baseline when we have to cause harm  so we know it? or so popular these days to see the trend.

My view is that everything in nature is in need of protecting, NOW.  and not after we knew what we did.

Today i try my bit again by deleting.  eventually my blogs have to be under scrutiny too. argggh it is going to be painful, but i have lots other stuff before i get there. Today it is accounts that i no longer use and are only there for maybe sentimental value.

What do you today, that might save an ant somewhere?

Trees surrounding the chosen tree

 

Picea glauca  2 White Spruce, a young one and an older one

and

Populus tremloides 2 trembling aspen a very old one and a very young one

Tree following project

 

It is the poplar  on the right of the erratic in the first photo, and the one on the left of the erratic in the second photo.

It is a trembling aspen. Populus tremuloides.

It is an old one, despite it 's size. It used to have a partner, but that one died many years ago, and i took it away. I have been sitting on this boulder, an erratic, many times for 25 years. This poplar has always been part of  me sitting there, a trusted companion if you like.

This morning 9 am to be exact i waded through knee deep snow to get to it, a month from now crocuses could be blooming beside it.

For myself i will make another post of the surrounding trees later.

the common cold

To go or not to go?

Yesterday i had a young visitor who clearly had a bad cold. Having worked with children most my life, i was like; no i am not concerned about his germs. I shared an orange with him and with children it does not happen like with adults, there is snot, there are fingers, there is back and forths haha hopefully you get the picture. I always feel in impromptu meetings like this ( and i could name other situations) loving is more important then teaching habits.

So if i get this cold, but feel otherwise good, do i go to yoga?

Do i ask the others?

I am not concerned about others germs, but want to be cautious to share mine, even when i think that to protect you that way is not beneficial for you, i still believe exposure makes our immune system stronger.

visitor from far away

 My sister was here for a week.

And that was most wonderful, we are very close but live far apart, and we had not been together in person since 2019. She had not been here for 9 years,. You might know how such years in between just melt away the instant you hug each other.

 I  do not know how it is going to be grandma of a far away grandchild. Yes!  I am hoping to become a grandma in July! My son and his girlfriend live in Pemberton BC a 2500 km  from here.

I as a young adult moved away from my family in  Holland and my son never came back for good after college. In the pandemic i felt strongly, that people should consider when moving far away from loved ones. Like do not come crying when it suddenly turns out the distance is too great to overcome.

But also i always felt, that not much is needed to keep a loving relationship/ a strong bond. Back in the days i did keep in close contact with family, which for me back then meant letter writing, probably a few letters a week to various people on airmail  thin rice paper, those blue sheets that also served as the envelope. I think i phoned once a month with my parents.

I never was one for missing people much, no hard feelings sis, i am happy when you are here, but  I do not miss you.

My son a bit maybe, the upcoming grand child, we will have to see, how much i long to be close. I already experienced emotion of joy that i did not know i had in me, just for the fact that they are pregnant.

All that to say  i do not want to travel too much too far. I think we could help Mother Nature a lot by staying closer to home; walk over to the neighbours, to have physical contacts.   

So yes the discussion i had with my sister. She feels because she flies IPB she does not affect the environment in a negative way, because that seat would be empty. (she works for an airline and flies for cheap taking a stand-by seat) I disagree with her.

To me to fly is an assault on the environment. Any airplane spews a lot of CO2 in the air. Airports take up space, which used to be  maybe beautiful meadows.  And on and on.  And to be in the airplane to me you are equally responsible no matter what seat you take/ what price you pay. I took her to the airport and we bought coffee in a paper cup, she a frequent flyer; Tilly where was your travel mug!?

One more note, due to the stand-by reality she spend 35 hours extra travelling. I should have let her walk to and from the airport, that would have taken a very fit person 35 hours.