plastic

 I try not to bring any new plastic in the house.

My grandma Sientje, one thing i remember is that she washed all her plastic baggies and hung them out to dry outside the kitchen door, this was 1970-ish. A thing that was not done then. But ha! somehow i probably always was the reuser. And going through an era of recycling, which i fully embraced, but was always odd for me, i kept reusing what i could. 

I do think many of us have now re-entered the concept of reusing, which includes making things out of things that otherwise end up in the dump.

So yesterday when a friend posted something about single use plastic, the post looked like such plastic was a good thing, but as it turned out she only meant that buying a brand new grocery bag might not be the better solution. To which i can  fully agree .

If people buy a new bags every few years, probably nothing is gained.

So i wonder how long do you use your grocery bags?

I suppose my oldest bag is at least  20 years old,  I made it from second hand fabric (double for sturdiness). So  in essence  it is older still.

I can honestly say i never bought a  grocery bag, and always had lots, things come to me:) but i have to say my husband got a bunch of woven plastic ones  for free with the opening of a grocery store. So i call that cheating. But hey what does end up in my house, gets used as long as it lasts.

dangerously cold weather

 I wish everybody a warm safe home.

 But am wondering what your approach is to it all. Do you go out no matter what, knowing you are safe no matter what. Relying on your own resources, or putting your safety in other hands. I am sure there is a bit of both always. But for me no i did not  rely on roads and all to be safe. and stayed away from travel in a vehicle, till yesterday when it warmed up considerably and not much snow here.

Also for the house it self, it baffles me that  even people in the Yukon here  there are  people  that have no back up plan for heat when there is a power outage. And i am not talking about marginal people, I am talking about people with secure incomes.

I am very blessed to live in the country were there is a lot  of safety provided by the government. But let's not forget that that always can only go so far. And  shouldn't we always have some sense of self reliability were we can.

We did have a most lovely X-mas celebration yesterday, it felt odd to do it after Christmas, but as soon as we all arrived we were totally in the groove.

Thankful for good friends.

Happy Solstice to you All

 A super special one this year,  as we came through the longest night of the year with a whooping 7 degrees Celsius warmer then the night before. It was a dark one though, as there was no moon.

 Back to light!

minus 47 Celsius

 Right now  at sunrise, it is the lowest temperature this week at my house. Away from the house that is.

So we did go for our first walk already. This temperature makes for busy days. The power was out a few days ago, that slows it down a bit,  because there is much less one can do without power. I do love it.

 So let me describe a bit, our lovely bright sunny days in the deep freeze.

I wake up all snug as bug in my bed, and my first joy, as always when i realize i am alive right here and now.  I learned that from Pema Chodron, to give myself a compliment that i am aware of the moment here and now, and that always makes for a smile on my face, when i do remember.

Don (husband) has been stoking the wood stove all night (i think he gets up twice) very grateful i am.

 I meditate  the first half hour.

I did not do my exercise this morning as i am too eager to get up, to see the thermometer. -45C

when we are having power (electricity)

We listen to the radio , Buckshot Betty came on this morning, i think she had -57 C at her house in Beaver Creek YT. Local  temperatures always seem lower then the ones recorded. 

Yesterday we believed the weather man, he always says something like the cold will only be short lived, we kind of doubt him, because we have lived here a while.... he was wrong :) sorry.

I make coffee,  I could use the woodstove, but my cooking stove is propane without an electric starter. A few days ago we wrapped up the propane bottle in a few sleeping bags.

I let the water run hot ( collecting the water always we haul our own so waste none) so the pipes warm up.

Before the cold snap we hauled both drinking water and water for the holding tank system. When it did get cold, i made sure all the pipes were exposed, not hidden behind cupboards and all. as they will draw in the cold. through well insulated walls.

Don keeps hauling in wood. stoking the fire.

I use the outhouse in the morning , a ritual, as we do have  plumbing, but i like the adventure of it, many glories always. But these days i do dress for it, a minimum of two layers.

I make breakfast.

I check my email and all, i have been busy with inaturalist lately, it seems with the cold everybody is reviewing stuff.

 i make a phone call.

 And finally we get dressed for our morning walk, hurray!

In the house i wear pants , long johns, a wool undershirt a t-shirt, a top and a sweater, wool socks.

For outside i added today two pairs of snow pants, haha i like to be warm, a  big down coat, a double layered toque, a scarve, gloves, liners and bison mitts.

ok it is lunch time, thanks for reading this far,  but i gotta go now  make lunch.

protected land

 I have said before that i do have radio rage. Not so much rage really but exasperation for sure. 

On the Yukon news these days, it says 25 % of the Yukon will be protected, going as far as 30 %. Which to me is kind of a joke. I calculated recently that very roughly 90% of the Yukon is still wild. ( to me that means if we protect 30% we can still trash the remaining 30?) It is an  honorable  idea of course to protect, in a certain way. But to me  it is not.

I living 70 km from a store, have  an incredible amount of highway just build for me, i am not proud of that.  I am sharing it with others but i would love to see a calculation how many meters per person that uses that road. I do even live  kind of at the end of the road in my neighbourhood, which means  that truly the government maintains  half a kilometer just for me and my husband, so we can walk by the neighbour's dog i suppose.

And yes i do not believe tourism is the answer, to me that is super stupid. So now we have parks  so rich people from the other side of the globe can  come to us and enjoy our protected land? you do know , these tourist they are not walking over, you know what i am saying. And also with all our protected land, all our excess must come from very far, being flown or trucked in. 

But all is well intended and the answer comes in many forms, and this might be one of them

To me one answer lays in self-sufficiency. For Christmas gifts i am making handkerchiefs from a cotton blouse, that nobody was planning to wear. And  i bought stuff at The Yukon Refillery, it is a surprise. But things to eliminate the use of plastic, some of it Yukon made.

And for  a christmas supper we are going to, i will bring a wild pie, made of  90%  gathered ingredients.

That is the little bit  i can do, and i am always trying for more. More JOY i call it.

 And if i was the president, haha, i know... lets not go there, but if you ask, i will tell you .

more dogs

 It seems that even people with dogs  on occasion have problems with the neighbour's dogs. The problem is always the neighbour's dog.  Oh dear, in me talking to people  telling my story, their own dogs are ALWAYS good dogs . And i somewhat agree!  the majority of them do have good dogs.   

It is a dog world out here.

Is it really? i ask my self, feeling spoiled now,  today i did not walk past the neighbour, it is a choice i have. 

Also all my walks, are 99% nature. ( no cars, no people, no noises other then the birds) Really how spoiled can one be?

 But i will give you an update  on my comings and goings on previous days, passing the dog, because i say i have a choice, but there is only one road, and that road goes past the neighbour, so most days  i do go by.

 I practiced meditation.  On friday, walking by, meditating on a awareness; no dog, but my mind! i realized there is a bit of wanting the dog to be there, so i can say, "ah bad dog, see i was right." I will work with those thoughts.

On saturday, i drove by,  practiced awareness again: now i felt disappointment that there was a dog, not the mean one though, but his buddy, yeah he has a buddy, this buddy imitates the bad dog. This dog is not so intimidating BUT he jumps out like a rocket, and chases cars. I beeb the horn loudly.

This morning sunday, we did hear the dog, barking his head off for other reasons then me walking by,  because we weren't walking by, we were not going that way anyway. Our neighbours are far enough away that we do not hear the dog bark when we are inside the house, well at night i do, but it is so distant. it does not bother me.

For a week i will practice meditation....

we'll see, i will let you know.

Hey and we all know, right? That pets in general add to our global footprint big time, dogs bigger then hamsters i suppose.

Why do people need dogs anyway!? is part of my attitude, i realize that, so this is a rhetorical question.

another not so good moment

 First, just now, i found two wonderful blogs. And they actually let me comment something and easy enough to add them to my reading list. All this not always so easy somehow.

What i do want to write about here, something i find truely  difficult. Something quite different and more real maybe?

A few days ago i watched the movie Sand Storm, a movie about women not being respected. It is too easy to give solutions; to say  for example, our government has to do more, or  we have to educate these men  teach them to  see women as their equals. Probably a solution has to come from every angle, little steps at the time.

I tried to think of what is difficult in my life, and were a solution seems easy, but is not.  I could not think of anything, other then that a solution always starts with me.

So last night i was presented with a problem. And slept a fitful night.

Blessed! I always have to say, blessed to have such problem, because it means i am able bodied and capable, free to do walk in the dark etc many blessing in order to have such problem.

It is about the neighbour's dog. 

The dog is getting more and more agressive.  The dog is not always charging out when I walk by, but last night it did again, and verociously so. 

I have talked to my neighbour, the owner of the dog, before. Is it time for a more definitieve talk i wonder? I do not want to do that, because i do not want to spoil our good neighbourly ways.

Is there still something i can do? many people have given all sort of advice; no, i do not want to use bear spray on the dog. A loud whistle did not help ( it aggravated the dog more, maybe i did not have the right whistle?)  Another suggestion, befriend the dog. No, i do not want to be friends with the dog (he would come to me more frequent and wanting to be with me)..... ah! maybe that is the answer after all.

 I will let the neighbour know,  that i will bring dog bisicuits and if it turns out, that the dog is now following me, i fear, even coming to my home, that is a consequence the neighbour will have to deal with. I feel a sliver of hope again. Last night i was thinking, is my neighbourhood ruled by this dog ( read, dog owner) and is it weird that i walk  (or bike) and am i forced to drive when going past the neighbour.

I have to say my neighbourhood is a dog lovers neighbourhood, but most people do take care of their dogs admirably. Is it the one bad apple i am dealing with here? 

Lived here 25 plus years, first time event.

I think of these women, the comparison..... I don't know

perfectly bored

I woke up feeling strange this morning. and still do, kind of. Physically i have one cold foot, and sit here with a hot water bottle, which always feels perfectly lovely. It is one of those rubber bladders and i fill it with hot water from the wood stove. 

It is my brother's birthday today, i phoned him already. It is still dark out, so we won't go for a walk just yet, yesterday we actually did leave around this time, we were both eager to go, each for our own reason.  This morning not so eager, we  did also already played a game of cards. Our christmas holiday jig-saw,  is already completed.

It is boredom, i feel boredom. I used to feel boredom quite a bit, even when i had tons to do. For me boredom is more a state of mind, where i just do not feel like doing anything, not dependent on busy lives.

I do find that since I meditate daily, i hardly have that kind of boredom.   

So yes i did not have a good medittion this morning, but i do not think that is it, it is deeper then that.

What i can say; yesterday i did go out with a friend.  And compared to her my life is super relaxed. I think compared to most my life is super relaxed, and i do love that, but being out with her, seeing how she has all those connections....yes, not so much that she always has a lot to do. But she has lots of connections/ friends. I envy that.

I am very grateful for having a few very good friends. But when i feel like this, it does not help if you say; "oh you might not have many friends, but they are all very good friends." bs, I am sure hers and other people's friendships run as deep as mine, possibly deeper.

It is like when  i was told as a child, "everyone has a talent jozientje, you too." That is so much bs. Yes sure i have talents, can't think of any right now,  but sure. I personally believe that talents are very  unevenly distributed.

Which, i love this writing (or for that matter meditating or talking to a close friend) because it brings me around. Yes it brings me too the feeling; i will always choose the life i have. I love the life i have.

I have lived this truth for ever, I am sure i have written about it before, We all live exactly the life we want best, we would never trade it with the person we occasionally envy. OMG  never!

Right?  or would you say;  I would  honestly love to trade with so and so? let me know!

Time for our walk!  Hoping to meet some of my good friends; the fox, the deer, the elk, the grey jays, the ravens , the chickadees and who knows.

Balance

 A few years ago i realized that i found it difficult to stand on one leg. Since, i have, off and on, worked on my balance; by strengthening my ankles, and practicing standing on one leg at the time.

The last 10 days i have actually kept record of it, because somone, with good intentions, pointed at  vitamin B 12. Now i do not take any vitamins, am against it for my self. I am of the believe that everything i need is availble through my way of life.

You might know, which foods have B12, i never quite know such things. Anyway it turned out, these are the foods, i am not wanting to eat too much of. For example, i maybe eat a little bit  of seafood once a month, I feel our waterways are over fished as it is,  etc etc.

Where am i going with this?  First, the balance thing. I laugh when a yoga or fitness kind of teacher tries to explain how to balance better; plant your feet this way or that. For me (teachers out there!) it only works for me when i pay the least attention to what i am doing and actually focus my attention outward (often that point, of attention outward, is mentioned).

 So to really see if my vit. B12 has an effect, already becomes complicated. 

So for the record,  the last ten days i recorded: B12 intake, Are my feet tingling in the morning, How is my balance, Energy level and How long do i sleep. When i started i had been eating red meat ( B12), then i wound it down for 5 days to a minimum, (i  do take milk in my coffee) Now i am back to the red meat ( still i have to say, little bit of meat, say,  less then half a cup per day)

Anyway i am super stable these days, quite balanced.  So as it turned out in these 10 particulair days super stable too. No fluctuation according to my intake of vit B12. I sleep 9 to 10 hours every night, feel good energy all day, my toes  do tingle  everyday when i first get up. Only my balance is improving a bit,even after the 5 days of hardly any B 12 intake that i know of. I feel the improvement is  because i can do the not paying attention better.

I am sure something would show up if i continue this experiment for a long period.

Where i really wanted to go with this, We cannot know it all.   I do not expect it from myself and try not to expect it from others. If you find an error on my blog (logic, or facts, etc.), i am sorry, do point it out, if you wish. 

As i study Botany daily. I had an aha moment yesterday.  As i am studying Asters at the moment, meaning; i read what the experts have to say about which is which Aster. Something like that, i can't even explain properly what or why i am studying.  Let's not go there. 

Anyway the aha moment.   The experts doing all sort of good work, but they too just try to figure it out, the best as they can with the knowledge they have. Like I am sure all flowers in the Aster family have something in common in their DNA , for the same reason  that i can sometimes recognize a flower in the Aster family when i see one. but after that it  all  gets rather complicated. And how i see it now, for us amateurs to know the name of a flower ( and maybe for the experts too) they have to make a decision somewhere as in where to put that flower, like  in which species.

And so we do argue :)

But we will!: (come together eventually)

Symphyotrichum; all our hairy heads coming  together  ( in Greek)

Symphyotrichum is the  kind of Aster i am studiing at the moment, and if you are still interested, wikipedia describes my aha moment quite well.

Brouillet, et al. wrote:

Taxonomy of Symphyotrichum is difficult. Species are usually heterophyllous, some strongly so. Individuals in the spring, with basal rosettes, often have leaf shapes quite different from those with cauline leaves seen later in the season. Phyllary shape on first- and later-formed heads may differ. Individuals may vary considerably in plant size and array development depending upon growing conditions. The genetic diversity within each species also appears considerable.^[2]

For all species in the genus, the ray florets are white, pink, blue, or purple. Disc florets are yellow to white, becoming pinkish, reddish purple, or brown when mature. There are 5 lobes on the disc florets of all species in the genus.^[2]

Taxonomy[edit]

German botanist Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck established this genus in 1833 because he thought that a plant he examined, now believed to be a cultivated variety of New York aster (Symphyotrichum novi-belgii), which he called Symphyotrichum unctuosum, was sufficiently distinct from the rest of the genus Aster to warrant its own genus. Nees emphasized the uniqueness of this plant in having its pappus hairs arranged in a coherent, basal ring.^[4] This structure is the basis for the scientific name of this genus, which derives from Ancient Greek σύμφυσις (sýmphysis) "growing together" and θρίξ (thríks; stem τριχ- trich-) "hair". However, this characteristic ring is not generally shared by most New York aster pappi, nor is it characteristic of any other plants included in the modern concept of Symphyotrichum. Regardless, according to the rules of the International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (ICN), the timing of the genus' establishment gives it precedence over other names. The genus was resurrected in 1994 by American botanist Guy L. Nesom to group together species formerly included in the genus Aster in order to make modern genera monophyletic.^[5]