Tansy Ragwort is considered to be an invasive in these parts but was used widely in folk medicine in Europe, from which it was introduced.

The leaves were steeped and gargled for mouth sores or sore throat. Tea was formerly used as a treatment for sciatica and gout.

These are more of these precious little Tiger Lilies that have recently begun popping up everywhere. They are all just an inch or so wide.

“Any perplexity is liable to be a spiritual gestation.”

Thomas Merton.

I took this picture on my phone camera yesterday on the way from Salem to Sublimity. This reminds me of the golden rolling hills of La Honda, California, the "Home " in my Heart. This picture looks like a painting to me and perhaps someday I will try to replicate it.

My Mom went in today for her first 5 hour Chemotherapy treatment. The Dr.s tell her that her hair will be gone by August 19th. Her 69th Birthday is on August 23rd. May she live to be 70 and even longer. I wish for her the peace that comes to me when I look at landscapes like the one above.

A daily TV/radio news program, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, airing on over 800 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the U.S.

Check out today's Democracy Now http://www.democracynow.org/

A daily TV/radio news program, hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, airing on over 800 stations, pioneering the largest community media collaboration in the U.S.
Amy Goodman will be in my hometown of Columbus, Ohio in a few days;

July 31 ,2010

12:40pm

WHERE:Hyatt on Capitol Square, 75 East State Street, Columbus, OH
Catch her if you can!

Fusion Mosaic Spirituality Collage

Annie B. Siemer

This is an excerpt from Rob Brezny's book

Pronoia is the Antidote for Paranoia:
BE YOUR OWN SAVIOR
Some Christians believe Jesus will come back to fix this corrupt world.Certain Jewish sects propose that the messiah will soon appear on Earth for the first time. Among Muslims, many predict the legendary Twelfth Imam will return and bring salvation to humanity.
In India, devotees of Vishnu expect the avatar Kalki to arrive on the scene and carry out a series of miraculous redemptions. Even Buddhists prophesy Maitreya, the chosen one who will establish universal peace.
My divinations foretell a very different scenario. I suspect that the wholepoint of our spectacularly confounding moment in history is that each of us must become our own savior. And if we hope to accomplish that,relying on our best amateur efforts, we will have to stop waiting around for a supposed professional to do our work for us.
Franz Kafka had a view that's not necessarily mutually exclusive with mine:
"The messiah will come when we don't need him anymore."
Let's also consider the evidence offered by William Blake, as quoted in*Poets and God* by David L. Edwards: "Jesus Christ is the only God. And so am I. And so are you."
One more clue, this time from Deepak Chopra: "Every person is a God in embryo. Its only desire is to be born."

Clouds,Full Moon and Trees this morning outside my cabin...

Campfire Bliss

My Summer Cabin that I am more and more attached to.It will be hard to leave, but I would love to rebuild it somewhere else!

Trees at Silver Falls

Sunset view from my cabin last night



Old tree on road to Silverton

Barns along the road to Silverton

Wheat Field on the way to Silverton

Old Barn across fron the Purple Stripe field

Coming up on the Purple Stripe on the way back from Silverton last night

Turns out to be California Poppies and still unknown purple flower

being grown for seed...

Old Fireplace Grill

Doe outside my office window this morning

Meadow at Silver Falls S.P. in the morning

Bridge in the Park

One of the many Myrtlewood Tables carved from two massive logs during the CCC era.

Myrtlewood is also known as California Bay Laurel .

Inside the historic South Falls Lodge

built by the CCC in 1941

Another picture of the CCC Combination Building at SFSP

Part of the remnants of when the ocean was here millions of years ago.

This is in a CCC built fireplace.

Looking out my office window towards the courtyard

If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought.

Peace Pilgrim

Over South Falls dropoff

Trees downstream of South Falls

Looking towards South Falls from above

Leaves on South Fork of Silver Creek

Bridge above South Falls

Norton Buffalo

September 28, 1951-October 30, 2009

I had no idea that Norton Buffalo had died last fall. He is my all time favorite Harmonica player . I was lucky to have seen him at The Strawberry Bluegrass Festival in Camp Mather, California in the Fall of 1991. I will never forget him leaving the stage and walking through the audience playing his magic to us all. Viva Norton Buffalo!

Wow, yet another amazing Libra musician. Go figure.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy;

they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

Marcel Proust

For as long as I can remember, anytime that I have lived (or visited) near a river, on the shores of Lake Erie or on the Pacific Ocean, I have enjoyed the meditative art of stacking and balancing rocks. I had seen them as Cairns in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, in the middle of the desert near Zion in Utah and on the banks of the Middle Fork of the Little River in the Great Smoky Mountains. A few months ago I read (somewhere) that stacks of rocks have been used for aeons to honor the dead and/ or mark a path or trail of a journey.

A few days ago I found these chunks of basalt in one of the maintenance yards here.

Basalt is a wonderful medium (of a rock ) to balance. Above are a few of my little towers.

The Copleys of Morocco!

I know some of their cousins in Ohio!

These cool cave houses were on a thing via Yahoo called The Daily Green Blog. I could definitely live in a cave too!

A window of green between some Foxglove flowers

Rocks in my Southeast window...






Tree Island in my church meadow...



An old picture of my cabin style in the CCC era...

Front door window

My shingles (new , that I Love looking at) in the morning light

Windows may be the theme for this past few days for me. Windows that I see through now, windows into my near future. I also think of Wendell Berry's The Window Poems, that I love to read. It's a small volume, find it, you'll like them too probably.
Here's Number 9 from that book:

9.

There is a sort of vertical geography that portions his life.

Outside, the chickadees and titmice

scrounge his sunflower seed.

The cardinals feed like fires on mats of drift lying

on the currents 0f the swollen river.

The air is a bridge and they are free.

He imagines a necessary joy in things that must fly to eat.

He is set apart by the black grid of the window and, below it,

the table of the contents of his mind:notes and remnants,

uncompleted work,unanswered mail,unread books-the subjects of conscience,

his yoke-fellow,

whose whispered accounting has stopped one ear,

leaving him half deaf to the world.

Some pads of paper,eleven pencils,a leaky pen,a jar of ink are his powers. He’ll never fly.

Wendell Berry