Mom sends me a video of the Lagoon filling with tsunami water, making full high/low tide cycles in minutes.
Áine and I are detoxifying our bodies -- eating clay, seed husks. Flushing it out.
In Japan they are poisoned again by what was wrought in Los Alamos.
"California has 2 nuclear power plants near fault lines, 1 in tsunami zone" - lucasgwolf
"Concentrations of Los Alamos National Laboratory legacy contaminants in the Rio Grande are almost always below safe drinking water regulated levels." - Buckman Diversion Project
This is how bodies of water and of earth connect us. The uranium is in the rocks and springs, the seawater tastes of fuel rods.
I cannot articulate this. I only know how in the afternoon the Pacific shimmers, a thick band of silver stretching into Japan's morning.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Friday, October 29, 2010
big choices
What's harder than deciding on your Halloween costume? VOTING. Oy oy oy, there's a lot of propositions on this CA ballot. Mr. Wolf saves the day again by pointing me* to theballot.org, where you can find progressive voter guides created by everybody from "" to the Sierra Club. If anybody knows of — or has created — sites with solid info about elections near or far, feel free to leave them in the comments.
Good luck with you civic duty.
- P
* I was procrastinating researching how to vote, when I came across L's recommendation on the ol' Facebook. Ironies of modern technology and social media.
Good luck with you civic duty.
- P
* I was procrastinating researching how to vote, when I came across L's recommendation on the ol' Facebook. Ironies of modern technology and social media.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
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Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Dear Mom,
Well, it's autumn here. Apparently it started in mid-September, but I couldn't tell because it has been an abnormally mild one. Who knew 80-degree days were harbingers of winter?
Yesterday I went into the mountains and for the first time saw the Aspens changing colors. Their little quivering leaves turn a hard yellow; behind them the sky becomes so blue your eye gets lost in it. I'm new to this Fall thing. I thought of Connecticut this time of year, of standing on a ridge and the forest below seething with color, of the crisp air just like the breeze blowing now in Santa Fe. But the aspens have a quality more eerie than anything in New England, something almost alien. I think it's in contrast of the flickering leaves attached to sturdy, white-and-black trunks. Strange movements or currents. Aspens forest are connected underground, making them the largest organisms in the world.
On the path up there, I was also truly cold for the first time in New Mexico. So, this is a roundabout way of saying that I would really appreciate it if you could ship some of my warm clothes. I packed them in the box of things I would need if I stayed here longer. Since I can't exactly recall what's in there, maybe we could talk soon and pick a few things out.
with love,
Paolo
Well, it's autumn here. Apparently it started in mid-September, but I couldn't tell because it has been an abnormally mild one. Who knew 80-degree days were harbingers of winter?
Yesterday I went into the mountains and for the first time saw the Aspens changing colors. Their little quivering leaves turn a hard yellow; behind them the sky becomes so blue your eye gets lost in it. I'm new to this Fall thing. I thought of Connecticut this time of year, of standing on a ridge and the forest below seething with color, of the crisp air just like the breeze blowing now in Santa Fe. But the aspens have a quality more eerie than anything in New England, something almost alien. I think it's in contrast of the flickering leaves attached to sturdy, white-and-black trunks. Strange movements or currents. Aspens forest are connected underground, making them the largest organisms in the world.
On the path up there, I was also truly cold for the first time in New Mexico. So, this is a roundabout way of saying that I would really appreciate it if you could ship some of my warm clothes. I packed them in the box of things I would need if I stayed here longer. Since I can't exactly recall what's in there, maybe we could talk soon and pick a few things out.
with love,
Paolo
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
that morning chill
During this morning's chores, I had to wear pants. It's getting chilly. Days still get into the 80s, but the heat doesn't precede the sun any more, and it doesn't linger after sundown, either. Changing seasons in a new environment.
Turn the Garden On
One of my first major projects here was to install a drip irrigation system in the garden. It is just the latest additions to the elegant drip system that J created, which inconspicuously runs throughout the property to water sapling aspens, cottonwoods, and grapevines.
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Putting together the system reminded me of playing with Knex or BRIO as a kid, a whole system of tubes, connectors, sprinklers, and drip heads that fit together with an internal logic. It was all very elaborate compared to the drip I was used to from Paradise Valley, just black tape with little holes punched in it. REALLY elaborate compared to the acequia, which we still haven't gotten to work. And it was expensive, all the little plastic pieces five dollars for a bag of eight.
But it works. Over the course of two weeks I rigged the garden, bed by bed. Now, turning one valve and pushing one button lets me water the whole thing.
Or, almost the whole thing. The strawberry plants, planted in one bed at random, defied the logic of the drip and got nothing. I figured I would water them by hand, but once watering everything else became so easy I found myself less inclined to drag the hose back there and give them the moisture they needed. They have definitely dried out. The cabbage's layout, too, was too finicky to irrigate, so it suffered the same fate.
.JPG)
Besides showcasing my laziness, their slow demise demonstrates the importance of planting around the irrigation system, not irrigating around a planting system. To that end, we always punched holes in the tubing at regular intervals (based on a now-important piece of pipe), not individually tailored to the layout whichever plants. This is just one case of preparing for future seasons, perhaps at the expense of the current crop, since the holes don't quite line up with existing squash plants, beets, etc.
Drip irrigation is super convenient, and uses water efficiently. It has also caused me to actually go into the garden less. Before the drip I would go out in the cool of the morning and water, mostly just standing in stillness while a bed filled up. I did incidental weeding, stretched, and noticed the small changes in the vegetables and weeds. Things grow slowly! And it took time to see these things. Noticing is hard.
.JPG)
PS - I turned on the sprinklers for this photo op, but only a fool would actually water when the sun's out. I hear you lose 80% of your water that way.
Putting together the system reminded me of playing with Knex or BRIO as a kid, a whole system of tubes, connectors, sprinklers, and drip heads that fit together with an internal logic. It was all very elaborate compared to the drip I was used to from Paradise Valley, just black tape with little holes punched in it. REALLY elaborate compared to the acequia, which we still haven't gotten to work. And it was expensive, all the little plastic pieces five dollars for a bag of eight.
But it works. Over the course of two weeks I rigged the garden, bed by bed. Now, turning one valve and pushing one button lets me water the whole thing.
Or, almost the whole thing. The strawberry plants, planted in one bed at random, defied the logic of the drip and got nothing. I figured I would water them by hand, but once watering everything else became so easy I found myself less inclined to drag the hose back there and give them the moisture they needed. They have definitely dried out. The cabbage's layout, too, was too finicky to irrigate, so it suffered the same fate.
Besides showcasing my laziness, their slow demise demonstrates the importance of planting around the irrigation system, not irrigating around a planting system. To that end, we always punched holes in the tubing at regular intervals (based on a now-important piece of pipe), not individually tailored to the layout whichever plants. This is just one case of preparing for future seasons, perhaps at the expense of the current crop, since the holes don't quite line up with existing squash plants, beets, etc.
Drip irrigation is super convenient, and uses water efficiently. It has also caused me to actually go into the garden less. Before the drip I would go out in the cool of the morning and water, mostly just standing in stillness while a bed filled up. I did incidental weeding, stretched, and noticed the small changes in the vegetables and weeds. Things grow slowly! And it took time to see these things. Noticing is hard.
PS - I turned on the sprinklers for this photo op, but only a fool would actually water when the sun's out. I hear you lose 80% of your water that way.
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