winds of change

a surprise wind blew through here a couple of weeks ago and stirred things up. i still can't quite believe that i am going to uproot myself from the small urban farmstead on salmon street that i've lovingly crafted in my own image over the past 8 years and condense our existence into a 500 square foot cabin seven or so miles north.
sometimes the weathervane points in just one direction, and you have no choice but to follow its guidance.
more updates on this odd new turn of events soon.
PS: there's been a request for some guest posts from the feathered flock here (who aren't too sure about their role in the move- don't worry, they're coming along for the ride) and given my lackadaisical attitude towards this blog in recent months, they deserve to be granted at least a try. be on the lookout for their squawking.

down the rabbit hole

yes, my apologies, dear readers. i feel quite like alice after she fell down the rabbit hole, and easter is already now long past. i know that some of you still lurk this blog hoping for some sign of life. and life there is, plentiful, perhaps too much, but sadly the route between typing fingers and living it has come up too short time and time again. with the warmth of spring so many new projects have blossomed that i feel a bit like the root children ready to retreat underground already.

my book has been zipping along, seemingly under the radar screen but holding its own. just today i learned that it has won the 2009 green book festival prize in the science category (hold your snickers, i'm sure competition was fierce for good science writing...). and i'm just putting the finishing touches on the salmon poetry studio, located in the columbia ecovillage and nearly ready for a studio-warming party. in the brief 2 weeks i have inhabited it, it has provided a space of solace as well as belonging. and it is a paradise for children. when 25 baby chicks arrive in a couple of weeks i'll never be able to drag kiran away. 

in the meantime, it's not only my blog that has wasted away. the cover crops in my community garden are now knee deep, but i've managed to install not just one but TWO nucs of new bees, one at the salmon poetry villa and one on the farm by the studio, last week. queen and colonies doing fine so far in both locales. i'll be conducting a honey contest over the summer to see which one is more productive- salmon villa might have an edge over the farm, despite its more urban locale, given the profuse explosion of cherry and plum street trees now ensconsing the front garden in what seems like a magical pink cave.

well that is as much of a check in as there is time for now. in 6 months since sabbatical ended i still have not managed to reset my tachometer and make space for things like regular blogging. now with only 7 (6 after tomorrow, count them, count them!) weeks to go until summer break, i'm trying to sort out my priorities once again to see if i can make time for capricious whims like writing for pleasure and keeping up with electronic friends.  there are stories to be told, such as hiking the hills in italy, was it just a brief three weeks ago? and coming upon three families of baby wild boars; the third, yes, third time a curse, adoption loss, and of course the mundane, the cooking, the gardening, the creating whether in clay or compost, or furnishing my new studio from ikea (which one doesn't belong? hint, hint). all of these, in time.

with luck, i'll be back before you know it.

master of mancala

i've been living in a vortex, at the eye of the storm that seemingly kicks into action when a book gets published. although it's exciting and important to get the word out (all 80,000 of them that i labored for the last year to compose), it has completely drained me. i returned from a harried junket to seattle last week that left little enjoyment to find kiran as dilapidated as i, swooning under the spell of a 104.7 degree fever. i've been juggling finding friends to look after her while i've had to run back downtown and forth teaching classes and attending meetings in my spare time. orphey's been enjoying having his new-found friend at home, tutoring him in the fine skill of mancala. here, orphey reclines as he considers his next move against his sickly opponent:

when inspiration calls...

inspiring quote of the week:

"...when inspiration calls, you don't send it to voicemail; you answer it. You pick it up. You have a conversation with it."

will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas, in an interview about Obama on NPR this morning. click here to listen

beauty and the bread

despite the mad rush, or perhaps because of it, i'm still finding time to bake bread.

to me, baking one's own bread is symbolic of right livelihood. once, in my younger days when i still had time to sit around with illustrious ivy-league educated doctors and their ilk and debate meaningful ways to make change, i proposed that the world would be a better place if all of us over-educated, do-good-inclined types would take the time to bake our own bread.
blasphemy! they all cried. why, in the time that it would take me to make my own bread, i could have immunized a long line of poor people, or saved a kid or two from dying, one of the more blusterous of the crowd exclaimed.

i stand by this proposal, for the simple reason that baking one's own bread in the midst of a society overburdened by commodification and expectations that the necessities of life will always be taken care of by someone else while we are off doing something more important (or necessary, for those of us who are less privileged) is an act of defiance, of going against the grain, in its most literal sense.

abandoned again...

it seems i've fallen off the wagon again, failing to carve out even the teensiest piece of time to allow an update to my poor neglected blog. i wish i could say it was pure laziness, or that i've been away on an adventure, or that something major has happened to lure me away. well, i guess that something major has happened, my book release has unleashed a steady stream of media and speaking events, which take time and energy but are fun and even exhilarating in most cases. i'll report more on those in the near future.
i've also been struggling with finicky camera batteries that fail to charge up enough for more than a single shot at a time, so there's a dearth of good images at the moment as well, and not enough time to pursue the necessary technical fix.
but there's even more excitement on the horizon, so hang in there with me, and watch for those posts that are waiting to come out of nowhere once i get time back on my side.

book event at Powells

thanks to all the fans that came out for the book event at powell's! it was standing room only, and my hand was sore afterwards from all the signing! podcast up soon, thanks to the incredible interviewer and producers at kink fm. if you missed it, check my website for upcoming events around town!