Down Coats and Warm Blankets

Well, now it is so cold I'm wearing my down coat to take my walks. But I can't complain, because we're having sunshine. Shine on! And last night I couldn't sleep as the trains kept whistling all through the night, and now again this morning--train whistles. It is interesting how the conductors blow their whistles. Some, it seems, play with the echo across the bay. I'm betting this, as it really is a sort of music as they push and back off on the whistle. And then there are the conductors who lay on the horn straight away. Like I do my car horn when someone has turned in front of me. Yes, you know the drill.

If it hasn't started snowing where you live, you may have leaves to rake yet. These leaves are one of the best mulches and aerators for your garden. Pile them on in big heaps instead of bagging them and putting them out for the garbage men. This is my job still--are I pathetic or what? No, just too busy. Last night I laid awake, groaning from too much dinner. I picked up my grandson and then drove through rush-hour traffic--it's nothing in Bellingham compared to other places, but it was busy--even in Fairhaven. We headed to my daughter and son-in-law's new home. They just moved in yesterday--I was surprised at how organized everything was. They had lots of help--which is good in a move. And we ate some dinner and looked around. All those warm blankets on the beds, a good thing. I heard on the news on the way there that the Obama girls--Milia and Sasha --have been invited to star on Mili Cyrus's show. I was thinking that these girls will be interesting to watch. Perhaps more public than most White House kids. Is there a vegetable garden at the White House? A pea patch close by? Fall leaves to rake? There's a good book about fall that all kids will like Fall Leaves Fall! A good gift for Thanksgiving. Ahhhh! Turkey and stuffing.

Well, I'm off to editing and to see my naturopath. Happy day. Smile, the sun is shining. Flower

Sounds

The sound of crows, lazy at times, frantic at other times, calling from above the garden, flocked in the maple trees as I garden. When I was a child, the crows sat in the pines outside my window. To me there gulk gulk gulk sound was soothing. And still, it makes me laugh. Here I'm awakened by the sound of gulls, loud cries coming early in the morning, and the terns, which have a scratchy screechy cry, settling in over the water.

In the city and the country, there is the sound of the train whistle. Here in Fairhaven, the train, not far down the road wails musically, reflecting off the water in waves at times, and at other times it is forceful and obnoxious. I can stand in the garden and hear not only the whistle, but the rumble of the cars on the tracks. My first husband loved the train. He said everyone should ride the train because eventually folks won't be able to. Trains will go by the wayside. This isn't true, of course, as we can see more folks are riding the train than ever. He rode the train with his father across the U.S. from Spokane to New York. His father was a buyer for a department store. The rocking, the rumble, the whistle, the train-crossing bells, sleeping in the berths with all this going on, things he reminisced fondly of.

I picked up Walden this morning and opened the old copy to a highlighted section, the chapter title Sounds. Thoreau says "The whistle of the locomotive penetrates my woods summer and winter, sounding like the scream of a hawk sailing over some farmer's yard, informing me that many restless city merchants are arriving within the circle of the town, or adventurous country traders from the other side….Here come your groceries, country, your rations, countryman!"

I don't think of the train as moving goods, although the freight trains do, I think of it as a loud noise that wakes me in the night. But Henry is right, it is commerce at work. Noisy commerce. And when the train whistle comes in the night, the gulls and terns lift off, squawking. They are awakened too, and then they riot with discontent.

Well, this morning, a fall cold has me down in bed. There will be no gardening today, not much of anything in fact. Reading in bed, drinking tea, listening to the sounds of the village, sleeping. It is all good, this life.

Peace! Flower

Shade Coffee in Fairhaven

The Pacific NW is known for its coffee consumption. Everyone is carrying around one of those insulated cups that they refill at their favorite coffee shop, which are around every corner. Some have espresso machines at home. Some have cards at coffee shop that get punched or stamped and then free coffee is lavished on them. Part of the coffee explosion here is the gray. It's gray day after day and hard to get jazzed up, so what do you do, drink coffee. Caffeine my drug of choice, one friend said. On the radio once, a Seattle show sang a jingle about coffee being a "good clean pick-me-up in a Christian society".

I drink a couple of cups of coffee a day myself. I usually make my own, but on occasion go out to the coffee shop and write and drink Americanos. When I was in Italy I was laughed at. "Ah, American coffee," they'd say and wink at me. Well, it's good. Not so thick as espresso and doesn't hurt my stomach. Now I drink Shade Grown coffee from small countries. It's the Fair Trade thing where farmers actually get a decent payment for the coffee they grown on good land, not deforested land. I think its swell.

Trader Joe's sells a mix of coffees. They come in cute cans with fancy labels. The one I'm drinking now is from Bolivia. It comes in an orange can and has a donkey on it. I don't grow coffee but once I looked at a coffee plantation with my soon-ex that was situated on the big island right next to David Crosby's place. It was quit steep. We'd never have made good coffee farmers. We argue all the time. We are a nightmare couple. Why pine for something so bad? I pine for good soil. I pine for a thin waist. I pine for long swinging hair. We always pine for what we don't have. We're human. That's all.

Today the grandbaby comes and we'll go to the garden. We'll water and now Mike is planning on planting some beets and other things he's purchasing at Joe's. I'm still stuck on everything having to be raised from seed. I better get with the program. Best in Plants, Flower