Thoughts for the Day:

If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time.
-- Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922) French author

It is the soul's duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.
-- Rebecca West (1892 - 1983) Irish author, journalist

Passions are the gales of life.
-- Alexander Pope (1688 - 1744) English poet

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Well, I must admit that I haven't been posting as much lately because I have been working to create reality out of a dream I've had for a long time, but could never get completely specific enough to do anything about. Well, now I've finally focused in on it and feel like it's become clear enough for me to actually "do something" about it. Although I'm not ready to go into major details, or make a huge announcement ... at the same time I so yearn to do so! A few friends know what I'm about, but until it's really "Real" I shall remain a bit secretive here.

Suffice it to say that it is:

1. Creative
2. Artistic
3. Exciting
4. Exhilarating
5. A bit frightening
6. All about fiber

And within the next month or so, I shall write more about it!

In the meantime, here's what I'm working on now. It's some lovely roving I purchased from Maureen, The Barefoot Spinner, at Maryland Sheep & Wool. It's a pretty mix of an olive green sort of color, burgundy and tannish-gold. At first I was planning to navaho ply it, but now I'm thinking that I'll just two ply it. I wanted to end up with spots of more solid color, but now I think that if I navaho ply it, the way the colors are, I'll just end up with a more striped appearance, which I don't want. So, two plying it will soften it and hopefully reduce the stripe affect.

Thoughts for the Day:

We should all be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.
-- Charles Kettering (1876-1958)

It is our task in our time and in our generation to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who went before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours.
-- John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), 35th U.S. President

In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create but by what we refuse to destroy.
-- John Sawhill, former President of The Nature Conservancy

Sooner or later, we sit down to a banquet of consequences.
-- Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.
-- Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) 36th President of the United States, at the signing of the Wilderness Act, Sep 1964

In the long run it is the cumulative effect that matters. One can do much. And one and one and one and one can move mountains.
-- Joan Ward-Harris

******

Yep, I’m back up on my soap box this morning. So, if you don’t want to read an environmental diatribe, come back and visit me tomorrow … when I’ll be back to talking about fibers and such.

This morning I awoke and picked up the July / August Sierra Club Magazine, which had arrived in the mail yesterday. What I read in it was appalling and shocking. President Bush and his administration are taking a systematic approach to reducing all the gains this country has accomplished in environmental protection and responsible stewardship. I cannot even give him the benefit of the doubt, because the facts speak too loudly …

Here is one of the articles:

“If you’re in the Bush Administration, how do you celebrate the end of the workweek? Be wreaking havoc on the environment! Well aware that they’re out of step with the mainstream, its lieutenants save announcements of their direst decisions for Fridays and holiday weeks, when they’re least likely to get media attention.

“At the tail end of one week in April, for example, the Interior Department announced it would no longer review potential new wilderness areas across the West and was rescinding wilderness protection for some 3 million acres in Utah. Other TGIF bombs include: a decision to recommend no new wilderness in unlogged areas of Alaska’s Tongass National Forest (February 28); release of a plan to expand drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska (January 17); authorization of the largest oil and gas project ever on public lands, in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana (January 10); rules weakening the Clean Air Act’s “new source review” provisions (November 22, 2002); and announcement of loopholes for mountaintop-removal mining (May 3, 2002). Major holidays also provide cover: Last Christmas Eve, Bush’s Interior Department released rules allowing state and local jurisdictions to use 137-year-old Revised Statute 2477 to turn old trails, abandoned dirt roads, and dry streambeds into new roads. And just before Thanksgiving, the administration proposed revisions that would weaken the National Forest Management Act.

“By slipping controversial proposals under the radar,” says Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope, “the administration seeks to accomplish its goal quickly and quietly, without full public knowledge.” And for those who do read the paper on Saturday morning, it can ruin a good weekend. – R.M.”

Bush Administration Article

Here is an article about Revised Statute 2477, which allows for dusty hiking trails, overgrown cowpaths, jeep tracks, and even arid riverbeds on federal lands to be called roads, which would allow development and motorized travel across public lands. As Jennifer Hattam writes in Sierra Club News, “Environmentalists expect the threat to spread quickly. The state of Alaska has identified over 600 routes, including some through Denali and Wrangell-St. Elias National Parks, and counties in California and Colorado have expressed interest in asserting their own rights-of-way on federal land. The law was meant to allow miners access to their claims, says Heidi McIntosh, conservation director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “It didn’t mean we should give away the West to anyone who happens to drive across it.”

Roadless Rule exemptions proposed by Administration

What is happening in this country right now makes me ashamed to be an American. As the largest “super power” in the world, we are not only doing a shabby job in protecting the world, we are actually the major cause for environmental deprivation and over-consumption of natural resources. While smaller countries like the Netherlands enact environmental practices, extensive recycling programs, and alternative power plans (and show that all these are both successful and profitable), we are moving in the complete opposite direction. In my belief this is due more to the agenda of President Bush and his administration than the desires of American citizens (after all, half the citizens who voted chose Al Gore, a pro-environmental politican). The unfortunate ramification is that we the People of the United States are, in the world’s view, inextricably entwined with the Administration’s shabby environmental policies and practices.

So, once again, tomorrow I’ll be writing more letters to President Bush, and my political representatives. But, I’m starting to feel like even this isn’t enough. I’m going to look into volunteer oppportunities with either the Sierra Club or some other organization. This is just too important to the future, and for our children. And one person CAN make a difference. So, if you care about the world and the environment, get active before there’s nothing left to protect.

Thought for the Day:

As people and machines move into a wilderness area, such as the Arctic refuge, the homelands of the animals living there are destroyed, many are killed, and hundreds of thousands are terrorized. Is not this, from the animals' point of view, the equivalent of a terrorist attack? I find this profoundly disturbing. It applies to so much human activity such as logging, mining, development, road construction, the building of dams -- the list is endless. It was Mahatma Gandhi who wondered why, when someone harms a man-made object such as a building or work of art, it is described as “vandalism,” but when someone harms an object created by God, it is simply shrugged off as “progress.”

-- Jane Goodall and Marc Bekoff. The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do to Care for
the Animals We Love
*****

So, a friend sent me a link to McDonald’s announcement today about their new requirements for antibiotic-free meats … I think this is a pretty good thing! Of course, it’s generating criticism from antibiotics manufacturers and others with a vested interest in keeping our meat sources medicined-up, but I believe that McDonald’s is doing a great service by taking a stand in this way. And I like to see large corporations doing something good (whatever their self-serving motives may be, if it has a positive effect on our environment and our health, I won’t argue with how it came about!). And while we try to not eat fast food too much, we still do sometimes … and I hope this policy has farther reaching effects than just McDonald’s and the fast food industry.

McDonald’s Issues Antibiotics Policy

And, here are some interesting websites and opportunities for recycling I thought I would share:

Greeting Card Recycling
Battery Recycling
Cell Phone Recycling
Computer Recycling
Appliance Recycling

I attended my first Spinning Guild meeting last night. It was quite a lot of fun ... and always amazing to see the variety of spinning wheels in the world. There were 12-15 of us, and almost that many different kinds of wheels. Several women were also weavers, and brought in some of their recent projects. I absolutely, positively refuse to sit down at a loom. I'm in enough trouble already ... I don't need one more thing that I want to do! Quite a few of the women had their own livestock -- sheep, llamas, alpacas, angora goats and rabbits, and it was fun to hear about that.

And now I'm off to my Knitting Guild meeting (even though I'm really not in the mood to knit these days ... I'm going anyway, and bringing my poor, forlorn and lonely sweater! haha).

Thought for the Day:

The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.

-- Jean Paul

******

I have had such a busy couple of weeks, I haven't had time to post here! The kids were up in Pennsylvania visiting their grandparents, and I spent the time they were gone cleaning, organizing, working and doing a little spinning. Then, they returned this past Tuesday, and Wednesday morning Jackson and I took off on a road trip to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to see Dan Fogelberg in concert. What fun! We stayed at the Harrisburg Hilton, which just happens to be attached to the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts. Jackson loved the science center, which is full of all sorts of interactive activities. They also have an IMAX theater, although we didn't get to see a movie. The concert was in the Forum theater, which is a beautiful, old 1,800 seat theater built in a half circle with a domed ceiling covered with a mural of horoscope signs. Great place to see a concert ~ very intimate. Better yet, our seats were fabulous, 6 rows back from the stage and almost center stage. It was a nice surprise, because when I ordered them there was no seating chart so I had no idea where they were located. Unfortunately, Jack was so excited that he hardly slept the night before, wouldn't rest the afternoon of, and promptly fell asleep about a third of the way through Dan's concert. Missed his favorite song (The Power of Gold) and everything. But, we had a great mother-son trip.

So, here are some photos of what I HAVE accomplished in my spinning:


180 yards each of the green and pink/purple roving I dyed for hats for the kids. I also navaho-plied this yarn.

And, here are a couple of garden shots:


Garden overview


Close up of my Allium Gigantiums (I just love these flowers!)


And this is a Norli snow pea flower. I think they're so pretty ~ not the white typical of peas

Don't get so busy making a living,
that you forget to make a life.

-- Unknown

*****

Here is a great article I came across in this week’s Pioneer Thinking newsletter, by Chris Widener. I found it inspiring, and figured others might as well …

Let me ask you a question: Why do you do what you do?

For a paycheck?

Because your parents wanted you to do it?

It happened to be the first job you got when you got out of school?

These are important questions to ask.

You see, freedom only comes to us in life when we feel free doing what we do. We need to be energized by our work. We need to receive fulfillment from our work. We need to enjoy our work. That is different for each individual and what makes me happy and fulfilled isn't what will do it for you.

Do you have a deep, meaningful reason for doing what you do? There is no "right" answer, just one that drives you. I have found however, that many people are doing one thing for work but wishing they were doing something else. They are stuck in a rut where they are and do not know how to get out.

"I'm stuck Chris. What do I do?"

Well, here are a few thoughts:

1. Take ownership of your current state. You are here because you chose to be. One way or another, you got yourself here. And you CAN get yourself out.

2. Decide what you want to do. Get to know yourself. Get to know your strengths and weaknesses, your hopes, desires and dreams. Get real and know your dream well.

3. Choose to move in that direction. It may mean quitting your current job. It may mean planning on doing so down the road.

4. Set your goals. Make them clear. Put time limits on them.

5. Be tenacious. Don't give up. Keep moving until you are in a spot where you are happy and fulfilled.

Of course the above is just basics, but that is the general idea.

I am doing exactly what I want to be doing. You can be too. In a short period of time you will be able to answer the question, “Why do you do what you do?" with, "Because I am passionate about it and it brings me the fulfillment I am looking for in my life!”

You may not be doing what you want to be doing. But you can be!

Thought for the Day:

How could there be a day in your whole life
That doesn't have it's splash of happiness?

-- Mary Oliver

******

My splash of happiness today (other than the fact that the sun shone all day long, which made me very happy indeed!) was finishing up my hand-dyed roving. This is the roving I dyed myself at Stony Mountain Fibers. I went over to Misty Mountain Farm on Friday evening, and Linda kindly showed me how to Navaho ply (in addition to selling me some more finn roving, some wonderfully soft mohair roving and several other "necessities" heh heh). How easy and fun it is to navaho ply, and what nice results!! So, over the weekend, in between graduation parties and reconciling bank accounts, I finished plying it and washed it, and hung it out to dry last night.

And, here it is!! 8 ounces yielded 250 yards of three-ply yarn: