Climate Change



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     I write this blog because I enjoy writing and sharing my ideas with the world. A writer was asked once, "Why do you write?" and he responded, "For the same reason you breathe."
You may have noticed that I have put ads on my blog page. I took the ads off my blog page long ago because I was not (and I am still not) writing to make money and I thought the ads look tacky. So why post ads now? Well I figure I have earned the right at this point to try to make a few bucks on the endless hours of time and energy and ideas I have poured into the blog. I have published over 100 posts. I estimate most of them took me between one to two hours to think about, write, and edit. (And that does not count all the post I wrote and then trashed for one reason of another.) So, I think I deserve to be a little tacky and have ads on my blog now.
     Just in case you don't know, it works like this: I get paid per click. If you are on my blog and (even accidentally) click on an ad (even if you never think about buying anything) I get paid. If I have a lot of traffic through the site, I get paid more per click. Therefore, if you enjoy reading Owls' Knob, please click on an ad from time to time when you are done reading and essentially toss some money in my 'tin cup." I don't plan on actually making any serious money doing this; however, if I begin to make enough to compensate my time even a little bit, I will feel like I can devote more time to the blog. More time means more post of better quality. In the end, I really think we could all win!

Children's Eco-Art

When I went to Arizona for Christmas, I did not know what to expect exactly. But the idea of 11 children under the age of 11 (and 10 of those were under the age of 6) made me a little anxious. I figured it would be intense to say the least. However, I also imagined that the children would end up watching a lot of television. My son watches very little TV, much less than most children. I find that parent's solution to a lot of hyper children is often sit them in front of the television because the mystical tube can hypnotize children, giving parents a break.

     I am very proud to say that over the course of the week, the television NEVER came on. The children, all 11 of them, were never sat down in front of a single show or movie. The children played with each other, learned from one another, and spent a lot of time outside. Arizona's weather was nice enough, sunny but chilly with cold nights. My aunt's yard, where we all gathered daily, was not a grassy lawn. In this progressive little town, called the Village of Oak Creek, people landscape with rocks, desert plants, and red rock gravel or sandstone. The red sandstone gravel was not only a wise choice for such a dry setting, but to the children it looked like the world's largest sandbox!
     At first I worried that aunt Carolyn might come running outside telling the children they were ruining her landscaping. Instead she seemed to take joy in it. She smiled and said that she needed to redo it anyways and she laughed saying that her landscaper would have his job cut our for him next week. She is a very understanding woman!
     Three of the girls decided to make a "castle" in the sandstone. They piled and lined up rocks taken out of the irrigation ditch and then collected cups of juniper berries for color. They added sprigs from nearby trees and and locust seed pods. Before I knew it, the children had spontaneously taken nature and turned it into art!

    As an environmentalist, artist of sorts, and teacher, I enjoy eco-art by children more than anything.  I delighted in the creativity among the children and their inspiration to play together, enjoy nature, and stay outside. It is so important to turn off the television (or never turn it on in the first place) and take children outdoors. Let them use their imagination, explore, and destroy the yard turning it into art. And as you watch them play, learn to play a little more too.

Trip to the Farm

Transformations over Time

The red rocks of Sedona Arizona are amazing. No photograph can capture the overwhelming beauty of the place. Towering rocks pillars lace sheer cliff faces, all in brilliant red color. Surrounded by these rock giants I feel like I must be in another time or place untouched by my current one.

I spent months traveling this landscape as a nineteen year old hippy, living out of my car. In those days I was lost, trying to find myself. Sedona attracts tourist of all kids, but it has something special for the lost, hopeful idealist. There for "positive vortexes" among these mystical rocks. (Don't ask me what that is, I am still not sure.) As a teenager, I followed a  boy who did contact juggling with crystal balls for spare change while I played the flute. I didn't know much back then, so I didn't even bother trying to grasp what had happened to the landscape.  I just appreciated the beauty and went on searching for myself.

Now I think I can explain the rocks formations (as an armature understands it), because I now know how the Ozark Mountains were formed. The Ozark Mountains are not really mountains at all, but gentle canyons and valleys. The Ozark Plateau was created from sediment under a shallow ocean millions of years ago, then a great uplift made the plateau rise up out of the ocean like a mesa. It started out relatively flat on top. Over time, rivers have eaten away the limestone, shale, and sandstone, creating valleys and thus rolling hills in between. The red rocks of Sedona have a very similar story.

These rocks were formed underneath oceans and on beaches; they are sedimentary rocks, mostly sandstone. Then a great uplift caused the area known as the Colorado Plateau to rise out of the water. The Colorado Plateau is like a giant cake, lifted up above the rest of the land area. But over time parts of the plateau have eroded away. It is like a giant cake melting and washing away from weather and rain. The sandstone of the desert sifts away quicker than the denser limestone and shale of the Ozarks. However, the layers do not all deteriorate at the same rate; therefore, pillars and mounds are left in between gullies and canyons. Brilliant red pigment seen in the rocks is a result of iron oxide; a mineral found covering each grain of sand in the sandstone.

 After years of erosion and weathering, natives found the red pillars of stone and came to nearly worship them. Hardy tribes lived among them despite the lack of fertile soil and rainfall in the area. To a primitive person walking along the earth, a giant red stone without a logical explanation, had to be from the Gods!

While visiting Arizona we stopped by Montezuma Castle. The ancient remains of a rock apartment complex, which must have housed over 100 people during its time, stands high above the ground. It is sheltered by the rock from falling rain and rising river water, preserved after thousands of years. The ruins were once home to a tribe of Natives called the Sinagua, but all their artifacts have long since been taken. The Sinagua tribe lived in this desert between 1100 and 1425. They survived by  using primitive farming and irrigation techniques.

Years ago, when I came to Sedona, and couldn't grasp the landscape, I was a very different person than this last time. It is interesting the way the environment changes and adapts over large amounts of time. We also change and adapt, only over short fractions of time. Nothing stays the same.

"Thank you, dear!"

We went to see my 100 year old grandmother again before we left Sedona Arizona. John did not join us because he was visiting the Grand Canyon for the day with some of my cousins. Instead, Zane and I went to see his great-grandmother with my cousin Kathryn, her husband Mike, and their two year old son Samuel. We spent time with her outside, in a courtyard area. The young boys played while my grandmother watched. The old woman seemed amused and filled with joy by their youthful visit. Though she did not speak, a smile sat on her wrinkled lips as she watched the boys play. Often she has a grim, pinched lip look, as if gritting through the pain of life. But while watching the young children play, run, and laugh, that look left her face. It was replaced by a sweet, satisfied smile. At one point, the two year old boys played “peek-a-boo” in front of the 100 year old woman. Watching the boys laugh and squeal, made the old woman break out into a full grin, teeth and all!   

     After 45 minutes of watching the boys run, dig, hide, and have fun, we could tell she was exhausted. So we told the boys to say good bye and give their great-grandmother a hug and kiss. Both boys delighted in showing love to the elderly woman. As we wheeled the 100 year old woman back toward the door to go inside, Zane found a fake flower on the ground. He picked it up and showed it to me. “Give it to your Granny,” I suggested. Zane ran after his great-grandmother’s wheel chair, screaming, “Granny, Granny!” When her chair stopped, Zane ran in front of it and reached out with the flower.

    The old woman smiled, her eyes danced, as if they were young again, and for the first time that day, she spoke, “Thank you, dear!” clear as a bell!

     I believe the thank you was not just for the flower, but for the entire visit full of kindness, youth, and laughter. It was a ‘thank you for bring me such joy today’. It was a ‘thank you for caring for me and loving me in my old age’. It was a ‘thank you’ that made me feel a responsibilty... a responsibility to carrying on her memory, lineage, and the life she gave to us all!

Africa in Arizona

 

My son has a great love for animals. He can be a bit of a loner when in groups of people, but he has a big heart. Every cat or dog he comes across is deserving of a hug. So it was no surprise that when we took him to the "Out of Africa" wildlife preserve, he literally jumped with joy. The first event was a trip on an open bus where we fed a giraffe carrots. The tall animal reached into the bus and licked the orange sticks out of our hands. Zane jumped, giggled, and squealed joyfully as the gentle giant took the carrot from his outreach hand.

Next we stopped to greet a tame ostrich who snapped treats, thrown by our guide, out of midair. Then the huge bird swallowed its food whole. The guide told us that ostriches swallow rocks along with their food. The rocks help the animal's digestion process. "She can have up to 25 pounds of rocks in her gut at any given time," said the guide as she gave the prehistoric bird a pat and hug. A zebra, who name was ironically prism, also came to get some treats. As the animals ate, Zane wiggled and reached as if he wanted to leap off the bus and give them hugs. Later on we came upon a mother zebra and her three month old baby. The guide explained that zebras have a 13 month gestation period and usually become pregnant as soon as they give birth."Females spend their entire adulthood pregnant," the guide explained. Then she asked us if zebras were white with black stripes or black with white stripes. After a pause, she explained that zebras have both white and black stripes of fur, so both answers are technically correct, but their skin is black. Tigers on the other hand are neither black or orange/white, they are pink (just look at their nose), and their hair contains the different pigments we see.

After the open bus safari adventure, we walked around the loop to view the different animals. The first few cages we came across contained sleeping or hiding animals that didn't spark the boys' interest. Then we came to a caged area marked "pet and feed." With two quarters, we fed a few fallow deer some feed. This sparked the boys attention again. Zane's cousin, Samuel, who was not too sure about the giants we saw on the bus, was very happy to feed the gentle deer. This is when Samuel began to really enjoy our trip and share in the excitement. The two boys, who are basically the same age, began feeding off each others' enthusiasm.  

As we walked the remainder of the park, we saw a majestic white tiger, two pacing orange tigers, a pride of lazy lions, and a pack of laughing hyenas. There were shows like "predator feed," "tiger splash," and "the giant snake show" that were happening later on, but the two year olds were hungry and sleepy so we headed back to the car. However, the car was on the other side of the park so we had to walk pass the giant tortoise cage, the tiny African monkeys, some parrots, a few huge snakes, and the lemurs. By the time the boys reached the car they were exhausted.

As we drove home they took long naps!

I hope my son never looses his love for animals and for all of nature.

Pictures to Say Thousands of Words

...if you want to know more about these spectaclar pictures come back tomorrow...

and next week...

stories are to follow

My 100 Year Old Grandmother

I am the one in front, in the red sweater.
Grandmother is in pink, just to my right.

We went to visit my grandmother yesterday. She turned 100 years old on the 15^th of December. At 100 years, she is not as sharp as she once was. In fact, my aunts warned me that she rarely speaks anymore and gives the world only a blank stare most of the time. Her mental state has been slowly declining over the past 10 years. First to go was her short term memory.

When I last saw her, 5 years ago, she told me the same stories over and over again, not remembering that she just told me that story. But I enjoyed hearing about her life. She had grown up with one sister who she loved dearly. Her mother and grandmother we both strong women who encouraged her to attend college, something girls didn’t do in those days. As an adult she married Donald Imrie, a doctor who made many breakthroughs in medicine during his career. My grandmother was an educated woman but devoted her life to raising six children, no two alike.    

However, I had never known the young vibrant mother. I had always known her as grandmother. And as I approach the nursing home where she now lives, my heart raced. I didn’t know what to expect, but all I could do was remember the woman I had once known.

My grandmother was a bright, intelligent lady with a cheerful disposition. I remember her and my grandfather visiting us in their RV. They traveled often and stayed spry late in life. As grandmother’s knees became weak in her old age, she went through knee surgery and they replaced her knee caps with metal. But the replaced knees never slowed her down. Her ankles tended to swell, so grandmother would walk down stairs backwards, which delighted us grandchildren. I would walk down the stairs backwards with her, giggling at the game. Before going on a walk she would lie down on her back and put her legs in the air to increase circulation. I often joined her and we would laugh as we lay on our backs, stretching our toes to the sky.

I remember grandmother telling me long stories or explaining how things worked. She would always end with, “Isn’t that neat!” If I told her something remarkable, which she encouraged, she would always exclaim, “Hot dog!” The joy I saw in her when she taught me new things is reflected in my eyes when I teach my students.

She was not a dull woman, but a smart, funny, and witty one. We would do jigsaw puzzles together often but without looking at the picture on the box, because that would be cheating. Sometimes she would do puzzles with all the pieces upside down so that the picture wasn’t even in consideration, only the shapes of the white pieces told her where to place them. Needless to say, she was quite the puzzle master.   

Though she was born in 1911, before so much of the modern life we are inundated with today, she never casted judgment. I remember arriving at a distant cousin’s wedding with purple hair and a blue velvet dress. Though I caught certain eyes casting judgmental glares at my purple locks, my grandmother just smiled and said, “Hot dog! Your hair is purple! How did you get it that color?”

“Hair dye, grandmother.”

“Well I like it! How do you think it would look on me? Should I dye this old grey hair purple?”

“Oh definitely grandmother! It would look great on you!”

She laughed, and not at me.

However, on this day, entering the retirement home, I did not expect to hear my grandmother’s laugh. I tried not to expect much.

We located her sitting in her wheel chair in the entertainment room. Though a woman was speaking to the group, grandmother stared blankly ahead. As my aunt, Carolyn, spoke into grandmother’s ear, telling her she had visitors, I watched her face. Her blank expression did not change. Then, my aunt turned her around and she spotted my two year old son Zane. Her face lit up. Slowly she reached out towards him. She tried to speak but her words were garbled, I could only make out the word “cute.”

My aunt wheeled her out of the room and we sat together off the hallway in a visiting area. Zane had a box of raisins and was eating them feverishly while shyly hugging my legs and watching the elderly woman. Because grandmother was a stranger to him, Zane was shy, but not afraid. My grandmother, watching Zane eat raisins, tried to speak again, “Is…yum…cookie?” Her words struggled, like she couldn’t get her mouth to listen to her brain. But she smiled and tried again and again. Finally, she spoke clearly, “Is that a yummy cookie? Yes, yum, yum, yum.”

“Do you want to share a raisin with your great grandmother?” I suggested.

Zane gingerly took as raisin out of the box he was holding and reached out to grandmother’s wrinkled hand. As he placed the raisin on her palm she looking straight into Zane’s eyes and said, “Thank You!” Her words were forming with more and more ease. She moved her shaky hand to her mouth and just barely managed to eat the raisin. Zane offered her more raisins. By the third raisin grandmother’s hands were much steadier and she even picked a raisin out of Zane’s hand with her finger and thumb.

My aunt told me her behavior was remarkably good. So I retrieved a book from my purse and sat with Zane on my lap. My aunt rolled grandmother to my side.

“Oh look at that,” grandmother said in a clear voice. “What do you have there? Is that a book?”

Zane pointed to pictures, numbers, and letters, identifying everything correctly. Grandmother joined in, speaking in full sentences, identifying pictures, and smiling the whole time. If I tried to turn as page for my son, grandmother stood up for him, saying “Let him do it!”

I glanced at my aunt who seemed equally amazed at grandmother’s cognition and clear speech!

Then the two year old began playing peek-a-boo, and soon the 100 year old joined in, squealing “peek-a-boo” as she leaned forward and then back again to change her perspective on Zane’s hiding place. It was as if she were growing younger by the minutes. Her movement and speech drastically improved during our visit. And more importantly, joy filled her eyes. I even heard her laugh the same laugh I remembered!

My aunt informed me she had not seen grandmother this alive in months! The youthfully joy and delight of a baby awoke the old woman. In so many ways they were similar. Their speech was not always clear and they were both easily amused.

“We all come into the world toothless and bald,” my aunt Nan said later on. “And (hopefully) we leave this world in the same state.”

Biking the Rockies in Winter?

For the past week I have been in the high mountains of Colorado visiting my mother. This time of year there is usually four feet of snow covering the ground. This year, however, there has not been much snowfall so far. Normal winter sports like skiing and ice skating are much more difficult in icy or slushy snow. The local people are out of work, without snow the tourist are not coming for their winter vacations.

But John and I were visiting family, so we stayed active and went on a winter bike ride. There is a riverside road that is not paved, gets little traffic, and hasn’t any major hills north of Beauna Vista. It is perfect for bike riding. The snowy mountains, rocky shores, and majestic river made the trip exceptional.

 My favorite spot along the road had to be these tunnels, made by dynamite for a train that no longer comes through but still parts mountain for cars and bikes. Half way through our journey we stopped to eat at a local burger joint called "Punky's". While eating, a group of caroling children dropped in and sung us a few songs. Some of the children were wearing sandals, slippers, or shorts. They hiked through snowy streets as if it were summer while we dressed in layers and still complained about the cold.  

 The ride back seemed to take forever and I was fairly exhausted by the end. I slept heavy all night and woke up late to a snowy wonderland. A foot of snow had fallen during the night and it enhanced the beauty of the landscape.

There is not a lot of diversity among the plant life in this place that is so high in altitude and cold in temperature. The landscape looks like a rocky desert, spotted only with pine forests. Without the snow frosting the ground it is far less spectacular. Now that snow has fallen, the people can rejoice. Christmas in Colorado will be much more joyful covered in snow!

Illusions for Children

As a kid, I remember getting mail from the Burger King Kids Club when I was very young, impressionable girl. I was living in the middle of nowhere, without electricity (or TV), and I had very few friends. The mail convinced me I had been chosen for a special club. Every time we went to the mailbox I anticipated the kids' club newsletter. The characters in the brochure were real to me. It was a gang of kids who were all different and accepted. When the print said these were my friends, I believed them.  Being a lonely child living in a log cabin in the woods, I felt different but not accepted. I dreamt of meeting the kids one day!
You can just imagine my disappointment when I finally went to a real live Burger King. No one knew me, and they didn't want to get to know me, even after I told them I was a member of the club! As a vegetarian, I could not truly appreciate the food. Still, I got a kids meal because they promised me a prize. I hoped it would at least be a figurine of my favorite Burger King Kid, "Wheels." Inside the toy was so disappointing that I threw it away on my way out and to this day I can not remember what it was. These days, newsletter are sent by e-mail and advertisements are delivered to children through television.
The advertisements tug on emotions and desires that children don't yet know how to control. But that is what advertising is all about. Ads are designed to drive children insane until they throw tantrums to get what they want from the store. That is how toys are sold and it works.
Recently, while watching Nick Jr. I was appalled by the way the channel portrayed itself. The channel (not a commercial but the channel itself) claimed to have a "curriculum" and be "preschool at home"! Television is not school, even the most educational show will never be comparable to a real life experiences. Nevertheless, before every Nick Jr. show is a little synopsis of the lessons your child is going to learn from the show. Some of the skills your child will learn is how to "explore," "discover", and "share and care."
If parents believe that the television will teach their children how to "explore, discover, share and care," like Nick Jr. claims, they will have no reason to expose them to real children or real life experiences. If  the channel is as good as preschool, then why not let children watch television all day, everyday?
Most of these children won't be able to have the epiphany that I had walking into that Burger King Restaurant. Because there is no building that contains those cute, cuddly TV characters without their costumes on. Children have no way to see that the characters are just people, as messed up as anyone else. They are growing up mesmerized by the characters they see on the screen and unaware of the illusion they live inside.