Bits of Spring

The crocus are in bloom.

The bluebirds are back!
The snowdrops are up!
The mosses are lush.

Tucker is thinking green.

And so am I.

Happy perigee moon, Happy Saturday, Happy Spring.

What to Do: Update

It's really easy to feel helpless. It's almost as easy to give whatever you can spare to help relief efforts across the globe.

Global Giving is a fast easy way to get money to relief efforts in Japan. You can pay by credit card, pay pal or check. It's easy. Global giving lets you decide where the money goes. To victims of the disaster, to relief organizations, to rebuild Sendai, to the children - you choose. Or, maybe you want to support flood victims in Pakistan? Cholera victims in Haiti? Hunger victims in Chad? Wherever your heart and your urge to help lie, it's as easy as a couple of clicks, and much less stressful than watching the news unfold, helpless so far away.

Or, if you'd rather receive something for your dollars, try Joseph Gordon-Levitt's HitRecord store, which is donating proceeds of pin sales to Japanese relief funds.



The internet connects us all. And if all you can do is watch and care, hope or pray, well that counts too.

XO

Post Script: 3/17/11
I've been reading about charities and how best to help and there is so much conflicting information that my head is spinning. One article said the Japanese Government has specifically stated they do not need outside help and have sufficient funds to take care of themselves. Another article mentioned Global Giving as a less than stellar choice to donate to relief efforts. Great. Now they tell me. I used charitynavigator.org to check them out, and they rate 3 out of 4 stars, with slightly higher than normal admin costs, and CEO salaries in the 150K and up range, which always startles me for charity organizations. But the primary criticism is the claim to direct funds to specific relief efforts such as rebuilding Sendai, are only conceptual at this point, and no real action plan is in place to ensure donor's funds go where they are intended. I came across a particularly heated debate over the Send Socks to Japan web effort, with as many commenters howling that this is a ridiculous waste of money as those saying they have cold feet and need the socks. But at 34 dollars shipping for several pairs, one wonders how much food the shipping costs would buy, especially when you consider the economies of scale that large operations like military or Red Cross could bring to providing clothing.

I did find the Japanese Red Cross Web site that thanks donors for their help and provides the direct bank address to donate funds to them here.
So, what to do indeed.

As with everything in life, nothing is easy or simple.

Seek and You Shall Find

It's not always what you are looking for. Here are some more treasures from my two days staring intently at a small patch of woods.
I found a lot more than my glasses.

Nature's patterns repeat themselves. These fungus remind me of coral, scallop shells, and the striped patterns in the foothills in the badlands. The shifting colors in changing humidity and temperature and the slow process of decay fascinate me: fuzzy green velvets, furry browns and beiges, slimy, gelatinous browns. Texture and color and patterns - oh my! I'll continue to keep my eye on the decomposing cherry and pine logs to see what happens next, and won't wait until I lose something to look this closely again.

Where's Waldo's Glasses?

Yesterday, after much looking around the house for our last remaining dog leash, which, it turns out was in the car my son drove to school, I decided to take a long walkabout the yard and see what other macro magic I could make. It was a lovely sunny day, and I was happy as a lark.

I looked in every nook and cranny of my little acre of woods for new fungus and forgot my glasses were on top of my head, which is where I put them to see anything up close, in this case the camera screen. Focus is really tricky with my little camera in macro mode, and my glasses distort up close. Anyway, off I go, ducking under branches, rooting aroung in the woods in a very random fashion. I started cleaning up some brush piles, stacking some downed limbs, taking the occasional picture and throwing the occasional tennis ball for the dog. About an hour later, I realized my glasses were no longer on my head. I panicked. I'm blind as a bat two feet away from my face without them, and my old pair make me woozy. So I looked for them. Retraced my steps, tried to remember every fallen log and deer scat pile I walked past. Came inside, loaded my pics, so I could retrace my steps. Went back out. Stared at the ground for almost 3 more hours. Took lots more pictures, just for fun. Daughter helped when she got home, then husband. No luck.

Went back outside this morning for an hour, working a grid system, really, really looking, hard at the ground. Got cold. Came inside, whined to my sister online about having to spend 300 more dollars for new glasses. Went back outside with my camera, took some more Oooooh pictures of wet lichens and fungus in the rain. Rewalked the place where I got whacked in the face with a branch the day before, sure they had to be near. Sat on a log, stared, took more pictures. I walked out by the road, where my brambles end to take a picture of some lichens. Stared some more. And there they were.

Can you see them? I took this picture before I found them!

Took me a while too. Right edge middle of the photo, hanging about 8 inches over the ditch, caught on a grape vine. If the lenses weren't covered with raindrops, I might never have found them. I had looked up, I had looked down, but I had not considered the possibility they were hanging just above the ground. I took this picture after:


Needless to say, my eyeballs ache from 2 days in the old glasses and 6 hours of staring. On the bright side, I learned my lesson, I got a really, really close look at my woods, and I got some awesome pictures. I'll share them next post.

See it Before It's GONE

Click here for a free, instant download of the flipbook, full of lush, haunting photos of the ruined, feral houses of the South. What I wouldn't give to see them in their glory.

Thanks to Bell Bridge Books and Librarything Early Reviewer program for sharing this book with everyone. I'm not sure how long the free download will last, but it's worth your time.

Enjoy.


p.s. How can you not think of sweetjuniper's feral home photos while looking at these?