Sunday Passage, April 21, 2008

Dear Family and Friends,

The early morning is gray and shrouded in fog. Even though I live in town, on this morning, I could be adrift anywhere…farms, fields…the sea. Not a car nor a fog horm interrupts my early morning writing, just the occasional bird cry and the shadow of a black cat as it quietly stalks across the damp sidewalk.

I love moving my writing to my small porch rather than the library. It is three quarters enclosed in windows, the old kind with the pulleys and the ropes. When I bought this old house the windows were painted shut with no screens. My neighbor and friend, Lee, built screens and pried open these old antique windows so that cool morning air filters across me when I read or write. There is plenty of room for my old desk, books, wicker couch, chair, rocking chair and a wonderful small table in the corner for a collection of seashell and shark’s teeth (from Adam and Tonya!)

It is a great place to spend the evenings as folks stop by…walking or on bikes. If they don’t stop by, we just wave. If I am writing most will just move on. I have large bushes that will be in bloom soon and cover part of the porch. I should  trim them down, but I like the privacy they give. It makes me think a bit of a fairy tale cottage. I also have two beautiful crab apple trees right out my front door that will burst into color any day.

Oh, spring has been so slow to come to Indiana this year. Not that I wish for hurry or speed in nature, or in my life, but oh, we wait so long. This week end the whole neighborhood was outside every minute. I had the week end off and was able to “play” gardener. I planted early onions, checked on my lettuce and spinach (it is coming up) and pulled English ivy out of my siding of my house. It looked lovely, but I knew in time to come nothing good could come from English ivy growing up into the center of my house.

Owning an old house is a wonderful experience. I wouldn’t have any other kind (or so I say.)  However, the house does not come without fault. The siding is not in good shape and it was put on in the 30’s, we think. Underneath is the wonderful old wooden, original siding (again so we think!) The dilemma?  Which to preserve?  How to stay away from modern day siding and looking at the cost, I ponder this decision daily and then….go feed the birds.

Our town hosted an Adopt a Tree festival this past week end. The festival was held on the edge of town in a wonderful nature preserve that was given to land trust. There is a cabin/studio on the property that belonged to the Garrett Railroad in Indiana. The crew (train engineers and such) ate on the lower level and slept upstairs. It is lovely built from logs and close to 140 years old. It was moved to become an art studio for an eccentric woman years ago. It sits on virgin timber with a deep ravine that holds stories on being haunted around Halloween.

I took Matthew and Jonah with me on Saturday so they could experience Earth Day at the festival. We made blue bird houses (for the farm), brought home small sapling Dogwood trees, looked at pond water in the microscope, listened to the hammered dulcimer,  did art with tree rubbings, spread peanut butter on pine cones for the birds, watched the blacksmith make old nails and hooks for us out of iron and heat. I told him how my son, Adam, used to do this…long ago.  We picnicked and played all day. I could let them run and play as I knew everyone there and so did they!

It is Earth Day week and never have we been so aware of this as now. I look back on those days at the farm and realize that we were living the perfect Earth Day!  But times change. I try to be conscious of the things I do and how I live, even though it doesn’t begin to touch the problem, and I am much more of a hindrance on the earth than a steward except for my writings.  Here are the things I do personally. (Then I will tell you what I don’t do!)

1. (1)   Carpool with good friends. I only have to drive to school once or twice a week depending on the week. I love the early morning chats as I wake up with no one to talk to!

2. (2)   I have purchased enough cloth bags now to use for shopping. I take them everywhere…driving, biking.  I like pulling them out from under my grocery cart. In one local grocery store I am known as “The Bag Lady.”  Hmmmm.

3. (3)   I garden, minimally, but I call it gardening.

4. (4)   I hang out my laundry. OK, I still have a dryer and when it is blowing snow, I mean really cold, I use the dryer.

5. (5)   I recycle everything.

6. (6)   Goodwill is my best friend. (Well, Ellen hands me down stuff as well as my friend, Alia so I will count them in as best friends!)

7. (7)   I use the library more instead of buying my books. Oh, but I do so love owning books as I write notes in them and the library does frown on my note taking!

8. (8)   My house is very cold in the winter, and I mean very cold in the winter.

9. (9)   I walk to town. (I know I only live a few blocks!)

10. (10)  I buy locally whenever possible…eggs, honey, apples, the farmer’s market!

11. (11) I buy all my meat at a local market. (mimimal, however!)

Here are my vices:

1. (1)   I live alone in this big, old house.

2. (2)   I fly a lot! (My family lives all over the country, friends as well!)

3. (3)   I have running water and I shower daily.

4. (4)   I buy oranges shipped from California and Florida…asparagus out of season, red peppers from Mexico (I have talked to the manager about this!)

5. (5)   I drive alone to storytelling gigs..all over!

6. (6)   I love twinkle lights….everywhere.

All right, that’s it. Enough.

They other day I took my carbon footprint to see how well I am doing. Unfortunately, I am not doing well at all, but change can only come from knowledge. If everyone lived like me, we would need 14.6 earths for each person. I failed in the categories above, some of which I cannot change, but I can be aware of them.

Here is the website for you to take your own footprint, it only takes a couple of minutes:  http://www.earthday.net/footprint/

Let me know how you come out!

I am going to recommend three wonderful books that you can get at your local library. Sorry to say I own two of them!

A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold

The Last Child in the Woods by Richard Louv

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman

Until next week, let’s all try a little harder to clean up and repair this beautiful, spherical Earth that we call home.

Love to all,

Lou Ann

Fog

By Carl Sandburg

 The fog comes
On little cat feet.
It sits looking
Over harbor and city
On silent haunches
And then moves on.