Friday, February 05, 2021 (43 days before the first day of spring)

Recently, I reduced my at-work days to two weekly. This requires a reorientation to freedom in daytimes. That seems easy, but after six months of absence from routine household and property work, returning things to order means catching up to points past.

I’m wrapping my head around what needs attention, am astonished by all the “ignored messy”, while dashing into or out of the house. My key focus has been caring for animals, leaving most everything else untouched. The exceptions are in key spots, like cleaning the kitchen counter where food is prepared, and organizing the master bathroom so as to hasten myself off to the job.

Working nearly full time was a grand experiment, an way to escape frequent solitude. My working team, re-beginning after months of being laid off, required me to work five days weekly. After months of self-isolating, I looked forward to the workplace.

Starting again was fun, sometimes stressful. The problems were that horses need hay and someone keeping a watch over then, and dogs need to be inside during rain and extreme cold, or outside in improved weather. Wanting to be in two places at once began overcoming the fun of working and got me rethinking my commitment.

So, today’s my second of being home, free from the job another few days. Yesterday, like a kid in hardly recognizable surroundings, I organized some but mostly loafed around. Ahead, I’ll take my dogs out for runs, walk the streets with Peaches on my shoulder, and lead my dwarf goats on strolls through the neighborhood. The horses, meanwhile, will graze at a neighbor’s place, until it’s warm and time to get them into condition for summer’s riding and driving.

Dear Friends: Freedom and planning encourage eagerness for spring’s arrival. Diana

Thursday, February 04, 2021 (in 45 days, spring will arrive)

My computer has neared the ending of its rope. It’s taken its processor this entire early morning to settle enough to allow me onto my blog site. Meanwhile, I used my cell phone to order a new computer which will arrive sometime tomorrow.

In tomorrow’s early morning, I’ll attempt with my now-computer to send a hello, at least.

So, here’s today’s “at-least-hello”. Am glad finally, to be getting something going.

Thanks for hanging-in with me. It’ll be fun working on a new computer with faster, more accurate processing.

Dear Friends: Coming two (forced) new items: a camera and a laptop; and, wow! Diana

Wednesday, February 03, 2021 (In 46 days, the first day of spring)

This computer is a bear today, won’t open nor run properly. This happens when an update continues to process, but more likely, now is about time to replace this unit, beginning its third year of service. Experience teaches that a processor on the road to “slow and undependable” might have a failing hard drive.

Getting started today has gobbled too much time and I must go to work. So here are photos from the other day during practice with my 40sx zoom camera.

The header photo is one of the local plentiful mountain bluebirds. These are pretty little birds that I love, but aren’t particularly bright. Sometimes they nest in my barn and are dedicated parents, fun to see working hard to help their babies grow and fly.

Here’s a terrific bird shot. This robin landed very briefly in one of my pines and I almost missed it.

These days, pine trees aren’t where this Robin and its buddies mostly hang out. Instead, they’re flocking to junipers, loaded now with ripe berries, and happily becoming drunkards.

Dwarf goats are cute and irresistible. Here’s Poppy, in a goat trance, while happily rubbing her butt against a log.

And Poppy’s twin sister, Breeze, pretty and sweet.

These goat twins are entering their eleventh year. They’re affectionate and smart, and would enjoy pulling a little wagon. It’s a dream I’ve not given up on.

Finally, these are my last surviving hens also entering their eleventh year and hanging-in pretty well. Chickens need buddies, and so finally, after one of these gals goes, the other will spend her last days as my inside-house hen.

These are good captures by my 40sx, but many shots failed. This camera lacks an eye-viewer to help brace it, which makes handling too shaky to control focus. Otherwise, it’s a fine camera, useful in many situations. I’ll keep practicing.

Dear Friends: It’s fun out around the barn, and usually, includes new learning. Diana

Tuesday, February 02, 2021 (47 days until the first day of spring)

It’s interesting how pieces come together. Yesterday, I began reading Maya Angelo’s book, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings. Didn’t know what made me pick this one from a stack of waiting books, but I began reading. For many years, “Caged Bird” has been well known, well read by a worldwide audience. Many years ago, I already should have opened it.

In the middle of last night, I awakened and crawled from bed to let the dogs outside. While waiting to bring them inside, I checked my email, recognizing yet again, that February is Black History Month. Evidently, my motivation for picking up Angelo’s book was from thoughts being processed at some deep level.

I don’t practice diving into black history, beyond my experience during our modern era’s early beginnings, and the ongoing work to desegregate American schools and our public places. Like most Americans, I followed protests, standoffs, abuses, and changing politics; and like most, was impressed by MLK’s impact. His dreams, words, and activism–driving social and institutional changes, way too long in happening.

I know the wonderful writings by classic black writers, have pursued works by James Baldwin, Eldridge Cleaver, and Zora Neal Thurston. In recent years, Zadie Smith has caught my attention, and so have other young black writers, producing interesting, creative work.

Recently, a black writer has got to me big time–Isabelle Wilkerson, whose two books are fascinating. Her first, The Warmth of Other Suns, tracks the history, rules, and very-slowly-shifting status of Southern American Slavery. Her most recent, Caste, addresses social positioning among people, worldwide, and explores attitudes supporting social class variances, as granted by birthright, financial accumulation, and political power.

Wilkerson reintroduces our American deep south and its Jim Crow rules. She reintroduces the Untouchables in India, Nazis in Germany. She increases our awareness of the economic and political history driving hundreds of years of American slavery. Basically, she forces readers to reconsider many of the attitudes we learned growing up, regardless of where we might have lived.

Finally, little mystery about my subconscious nod to Black History Month, and choosing Angelo’s book. Most of us know of Angelo’s life and work, and surely, her famous book offers learning and inspiration.

Dear Friends: If you’ve read “Caged Bird”, please share your reading experience. Diana

Monday, February 01, 2021 (48 days until the first day of spring)

Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has written a book, “The Moment of Lift” (2019), subtitled, “How Empowering Women Changes the World”. Gates for twenty years has traveled the world in the roles of philanthropist and businesswoman. She recognizes that millions of women wish to be treated as equal citizens.

In parts of the world, women are denied many rights and privileges. They can’t decide whether, when, and whom to marry; or go to school; or earn an income; or spend their own money; or shape their budget; or start a business; or get a loan; or own property; or divorce a husband; or see a doctor; or run for office; or ride a bike; or drive a car; or go to college; or study computers; or find investors.

Modern parts of the world have allowed women to make strides toward equally, to achieve recognition as intelligent, capable of creativity and usefulness in business, science, and sociology. Their elevated status evolved upon access to contraceptives. Once becoming less tied to household management, women became more free to participate in social and business activities. Their skills and contributions are an outcome of more rights and privileges.

Gates’ journey as a public advocate began by speaking to women about family planning. Her sessions on this topic revealed it alone wasn’t enough, for many more women’s issues flowed into family planning. The basic issue against women’s taking a place equal to men, is a lack of achieved rights as individuals.

This book explains women Gates has met and their situations. She has encouraged them to engage and become active influencers of local social and political situations. At its core, Gates’ journey toward equality is very personal. Gates says her sense of equality was enabled by a little pill she took daily. That allowed her to choose herself if and when to have children.

American politics increasingly have given voice and power to many who would erase hard-earned essential women’s rights. Gates is a woman with wealth and position power who speaks out unafraid, and with experience and authority.

Gender inequality is about as old as human existence. More equality than ever has been achieved during society’s last forty or fifty years, but only in some parts of the world. Unfortunately, even where equality has progressed, it’s still very vulnerable.

Dear Friends: Could disarming 70M rabid Trump supporters disempower them? Diana

Sunday, January 31, 2021 (48 days to spring)

This is my first Sunday in weeks not to rush for an early start at work. I’ve reduced my working days to three weekly and am eager to explore what’s “out there” and fun to learn about, or to get doing.

For one thing, hat-off to my high school friend, Stephanie. She suggested trying my hand at knitting with a knitting board. Like me, she’s stumbled with needles, before discovering that a fixed board made knitting easy. Now, on one she turns out lovely pieces.

Stephanie knits on a circular loom, maybe similar to the one below. She loves it and my research suggests this loom can knit anything, straight or curving, and all sizes.

I found the curves daunting, and moreover, also the videos showing how to use this style loom. Stephanie insisted I keep trying, and so, I watched more videos. My eyes and brain couldn’t track with the yarn wrappings, and etc., that create knitting.

In the past, I’ve tried working with needles, sometimes making progress, but never getting the hang of them. My needle pieces dazzled with stitches dropped and reversed. Honestly, needling bored me.

After failing to grasp loom videos, I turned to reading bunches of reviews about knitting on different style looms. Many reviewers swore by a straight version that looked easiest, and so I plunged.

To my uneducated self, unpackaging this loom was discouraging. I set it aside and tried to forget, but maybe January’s Full Wolf Moon urged me on. Long story short, I watched and re-watched many more videos. Finally, something clicked in and I began wrapping yarn around little posts.

Today, forgive this poor photo, but here’s the exciting start of a double-knitted wool scarf.

Dear Friends: We’re all creative, if we keep exploring, trying, and believing. Diana

Saturday, January 30, 2021 (In 49 days, the first day of spring.)

I’m in the age group scheduled for corvid shots. I have learned through public media that Central Oregon’s vaccines for my population were shifted over to Portland for its residents. Early on I signed up for an appointment and never heard back. Now, what to do next? One thing for sure, I’ll write a complaining letter to Governor Brown.

Okay, so vaccines are disappearing, along with Grape Nuts Cereal, and the still clouded-out Wolf Moon, again invisible last night and this morning. Aside from those issues, perhaps a most discomforting thing is the increasing referral to human populations as herds. I love animals, and yet hope that our common sense of humanity, even slightly, won’t seem dehumanized.

I searched for something to help offset this morning’s mental discomforts. The header photo from last summer shows Louie under the powerlines in our local outback. He’s drinking from a canal, a pleasant reminder of warm weather with running water and fresh grass. I recall, too, water lilies heavily populating the little canal. My photo didn’t capture them, but I’ll shoot those lilies when again there with a camera. Out in the outback–in some 40-odd days.

In another photo from last summer, my whole pack enjoys a larger canal.

Dear Friends: “Herd” refers to certain living species, and so does “humanity”. Diana

Friday, January 29, 2021 (50 days until the first day of spring 2021)

I’ve eagerly anticipated January’s Full Wolf Moon, and yesterday, saw its magnificent appearance in the evening through a kitchen window. Before getting my camera and photographing the lovely sight, I paused, to finish washing dishes in the sink. In the snap of those few moments of distraction, my moon disappeared. I tried without success to locate it among the still snowy and water-heavy clouds.

Seeing this Wolf Moon is one thing. As it happens, I can hear it howling, too.

Yesterday and serendipitously, my friend, Karen, who lives in Madras, sent the photo I’m borrowing for today’s header. Her shot captures how naturally this moon, in January’s sky and winter, simultaneously reveals the polar opposites of enlightening and haunting.

Thank you, Karen!

That Wolf Moon speaks is a reminder of coming spring, and by the calendar in fifty days. I’m calculating needed time and energy to get my horses into shape for riding and driving. To this end, I’ve stepped away from a supervisory role at work and reduced at-work days to three-weekly.

For several more nights, the light of January’s Full Wolf Moon will shine overhead, and hopefully in my area be visible enough to yield more enlightenment.

Dear Friends: Maybe spring on the calendar will become spring in the reality. Diana

Thursday, January 28, 2021 (Tonight, a Full Wolf Moon!)

I howled at the moon. It howled back, and I went into action, shopped online and finally found a dreamed-for zoom camera. On its way to me is a Canon 70X, with a 65x zoom and an eye-viewer. Among a camera’s accoutrements, eye-viewing is essential. A camera body braced against a forehead helps to steady zooms and to stabilize distant images.

In late afternoon, after ordering a new camera, I went outside with the Canon 40x zoom. Its lack of an eye-viewer has hindered my captures. Now, I felt relaxed and like playing with the camera.

In these cold and snow-covered days, few living beings stir. Suddenly, I spotted a dove in flight. It landed in a juniper about 50 yards away, camouflaged among the branches but visible to my naked eye. However, finding that bird on the camera screen, across distance or with zooms-in, seemed impossible.

Knowing the bird was there, unmoving, I used the zoom to identify a nearby object, and then, an associated tree branch. Following these clues located my subject on the screen. I snapped a picture, a fun capture. The bird was watching me!

Those birds, so incredibly smart.

As my screen still held the dove, I snapped another photo, and got a real goodie.

Modern camera technology, regardless of brand, makes satisfying creativity possible. If I took time to practice, my 40x zoom would yield greater numbers of satisfying photos. A new camera won’t eliminate the challenges of capturing over distance, but an eye-viewer eases the job. Minus a tripod, bracing camera against forehead counters our naturally-shaky human fingers and hands.

Dear Friends: Tune in fully to our new moon, see and speak to it, and listen closely. Diana

Wednesday, January 27, 2021 (Tomorrow a Full Wolf Moon rises.)

It’s a good thing the other evening that I caught the Full Wolf Moon’s rising. Yesterday afternoon, after new snow fell, our sky became cloud-filled and this morning reveals nada.

Early yesterday morning, I was awakened by the setting Wolf Moon’s shine through my bedroom’s west window, creating a world aglow. I slipped on slippers, donned a robe, grabbed my forty-times zoom Canon, and hurried outside to capture the magic natural light.

My two zoom cameras are Canons. The new 40x isn’t nearly as satisfying as my old 50x. That earlier camera, used for eight or ten years, has been steadier to handle than the new 40x. The 50x in sighting and shooting seems to capture in images more of surrounding elements.

For example, the 50x captured the moon traveling through clouds, with moon and clouds moving quickly, sometimes an unclear mish-mosh. The next morning, my 40x moon seemed holding steady. Its shine reached me through juniper branches. Although I hoped to capture moon and trees, a bald moon became the 40x camera’s best shot. There’s nothing wrong with the image, it’s just less than hoped for.

Not to dis the 40x, for it makes fun captures. Here are some early morning mountain bluebirds, pausing briefly in the cold. They’ll soon fly again and land on my horses’ troughs. There they’ll perch and take turns sipping and keeping watch.

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Trying to capture what I want returns me to the market for another zoom camera, and this time with better-defined goals and needs. I’ll seek expert advice from such as B&H Cameras. If my dream isn’t affordable, maybe Canon will accept my old satisfying 50x for repairs and refurbishment. Also worth exploring is ebay, which might offer a refurbished version of my 50x. Today, the search begins.

Dear Friends: This morning no visual moon, but it will reappear and grandly. Diana