Monday, June 15, 2020

Saturday will be our 2020 summer solstice, this year’s longest daylight hours. That day, our local temperatures will rise to 89 degrees, the week’s warmest and popped way above recent temperatures ranging in the 50s and 60s.

Summer solstices mark a beginning-of-the-end to long daylights and warm weather. Afterwards, in days of less light temperatures begin cooling. Here in Oregon’s high desert, September and October are very beautiful months. This year our unusually cool and wet weather dims the impact of summer solstice. It’ll shorten daylights but have less-noticeable weather shifts.

The weather is a big deal, a topic on steroids for those living-in or visiting outdoorsy areas. Oregon’s high desert is a crazy place with a massive mountain range and heavy foresting on its west side, and hundreds of miles of dry sandy desert on the eastern side. The mountain ranges either block or alter weather systems from the west, and the desert can be inhospitably hot or cold.

Years ago, my biggest temperature consideration was whether to venture outside on horseback. I’ve tolerated trails in temperatures over 30 degrees, but anything less makes rein-holding hands sheerly frozen and bitterly-painful. In recent years, during very cold temperatures horse-riding be hanged, I’ve stayed inside by a fireplace.

This year, I’ve developed a new interest and wish to become a capable mushroomer. After lifelong fears of potentially-killer wild mushrooms, I’m learning how to identify and harvest varieties not poisonous. Searching for wild mushrooms still is a new experience, and this week I’ll search with my mentor. That will boost my skills in identifying, harvesting, and preparing fungi as food.

About this weather, I’m less focused on the solstice, and instead loving an ongoing gloomy drizzle. The thing is, it keeps soils damp and encourages newly-emerging fungi.

Dear Friends: It’s all about perspective and relative to our interests and activities. Diana

Sunday, June 14, 2020

Yesterday, I prepared to drive toward the Cascades with my dogs, and let them explore freely a forested area. Here at home a light rain fell and my cell phone reported rain ongoing throughout the day. While pausing for gasoline, my destination shifted from the mountains to a small BLM on this city’s eastside. Running through much of that BLM is a vigorous irrigation canal, my dogs love the place.

In light rain, the BLM parking area was empty. Immediately, upon starting to follow the dogs along the waterway, I found that frequent rains now have it stunningly lined by healthy and very colorful plants. I’ve walked often there for years, never before seeing as much streaming health and plant varieties. Each of the stream’s sides hosted tall yellow lilies, True forget-me-nots, Queen Anne’s lace, Sulphur flowers, and widespread red clovers.

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The dogs in running-heaven plunged into or leaped across the steam, treading on vegetation now strong enough to withstand bruisings. They climbed up and onto the high natural pilings of big rocks and poked their noses into cavities.

On the other side of those big rocks is a desert side, a broad expanse of dry land. I joined the dogs by climbing up and walking along rocky tops, before we descended onto the dry side among desert-sorts of flowering plants. Now, we were among short-stemmed sunflowers, sand lilies, multi-colored asters, and such lesser-recognized opportunists as winterfat, plantain, phacelia, and milk vetch. These plants like those by the water were plentiful and strong.

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I kept my camera busy despite the dashing dogs that frequently brushed against my legs. As the rain drizzling slowed we began to wrap up our outing. While heading in the direction of our Jeep an afternoon sun began to shine. Ah, another lovely adventure and this time closer to home.

Dear Friends: A semi-isolation period pushes us toward broader interests. Diana

Saturday, June 13, 2020

I returned to the forested Cascade Mountains where my friend, Dave, recently introduced me to the art of mushrooming. Returning alone, I was experimenting with being alone in vast wilderness. Well, this pilgrimage wasn’t exactly lonely, with my dogs along.

I drove high on a main road passing turnoff opportunities and arbitrarily selected one. I then navigating my Jeep along an unexpectedly narrow, conifer-smothered dirt track, finally spotting an off-road space large enough to park. I exited, released the excited dogs, and stood several moments breathing incredibly fresh air. As Dave had taught, I held a mesh bag for harvested mushrooms (allowing, while being carried, continuing spore-scatterings).

Another lesson from the initial outing was that walking in a wilderness can disorient one. That and the limited vision from many trees can lose a parked vehicle. This time, I carried helpful electronics. One was a “go back” that can estimate distance and direction of a car’s location. As a precaution, I had my Spot personal locator, which can signal for a needed rescue. Remember, this adventure was my first-ever time alone in a vast public area. I’m unable to navigate by compass (but will learn).

The dogs and I wandered, my eyes moving constantly and searching for mushrooms. Before long, I began to comprehend that my earlier experience had been more broad than simply mushrooming. Many other factors that surround an art of mushrooming had compelled my desire to re-experience the great outdoors.

The Pacific Northwest, all about outdoors, is an incredibly inviting area for hiking, fishing, biking, wild-animal hunting, and horseback riding. Most of my years in this area and outdoors were on horseback. I loved it but feared being alone and on foot in a large forested area.

But this day, my every step slowly turned into adventure. This arose from a sudden awareness with each step of differing sensitivities of ground. And, too, from unique plant sightings.

I paid attention to the intricate patterns of tree barks, and focused on the area’s possible history while struggling across much naturally-occurred wood debris. There were many fascinating rock formations.

Throughout, the dogs stayed with me. I moved carefully in directions and tried to avoid losing my vehicle. This failed, for upon deciding to go to another road, and walking toward where the Jeep was parked, I finally resorted to the back-tracking device. No surprise, my parking spot was a couple hundred yards away and in quite another direction.

It was another great day. Tired dogs, wild mushrooms, and somehow, pleasantly, more of myself.

Dear Readers: Planning with Dave a re-trip to practice the spotting of morels. Diana

Friday, June 12, 2020

My friend, David Gilbert is a lifelong outdoorsman. He’s lived in Alaska and Colorado, and by now also is a long-time Bend resident. Dave both hikes and rides horseback, he knows where to find and how to navigate most Central Oregon wilderness trails. I was honored to follow him and his dogs through a beautiful wilderness near Mount Bachelor. It’s an area he visits often for there are edible wild mushrooms growing there. Dave was sharing the arts of spotting and harvesting them.

Dave moved slowly, looking carefully and confidently in one area and then in others where he previously has discovered mushrooms and anticipated they’d still be growing. He explained that early-season mushrooms grow in lower areas, and as spring matures emerging growths occur in higher locations. He was searching primarily for Boletus edulis (porchini) and for morels. On discovering and harvesting a Boletus, he showed me while explaining its growth and structures, and preparation steps for cooking.

That got me going and before long both of us were spotting edible Boletus. Dave showed how to identify those Boletus too old and spent to harvest. I didn’t take pictures of an emerging Boletus, planning to that later. I did capture a beautiful mushroom that Dave explained was one of the most poison in Central Oregon.

We found lots of Boletus, plenty for us to share.

We didn’t discover morels in the area but lots more to savor. There were young Ponderosas sporting branches heavy with new acorns. The grounds we walked on sprouted galores of young wild strawberries.

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I’ll be returning, and wild for strawberries and mushrooms alike. My dogs will go, too, and enjoy running and sniffing in that beautiful place. It’s also an area ideal for riding horseback, and that’s another plan.

Back home, my lunch consisted of mushrooms and scrambled eggs sauteed in ghee. Oh, all delish!

Dear Friends: The wilderness has begun calling ever louder to me! Diana

Thursday, June 11, 2020

As I write it’s raining again, after several overnight bouts. This welcome moisture makes difficult the task of ridding weeds on my property. I self-console by deciding to forget weeds and instead go horseback riding. The trails won’t be dusty today unless rain becomes steadily-intermittent or continuous. In years past, I’ve ridden in rain and enjoyed it. But I was younger, tougher, more courageous. These days I tend to seek comfort over adventure.

Speaking of comfort, and after long-arguing with myself, I’ve cancelled my cable TV subscription. I’ll keep the internet, or streaming service, because it’s often used. As for cable, during the continuous coronavirus semi-lockdown, networks daily carried endless hours of White House briefings, and afterwards, one talking head after another echoed everything. Gradually, I quit watching.

Meanwhile, the streaming services are upping their offerings, some of which are terrific. There’s plenty that’s appealing to watch. It’s also possible to view network news channels through such as Hulu. If there’s a premium charge, maybe it’s less than subscribing to cable.

National newspapers report that cable-watching significantly has dropped off through these months of self-isolation and coronavirus-reporting. Lot of other folks also have become bored and willing to dump their cable channels. That most of us have turned daily to streaming services is reflected among key providers as majorly-increasing stock prices.

I’m wiping my hands of cable, rehanging a window antenna. I’ll look forward to free PBS News-hours with Judy and her crew keeping me reasonably apprised.

Besides, my neighbors subscribe to cable and also stock some Coors Lite. Experience with neighbors has taught that similar political views may be agents of happy bonding. Maybe if there’s something coming up on cable that I simply can’t miss, they’ll let me sit-in and watch, maybe even with a cold brew.

Dear Friends: Sun’s begun to shine, so I’ll pack-it-all-in and go out to ready my horses. Diana

Wednesday, June 10, 2020

Lately I’ve been thinking about art, wondering how it’s created and evolves. My recent favorite watches have been a French film, “Portrait of a Woman on Fire”, released last fall and very popular. The other a British sitcom that first aired thirty years ago and now is streaming, it’s the series “Absolutely Fabulous”, an international success throughout its six seasons and afterwards as re-runs for many years.

Great art is easy to recognize, lets viewers take away their own ideas about what makes works effective and their possible meanings. I enjoy allowing my brain to go into its own creative places, come up with ideas and expand them. It’s a joyous experience with appropriate stimulation for this, from a book, movie, or something that’s spontaneous on the street.

Regarding “Portrait” and “Ab Fab”, I’ve gone beyond my own mind and imagination by listening to the creators of these works. There’s easy learning about filmwork creation from Celine Sciamma who wrote and directed “Portrait”. She has in-depth answers during numerous interviews on YouTube about her films, especially this one. She explains how she selected and worked with actors, and why her directing style is to corregraph everything in a scene–from positions and movements to in-and-out breathing. She speaks to her work as an entire course about creating and comprehending meanings in film.

Oddly, differently and yet similarly, the writer of “Ab Fab”, Jennifer Saunders, explains her work addressing the funny, perplexing issues of daily living. Her skits focus on personal struggles associated to one’s goals and interpersonal relationships. Her situations are creative funnies, as pratfalls, alter-ego conflicts, mother-daughter issues, ex-husband and alimony disappointments, women-owned businesses and women as competitors, and a long-missing adult son who refuses any contact with his mother.

These artworks offer entirely different experiences regardless of a viewer’s gender. One work is visually beautiful, intellectually enthralling, and even mind-bending. The other is a laugh-out-loud comedy, compelling and identifiable as the “inners of us all”. Each has the qualities of construction and depth that touch people deeply. Each forces us to respond to the art and to its purposes. They make us think and feel–or maybe the other way around, make us feel and then think.

Dear Friends: There’s much to learn about the complex, absolutely fascinating topic of art. Diana

Tuesday, June 09, 2020

I awaken early, to many new emails in my inbox. Today’s total twenty-six, the whole lot recaps what’s going on or anticipates what’s coming next. I won’t read any, for mostly these repeat the contents of the previous twenty-six or so in my inbox.

Ahem, it’s the same day after day. There’s rioting, rogue coppers, lives mattering, an unhinged president, an attorney general who might be Lon Chaney reincarnated, and senate leader, Mr. No-chin. My index finger begins hitting the delete button. My strong inner-voice is channeling Michael’s, “‘Beat it’, all of you!”

Forget a need to obsess about new news when one has become saturated in an old British television series, “Absolutely Fabulous” (now streaming). Sure, the show is slightly dated, it makes fun of what societies dealt with, tried adjusting to, in the late Twentieth and early Twenty-First Centuries.

Nonetheless, its situations are very transferable and still relevant. That’s because of great scripts and terrific actors. The episodes highlight human struggles to combat personal and social angsts. It’s about “norms” and plays with various ways that humans may (or not) understand, accept, and conform to social expectations.

Why do we need so much “new-news”, forcing ourselves to cycle through a sad range of human emotions? Isn’t it true that the “same-olds” are better later, easier to absorb? Aren’t social and political struggles more fun viewed through an artist’s lens?

Dear Readers: Adapting to fashions, cultures, and norms, high-angst and absolutely fabulous. Diana

Monday, June 08, 2020

My cat, Maxwell, hasn’t been allowed outside for a several weeks. He’s unhappy and to be honest me, too. Max has been with me for ten years, the first few as an “outside only” (to guard the chicken coop), but along the way has transitioned his residency to “inside-outside” status.

Over the years, my property has had a steadily decreasing tiny-wild critter population because my cat is an expert killer. For example, bunches of chipmunks that used to run around have disappeared. For another, Max drags kills into my garage, or if he’s locked outside, under a vehicle, leaving partially-destroyed such as baby bunnies and birds.

He can spot possibilities. In spring, as birds create nests up high in the barn, Max finds their locations and checks then frequently hoping to make invasions, see critters fall from nests, and pounce on unaware fledglings.

Max is friendly, lovable, and a too-good killer. I’ve yearned for healthy chipmunks again living here. I’ve wanted not to discover Max’s captured-remains. Now, this spring, my cat is inside-only, and can’t even slip out with the dogs.

Now walking around, I enjoy the lizards without fearing the cat. My lizard population is great because Max annually decimates many. Another good is a just-weaned bunny that’s begun hanging around without falling to Max’s intent. When Max spots the bunny through a window, he’s into capture mode–body tense, emitting threatening low growls.

A bunny population may be problematic, but this new resident is welcome as incoming critter diversity. My wild bird population newly has, here on my desert landscape, a bath for splashing. I’ll be watching, along with Max.

My cat will be inside-only and it’s okay for he’s middle-aged, has had plenty of fun. This change will keep him healthier, longer-living, and relatively satisfied.

Last night around midnight, my deck lit up, triggered-on by a skittering pack rat. Some critters are far less welcome than others. Maybe, after all, I’ll wind up rethinking Max’s future.

Dear Friends: As the Bard says, at times we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t. Diana

Sunday, June 07, 2020

We’re nearing this year’s midpoint and also it’s longest day, and the weather in this part of the country is cold! Last evening, in a ski jacket and wool hat, I shivered while feeding the large animals. There’s an old joke about Bend, that it has only two seasons: winter and the 4th of July. Very believable nowadays.

Escaping the weather, I turned to my old buddy, streaming television, and found on Hulu another old buddy–a British sitcom, “Absolutely Fabulous”, which first aired in the early 90s and stopped around 2012. In the early days, I never missed an episode and along with many friends ranked it the funniest satire ever. Since then, I’ve wondered occasionally if by today it would seem funny still or instead be very dated and obsolete.

A new viewing provides the answers. It’s back, still funny, and a reminder of much that years ago was fresh. Nothing’s obsolete because great humor, being just that, always makes us laugh out loud. The series has Edina, Patsy, Saffron, Bubble, and other memorable characters attempting to face-up-to, ignore, or try fitting-into modern times. Great humor is a stable product.

The show’s primary creator, Jennifer Saunders (nothing less than a modern-day Charlie Chaplin), plays Edina, specializing in PR and operating a modeling agency. Edina’s side-kick is Patsy, drunken, drugged-out, and man-crazy, played by the gorgeous Joanna Lumley (in reality, Lumley totally is Patsy’s opposite, she’s memorable as one of 1970’s original “New Avengers”). A young woman, Julia Sawaltha, plays Saffron, who’s Edina’s straight-laced, superego daughter. The series has spots using famous models and actors (e.g., Twiggy, Helen Bonham Carter).

The TV series concluded after the production of “Absolutely Fabulous, the Movie”, which starred the television cast. I recall Rosanne Barr buying the rights to “Ab Fab”, intending to turn it into an American television series. That didn’t happen, perhaps because it might be very difficult to translate effectively British humor into American humor, although all humors share commonalities.

The series consisted of five seasons and included several additional “special episodes”. During this area’s midsummer chilly evenings, I’ll be inside, rewatching the lot and laughing bunches.

Dear Friends: A gem, it stresses friendship and laughs at self-critique and social angst. Diana

Saturday, June 06, 2020

I’m sitting near the big birdcage that’s home to Peaches, my Cockatoo, and streaming an excellent documentary covering Bob Dylan’s artistry and career. Somewhere in the film’s middle, I’m listening closely to Dylan’s poetry-as-song when Peaches begins screaming loudly and blotting-out Dylan.

His rackets often interrupt my attempts to concentrate on things highly interesting. I pause to wait until the bird stops declaring his presence. This time he won’t shut up, continues the high-pitched screaming. He’s hanging on a side of his cage, has a view clear down to the horses. Maybe putting the dogs outside will interrupt Peaches’ focus, but the screaming continues.

The dogs are outside only an instant before they began barking full-tilt and rushing down the hill. “Deer”, I thought, peering without seeing anything. The bird and dogs killed any listening to Dylan. “Where are those deer?” I walked outside onto the deck looking for them.

Deer indeed! How about my goats and chickens, unpenned!–on the loose, wandering around!

I rushed into the house, paused for boots (a rainy day), and hurried downhill. When was I careless with that gate! The horses were hanging their heads over the fence and watching the free animals, none far from their pen and confused about where to go. Good! They’d just become free.

The goats hurried toward me as I ran to a feed-keeper. I grabbed a container, scooped and rattled grain, and now the goats followed me back to their area. Chickens, too, at my heels. I dumped feed for all the critters, closed and double-secured their gate, and whispered to my now-silent bird, “Thank you, Peaches”.

This bird never misses a beat when it’s about activities on this property. He recognizes a stranger’s approach, quickly spots when deer are crossing, knows when I leave the property and sees my returns. Always, he’s very noisy, about what he sees, or just wants to make a racket.

Now, four things happen: I beat-up on myself mentally for leaving unlatched a critical gate; salute my bird’s watchfulness and rackety-informing; give thanks to the dogs for underscoring bird noises; and wondered what had motivated my unusual venturing-outside to see a common sight.

Dear Friends: Life teaches of serendipitous-knittings among spontaneous events. Diana