Trash Sculpture

The weather here this weekend was gorgeous, so Jason and I went out and did some weed warrioring at a park near our place. Weed Warriors is a Montgomery County parks program which trains ordinary citizens to become certified to identify and remove non-native invasive species of plants in the local parks. It's a fun and rewarding way to help the local environment as non-natives can really wreak havoc and throw entire ecosystems off-kilter. So look into it if interested to see if there might be a similar program in your area. But, anyway, while we were out, we gathered some trash and made a little sculpture and then threw the trash away. I was thinking it would be cool to try this on a larger scale, by perhaps organizing a community trash clean-up day and having a trash sculpture contest as a fun way to clean up the Earth and get creative! Find a particularly trash-ridden area, gather some folks (you could work in teams or individually), gather trash and then make sculptures. Then, if you wanted to make it a competition you could have some type of judge or have people vote on the sculpture they think is best. Then, of course, have everyone throw the trash away. As I'm writing this I'm thinking someone has probably already come up with this idea...I'll look into it, but in the mean time if someone wants to make a trash sculpture and post a picture of it on the Idea Farm, it would make me really happy! Ours kinda sucked because thankfully there really wasn't that much trash to work with and it was very windy, but some more artistically gifted folks like yourselves could probably come up with something really rad. Just an idea.

This made me think of one of my favorite documentaries, Rivers & Tides, about the artist Andy Goldsworthy, who makes nature sculptures. If you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and witness the beauty of his creations and patience. Here's a clip:

Buckwheat and Banana Pancakes

BUCKWHEAT AND BANANA PANCAKES
So, I admit I am not very creative but I do love to cook which is a form of creativity in its own right. I love to find healthy recipes that still taste good and this is a good example. Saying that, I love pancakes. I especially love the taste of banana with the sticky syrup. You could sprinkle chopped walnuts on the pancakes as they’re cooking for a full-on pancake-meets-banana bread experience. These happen to be vegan, but don’t taste like it. Buckwheat flour adds a lot of value to the plain white flour – it’s rich in nutrients like calcium, iron, B vitamins and protein, and it's gluten-free. Definitely worth a trip to the health food store.

Serves: about 3-4 (makes about a dozen)
Time: 15 minutes

• 1 1/4 cups soy or rice milk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon maple syrup, plus more for serving
• 1/2 cup buckwheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour or white spelt flour (substitute rice flour to make pancakes completely gluten-free)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 bananas, thinly sliced

Mix all the wet ingredients together in a small bowl. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a slightly bigger bowl. Add the wet to the dry and stir just enough to combine – be careful not to over-mix (that’s how you get tough pancakes).

Heat a large nonstick skillet or griddle over medium-high heat. Ladle as many pancakes as possible onto your griddle. Place a few slices of banana on top of each pancake. Cook for about a minute and a half on the first side or until the surface is covered with small bubbles and the underside is nicely browned. Flip and cook for about a minute on the second side. Repeat the process until you run out of batter. Serve stacked high with plenty of maple syrup.

Lullaby

So much time spent in anger
Understanding not the danger
Of refusing this transition

Never accepting the mission
So many years spent charming
Promises disarming

Life on the horizon
Unable to envision
The golden promise

Afraid of the crucible's furnace
Transforming ore of childhood
Soon hard-won metal of adulthood

Sleep in peace tonight
Wake up with insight
My beloved

101 things I am grateful for

I'm not sure about you, but this is within my realm of creativity. Prompted by my recent free will horoscope, I have written up 101 things I am grateful for. Mere mere, myself and our friend did this together and shared. It was fun and really grounding.

1. Noodles!
2. Mere mere
3. My first name
4. My middle name b/c it was my grandmas and then I inherited a ring from her (that I would never wear) and then I sold it to my uncle and got a beautiful tattoo and now i can go to grad school without going into MAJOR debt (only minor)
5. Grad school
6. Hero and Saka
7. Rumi
8. Food
9. Freedom
10. Lovemaking
11. Ducking (but it actually starts with an F)
12. Music
13. Dancing Hard
14. Dancing Soft
15. Dancing Weird
16. Symbols
17. Pema Chodron
18. My sister
19. Squishy lettuce
20. Mere-mere's bread
21. Stars
22. Dusk
23. Rowing machines
24. Pole beans
25. parsnips and Jerusalem artichokes
26. Silliness
27. fountain pens
28. libraries
29. best friends
30. friendly neighbours
31. compost
32. Mary mother of Jesus
33. turtles
34. prayer flags
35. healing
36. therapy
37. Jesus
38. my job
39. strong teeth
40. bells
41. permaculture
42. prayer
43. the buddha
44. sledding
45. story telling
46. radio lab
47. anger
48. micro-organisms
49. herb gardens
50. chocolate
51. chocolate milk (hot or cold)
52. bees
53. beeswax candles
54. honey
55. cows
56. alpacas
57. compassion from suffering
58. bass beats
59. beer and wine
60. pudding
61. dumplings
62. mosaics
63. tattoos
64. amazing natural facts
65. myths
66. family
67. vibrators
68. shells
69. gaia
70. my goddess necklace
71. intuition and listening to it
72. balance
73. self-awareness
74. willingness
75. healers
76. skinny dipping
77. salmon
78. being easy on myself
79. sleeping in and staring out the window
80. games (especially on cold days)
81. bicycles
82. spices
83. possibilities
84. choice
85. celebration
86. moderation
87. remembering truths
88. connection connecting connectedness
89. hymns
90. strength
91. weakness
92. beauty
93. horizons
94. waves
95. metaphors
96. farmer's markets
97. trees
98. inspirations
99. outer space
100. paradoxes
101. mere's smell