Perhaps I Should Post Paintings from Nature Instead of Photos?

 Why am I so bad at keeping my blog posts going? Tomorrow I will write about something everyone is interested in….

https://portraitsbyjamierisedorph.wordpress.com/watercolor-portrait-gallery/?preview=

A Perfect Summer Day in Upstate NY

Today is simply perfection! 82 degrees, low humidity and a lovely breeze. I even identified a new plant in one of the gardens--Gooseneck Loosestrife. And the clouds have been particularly lovely lately.

That's all! Now back to enjoying the beautiful day!

How and when should we open our schools?

There is much discussion about how and when we should open our schools and apparently some already are. At least one teacher has died from COVID already. 

Currently this pandemic is raging out of control in the USA and I am afraid we may see a spike in Upstate NY from southerners coming up to escape the heat. This isn't supposed to happen but since we can't even get many Americans to wear a mask, how do we expect them to follow travel restrictions or quarantines?

I hope to get a response from teachers, staff and administrators about how you feel about opening the schools in September.

Thank you!

Response to Electoral College Debate and a New Subject about Voting

Jamie, I agree that the EC has become dated. I would add to your comments that George W Bush took us to war based on lies. This plus stealing the 2000 election forever changed how I look at the Republican party. I favor basing the election on the popular vote. (Don White)

Absolutely! That is when I formally changed my voter registration. I could not accept all the obvious corruption. Vietnam was a political war as well and one of the reasons Kennedy was murdered. The underlying greed; the money that is made from the sale of weapons, oil and opium has been undermining our political system for decades. Eisenhower warned of the dangers of having a war driven economy but that is exactly where we are. Presidents play the patriotism card and can get re-elected on that alone. Which brings me to my next pet peeve: the way we vote. Right now there is a ton of controversy over mail-in ballots and the current president is waging an attack on the process saying it is used for fraudulent voting while in fact, that has never really been an issue. Gerrymandering and confusing ballots or voting machine procedures have led to much more subterfuge. Here's my idea--voting by internet.

If we can file our taxes, our medical information, take college courses and do our banking safely online, why can't we vote that way? The Republicans don't want that to happen because every registered voter would probably vote and the swamp really would be cleared--assuming there were good, ethical candidates to replace the corrupt and complacent old guard.

I think this is truly a time for reassessment of how we treat everything in our lives: our relationship with government, racial equality, healthcare, care of the environment, education and, of course, this pandemic and those to come.

Electoral College Debate

For many years I have felt that the Electoral College is out of date and not representative of our times or a fair representation of the people's wishes. My father always gave the stock answer is that it provided equal representation for each state. But does it?

In the past, the results of the Electoral College and the popular vote have yielded the same results. Then came Al Gore v George W Bush, and after the FL decision Bush was named the winner even though Gore had gotten more of the popular vote. We all know how that worked out---a strong economy faltered into a Great Recession, hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster that was completely mishandled and then came 9/11 and the appropriate response was escalated to include Iraq when all involved knew there really were no WMDs. Obama came, revived the economy, gave us ACA (a flawed but better than what we had healthcare plan) and captured Osama bin Laden.

Fast forward to 2016. Once again we get a president via the Electoral College even though Hillary was far ahead by popular vote. I need not speak about where that outcome has brought us. Can we say good bye to the EC?

Ten years ago I started this blog and drifted away from blogging for many reasons. Now the negativity and  fueled divisions on Facebook have brought me back to where I can say what I think and have friends respond who will be conversational and rational about their posts. No more hysteria and name calling! 

These times are too important to hide my head in the sand and just post pretty pictures, although I will do plenty of that too! We need to be on the lookout for relevant and helpful information about COVID-19, our right to vote, the ongoing civil rights movement with BLM at the lead but not overlooking BIPOC and our precious and fragile earth environment.

Hope you will join me here to pass on news that is important to you and to keep in touch. Keep looking up and moving forward!

It Was a Dark and Stormy Day

Okay so July is almost over. We have been living off the garden: broccoli, zucchini, tomatoes, peas, beans, greens, onions, peppers, potatoes. OH! The potatoes! This is the first year I have grown them and they make me feel like a kid again, picking my first pea and opening that perfect pod to find the most adorable round orbs that tasted far too sweet to surrender to the pot for cooking. I am once again full of wonder at the miracle of life.

I love searching just beneath the soil for thier round coolness and then you pull it out and there is this delicious little tuber. "Taters! Po-ta-toes! Don't you know what potatoes are?" asked Sam. A not so exact quote from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers which comes from one of my favorite parts of the book right before they meet Faramir and go into the wonders of Ithilien. But I digress...

Although the garden isn't normally considered to be part of nature in actuality it is nature that has reached out to us and allowed us to do its work for Her. Tonight our local food cooperative is having its first book club meeting and we are discussing The Anatomy of Desire by Michael Pollan. He makes just that claim using the apples of  Johnny Appleseed, tulips, taters and marijuana as examples. It's a good read and PBS dd a great documentary that is quite memorable. But again, I digress...

Another amazing thing I discovered while finger digging for taters is that getting your hands into the dirt that way results in a natural kind of manicure. Well you DO have to clean dirt out from under your nails, but the skin of your fingers and hands beomes beautifully exfoliated, similar to the pedicure your feet receive from walking on the beach. I am so grateful to the potatoes!

The rain had just started when I came in and started typing. It got very dark and we had quite a downpour for a few minutes and now the sun is out again. This was a well needed rain as we have been experiencing a heat wave for the last few weeks and whenever the rain comes it is very refreshing and the garden (and the potatoes) is very grateful. As am I.

I promise to share stories of the rose breasted grosbeak dad feeding his full sized baby and the raccoons swinging from the bird feeders and--well I guess I just did. Pictures would be nice but I get too engrossed in watching the life play out in front of me. 

Stay well. Love and light to all.