The guests are gone.......

remnants of the beautiful yellow jacket hive

Remember the 'unwelcome guests' I wrote of in September? The yellow jackets that took up residence above the door of one of our buildings? We've been waiting to reclaim our building. I checked now and then, looking for signs of their absence. But there have been no signs, no dead bodies, and no deterioration of their beautifully sculpted paper home. One day a few weeks ago a sentry sat unmoving at the opening to the nest, a few days later I saw a fly go in. We decided they were gone and a few days ago Mike knocked down the nest, wrapped so tightly around several pieces of wood, it was not possible to remove gently. Only flies he said (I wasn't in attendance, miserably inside with a sinus cold). Not a trace of the bustling colony that had lived there. 

Parnassian Butterfly in June. Dying off,
they leave behind tiny eggs to over winter.

Remarkable. Entire populations of insects come to life, build complex infrastructures, have complex social organizations, and die off in extraordinarily short periods of time. There are those who have individual short life spans within a long living community, such as an ant in the decades old giant anthill at the bottom of our driveway (which survives annual slashes from the roadside brush cutter), or an individual bee in a honeybee hive. There are solitary insects, such as the beautiful Parnassian butterflies which grace our yard every June, their caterpillar stage dependent on the wild bleeding hearts that fill our woods each spring. Even considering all their various stages, their lives are relatively short. But the Yellow Jackets that took over the entrance to our building, as well as the ever-present Bumble Bees in our yard every summer, don't just come and go, they build and leave behind whole towns!

I often think of next year's queen bumble bees tucked into
the earth somewhere for the winter. Ahh, sounds cozy!

It is extraordinary that such complex societies are built and die in such condensed time, yet when the pundits of philosophy and religion say our existence here on this little planet called Earth is but a moment in universal time, a ‘blink in the eye of God’, one wonders why we take it all so seriously…is there a greater being out there watching, waiting, for us to disappear so she can clean up our mess and take back what she created? Ah, but fresh young yellow jacket and bumble bee queens will winter over, starting again to create from ‘scratch’ a new world of yellow jackets, or bumblebees. It is enviable really, that they get to start over anew each year.  Newbie yellow jacket queens never return to the same site of 'the old world' (fortunately for us!).

Yes, it is enviable.

 (I am still wondering where the dead bodies went?!)

I aught to have my head examined.....

She is a Belgian Bearded D'Uccles Mille  Fleur
Who knew? Maybe we'll call her Millie.

It was just a trip to the Farmer's Market with Mike & Mom, but what do we find there? An old Bantam hen needing a home, having been saved from the fate her flock mates met by her fancy feathers. Never been particularly attracted to fancy feathered hens with feathers on their feet, but feeling sorry for Studdly, I brought her home. Turns out she has a bad leg, was very hungry, wants nothing to do with Studdly, who is smaller than her.......She is calm, but wondering when she can go home......she does have beautiful feathers, orange, black and white, very Halloweenish, guess we'll have to call her Pumpkin, or Ghoul, or something like that......

She looked like she was going to attack him at one point. He just danced around trying to convince her he may be short, but a good and worthy mate!

I hope it works out for them.  An odd couple indeed!  He's on the roost tonight, she is nestled down in the corner of the chicken house on fresh straw, wondering where she is.

Getting ready for the trip home
 from the market

And I wanted less, not more animals.




Update: She has settled in, likes the digs, but not Studdly. Poor guy, he's trying hard to impress, but she's having none of it.  Though I see now they are both on the outside roost.....progress!

Familarless this Halloween.....

Little Red Hen, why have I not written of your demise?  It's been 2 weeks today the illustrious Little Red Hen of facebook fame, whose quirky face sold more cards than any of my other 60+ designs, was found, by me, dead in the red chicken house she shared with Studdily, her attentive and chivalrous rooster. There was little time to reflect on her death. A few hours later I was told I needed a biopsy to rule out cancer as a cause of a condition of great delicacy on my body.  That little drama over, in my favor, I have let my breath out.  As I watch Studdily wander aimlessly around, without purpose to his life, I too miss the cocky little hen who defied the odds to live as long as she did.  Perhaps because I wrote about her life as she lived it, (on facebook and my old web site, the one that will soon 'die' complements of Apple) it seems there is little left to write. She's gone, story over.  She was indeed remarkable. Curious, smart, willing to be picked up, held and petted, and with a propensity for creating eggs too large for her diminutive body to expel, she lived life on the edge, at times full of hyper-energy, at times standing around in a daze. This is not unlike myself.  She followed me around, stood on the shovel when I dug in the garden, bit my hand if my weeding didn't produce enough worms to appease her addiction, walked into the house to look around for whatever a chicken might be looking for, and ran up vet bills that rivaled our last geriatric dog's medical expenses.

There were times I off-the-cuff referred to her as my familiar, so in the spirit of the season I thought I would explore this remark.

According to Wikipedia a familiar is a supernatural entity believed to assist witches and cunning folk in their practice of magic.  I've never thought of myself as a witch, though I have dressed as one many a Halloween, but I'd like to think I am occasionally cunning, as in ingenious.  This is good.  Here's what Wikipedia has to say.......

"When they served witches, they were often thought to be malevolent, while when working for cunning-folk they were often thought of as benevolent (although there was some ambiguity in both cases). The former were often categorized as demons, while the latter were more commonly thought of and described as fairies. The main purpose of familiars is to serve the witch or young witch, providing protection for him/her as they come into their new powers."

Well now this gets interesting.  First, we were told many times Little Red Hen could not live long. As recently as 5 months ago we were encouraged to 'put her to sleep' as she had no more than a few more hours, maybe a day to live.  She had a broken egg in her which couldn't be removed and was causing toxins in her system.  I repeat, that was five months ago. I think defying death might put Little Red Hen in the category of "supernatural entity", just a suggestion.......

As for the fairy part.  She was certainly elfin in size and impish in personality. The definition of fairies is quite broad, but can include wings, which she had, and the ability to appear and disappear, which she did quite frequently.  I vote yes on the fairy identity.

On to the benevolent pursuits. Certainly the pleasure a child, my aging mom, or anyone received stroking her small warm body of silky feathers, or the smiles her facial expressions brought to the dozens, maybe hundreds, of folks who bought my cards showing her countenance might be thought of as benevolent pursuits.  We certainly teamed up in these pursuits. In a crazy world, these little acts from a little being make a difference.

Now for the helping me to come into my new powers part.  Have I come into these powers, or was I a helpless cause and, giving up, she decided not to stick around through another winter?  I will continue to ponder this aspect of her role as a familiar.  Perhaps she will continue to assist from another realm........

For now, there is one lonely, aging, but healthy and handsome rooster with a lovely red house looking for a small mate of similar age.  And Little Red Hen's facebook page has been taken over by Gray Duck, to appease non-feathered friends. I doubt Gray Duck will be as witty. She is not, after all, a familiar. Though there may be a bit of magic in her.

Are you ready for hibernation?

Over the past few months the topic of sleeplessness has come up with several friends, so thought I'd share a bit of my experience.......I'll try to keep this brief, not going into all the details about neurotransmitters, etc. which can be found all over the internet.

As days shorten and nights get longer, animals naturally begin to sleep more, some hibernating or semi-hibernating.  'Our' resident chipmunks are sleeping more, soon they will be tucked into their dens until spring.  Around November many of us would like to hibernate.  Yet for some, just getting a normal night's sleep can be a challenge. I've been one of those. Insomnia since childhood caused me to read books and try most sleep remedies, even seek  help at sleep clinics.  Rejected at two sleep clinics because I didn't sleep enough to run the tests, I found help with Dr. Darley at the Institute of Naturopathic Sleep Medicine. Although I knew a lot about sleep, and sleeplessness, I learned what unique protocols were necessary for me to normalize sleep patterns.  Like most areas of health, there are new findings about what makes us sleep, or not, as science gains a better understanding of our neurochemistry.  I happen to be a person who has low levels of serotonin. I think I came from a serotoninless planet.

You could stop reading this right now and go to Dr. Darley's list of archival articles for interesting and helpful information.  Or, you can humor me and read on.....

Lack of sleep has been shown to create in normal healthy people symptoms that mimic 'syndromes' such as fibromyalgia ~ acheiness, dizziness, nausea, lightheadedness, etc.  I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia decades ago, a diagnoses I no longer put much 'stock' in, believing it to be a label used when allopathic medicine does not understand what is wrong.  (It's also become big business ~ new drugs, treatments, etc.  How do you create a drug for something you don't know the cause of ?  But I digress.)  Most people know without sufficient sleep they might feel dizzy, lack the ability to focus, have slower responses physically and mentally, and generally feel tired.  Insomnia has become an epidemic in our society, a high percentage of  people functioning all the time with combinations of these symptoms, others having periods of sleeplessness which interrupt their ability to live optimally.  Most post-menopausal women have increased sleepless nights due to lower estrogen levels which impact the production of serotonin which is needed for sleep.

Ben Franklin suggested eating apples before going to bed for sleeplessness.  I remember trying that.  There's the warm milk remedy, which has some science behind it.  Milk contains both calcium, which has a sedative effect on the body (I take my calcium supplement at night) and low levels of the amino acid tryptophan, a precursor of the sleep-inducing neurotransmitter serotonin, which in turn produces the neurotransmitter melatonin, which puts you to sleep.  Other food recommendations are based on small snacks of complex carbohydrates (not sugar!) combined with protein.  What NOT to eat is just as important. Do not eat heavy meals, high fat foods, spicy foods or refined carbohydrates before bed time.

Melatonin, a hormone produced in the pineal gland, is a neurotransmitter that begins to increase about 2 hours before your customary bedtime, if you are in dim lighting, and peaks about 2 hours later.   It decreases through the night to very low levels during the day.   Bright lights, such as sunshine...or computer screens, television screens, or a brightly lit room, will decrease levels of melatonin significantly, or prevent it from rising.  If you do not get to bed when your melatonin level is peaking you will likely have a sleepless night.  Some people have melatonin rhythms that might be different from the norm, causing them to be sleepy during the day, and/or not sleepy at bedtime.

So to stay awake ~  eat a big rich meal late in the evening in a brightly lit room, stay on the computer late, add a conversation with partner, child, friend, that is stimulating to the brain and emotions, some loud ruckus music, and jump into bed in an over heated, messy room.

For many of us, any one of these factors can throw our brain chemistry off, meaning there will be no melatonin which equals no sleep, or not enough melatonin to get us through a night of sleep.

The trick to improving sleep is to enhance the body's ability to produce melatonin.  And that begins in the morning.  I was not happy when told by Dr Darley that even if I did not sleep well, or at all, I still needed to get into light early in the morning to turn off the melatonin. Beginning the period of reduced melatonin during the day helps re-set the biological clock.  At first this meant 5:30 and I was miserable!  But it did reset my evening biorhythm. I also wasn't happy when she said do not stay in bed more than 20 minutes if you can't sleep, get up, go to another room, read (by dim light) something really boring, go back to bed when sleepy.  I do not always do this. But it may work for you.

I have a routine that enhances my ability to sleep, if I don't follow it I don't sleep.  It includes getting 'in the light' by 6:30 - 7:00 in the morning, even if I had a terrible night of sleeplessness.  In the evening it means eating dinner no later than 7 p.m., earlier better, getting off the computer by 9:00, earlier better, having the house dimly lit, listening to calming music, not discussing 'hot' topics (money, family, projects, etc.), taking a warm bath (yes, this old time remedy works, the warmth relaxes muscles and when the body cools down it induces tiredness), and having a cool bedroom that is only used for sleep. The regularity of a routine is part of telling the brain it is time to sleep - same music, same pre-sleep rituals, whether it's having the same favorite blanket you wrap yourself in to read  poetry to your partner, or inspiring short stories to yourself ~ maybe it's the boredom of the routine, but these things trigger the brain to prepare for sleep.

Life does not always lend itself to this protocol, I have periods of poor, even no sleep, but when I get back to the routine my sleep always improves. I can usually tell when I get into bed if the chemistry is there or not to put me to sleep.  I do take an herbal sleep remedy when needed, but I stubbornly  believe it is best to work with the body, and mind, to help it do what it knows how to do, produce the sleep producing chemicals. Dr. Darley explained to me even a small amount of light in a room, from an LED clock or radio, can stop the production of melatonin in some light-senstive people. I'm one of them.  I have a lot of black-out cloth and take it with me when sleeping elsewhere. Most people live in environments that have too much light.  My mother's house in Seattle is in a quiet neighborhood (except for the not-so-distant trains!) yet through her windows there are glaring lights from as far away as the Port of Seattle.  Eliminate the light and sleep better!

Each of us are unique.  I have shared in a general sense what I find helpful. Experiment with yourself, read Dr Darley's articles.

Good-night and sweet dreams!

I am envious of the chipmunks who go into semi-hibernation. These furry little friends sleep away the winter, waking every so often to eat from their store of food, which here includes the many sunflower seeds they beg for at our door!

Welcomed Guests & Unwelcome Guests

To our chagrin, yesterday we had a clash between our very welcomed guests and some very unwelcome ones. Giving new friends, visiting for the first time, the building tour, we stepped inside our small, yet-to-be-finished studio/meditation building, Trillium, when one of our welcomed guests got stung on the top of his head by a bald faced hornet (who are not hornets at all, but relatives of yellow-jackets, without the yellow). Our friends, their sweet toy poodle, and I were inside the building when I looked up at saw a HUGE nest above the door - I closed the door - quickly! Mike walked away, also quickly! He wanted to get a stepladder so we could exit via a back window! Bravely, and calmly, we decide to use the door. Appallingly, our friend got stung again on the lip! Fortunately, and quite miraculously, the stings were minor. Bald-faced hornets have smooth stingers and are known not only for their voracious defense of the hive, but also their ability to sting repetitively. 


Oh dear. What to do. A late night raid with either a garden hose or a pesticide is Mike's plan. Waiting, not using the building until winter arrives and all but next year's newly fertile queens die is another option. That could be a long wait!  Next year's queens will leave the dying colony and winter over buried in turf somewhere.  Their wait is long too!


Remarkably I was in this building about a week ago and there was no sign of hornets. If they were there, they certainly didn't pay attention to my coming and going. Perhaps the hive was still building and more concerned with its own activities than mine. 


Not so now! 


Bald-faced hornets, whose paper nests are beautiful creations, eat other bugs, and are eaten by raccoons and skunks. The wise queen who built this nest placed her colony in a location where no raccoon or skunk is likely to notice, let alone be able to access. 


It is an odd state of mind to hope for an early freeze or an acrobatic skunk or raccoon to come along.......

Below is a very welcomed guest - a Skipper. These small butterflies appear late summer, early fall, and LOVE marigolds!

Teaching Recovery

Transition: Noun: The process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another.

Talking with a friend yesterday about unexpected life changes caused by health conditions, I was reminded of my early adult life when health challenges caused my body to not function the way I needed it to as I began to fulfill my life long dream of country living. My dream became derailed at the same time it was becoming a reality.

 Miraculously, I recognized the letting go process necessary to move forward.  This process of grief and adjustment is one I've had to repeat many times, not without struggle.   

My friend also lives with a life-changing health challenge. We discussed how traumatic events are a component of life, no one escapes them in one form or another, yet understanding them as an inevitable part of living, to be used as a catalyst, is not taught to children. 

And how would you teach it, without causing anticipatory fears?  

Watching the preview of the documentary, "Class of 9/11" about 6 year olds, now 16, who witnessed the attack on the World Trade Center and were evacuated from their school located close to the site, I was struck by how the different young people assimilated the horrific experience.  I think about children worldwide who witness and experience trauma at an early age.  Many grow strong, becoming agents of change in their communities; others suffer from post-traumatic stress, depression, even suicide.  Is the difference in their personal make-up?  In how they are taught to view the experience?

I think about the fires raging in Texas, destroying homes and leaving behind charred land where few people will want to return and rebuild lives.  Yet nature will return, many plants even thriving in the blackened remains.

Much is written about how to engage young people more with Nature. The concern is that without an appreciation of Nature, the technology-raised generations will not care for and preserve it. Perhaps the importance of understanding Nature is not only for the environment’s sake, but also for our own psychic survival.  

Nature is a magnificent example, the best teacher of the cycle of destruction, change, and rebirth.   It is constantly adapting to it's own challenges - a river changes direction after a land slide or earthquake, wildflowers bloom in profusion following flooding, and, like the mythical Phoenix, there are plants which require fire to exist.  Nature also constantly adapts to the unpredictability (from it's point of view!) of human impact.  People cause trauma to the earth in small and grand ways, yet the earth seems to rebound, recreate, restore itself. Yes, there are concerns about how much trauma certain environments can endure, but looking at Nature’s recovering process has helped to understand what Nature needs to survive, and it might help teach us that rebounding, changing course, redefining is part of living.  If taught that we too may need fire to thrive, might we then be better prepared for the inevitable sufferings in life?

(I wasn’t sure where this was going, but I had this photo to share and butterflies are certainly wonderful examples of transitions, perhaps not brought on from trauma, since their process of metamorphosis is part of their life cycle. But again, Nature teaches – using its inevitable change to emerge to a higher place, the butterfly is an age-old metaphor.  Enjoy my resident Lorquin’s Admiral!)

Life On The Rock at Low Tide

the first anemone to open to the incoming waves

On the beach at Fort Flagler State park there is a huge rock. Uncovered at low tide, it is teeming with life, a world that may stay submerged days at a time. Only when the moon and earth sync for a super low tide does this world come up for air as we know it.  Giant barnacles, colorful little snails, other critters I'm not familiar with, and zillions of sea anemones.  Slimy looking, gelatinous, olive green little 'donuts', the anemones close up during this air 'exposure' and wait for the sea to return.  Fascinated, I waited with them, ankle deep in the cold water, shifting and moving as the sand washed out from under my feet, I watched as the first ones, the front line, began to swell.  I wanted to see them open, exposing their seemingly delicate pink 'mouths' and tentacles. Open to the touch of water and the nutrients it provides them, the life it gives them. It is all quite magical and lovely, but as with all of nature, there is a survival dance going on. Those little tentacles, called Cnidocytes, both defend and kill.......


From Wikipedia:
"Cnidocytes contain nematocyst.....Each nematocyst contains a small vesicle filled with toxins (actinoporins), an inner filament, and an external sensory hair. When the hair is touched it mechanically triggers the cell explosion, a harpoon-like structure which attaches to organisms that trigger it, and injects a dose of poison in the flesh of the aggressor or prey. This gives the anemone its characteristic sticky feeling. The sea anemone eats small fish and shrimp......"

I wondered as I waited - do the creatures of this rock world like, even look forward to, these involuntary forays into the world of breezes and blue skies (or gray, as was the case on this particular day)?  Is it necessary to their survival?  Or do they feel stressed, waiting for the waves to return and cover their world once again?  Of course biologist know the answers to my wonderings, but I enjoy standing there watching, (though there is little to watch except the occasional shift of a tiny snail) curious to what is going on in the primitive 'minds' (nervous systems) of this thriving pile of life.  

Tiny sea snails are the only action on the 'The Rock',
moving at snail's pace of course!

gelatinous anemones wait, squished in between giant barnacles

opening......looking for something to eat!




  (click photos for a larger view of this crowded micro world)