Beloved friends,
I am running late this week, as you can see by my uncommon Friday post; life is very full in the bloom of springtime and peak of my spring Workshop for Living. Instead of pulling together an essay I'm simply going to share with you some snapshots, in word and image, of the glorious turning of springtime afoot here. I hope they nourish you as they've been nourishing me. I find such comfort in my growing fluency with the rhythms of the land in this place I call home.
Last week was one of my favorite moments of the year: the flowering tree behind the house I've been raving about – the one whose identity the plant ID apps disagree about: maybe it's a Chinese quince? maybe it's a crabapple? Just now I put the image into Google Search again to remind myself what kind of crabapple and this time it suggested that perhaps it is a flowering hawthorn! Well, my friend the mystery tree was in their last few days of being a riot of pinky-purple blossoms just as the spruce tree beside it began to put out brilliant pale green tips on each lush dark green branch. I spent so much time standing at the kitchen sink gazing out the window, feasting on the colors and their glorious evidence of joyful life. I did not photograph it; my heart rebelled against trying to capture it, and the moment is past and the petals are on the forest floor, fading. Here is the spruce today, still look amazing. I made a spruce-infused sugar last year and I'm hoping to try making some spruce tip fermented soda this weekend.
A couple weeks ago we took down a section of ugly hog wire fence in front of that flowering tree. This made a flat-topped rotting mossy stump near the tree accessible; it used to be on the far side of the fence. I laid a stainless silver chafing dish on it, weighted it with a rock, and tadum: gorgeous $15 birdbath. They adore it! We've seen brown-headed cowbirds and a male and female black headed grosbeak at the feeder nearby since then. They eat alongside our usual spring visitors: goldfinches, purple finches, pine siskins, and our year-round neighbors the spotted towhees, chickadees, nuthatches, dark-eyed juncos, and the sparrows whose precise variety I'm always forgetting.
A new generation of rufous hummingbirds have fledged; there are wonderfully tiny rufouses visiting our front nectar feeder every hour of daylight just now. Their heads seem impossibly small. If you pause on the deck or driveway nearby, they'll give you an angry fly-by; these beautiful tiny creatures are described as "exceptionally pugnacious" by the National Audobon Society. Adorable and furious little friends!
The lilac beside the temple is in bloom. She's a bit later than most because she's in a shady spot, and I love to anticipate her blossom as I watch everyone else's!
I haven't started vegetable gardening yet; the oil is just about done curing on my raised bed frames and I need to cut the meadow grass down, level the ground, screw hogwire over the bottoms, built the hinged hoop tops I envision for them, and fill the boxes yet. It's going to be a minute! I'm enjoying the ride. Nonetheless I have four new raspberry plants who grew beyond the beds my neighbor planted them in; she kindly offered me the volunteers. The strawberry plants are in bloom; they came from a yoga student who was thinning hers a couple years ago. The tiny fig tree I picked up out by the mailboxes last year when someone bought too many and left the extras for gifting not only survived the winter, it's got a couple of figs on it despite being only a foot tall. You have to fight to NOT grow food here; it's a passionate local endeavor and everyone is itching to pass along their bounty.
Last night a dear friend messaged to ask if I wanted oyster mushrooms. Today after she came by for a massage I went back to her place and we hiked into the woods behind her house to find the breathtaking bounty in the photo at top; that's just one of the downed trees fruiting wildly in her forest. She sent me home with an astonishing haul. I'll be getting the dehydrator out this evening.
The starflowers under the cedar trees between the house and the shop (which is what you call the little building you keep your tools and wood in and go out to mess around in is called here) are abloom. I recently pulled up the grasses growing here to leave the starflowers, which delighted me by showing up amidst a bunch of bark mulch that was clearly thrown over the area to make it look tidier when the house was listed. I take tremendous pleasure in tending to what grows wildly: removing the grasses amongst the starflowers, removing the dead old bits amongst the lush salal in the understory of the front grove.
I'm listening to the birdsong extra closely right now, listening for the arrival of the Swainson's thrushes with their beautiful, fluting song; they'll likely arrive at the end of the month.
Come June the foxglove will bloom, taller than my head.
There is so much beauty in this world.
There is so much beauty in this world.
There is so much beauty in this world.
Love,
Dahlia
Resources
Ode to Mystery and Symbol
The Edge of Space-Time: Particles, Poetry and the Cosmic Dream Boogie
is the new book by Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, theoretical physicist, cosmologist, Black feminist. In her NY Times interview this week (gift link) she says, "A piece of this book is me saying there is value in banding with the poets, and fighting for the value of being curious and trying to articulate the world with whatever tools are available to us. Not for the purposes of selling something, but for the purpose of fulfilling our humanity." and "The universe is stranger and more queer and more wonderful and more full of possibility than whatever limitations you might be experiencing right now. Physics challenges what we are told are social norms." Kelly Hayes, writer and political organizer, interviewed her as well; that one speaks a lot about the politics of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I love this person already and I'm over the moon to read this book. Thanks to Kirsten and Aimee
More Life for More People
Perhaps you are aware of how difficult pancreatic cancer is to treat; it is one of the deadliest cancers. Soon we'll be able to say "was" one of the deadliest, thanks to a new breakthrough that is being hailed as the biggest step in cancer research since the onset of immunotherapy. Daraxonrasib, "works by targeting a cellular protein that fuels not just nearly all pancreatic tumors, but also many lung and colon cancers," and it is close to approval. Those are the three leading causes of death by cancer, so this is going to be a monumental change. You can listen to or read more from NPR or the NY Times.
Dance Culture is Human Culture
I loved watching the cultural exchange between the award-winning Red Bull BC One All Star Tour break dancers who got together with First Nations dancers in Winnipeg. I learned about it from Notorious Cree on his Instagram, and it was covered as well by APTN News.
Inspiration
I've been reading sutra 111 of the Radiance Sutras in most of my sessions the last couple of weeks as I continue to watch the tail of the comet that was the life of Lorin Roche head off into the vastness. May his memory be a blessing.
There is no image you can hold,
No thought you can think,
That encompasses the Great Self.
Your essence
Is immortal and unchanging,
Yet it is the foundation for all that moves.
Rest in the shimmering empties
That is the source of this world
And remember who you are.
Resistance
F*CK Surveillance
I gotta say, when I looked at deflock.org, I thought I was checking out a tool that would be useful for people in big cities to fight the proliferation of automatic license plate scanners. I nearly fell over when I saw Flock present in the small town near my home. I've written to the city council asking for removal, am spreading the word, and you can use this to do the same.
Here's the doc where I gather resources for resistance in an ongoing way. I'm now in my 8th month of daily resistance action and at this point it's second nature to peek at the folder that I filter all the activism mail to and choose an action to support for the day.
Supporting me in supporting you
This is entirely human work – my work, done by hand, with my own mind and heart. I do not use AI in the creation of what I offer you. I don't have one. The half day I devote to creating this each week is a labor of love for which I earn about $15/hr. You can chip in on giving me a raise! You could make a one-time donation of any size, or upgrade to a paid subscription for as little as $5/month.
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