Enjoying The Weekend

Last night we went to Earth Fare in Ballantyne, perhaps our last trip there since our own E.F. will be opening soon. When we left the sun was just setting and the heat of the day was being replaced with a lovely warm breeze.

The crescent moon was so pretty, so crescenty!

Saturday morning began with a trip to the recycling center. Our first task, however, was getting the neighborhood dogs out of the street. They often just sit in the center, cutely looking up at us like we have no business driving on their street.

We have been discussing the issue of buying locally grown produce; there are so many good reasons to do it. It seems our area has an increasing number of little farm markets and we decided to check one out. It was small but very nice, with produce that looked really fresh and is all locally grown.

One of the dilemmas, however, is that none of these markets (so far) have organic options. Strawberries and peaches, two very tasty locally grown fruits, are on the dirty dozen list. So, do we buy conventionally grown (loaded with pesticides) but locally grown produce or organic but shipped-in produce?
(peaches are #1 and strawberries #6 on "dirty dozen" list)

Perhaps at this point the solution lies in compromise: if the produce is high on the list we should buy organic regardless of where it was grown, and if it's low on the list buy conventionally grown from local farmers. If I didn't think it was so important I'd say to heck with all this.

After the produce stand we went to a wonderful store that has lots of food of Hispanic origin. We had so much fun looking at all the different items.

We came home with a couple of new things to taste.

Hot sauce anyone?

This was not the only section of dried beans. There were some directly across these shelves, and then more in bulk in the produce section. LOTS of beans!

When we got back home it was clear we intruded upon naptime.
Cute little Tippy fits in the cat tower better than Obi does!

Happy Saturday!

Vote For The Person

I just want to get something off my chest. Numerous times during the last year I've heard people say that they would/wouldn't vote for someone because they were a) a woman, b) black, or c) the wrong religion. What do any of those things have to do with how the individual stacks up as a leader in our government? Don't other qualifications matter more... like the person's intelligence? compassion? ability to communicate? knowledge of policy? previous experiences and accomplishments? good judgement? capacity to bring others along on a good idea? cultural sensitivity? strength under pressure? ... just to name a few. I've heard women say that if Hillary, after all she's done to win this race, didn't win the nomination they wouldn't vote for Obama because it's a woman's turn. Because it's her turn? I've heard people admit they wouldn't vote for Obama because he's a black man or because of "that Muslim thang." That Muslim thing?I've heard people say they could never vote for a woman for the highest position in our country because a woman would never be able to handle it. Oh really? Tell that to Indira Gandhi or Golda Meir or Margaret Thatcher.

Let me make a comment about "that Muslim-thang." First of all, it is very clear that Obama was never a practicing Muslim. Yes, his father's father was a Muslim, but Obama's father was not religious when he met and married Obama's mother. Obama's mother remarried some time after divorcing Obama's father, her new husband being a Muslim man from Indonesia, but the home was secular, the school was public (not a madrassa as rumor states), and Obama was not raised Muslim. In fact from the age of 10 he lived with and was raised by his white, Christian grandparents. But here's the big question: So what? So what if he was raised Muslim? Once capable of deciding for himself he, in fact, became a Christian and attended church... but why should any of that matter? Do you mean that a Muslim can't be a good president? Do you mean that someone who used to be Muslim can't be a good president? Do you mean that someone who is a church-going Christian but whose father was Muslim can't be a good president? Do you mean that only Christians can be good presidents, only Christians who were born Christian to Christian parents?

Contrary to what many people think, this country was not founded as a Christian society nor were the rules and laws based on the Christian-Judeo creeds. If you feel this is in error, go to a website called Archiving Early America where articles written by our founding fathers are replicated and discussed. You can also go to the Fresh Air Terry Gross interview of Steven Waldman, who researched the historical documents related to the separation of church and state and religious freedom in America. Sorry folks, we are not a Christian nation and were never meant to be. Religion should not be a factor in the presidential election.

So, I ask you -

? If you had to choose between Jim Bakker (Christian, went to jail for stealing church donations) or Shirin Ebadi (Muslim, humanitarian and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize) would you vote for Bakker because he's Christian?

? If you had to choose between O.J. Simpson and Oprah would you choose O.J. because he's a man?

? If you had to choose between Martin Luther King, Jr. and Pat Robertson would you vote for Robertson because he's white?

I suggest that we voters should be choosing our leaders based on the merit of their qualifications and that we do that only after we have done our own investigation of each candidate. Listening to other people's soundbites is dangerous. Hopefully each citizen can then make their decision to VOTE FOR THE PERSON who can do the best job instead of selecting our next president because he's a man, a woman, a white, a black, a Christian...

Lupe Unfolds The Laundry

I really seem to enjoy writing about how our cats "interfere" with our lives. There's no doubt that they slow me down (by requesting kisses, petting, mousies and balls to be thrown, a trickle of water from the faucet, a string to be pulled, to be combed or brushed or carried in the laundry basket, to sit in my arms or on my keyboard when I'm trying to type, to be allowed to curl up in the hot towels just taken out of the dryer, to be carried through the house on a tour of each room, that the book or laptop be removed from my lap so they can be my laptop, by sitting smack dab in the middle of the newspaper article I'm reading, etc.) but I just seem to like it so much! Sometimes the activity is somewhat destructive... like Lupe, here, digging in my neatly folded piles of laundry.
She rabbit-kicked my socks apart, dug up Saeed's Brevard tshirt, scattered my bras, and is in the process of mangling my night shirt. I only see two piles intact at the moment of this picture. Maybe you can't see it, but the look of pure joyous abandon on her face is worth folding it all over again, and again, and again... if she lets me. :-)

Local Earth Fare

I am starting to get excited about the new Earth Fare that will be opening where the old Harris Teeter (for those of you who used to live here) used to be. In the early days (1996) of my new vegetarian lifestyle I used to have to drive far into Charlotte, nearly downtown, to go to the only "natural foodstore" in the area, Talley's Green Grocery, for items not yet available in the standard grocery stores. These days even our local stores carry a lot of the organic, vegetarian food items but we still have to go to specialty stores for some things.
Sadly, Talley's closed down May 28th, probably due to the stiff competition from the newer, larger, brighter, fancier Earth Fare in Ballantyne. About one year ago another Earth Fare opened in Charlotte and then a Trader Joe's. A Whole Foods will be opening in Charlotte as well. As good as the increasing number of businesses selling "green living" is for me, it wasn't good for Talley's. I feel really sad about it; they were green when it wasn't easy being green!
Nevertheless, Saeed and I are VERY happy that we won't have to drive so far for groceries and a healthy meal. As I've written before, we are trying to reduce our carbon footprint. In fact we were trying to do that even before the term carbon footprint was popular. We knew the Earth Fare would be opening in June, but I just drove by on my way home from work and the opening date will be Wednesday, June 25. Maybe we can have a "hot date" even on a Wednesday night... why not?

Magnolia Blossoms

As a nature lover one of my joys is to watch plants cycle through the seasons. The magnolia tree is fun in this regard as it has so many stages. Last summer you may remember me complaining about the drought, but our magnolia tree came through it just fine.

Here is our magnolia tree during last summer's drought. The flower petals (technically they're called tepals, not petals) are gone but the potential for next season is safely stored inside these cones or seedpods.

Apparently the genus Magnolia, named after the French botanist, Pierre Magnol, is very old. Fossilized specimens have been found dating back 20 million years! I read that the flowers developed in this form so that beetles could pollinate them - evidently bees weren't in existence yet. Our tree is a Magnolia grandiflora which is native to the southeastern U.S.

The leaves and bud coverings are all very thick and leathery, obviously a protective mechanism that's helped it to survive. These buds are on our tree today but so are many beautiful white flowers.

I wish you could smell the light, citrus-like smell of this beautiful flower. The flowers look like this for most of their blooming time, but right before the tepals fall off they open up wide so you can see inside....

... like this. Look how amazing the inside is! Once open like this, a magnolia blossom can be 12 inches across.








I can't get a good picture of our whole tree because of all the other vegetation in our yard, but it is very, very tall. (Magnolia grandiflora can grow to be 90 feet high.) One section of it suffered greatly during Hurricane Hugo and it is thin in that area, but I look at it as a war wound - something to be proud of!

Here it is, the tallest in the front yard. See the bare area in the left middle section? That's the damage from Hugo.

And here is our baby magnolia tree Saeed planted a couple of weeks ago. If I were to insert it into the picture above, it would be about as tall as that birdfeeder in front of the old magnolia tree. This tree (well, the planting date) is about as old as Cyrus
:-)

Family Union And Reunion

I say union because this was Anahita's first meeting with her nephew, the King of Cute. It was also a reunion, of course, because this is actually the third time we've seen her since she moved to California less than a year ago. I fear the next trip back won't be quite as soon as the first three. Lisa's wedding, Shirin's baby shower, and the birth of Cyrus necessitated the first three trips and nothing specific is looming in the near future. In addition, airfare isn't getting any cheaper...

As you can see from Shirin and Gabriel's blog we mostly just hang out, eat, kiss the baby, and hang out some more! I'll put up a few of my pics as well even though it's more of the same. I do want to mention that Cyrus really had changed in just two weeks. He follows your face with his eyes and is a total master of his routine now. When I had him on my lap he would push up with his legs and support his weight with those chubby little three week old legs. No doubt he will one day be a Master Jedi Warrior.

The King of Cute
Cyrus the Great
Master Jedi Warrior
(no pressure)

Shirin had to share him a lot this visit...

... but she still got to hug and kiss her little bubsie.

Khaleh Anahita fell so in love with her nephew.

Even a dirty diaper was no impediment to her. We'd be hanging out and someone would say, "Who wants to change a dirty diaper?" and she'd actually volunteer!

She'll be a great mommy one day too.

Some adult conversation time.

Cyrus is such a modest little boy :-) I'm glad.

Shirin is just resting her eyes and enjoying the snuggle.

Saeed also has fallen in love.

Cyrus is listening to all of Baba joon's advise.

And this is the way I think of my girls, no babies, no husbands, just snacks and laughter!

My Shower Buddies

Whoever said that once their children grew up and left home they were finally able to take a shower in peace and quiet obviously didn't have cats. Usually I close the door when I take a shower but sometimes I leave it open if there's a kitty in the window because I don't want to shut them in. Most of the time when I open the door there are four cats jostling for position to burst in, but my two water babies are Lupe and Banu. Layli and Teddie just want me to come out and start petting, but Lupe and Banu want the tub and the water droplets that are so yummy to lick.

Lupe stands impatiently waiting for the shower to finish.
Banu fascinated by the water still in the tub.

Lupe joins to watch the tub drain.

How interesting could it be?

Very!

Then the two of them lick the tub clean of droplets.

Lupe once jumped in the shower while I was still taking it. She's never done that again!

The Results Of Saeed's Hard Work

Now that the academic year is finished Saeed is happily back in the yard. It's amazing how the place is starting to shape up after relentless attention from my yard boy :-) He loves to be outside close to nature, digging around getting his hands dirty, and he wears his bloody scratches from the rose bushes like a badge of honor.

Today's pictures will show a few of the flowering bushes he's planted. I'm ashamed to say I don't know any of the names of these bushes (well maybe one) but I make up for it in appreciating the beauty of the blooms in all their glory.

This was in March after a rain (things look bright green.)
This is that same bush!

It's limbs are heavy with blossoms.

This bee was one of many who took advantage of the pollen.

Look at the bush left of center in March.

Same bush (different angle) in full bloom.

I particularly love the contrast of the pink flowers against the green foliage of the surrounding trees.

These lovely flowers are planted near the ditch drain pipe that goes under our driveway.

Could cement and gravel be made any more beautiful?

This bush is streaming its blossoms out from under the willow tree.

Same blossoms close up.

Most of our azaleas are shades of pink but this one is a flaming scarlet.

This bush's blossoms are so different: gentle, singular, and soft white.

I'll keep you up to date at the summer progresses. Probably the bursting blossoms of spring are finished, but our miniature roses bloom throughout the warm months. I'll save those for another post!