More Earth

How you know it's summer is when Little Chico Creek dries up and that is far from happening. These have been delicious cool days and we even had about an inch of soaking rain with a dramatic thunderstorm last night making everything fresh today.

I've been transplanting a few hundred sunflower volunteers out of my garden spot and will try to find them good homes. I also came up with the probably unsuccessful idea of stuffing urine soaked dog hair along the gopher runs... if I can move them out before the tasty vegetable roots come up I want to do that...there's too many of them to have a very successful garden here despite our good soil.

The elderflowers are lacey and showy right now, the matrix of many fruit clusters to come. I was mainly struck by the light and the structure of them against the dark greens behind them.

Mothers' Day was a fine day with Dance Church, a No on A brunch and later wine and chocolate tasting at the Chico Peace and Justice Center. Next store the Ray Ray gallery is celebrating May as bike month with these unique bikish structures. I love my new bike, which is a girl's cruiser...prrfect and yesterday I rode it everywhere.

The only draw back to this wonderful Fair Trade event in the garden behind the Peace Center was that it was Sue Hildebrand's last function as our Director. She's really multi-faceted and I just hope our next coordinator will have a good fraction of the skills that Sue brings to the job so effortlessly. Here she is with Susan Tchudi, the President of the BOD and KZFR deejay for the Ecotopia (Tuesday eves) program and mom of wonderful adult children. They are standing in front of the fair trade chocolate we got to sample and you can buy very reasonably at the Center. (Shameless advertising I do not regret.... chocolate depends on child slavery in the "free market" and it is deplorable...this is the delicious and living wage way to save other mothers' children on the other side of the globe.) At least Sue will still be our neighbor, which is a very good thing.

Michael is still in the mountains. At least I heard from him this weekend. My dear daughter we'll get to see graduate from law school... that will be the next posting. (Yeah!!)