Veterans for Peace

 Today was a long one for us but we feel greatly calmed tonight. We started at 4am to join the Veterans for Peace at Beale Air Force Base at dawn. Non-violent direct action consisting of reading an indictment against the base commander and crossing onto the base were carried out at two gates by 13 people.

 I was at the Wheatland gate for the arrests there and it was a moving symbolic gesture to see Fred Bialy, who had been our guest days earlier, holding up hand-cuffs meant for the citizens arrest for war crimes aimed at the base commander.

 Then there were some hours of waiting for folks to be released. Obviously Shirley was over-joyed! Cathy, from our community here in Chico was also arrested and she follows Shirley in this little procession.

 In the short telling of it it may not seem like much but people are being spied on and targeted from Beale and that is not something any of us can tolerate to continue. The American people must find out and the military must be put on trial and it is only through these arrests that we can hope to make a dent in the evil of "business as usual." Targeted killing and the sanctioned collateral murder of children begs to be opposed.

Toby and Fred

 Toby and Fred have recently been to Creech Air Force Base for drone protests and swung by to see us. It was an active weekend leading into an action at Beale Air Force Base. A good respite and time to explore Chico and squeeze in my signature gathering efforts for Frack Free Butte County through it all.

 Our land partner Bob is part of the Chico Housing Action Team. They are exploring ways to house the homeless with dignity but this little prototype was too wobbly on it's little trailer to travel safely to Bob's chagrin. He wanted to take it to show off at a big clean up day and was thwarted by reality.

 We had breakfast at 100th Monkey Cafe and then rode bikes to the Farmers Market, The Peace Endeavor Vigil and Food Not Bombs. We are all excited to have C.T. Butler and Wren Tuatha settling nearby. An infusion of energy is already happening and it is coming at a much needed time.
Nearing the end of our time together we went to Upper Bidwell Park. I treasure these times with Michael. I can't begin to tell you how much. I also appreciate our friends, near and far.

 Lastly, this is Aramenta. She showed up like a gift from the Goddess. I am going to slide away from all my cares and worry about protecting our water and this signature gathering campaign and let her take the reins and bring us to a successful conclusion, i.e. getting the Fracking Ban on the November ballot. I don't want to spend any more time away from home than I have to. She's a god-send.

Earth Day

 For Earth Day I went to a Public Hearing on the Governor's Climate Action Plan and then came home to write a scathing criticism of the deforestation happening under his watch. These Canada geese love it by this conference center. They are raising young and are quite comfortable with people. When do they become American geese?

 My spikes of digitalis/foxgloves are lovely right now. When I first did nursing digitalis/digoxin was commonly prescribed for people to strengthen the contractility of the heart muscle. It isn't prescribed anymore and I'm not sure why this ancient remedy fell out of favor.

 These roses are exploding. The bush is very vigorous and is planted on the body of one of my goats who died after being attacked by dogs. When the blossoms fade and pedals start to fall I'll take handfuls of them and throw them in the air with fragrant gratitude for the blessing of that goat's fertile body.

 In the afternoon spring clouds started to build up but this is a photo of a whale that swam by under the mulberry tree.

And tonight it was whimsy aside as we went over our Riparia land partnership agreement. We have been land partners in this beautiful place now for well over 25 years. It's good to still be together even if I did miss a film about the plastic gyres floating on the seas that showed on this earth day night... perhaps better to get through the day without a broken heart.

More Pancakes, More Peace

 This is my friend Susan. I think she got me through nursing school in the early 70s-- helped me over-come my disgust at cat dissection and helped me grasp kidney physiology... no small things. She's an FNP at the Hoopa Clinic near Willow Creek and she surprised us with a wonderful snapshot visit. I feel graced.

 Rafael and family. This is a long story. Rafa was a teenager when our land partner Leslie, who is an attorney, got him out of an adult border prison and into the care of Richard and Spring who adopted him. Here he is with wife Patricia, sister Mely and his kids as well as Richard and Spring. So much better than being recruited into one side or the other of Guatemala's civil war!

 Dave Garcia has been the inspiration and driving force of Frack Free Butte County and Aramenta Hawkins heads up the Media team for our campaign and has gotten us the visibility and energy we needed. An amazing duo.

Dear Deepika and her son, nicknamed Shub. He's had surgery after surgery and has suffered more than anyone should ever have to due to the heart defects he was born with. Yet look at that impish smile. How wonderful they are. Holding them in intense protective Love.

 Here's a great shot of a great mix of people. We are really determined to get a Fracking Ban in Butte and save our groundwater. Only about 5000 signatures to go.... Send financial support to FFBC PO Box 6395, Chico, Ca. 95927... we will need some help to get there but are determined.

 Guthrie is visiting from Vermont. Enjoying her role of Easter Bunny. It's wonderful having her back on our side of the country.

 Marci and her daughter got matching Tee Shirts and look so sweet. 'Had to share it with you.

And speaking of sweet... the egg hunts are controversial now days (cruelty and feeding issues as well as the vegan issues,) but it is still very pleasing to see the little ones out finding the eggs throughout the grassy lawn behind the Pancakes for Peace benefit for the Chico Peace and Justice Center. Enjoy the beauty of the Spring Passover--it is fleeting but the P4P punctuates it beautifully.

Good Friday at Beale. It was.

 It was good to be back at Beale after so much time away. Our friend Shirley, above, right, had just been acquitted and gotten good coverage for an earlier anti-drone protest. The day was warm and hazy with dust from the plowing for rice fields and distant fires but the land was still green with a sprinkling of wild flowers.

 Caroline and I rode down together (on bio-diesel) and were delighted to be in such good company.

 There was a Good Friday service that started off with the recognition of the power of the four directions and much about the fear and challenge of those last hours of the life of Christ for there was an analogy to our own times as things seem bleak now too. The songs of the Civil Right era with their contemporary verses lifted our spirits.

 And after a communion breaking of bread by a young woman minister 11 people gathered themselves and crossed the line into Beale Air Force Base with a letter to discuss with the Base Commander.

 Among them was Nobel Prize nominee Kathy Kelly who spoke to us about the suffering of the Afghan people impoverished and in refugee camps because of the drone strikes.... the examples of wounded children in agony and with missing limbs were sobering. A moving testimony and  indictment of a morally corrupt foreign policy of domination by robotic drones.

 I love the purpose of these people striding together into an unknown legal situation. They moved across this line, this arbitrary line, in order to put drone "warfare" on trial not to sacrifice themselves. If Christ was alive would he not be with them? (Below is Reverend Sharon Delgado of Earth Justice Ministries. You can read more about this day from her blog and from www.occupybealeafb.org. Learn more about Kathy Kelly's international work at Voices for Creative Nonviolence.)

Some of the things..

 Spring Birthdays, like Marcia's, found us at her Faery home(s.) Drinking in the beauty and the relaxation of her little island life.

 Such a nice break being with my sisters along the gentle Butte Creek...

 Another thing to tell about is Re-Doin-It Right. Women are committed to only buying second hand and altering as needed and some are even so committed they are raising flax and will spin and dye the cloth themselves. This is because of how working people are treated in the contracts big box stores have with factories in poor countries but also because of the endless waste in our country.

 Lastly, a good retirement party for a good man out at the GRUB farm. You can have a wonderful CSA box that will feed 2 for just 15$ a week from them. Local. organic. Heartseeded.

Inserting Uncertainty

 We've gone away every other week before chemo three times now. It's a lot of work to get away from town but it always has released us from care. This time we headed up Friday afternoon on a chilly over-cast afternoon and spent the night at Wilson Lake, a place that has always been a respite for us. We've been there when it is frozen over, alight with moon showers, dulled out by forest fire smoke, dry as a meadow and sprouting mist like floating dervishes. It was just wet, gray and nourishing it's noisy population of ducks and geese this time.

 The next day we parked at the McGowan Lake trail and headed a straight perpendicular until we were up in the open country high above the established trails, crossing and recrossing the big pawprints of a wandering bear. We stopped for lunch with the sun on our backs but clouds loomed up and filled the sky by the time we were done.

 We got up to Lassen National Park Lodge parking lot for a brief flurry of sleet and settled in for what could have been a pleasant night but Michael got quite ill with flu-like symptoms and it was very distressing. In the morning he was better but still queasy and not wanting to eat.

 So we did a little exploring above Payne's Creek as we moved down toward the valley. All the time running on straight veggie oil--just want you to remember the commitment Michael has made and that this is how we roll.-- By the time we got home it was over 80 degrees and it seemed we'd traveled a thousand miles through delight, discomforts, seasons and uncertainty to this fixed position here at the kitchen table. In this beautiful spring sunset delivered home to the week ahead.

April fulls

 Michael's been working on the electrical shorts on the Veggie Voyager. This is what a day under the hood looks like. Whereas I'd like to say my world is more like this:

 However, that's not really true either. I've been working hard on the Frack Free Butte County campaign to get a Ban on Fracking in our county and pretty much missing a lot of my usual love affair with nature.

 It was nice to stroll around after the rain this morning with Michael and get completely soaked below the knees. It is all so luxurious right now at Riparia! This is the area by the swimming hole.

 So, I am just posting photos of lilacs, ceanothus and apple blossoms just to celebrate this brief and magical time of the year.

 We've had thunder, lightning, hail, rainbows and even tornadoes but now it looks like the second phase of spring has begun. The heat will return and with the longer days it will be staight on to summer.

 But I love the little caresses of spring. So fleeting and  soft-earthed... so easily dug and so willing in new growth.

 Whenever I come home it's this little jog by my neighbor's house and the well-head and into the arches of the great old black walnut trees and the canopy of their branches that I know my home life is re-joined. There is much that needs doing in this world but living with beauty needs to be the fuel that stokes the spirit.