Looking Forward and Backward: Spring Q and A, 2021

Spring Aliums

It is time to catch up on questions and comments left over from as far back as last winter and give some indication about topics we plan to take up in the near future.

Our family just loved the blog post about owls! Are you planning more like it about special animals?

Let's see, we have done butterflies, fish (mostly freshwater), and owls so far. I think frogs are probably the next animals we will feature. I can't give you a timeline yet, but I would think we will probably do it in early summer. That seems like an appropriate time for frogs (and perhaps a toad or two). We are so happy your family liked the owls. Here is an extra one for you.

Originals needlepoint by Annake

Are you going to do anymore quizzes and games? We played most of the games at home and some with my sister and her kids over the phone. We would sure like to see some more of them.

Summer flowers

We are happy to hear that you liked them. I won't promise any because we have a lot promised already and the Covid-19 situation has made scheduling anything more difficult. I would like to do something for the Summer Solstice and some of the "midsummer madness" that has gone along with it over the centuries, and I will do that if I get the opportunity. If not, it will probably be autumn before I can do anything along those lines.

Did you get any negative comments on saying that there is only one race, the Human Race?

Not really. But, since you have brought it up, I would like to say a little more from my point of view.

Lots of colors in this multi-ethnic crowd...

Let me tell you a couple of personal stories to illustrate my "take" on life. My paternal grandmother was a Frisian immigrant fleeing disease and poverty. She crossed the Atlantic in steerage and went more than halfway across the U.S. to marry a man with whom she had corresponded, but whom she had never met. She was a midwife and an herbalist. I lived with her for a while when I was little, in a small town on the Missouri/Arkansas border. She delivered more than 150 babies in her lifetime. When she turned 75, some forty or more of the people she had delivered lined up in rows by her front fence to sing "Happy Birthday". I was enchanted. "Grandma, they're so pretty! They are all different colors!" She told me that was the way it should be because that was how the Good Lord made us and He loves us all. Later she taught me not to judge people by their appearance or what they did for a living, but by how they treated other people — a lesson I never forgot.

Not too long ago, a lady with skin a little darker than mine said I couldn't understand something in her life "because you're white." I told her I have never considered myself "white". I have Native American blood and Gypsy blood, and somewhere down the line there are slanted eyes. My other grandmother had them. I don't, but one of my children does. None of those ancestors were ever accused of being "white". I always checked "Other" on paperwork, or wrote "Human" on the line for race. The way I feel is that I'm Multicolored and I'm proud of it!

What's next in the "All About Color" series?

Right now I am researching and writing a post about The Psychology of Color. That is something that has always fascinated me. It will be the next one in the color series. It is a big topic with many facets that are pertinent right now, so it may take some time to finish it.

Are you going to do something for Earth Day this year? How about Arbor Day?

Spring foliage in the forest

Since they are so close together, we are planning to combine the themes in one post this year. We live in a high mountain area which has seen extreme drought for several years. There is no more "fire season" now: fires can and do erupt the year around. Last year we saw devastating fires that will affect the area for decades.

We have had friends call us from towns in the valley to alert us to smoke or flames erupting on the heights above us. Autumn before last we came down from a day enjoying and photographing the aspens to emerge on the highway where more than half a dozen cars were parked every-which-way on the pavement while people took pictures of a blaze starting up the side of the mesa. Not a single person had called the nearest fire department!!! We called for help and pretty much bullied the crowd into moving their vehicles out of the way of the engines we could already hear racing up from the nearest town. We got our own vehicle onto a side road. Fortunately only one slope of a small ravine burned. We plan to talk about fire prevention and safety as well as the broader aspects of the importance of preserving our global forests and the impact they have on the health of the planet.

Lots to think about and plan for!