Under the Watchful Eye of Raven

There is no doubt that we live in a still wild and being rewilded little corner of Northern California. It has been a great place to bring Kiara's spirit into the world; here we have hawks, and even the bear roaming through from time to time. The mariposas have accompanied us all the way through an amazing spring-summer-fall sunny season that was not too hot or too dry. The wildlife has had a healthy year; the birds, for instance, are feasting on the huckleberries. The ravens are particularly present as neighbors in the little draw of a valley that protects this home. They are always checking us out. I think we can safely saw that it is under the watchful eye of raven that Kiara has completed her first year!

I probably deserve some heckling for so few posts on this blog, a real lack of prolific blog pontificating on this vozsilvestre site. Still, no one can heckle the spectacular subject of the random series of blogs I have posted over the course of the last year. What a really special year it has been. We have so many good memories, and we do have the true sensation that living a bit simpler and closer to the earth has been good for Kiara herself and for us as a family (and for me as a new papa!). I wish I could type and post a lot of the stories, but I also believe that a picture does speak a thousand words, and these pictures of the birthday girl say it all, especially since blogging here is a rare and fancy way to pass the time. Anyhow though….the heart of what I want to say is:

Happy Birthday Kiara! And happy first birthday for Isabel too, her first anniversary of mamahood! I wish you the very best for the next year, and thank you all the goodness!

The Empty Space of the Internet Looks Better With Kiara's Fotos

This blog could be an example of the lamest blog ever -- except for the subject of the fotos! If it were not for my daughter, I really would not have any reason to be posting on the Internet. The net can be nasty for a slow thinker like myself. I continue to have experiences where I attempt to contribute a difference in opinion to the comment section of a blogger or writer in which I get totally flamed in the net wars. Perhaps it is because I fall prey to trying to be a smarter ass than the ass who entraps me with their competitive style, which is not really my preferred style of communication.

The Internet is an amazing tool, but the on-line community continues to sap my soul of much faith in the future. Perhaps it is my own incompetence as a communicator, perhaps it is because the alienation of a computer centered life really is eating at the very essence of what is magic about human community and there are a lot of sad and frustrated people out there. I hate it when I write something and I note that I ended up sounding like them. It is like the Internet can bring out everyone's most base communication. Fortunately, the landscape and the family and the immediate real community around me continue to be fun and encouraging and tangible and present, helping shake off the disappointment of being involved with rock throwing contests with people who are just more versed in such communication than me.

Though I have the right to opine in these pages about the pros or cons of this or that political phenomena, the fact is such ranting and raving only hurts my soul. I am tired, let's let Kiara do the talking. Here are some photos that I should have posted a long time ago.

How Wild Is Your Iris? Part II

It certainly is a competitive world in the blogosphere. I have been encouraged to be more productive from several different angles! Well, it might be a while before I post here again, but I am here to share a graffiti photo of petro-locura from travels past, and to let you all know that I was a guest on the Environment Show at Redwood Community Radio-KMUD last night. We discussed the work of EPIC and other collaborators to promote conservation and appropriate stewardship of our regions State Parks, especially as Richardson Grove becomes an inconvenient speed bump for the petro-locura that has gripped our planet.

Give it a listen!

PS. We have managed to get coverage of the Patagonia dams issue in the ever so glossy Outside Magazine, both online as well as in a feature article in the print version of their June 2010 issue. Check it out when you can, the article is really quite good and pro-Patagonia.

PSS. And as a last addition to this post, check out this video that is a brief and creative expression of the responsibility that we can choose, or not, to accept for the planet.

How Wild Is Your Iris?

It rained again today, solidly. Though the front has let up, the afternoon is grey, and cold, and we are just barely getting a solar charge for the batteries—and all the while the mixed forest of the hills is drinking up the moisture, the mist, the drizzle, the fog. This later May maritime system is a total miracle of precipitation, diffused light, and celebratory frog song. Unstable as it is, in terms of low atmospheric pressure and heavy weight of h2o on all the flower bearing branches out there, it is still a welcome gift—water is life!

How lucky we are, to have so much good wildness around us, falling today in the shape of rain. Sometimes, though, I wonder—does familiarity breed contempt? Is that why we can get sick of the rain? Or do the elements and special places of nature really seem more potent when they are new? And less significant when one has already seen them a thousand times? What has happened to a person when they are tired of seeing the bloom of the wild irises?

Seeing the everyday splendor of our planet in a late May rain in Humboldt County is a part of understanding the harsh realities that wild nature everywhere is facing. Even though my quiet reality at home is so aesthetic, it is not so difficult to feel the fragilities of our existence when looking at the Golfo de México and the Redwoods (or even back once again to Patagonia!) through the iris of a person who is about to complete seven months of life. What will happen to our planet in the next seven months, seven years, or seven decades? What will Kiara see in her life that I have always feared we would see? Can your iris to the world see the interconnected complexity of the issues confronting the next generation? With which lens do you see the planet, and your place on it? Frankly, while I ask "how wild is your iris?," I know that my wild iris is looking a long ways ahead.

And, because of todays rain, Kiara is smiling every step of the way!

P.S. The first foto is from Cuernavaca, Morelos, México, Kiara's first holiday down south! Though I started this blog what seems to be quite a long time ago, I don't always get fotos up in a timely fashion. Such is the internet for me--too much work and not enough play. Hopefully this post will whet people's appetite for a while, or maybe not? We will have to see...in the meantime, enjoy the images!

First Flowers -- Primeras Flores

The first flowers of spring -- las primeras flores de la primavera -- are appearing here in Northern California. February still has a chill in the air, and the days are still exceptionally short, but the first flowers are making their brave appearance.

What is it about having a new baby girl that makes the magic of natures creation that much more impressive? Why is the amazement on her face when taking a close up look at the new flowers so inspiring to me? Thanks Kiara for all the lessons you are giving to me, and thanks to the flowers for hinting at winters passing and the accumulation of life lessons.

The lessons of life that come with a child certainly are numerous. For instance, new positions for getting rocked to sleep go right along with learning what music she likes best. Seems that Boards of Canada for all their gothic electronics and Bluetech for the deep groove are both bands that Kiara loves -- or else I just tell myself that so I can put some calming music on for myself cuando la hora de su siesta nos haya llegada.

Kiara came down with us to town on Friday and stepped in briefly (well, got carried in...) to the KMUD studio when I did my latest Febrero Hip Hopero set for Latino America Sonando. She is just four months old, and really can't make any sense out of any of it (any more than she does for the Yard Dogs Road Show though she seemed to dig it anyways). It is fun to think that our love for music and the wild edges of nature are soaking into our daughter because of the style of life we maintain. She will do what she will do that much is for sure, she will be her own person and we will just have to celebrate that, especially when she starts to let us know that our taste is old and out of date.

But first flowers are always timeless, just like the amazing expressions dancing across a babies face. We just have to enjoy every minute of them.

Wild Things

We live in a very wild place, absolutely full of wild things. No matter how hard some people might abuse the land, Northern California always has wild phenomena to keep one close to the power of the earth.

For instance, we had another earthquake on the Lost Coast today. I was the only one that noticed at first, but the way things kept shaking definitely made the deep earth vibration unmistakable. The temblor might have been subtle, but we all, however, noticed immediately the new storm of river swelling rain that is drenching our mixed forest stands. Our rainfall is just barely average this year -- yet it is still twice what we have received in the last couple of years. Life giving rain, just another one of those little miracles we learn to treasure.

As they say, nature works in mysterious ways. We love the mystery of the wild life revealing itself to us in the rapid growth of Kiara. There's bears loose in our neck of the woods!

And, speaking of the wild, as an update about Patagonia I recommend checking out the February 2010 National Geographic with the article Patagonia's Peril -- great coverage about one of the planets last wild refuges, and burning descriptions of the threats looming over the region. There is a lot happening these days in Chile, including a change in government, and we will be sure to share more news in the next months. In the meantime, enjoy this video put together by colleagues in Chile using footage from our trip to the Pascua in 2008.



And in English this time, the same video!