Spring equinox

[Yorksmark]

Time to celebrate the season and give thanks for the sun.



Pool water is a bit cool yet though

[jbeegoode]

The desert flowers are keyed up and may become a super bloom. The winter weeds in my yard are going to seed. The last rain has made many an hour of pulling, digging and hoola hoe. I was propagating and eating a few varieties this winter, but now, I'm sitting in over abundance.

The days are warm and sunny, in-between not so good weather, but freezing has become doubtful.

April and May hot springs visits should be wholly nude and wonderful, day and night, with no concerns about the temperature of the pool and hot tubs. The swimming pools are still a bit overly refreshing here as well, but cold plunges after the hot sauna are becoming all the rage.

The winter visitors are beginning to leave. The Sandhill Cranes left a month early this year for parts north. They left a month or more early. Climate change has them confused about when Spring actually begins.

I love walking out to warm morning sun, no robe, shoes, nothing and then coming alive with the lizards. Like the lizards, I don't have to be a reptile to notice how good it feels, how alive, and revitalizing.
Jbee

[Safebare]

Well said JBee.

I truly enjoy that first morning I can venture out to the barn with my coffee to feed the horses without having to figure out which level of jacket I need to be comfortable.

I cleaned out the birdhouses just in time for the Spring arrivals. Also anticipating a bumper crop of berries this year.

I have been taking on more than my share of projects this year, so my available time for social media has dropped significantly. Just know that when I am quiet here that means I'm up to something out there.

~Safebare

[jbeegoode]

We did the piano burn last Saturday, as it is that time of year, Spring. Six baby grands, four bench/wall, a few violins and a cello. Band played Surfer music and some early sixties instrumental, like James Bond, "You Only Live Twice." Sort of sad , bitter sweet, but then such great entertainment for a crowd and consequently better than them ending up in a landfill. A touch of maniacal.

I made photos and movies of it, until my phone battery died.
Jbee

[Safebare]

I still struggle with many of the things burners do.  I guess pleasing the crowd is one of the unspoken tennants. I do understand the concept of burning bridges (art pieces, towers, effigies or pianos), but life isn't really like that. We can't simply torch what we value at each opportunity and rise above once again, & again, to pursue even greater heights.

The Tree Burn is a good example.  ~600 Christmas trees rescued from the landfill, only to be torched for the entertainment of a hundred or so humans. I would rather have taken them to the coast for dune reclamation. 

I am a firm believer in keeping as much of our leftovers out of landfills as possible, but releasing the entrapped carbon held inside a piano to the atmosphere at this time of our evolution, seems contraindicated.

~Safebare

[jbeegoode]

It does make a polluting mess. On the other hand, there is an innate relationship with fire that needs to be tended to. In this day and age it isn't justified to be frivolous about fire and smoke. I mitigate by considering that there are 100 people at one fire instead of a hundred fires. We use tree trimmings and construction scrap for the sauna and this is for a meeting of several people, instead of....

In the pianos, the old metal is used to make fences and art. The old wood is useless around here. Xmas trees were used one year, palates some other years. Mountains of garbage are being create here. They poison the groundwater.

I've got a quality fake tree, whe I use it.

Jbee

[nuduke]

What's a Hoola Hoe, Jbee?
John

[Safebare]

We are planning a Wickerman Festival for our Naked Tuesday, 30 April. Hopefully, we can fashion a 'wickerman' large enough to hold Barbie for the sacrifice.

~Safebare

[jbeegoode]

Here, for Day of the Dead, a ball is created in which strips of paper with notes about, or for the dead are placed. It hangs from a crane and burns after much ceremony and a processional parade.

But be careful. That procession has grown from a few to over 30,000 participants and nailed to originators into the busy-ness of it all.
Jbee

[jbeegoode]

What's a Hoola Hoe, Jbee?
John

A hoola hoe is like a rake, but a U shaped sharp bar is attached that scrapes up weeds at the base, often pulling out the roots. Very effective.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnb31wpnD1Q
Jbee

[nuduke]

Wow, never seen one of those hoes in the UK!  They exist though - I looked em up!  I also looked at the video you posted and a couple of others and note that the hoes are only demonstrated on dry soil with a fairly fine tilth.  I wonder how it would perform in our heavy clay and easily compacted soil in our area?  If you dig down below the topsoil here you get a heavy gloopy clay that you can practically make pots out of!  The hula hoe may have difficulty with large clods and wet, heavy soil I suspect.  However, a jolly useful looking tool in the right circumstances.
John

[jbeegoode]

Or getting down on your knees, or squatting and pulling weeds out by the roots no matter how big or small.

They can yank some larger roots or cut them off with  the significant leverage and body weight distribution and a sharp blade. They make smaller younger weeds easy and  with wholesale results.

Soil type rocks moister vary considerably and so effectiveness, yup.

Jbee