Sunday News
28 June 2009
This morning was the strawberry festival at one of the bigger farms in the area. We went early to pick (aka eat) for a while, then wandered around to enjoy the feeling of a summer fair: old tractors to gawk at, greenhouses full of fresh-smelling flowers, hippies and their hippie children, horse-drawn carriage rides, and free strawberry smoothies.
Back home I went up to my meadow to plant a tiny plot of land up by my cabin. It’s kinda crazy considering I already am spending most of my time helping to grow plants in the garden, but somehow the fact of caring for and cultivating my own little friends is very self-actualizing. I guess that’s kinda a strike against communism isn’t it — people (even me!) are programmed to desire ownership. I should probably start calling myself and anti-capitalist anti-marketing minimalist symbiote or something.
Now the sad part of the day: just recently my tent has been starting to smell a bit rank, so I decided to dry it all out and shake the debree out… when I took up the ground-tarp I found the carcass of a little baby garder snake squished against it! I guess it had crawled in there to find a safe place to sleep and then when I climbed in or rolled over or something I squished it! I feel terrible. I mean, shoot, here I was sleeping in the freaking tent to try to stay out of the way for those darned pheobes, and so I killed a baby snake because of it! Also it’s been messing with my mind because I’ve always felt like sleeping in a tent is kinda exemplifying low-impact living, but the dead snake and the shrivelled up plants under where my tent is staked surely don’t agree. I’m not sure yet what the life-lesson here is (or if there is one). I just hate to kill for no particular reason. Just what I needed chalked up against my karma anyways, right?
I headed back down to the house pretty late in the afternoon and found myself really happy to see Dana, one of the neighbors’, car in the drive. Sometimes it gets a little lonely here, but usually whenever I just start to wish there were more people around, someone shows up! The evening consisted of another incredible Jennifer Megyesi dinner experience, a competive card game, chocolate and beer and a lot of laughing. And of course finished with the trek up to my meadow one last time for the day, enjoying the fireflies all around me, the light fading from the sky, and the first few drops of rain before I climbed into my tent cozy dry and warm all night.
TVZ
Jul 3, '09—8:06 am
And then there’s all the germs you kill each time you wash the dishes. I guess you just be as reasonably gentle as you can, and that’s the way the world is set up.