Thought I would do a post on my blog-namesake, for something less thought-heavy.
The Orange Hawkweed (Pilosella aurantiaca or Hieracium aurantiacum, sources are divided) is a gorgeous flame-orange colored wildflower that has a fuzzy stem, grows from a basal rosette of fuzzy leaves, and commonly has one to multiple blooms on the end of its one central stalk. It has a distinct fragrance that is a soft, subtle, and delicate kind of sweetness that is very unoffensive. You have to actually stick your nose up to the blaze-colored bloom to catch a whiff of it, though.
The plant is native to Europe, but found its way to North America and Australia, most likely by people migrating.
In Europe, it is grown as an ornamental and a protected species in some areas.
In America, it's all over my yard, and mowed over by neighbors without a thought or a care, because it's just another unsightly invasive weed - regardless of it's glowingly lovely color and scent.
I haven't found a use for this beautiful fire-like flower yet, edible, medicinal, or otherwise, but it is a delight to have around. I appreciate a fistful of these in my husband's hand more than a bouquet of red roses (which are cliché and too heady-smelling).
Orange Hawkweed is also on the Idaho "noxious weeds" list. http://www.oneplan.org/Crop/noxWeeds/nxWeed18.asp Epic razz to that, says I.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Friday, October 26, 2012
“Go Green” and “Life is Hard”
Disclaimer: This is not to the III%,
who are worth their salt.
I hate these two phrases more than
anything else uttered on the face of the Earth in any language, and
no, it's not even for the usual righteously indignant, “can't stand
the fluffy-bunnies” reasons, either.
I hate them because every time I hear
them or read them, the person saying or writing them never – and I
do mean invariably NEVER – has any real idea of what they're
even talking about.
I would know.
Let's start with the latter phrase,
“life is hard,” shall we?
This is almost always spoken by
somebody on food stamps, or some other public assistance, and/or
spends roughly $400 a month or more on their groceries, at least.
They also still have enough money for gas, buying a few DVDs here and
there, or some music off iTunes, new shoes, new clothes, and can go
out every so often with friends, maybe even somewhere out of town for
vacation. They indulge in things like chocolate, and cream and sugar
with their coffee.
My monthly stipend for food is $40 a
month. It has been for the past handful of years now, and it's not
going to change. My husband, the family cook, plans out meals for
the whole month, so that we don't run out. $40 is a good as it gets.
No movies, no music, no new books, no
new swag. No new anything that we don't absolutely need.
“Life is hard,” is NOTHING that I
want to hear from some other woman in a cute top, blinking at me with
mascara on her lashes, with her over-fed brood in nikes and
winter coats, stuffing their shopping carts with cheese and chips and
cereal, going home in their gassed-up mini-van, to their
air-conditioned/centrally heated home where they will watch TV, gripe
over something someone said on facebook, and go to bed snug as a bug
(and that's only ONE example of the variety of folks with no idea).
DO NOT EVER TELL ME YOUR LIFE IS
HARD.
I KNOW what hard life is.
I live and thrive on $40 a month.
Chances are, you can't do what I do. If you would like to, I'll see
you in Idaho. Otherwise, stop seeking sympathy or pity, I have none
to spare in this arena, and it should be very evident as to
why.
… And I hate having to pull out the
“hard-life” ruler, it's tacky and time-consuming, really. It
never makes me feel any better, either.
Next phrase, “Go Green.” The social
engineering slogan that is all talk, no walk, targets the WRONG
people for environmental culpability, and is at best a flat out joke.
Do people actually think that the true
culprits of pollution, the big mega-corporations, are going to be
swayed from their profiteering practices by a few bleeding hearts in
green t-shirts? If so, please keep them far away from me.
The Greenwashed masses always talk
about getting back to nature, saving energy, helping the Earth... but
what do they actually DO about it, really?
Getting back to nature typically
doesn't happen. People are scared to death of Nature. You mention
foraging or hunting and fishing to these folks and you're looked at
as though you're some kind of backwards savage. Why do all that
stuff, when you can just go buy organic from big natural food
brands at big natural foods' stores that are actually owned by even
bigger companies that push the artificial-crap-posing-as-food brands
that they own right alongside their “good stuff”? Heaven forbid,
you might get dirty! Or miss American Idol! Cooking from scratch
takes too much time! And skinning and gutting is ICKYYYYYYY!
They continue to drink fluoridated
water and put aspartame in their drinks, too, it's so quaint.
Really, though, foraging and hunting =
it DOESN'T GET any more “organic” and “all-natural” than
this!
But no, it is as I quote from one of my
neighbors as he said of some plants in our yard, “Why would you
want save them? Those are weeds!” So genuinely flabbergasted
was he, that we would spare a bunch of unsightly weeds (the awful
horror). My husband then educated him on the fact that it was
burdock. Burdock root is also known as “gobo.”
As I recall, he didn't have much to say
beyond a few grumbles about that. But back he went to his
perfectly manicured, big empty lawn, with it's few ornamentals here
and there and not a single “weed” in sight, edible or otherwise.
It continues to remain to this day the very envy of golf-course-esque
backyard lawns everywhere.
Recycling is good. But those
fluorescent bulbs that are supposedly so great are actually
manufactured with mercury, and are highly toxic to the earth, not to
mention the spectrum they emit has been proven for years now to
weaken people who are directly exposed to it for prolonged periods of
time, making them lethargic and unfocused. Makes you wonder why they
make it mandatory and “code” to have it schools and office
buildings, doesn't it? Not only that, if one breaks, it literally
requires a haz-mat team to clean up, I exaggerate not, look it up.
Natural light from a window by day,
incandescent fixture by night for me, please and thank you, until we
can find something that actually IS better.
Ever notice that the go-greeners often
tend to spend a lot, as well? Buying expensive organic food, expensive
imported “natural fiber” clothes, expensive “hybrid”
vehicles, expensive “natural” personal hygiene products (which
may or may not actually be as the label-marketing touts),
mineral makeup, and on and on.
But here's me, with my all-natural food
that I got first-hand with my husband, no processing beyond water and
a knife-blade. My face bears no makeup, doesn't need it, except
maybe a little lip color for out in public. I sit basking in the view
of the autumn sky, bright even with illuminated cloud cover, and I'm
in comfortable clothes that I've managed to make last for nearly five
years. No money spent, there, no resources wasted, and no pollution.
I don't need to “go green.” I
already live as green as it gets, without even trying. So all the
folks wailing with their anti-humanity pro-cuddly-animals-and-flowers
crap can go re-evaluate themselves and the way that THEY choose to
live, thank you.
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Of Pioneers and Pariahs
Ever notice how all the true
innovation, new theory, new thought, even new renaissances are ALL
made by pioneers? Really. People who are willing to push or outright
ignore boundaries and blaze new trails and cover new ground into
unexplored territory.
Ever notice how they are always branded
as weird, kooks, heretics and blasphemers, nuts, ridiculed,
discouraged, or sometimes even exiled or ostracized until they come
back with the fruits of their hard work and accomplished glory?
All these trail-blazers are always told
at the outset that “this is this and that is that because of what
we know.” Really? Well how do we know this? Oddly enough, the work
of the great pioneers who blazed the field of whatever the subject
matter being touched on up to this point in time is cited. Well,
what was there BEFORE those pioneers dared to go against the flow?
Nothing.
Nothing, really?
That's right, nothing. They were being
told, just as you are now, to stick to the already covered ground,
the safe territory, the known territory, and being told that THEY
were crazy nuts for wanting to push beyond that. They ignored these
admonishments, of course.
Has anyone ever stopped to notice this
pattern?
Only AFTER a pioneer has blazed the
trail - be it discovering new lands, or new science, or new
philosophy - and knocked down those “threatened” folks who rise
up to challenge them for what they're doing, do ANY of the masses
follow.
Now it's safe, now the way is clear,
now it's made doctrine, and the pattern begins all over again.
Calvin was initially branded a heretic
for starting the Reformation movement, and now we have Protestants.
Einstein never had a degree, and yet
he's cited as one of the greatest scientific minds to have ever
lived.
Benjamin Franklin was chided for his
“blasphemy” when he invented the lightning rod.
And had the American Revolution not
succeeded, every last man in the Continental Congress that founded
the country now known as the United States of America would have been
hanged as traitors to their king.
Being a pioneer is lonely and
dangerous. Yet nothing in this world moves or progresses without
them.
You'd think we'd all learn by now to
trust in that, instead of repeating history like the machine-cogs in
a music box, playing the same tune over and over again.
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Hello, Szía, Guten Tag, Oy!
I am an American woman, and although I am NOT new to Patriot affairs, sustainable living, history and folklore, Shakespeare, married and family life, the miracle of synchronicity, or singing an aria, I AM new to blogging, but it is my hope that all you intelligent people may get something interesting or insightful out of future thoughts and posts, and that we can connect here.
Unintelligent people can kindly look at the pretty wildflowers and keep their atrocious lolcat grammar to themselves, thank you.
I am an American woman, and although I am NOT new to Patriot affairs, sustainable living, history and folklore, Shakespeare, married and family life, the miracle of synchronicity, or singing an aria, I AM new to blogging, but it is my hope that all you intelligent people may get something interesting or insightful out of future thoughts and posts, and that we can connect here.
Unintelligent people can kindly look at the pretty wildflowers and keep their atrocious lolcat grammar to themselves, thank you.
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