The Orange Hawkweed

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.

“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.

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.

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.