Travel | mermaidcamp

#WeekendCoffeeShare The Heat Is On

May 20, 2017 — 6 Comments

vintage cookbook and tickets

If we were having coffee in Tucson today I would invite you to take a dip in the pool because it will reach 100 degrees this afternoon. I am drinking coffee in the early morning as we prepare to spend the day in Phoenix. I know it sounds counter intuitive to go down to the valley of the sun when the heat is cranking up. Here is my logic. This weekend will be a slow one at the Heard Museum, where there is a special exhibit of the paintings of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. The universities have graduated the student population, and the snow birds have gone back to the north woods, so this is SLOW season in all of Arizona. It will reach 100 for the next 5 days in a row, which will just be a warm up (pun intended). We get good deals on hotels and other things in the summer. Natives handle the heat by going inside to air conditioned comfort in the middle of the day. Our reservation for the Rivera/Kahlo show is at 1 pm, which gives us time to see the rest of the museum. We have not been there for many years. The permanent collection has some amazing Native American art, including Barry Goldwater’s kachina collection. I am a real museum nut, and Bob does not mind spending lots of time checking out every detail of an exhibit. After you finish your coffee you can ride along in the red Mustang for the trip if you like. It should be a fun day. I plan to have crepes for brunch up in Tempe.

If we were having coffee today I would tell you a funny story about clearing clutter, about which I write frequently, and actually accomplish with less alacrity. I managed to take a large box of books to the used book store last week. Although they only purchased one book, I left the entire box for non profit organizations that pick them up there. I felt proud because I even managed to ditch some of my beloved, and never used, cookbooks. Yesterday in a Facebook group of people who used to live in the boonies in petroleum camps in Eastern Venezuela folks started saying they would pay to have a certain cookbook copied. I happen to have a copy, much used, and very special to me. The pride in ditching the old books has been replaced by pride in keeping the right one, San Tome Gourmet. San Tome was the name of our petroleum camp in Estate Anzoategui. It does contain some killer recipes. I have preserved history and culinary authenticity in my cookbook hoarding practice, so it is now very cool.

vintage Venezuelan cookbook

vintage cookbook

Tell me how your week and your writing has been. I have skipped too many days posting here this week, but did manage a couple of poems. Maybe next week I will be more productive and creative. I am calling on my summer muse to show up and inspire. She always shows up sooner or later…she is a little late. I hope your muses are serving you well and keeping your creative juicers flowing. Thanks for visiting this week. For those of you who want to keep up with bloggers around the world each weekend, check Nerd In The Brain for party invitations. Read, comment, or write your own digital beverage post. All are welcome.

#WeekendCoffeeShare

#WeekendCoffeeShare Ignorance Crisis

May 14, 2017 — 3 Comments

the web woven

sticky business

If we were having coffee this weekend I would serve you a long tall glass of iced tea. I am enjoying dewy cherry, a strong fruit flavored herbal tea with long lasting flavor. It is refreshing and beats the hell out of artificial cherry anything. I switch the flavor of tea daily so we never get tired of any one of them. It is also the time of year when we start of consume a lot of fresh juice. I can offer you watermelon, cucumber, tomato, or a combo of any of these juices. I went to the produce site yesterday where I pick up 60 pounds of produce for $10, and decided to score to boxes for $20. We are once again loaded with honeydew, watermelon, tomatoes, and bell peppers. I am cooking up a storm, and drying tomatoes for the future. This non-profit does not operate in the summer, since most of the Mexican produce they bring is not crossing the border in the heat. It makes a big difference to our budget when we have to go back to paying up at the grocery store for our fresh fruits and vegetables.

If we were visiting today I would tell you about the latest installment of the attempt to complete my non-fiction book. I have written this book over the course of many years and published it here on this blog in real-time, as the story developed. It could have been a short story about justice triumph and community policing. Sadly it is a true story about how the local police department accidentally used their “neighborhood watch” program to promote felony crime (charity scamming by the HOA board using our corporate property, our corporate treasury and our corporate lawyer) in the hood. It does sound like an incredible tale, and I wish it were not true. I have published each part of the book and sent the evidence to the city of Tucson since 2013, but the criminal activity has gone on much longer than that. Each time I reported the crimes I thought it would be the last time I would need to do it because I thought the city would want to stop supporting and promoting the most obvious crime in our neighborhood. Alas, the police do not understand that HOA fraud and charity scamming are against the law. They encouraged the scam, and even promoting cramming the fire lane full of cars in order to run the 24 hour donation drop off for the scam. They thought this was a community service. They thought they were serving us by protecting and promoting felony crime (including postal fraud) in front of everyone here for almost a decade. They thought that by setting up an illegal knock-off of the food bank in the fire lane of a residential condo village they would serve our community. They never understood that their actions were very detrimental to safety, property value, quality of life, and certainly did a lot of damage to respect for law enforcement officials. They flaunted obvious obstruction of justice for years and told us it was community service. They might be that ignorant, but the people in this ‘hood are not.

The national political scene is all a-twitter about a constitutional crisis caused by all the latest developments. There is nothing new happening. With all due respect to anyone who thinks they can fix national politics, I believe the crisis is one of extreme national ignorance. The governed have no idea how government is supposed to work, and neither do the folks who work for the government. If anyone knew how the justice system was intended to operate, it would be something other than a for profit prison system that fails enrich or protect the community. If people knew what the presidency was supposed to do, they would shape that mandate in the voter’s booth. I think our position in the world today is a result of a long era of willful blindness and withdrawal of education to the masses. If they can’t read, write, spell , or do math, they will probably not challenge the powers that be because they don’t even know what and where they might be. Ignorance and willful blindness are the enemies, gentle reader.

And thus I will conclude my political rant against ignorance in the United States. I have advised the city of Tucson that there are laws against charity scamming and HOA fraud, as well as blocking the fire lane with traffic for a decade in front of my house. They have yet to respond, so I can’t have a happy ending to this book. It is about the truth, and the truth is that they still think they have the right to come out here and mislead people in order to promote crime. I will end the book and let you know when they finally respond. They do not have the right to remain silent, but the continue to do so. I rarely go on political rants, in fact I consider this to be an education rant.

Thanks for joining me today while I let off steam. Please read, write or comment on the state of your personal affairs at the weekly party hosted by Nerd in the Brain. Enjoy sipping digital beverages with bloggers from all over the world each weekend. Please pipe up with your own stories.

#WeekendCoffeeShare

#WeekendCoffeeShare Yogini With Donkey

May 6, 2017 — 4 Comments

Gita and Bingo

If we were having coffee this weekend I know you will want your beverage on ice because we have hit triple digit heat. I don’t really mind it too much, but it is too much for most people. I am drinking a lovely white pear iced tea with a hint of fruity aftertaste that cools the tastebuds if not the entire body. If we were drinking tea this weekend I would tell you I did manage to write my first tea review, and found it to be easier than I thought it might be.

If you want to know the most interesting part of my week I have to tell you about my friend Gita. I was invited to a pot luck dinner party in honor of an old friend who now lives outside Guadalajara, but lived in Tucson for years, and visits here frequently. She was my mother’s lawyer, and a brilliant one. She had been a fancy tax attorney in Chicago when she decided to become a yoga teacher. She studied at Kripalu and later moved to Tucson where she developed a large following of devoted yoga students. She practiced law on the side, and was doing very well in life when she learned she has Parkinson’s Disease. She lost much of her physical strength and abilities, but still she persisted.

She became a teacher of laughter yoga, and developed a following in that innovative for of yoga, calling on her vast experience in al forms of yoga. I admired her greatly for shifting to accommodate anything that came her way. Since she moved to Mexico I had not seen her, and I assumed her Parkinson’s would be much more difficult to handle with time. I did not make the dinner party, but scheduled a private visit to catch up with her. She fit me into her busy social schedule for a visit before her donkey photo shoot.

Much to my great surprise I found my friend healthy happy, and showing no symptoms of her disease. She now spends her time studying and dancing the tango. I was shocked to see how great her recovery has been. She found a Mexican doctor who put her on the right drug, and then performed brain surgery. After ten years of pain and downhill slide, she got her life back. She drives, lives on her own, and will join a group of tango aficionados on a trip to Buenos Aires in the fall. I asked her if she felt bitter after 10 years of failure with the medical pharmaceutical industry. Her response has blown my mind and made me think about what it really means to be a yogini. She said she had been bitter during the 10 years, but then medicine gave her back her life. Parkinson’s taught her patience and gratitude. Once she got her strength and ability back she knew he just wanted to dance for the rest of her life. Gita is by far the greatest yogini I have ever met ( and I have known many great ones). Yoga is not flexibility of the body..it is strength of mind and character.

Her custom now is to meet a donkey in each city she visits and have a photo shoot. I had not planned to go along for the donkey photo shoot, but it turned out to be the icing on the cake. Here is a woman with a donkey, but not just any woman. This picture captures an ascended master with a donkey, enjoying the great cosmic joke. Dance on, Gita. Your insight and sense of humor are precious. You embody the meaning of yoga.

Let me pour you another glass of iced tea while you tell me about your week and your writing projects. I enjoy keeping up at these digital beverage parties. Read or contribute to the party at Nerd in the Brain’s party link. This movable feast takes place every weekend, rain or shine. Join us.

#WeekendCoffeeShare

Poetic Procrastination, Pen Pals, Tea Party

May 1, 2017 — 3 Comments

cactus blooms

I feel proud of my accomplishment to have finished #NaPoWriMo again this year by writing 30 poems in 30 days. I thought I would be very productive as a poet and in all other parts of life, but I was wrong all wrong. I did wrote the poems, but slacked on all kinds of other goals for no particular reason. I had planned to hand write poems to all my pen pals and send them on very artful paper, and I did that zero times. In fact I have not even written to the pen pals, which has caused quite a bit of guilt, since many have continued to write letters to me. My neighbor suggested I send them all a card saying “Roses are red. Violets are blue. I am so sorry I haven’t written to you.” I might do it. I have a stack of mail to answer. I look forward to getting into the swing of that again and seeking the forgiveness of the pen pals.

After my prose break I have considered new features I want to include. I plan to do a blog post each week about tea. I drink iced tea daily in great quantity. I had a limited knowledge and palate for tea, partly caused my my own ignorance of proper brewing. I had created bitter and undrinkable black and green teas by brewing them too long at a high temperature. I began to try new kinds of tea and learned more about making it taste good. I have come a long way in my own personal appreciation for the world of tea.

Almost all the tea I brew now is done in a jar buy the sun. In Arizona we have plenty of solar energy to brew tea on the sidewalk almost every day. This method never results in overly bitter or over brewed taste. It is the natural way to make sure I brew it properly. I do strain and refrigerate it as soon as I bring it in (usually after about 10 hours). We go through it quickly, so there is no need to cover the pitcher in the fridge. I collect big pitchers so we can break a few every year. Tea keeps us refreshed and healthy. It is a bargain in comparison to any bottled commercial beverage.

I plan to promote tea drinking for tea lovers, but I specifically want to interest those who normally drink beverages in cans and bottles which they purchase. These drinks are very expensive compared to the most exotic and pricey teas, and offer no benefits for health. Even bottled water has destructive effects on the environment. When one knows about the varieties and flavor combinations available in tea, a world of gourmet delights opens to reveal a plethora of new experiences. Tea pairs well with both foods and alcohol, offering new ways to serve old favorites. I hope to bring out some flavorful ideas the gentle readers will want to try.

Since Tuesday is the day of the week that alliterates with tea, I believe tomorrow will be the first installment of Tuesday Tea Party. I am brewing some mango honeybush right now which will probably be featured. I hope you will join me for a cup. Cheers!

#NaPoWriMo Follow The Lies

April 30, 2017 — 3 Comments

“Yes, follow the money but follow also the lies," @carlbernstein says at #WHCD https://t.co/yEfQ3nY9c8 https://t.co/NIaiU7Mvzq

— CNN (@CNN) April 30, 2017

We must follow the money and follow the lies
The twists and turns of political intrigue
Burrow deeply into the system to hide from the wise
The secrecy and dishonesty of the big league
The veils must be lifted, the truth must be told
Our leaders deceive us, the facts they withhold
Our nation’s future hangs in the balance between
Those false facades, their mendacity, and coming clean

: #GloPoWriMo

This month follow the poets at the #NaPoWriMo site to find new poetry, prompts, and contests. Try your hand a busting a rhyme.

cowboy

#NaPoWriMo Guilt Trip

April 24, 2017 — 1 Comment

love of the environment

I find that after a weekend away that I am far behind
In my goal to write a poem each day in April this year
Instead of writing poems I left my home and daily grind
To drive in the desert and sleep where I could not hear
A single sound in the night while wildlife crept around
A tiny slice of pristine wilderness preserved for the future

tools of the trade

Join the poetry party all month at #NaPoWriMo website, or by following the hashtags on social media. Read, write, recite , enter contests, and find new poets. Somehow today I will catch up by writing two more poems. Then my guilt will be gone.

: #GloPoWriMo

#WeekendCoffeeShare Earth Day Edition

April 22, 2017 — 6 Comments

antique glider

If we were having coffee this morning I would invite you to sit in the antique glider that sits next to my desk (since last week when we spotted it at a yard sale), and chat with me while I take care of all my office and internet chores. We are taking off later this morning for a night in a tiny house on a farm in Patagonia, Arizona. Nothing could be earthier. There is no internet, which is fine since it is only an overnight trip. I am not constantly connected anyhow, but this will be a tiny earth house kind of disconnect. I am excited because it is a big time for the humming-bird migration, and Patagonia is right on the flight pattern. It will be a lovely place to take some photos. I will fill you in next weekend over coffee.

If you were in my office you would see that since taxes have been filed my excuses for the big pile of paper on the desk have vanished. The desk is clearing up, and I am tossing out old stray junk from the office closet as well. I am rounding up some books to take to the used book store while examining my own need to surround myself with cookbooks. I love to read them, but seldom actually follow any recipe. Ditto with all the yoga books in my library. I feel secure somehow owning them but never pull them off the shelf. I had the occasion to want a yoga book recently and it took me a while to locate it. That is just silly. If I trim down the total number of books and make sure they all give me great joy, as the Japanese tidy lady advises, I believe my whole life will improve. That is my next great task. I do own her detailed tidy book on kindle, but I am not following her recipe. I am starting with books and office clutter. I may discover my need to own all these rules and directions I do not obey. There must be some crazy thing going on there. I had some issues about buying the very chair in which you are gliding, but decided it was an asset and it does bring me joy. I hope it is bringing you some to sit in it while I type.

cookbooks

I am not in danger of becoming a minimalist any time soon. I think that is what Earth Day really should be, a celebration of using and owning less. I will consume a bunch of gasoline to go assume my minimalist tiny house on a farm lifestyle for a night. Then I will drive back to Tucson on Sunday where it will be time to start air conditioning the condo. It will be hot today while we are down south at a higher elevation chilling. I will check in at the library in Patagonia to use the internet and post my daily poem for #NaPoWriMo this afternoon. All this is making me realize how very high maintenance I still am.

I want to know how your life and writing projects are going this week. Fill your cup and then fill my ear with your stories. I look forward to hearing the news from this talented and diverse group of writers. Nerd in the Brain hosts this lavish party each weekend. This is where you go to submit your own coffee share post, or keep up with the news of others in this lively group. Thanks for visiting today, and happy Earth Day to you all.

#WeekendCoffeeShare

Arizona Highways #NaPoWriMo

April 7, 2017 — 1 Comment

palo verde

wildflowers

prickly pear

fairy duster

Riding in the red Mustang down Arizona Highways in the spring
Psychedelic colors flash like cartoons across the landscape
Brightly blooming trees and cacti light up the desert and sing
Mysterious, haunting, and otherworldly, it is here we can escape
Taking in the wonders of nature, we heal our weary souls
Retreating into the beauty of the season we are made whole

We run with the roadrunners and hum with the hummingbirds

: #GloPoWriMo

Please ride the poetry train this April at #NaPoWriMo. You are invited to contribute, read, comment, or participate in some of the many contests happening this month. You can follow both #GloPoWriMo and #NaPoWriMo on social media to discover more poets.

Edmund Lockwood, Eleventh Great-Grandfather

March 21, 2017 — 1 Comment

The Arabella

My eleventh great-grandfather was an early settler in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The records of the Massachusetts Bay Colony are extensive, so we know quite a bit about his life in America.

MIGRATION: 1630
FIRST RESIDENCE: Cambridge
FREEMAN: Requested 19 October 1630 (as “Mr. Edmond Lockwood”) and admitted 18 May 1631 (as “Mr. Edmond Lockewood”) [MBCR 1:79, 366].
OFFICES: Trial jury in case of Walter Palmer (as “Mr. Edmond Lockwood”), 9 November 1630 [MBCR 1:81]; “Mr. Lockwood” deputy to General Court for Cambridge, 9 May 1632 [MBCR 1:95]; “Mr. Edmond Lockwood” constable for Cambridge, 9 May 1632
ESTATE: 3 March 1634/5: “It is ordered, that Ruth Lockwood, widow, shall bring all the writings that her husband left in her hands to John Haynes, Esq., & Simon Bradstreete, on the third day of the next week, who shall detain the same in their hands till the next Court, when they shall be disposed of to those to whom they belong”
7 April 1635: “It is referred to the church of Waterton, with the consent of Rob[er]te Lockwood, executor of Edmond Lockwood, deceased, to dispose of the children & estate of the said Edmond Lockwood, given to them, to such persons as they think meet, which if they perform not within fourteen days, it shall be lawful for the Governor, John Hayne, Esq., & Simon Bradstreete, to dispose of the said children & estates as in their discretion, they shall think meet, as also to take an account of the said Rob[er]te Lockwood, & give him a full discharge”
2 June 1635: “In the cause of the children & widow of Edward Lockwood, (the elders & other of the church of Waterton being present,) and upon consideration of the order of Court in April last made in the case, which was found not to have been observed, because the estate was not computed & apportioned, it is now ordered, with consent of all parties, viz:, the church of Waterton, the widow of the said Edmond living, & the executor having consented to the former order, that the present Governor & the Secretary shall have power to call parties & witnesses for finding out the true estate, having consideration of the uncertainty of the will, & the debts, & other circumstances, to apportion the remainder of the estate to the wife & children, according to their best discretion; & then the church of Waterton is to dispose of the elder children & their portions as shall be best for their Christian education & the preservation of their estate” [MBCR 1:151].
BIRTH: By about 1600 based on estimated date of marriage (but see COMMENTS below).
DEATH: Cambridge between 9 May 1632 [MBCR 1:95, 96] and 3 March 1634/5 [MBCR1:134] (and probably closer to the earlier date, since Edmund Lockwood does not appear in any of the recorded Cambridge land grants beginning in August 1633).
MARRIAGE: (1) By about 1625 _____ _____; she may have died in England before 1630.
(2) By 1632 Elizabeth Masters, daughter of JOHN MASTERS; she married (2) Cary Latham of Cambridge.
CHILDREN:
With first wife

i EDMUND, b. England say 1625; m. Stamford 7 January 1655[/6] Hannah Scott, daughter of Thomas Scott [FOOF 1:381].

ii Child (one or more additional children by first wife implied by court order to the Watertown church “to dispose of the elder children” [MBCR 1:151]); no further record.

With second wife
iii JOHN, b. Cambridge November 1632 (“son of Edward Lockwood & Elisabeth his wife”) [NEHGR 4:181]; d. at New London in 1683, unmarried [Lockwood Gen 10].

ASSOCIATIONS: Although no record states the relationship explicitly, Edmund and Robert Lockwood were almost certainly brothers.
COMMENTS: The oft-stated origin of the Lockwood brothers in Combs, Suffolk, seems to be based on nothing more than finding the right names at about the right time. Further research is needed before this origin can be accepted.
In a discussion of financial transactions, John Winthrop wrote to his son John in Groton 23 July 1630 saying “If money be brought to you or your Uncle Downinge for Goodman Lockwood, let Mr. Peirce be paid his bill of provisions for him, and bring the rest with you” [WP 2:306].
“Mr. Edmond Lockwood” was the third in the list of eight “Newtowne Inhabitants” which is found at the beginning of the Cambridge town records, and probably dates from 1632 [CaTR2].
After NICHOLAS KNAPP was fined for quackery on 1 March 1630/1, “Mr. Will[ia]m Pelham and Mr. Edmond Lockewood hath promised to pay to the Court the sum of £5” [MBCR 1:83].
BIBLIOGRAPHIC NOTE: The 1889 Lockwood genealogy (Frederic A. Holden and E. Dunbar Lockwood, Descendants of Robert Lockwood, History of the Lockwood Family in America[Philadelphia 1889]) was deservedly described by Jacobus as “a genealogical atrocity” [TAG31:222]. By lumping all the descendants of the first Edmund under his brother Robert, the posterity of this family through eldest son Edmund was misplaced.
Donald Lines Jacobus began to sort the family out properly in 1930, with further contributions made in 1955 [FOOF 1:380-81; TAG 31:222-24]. In 1978 Harriet Woodbury Hodge published detailed arguments for a rearrangement of the Lockwood families that would restore to Edmund Lockwood his children [Some Descendants of Edmund Lockwood (1594-1635) of Cambridge, Massachusetts, and his son Edmund Lockwood (c. 1625-1693) of Stamford, Connecticut (New York 1978), cited above as Lockwood Gen].
Edmund Lockwood (1574 – 1634)
11th great-grandfather
Eliner Lockwood (1592 – 1658)
daughter of Edmund Lockwood
Caleb Knapp (1637 – 1684)
son of Eliner Lockwood
Sarah Knapp (1669 – 1750)
daughter of Caleb Knapp
Ebenezer Mead (1692 – 1775)
son of Sarah Knapp
Deacon Silas Meade (1730 – 1807)
son of Ebenezer Mead
Abner Mead (1749 – 1810)
son of Deacon Silas Meade
Martha Mead (1784 – 1860)
daughter of Abner Mead
Abner Morse (1808 – 1838)
son of Martha Mead
Daniel Rowland Morse (1838 – 1910)
son of Abner Morse
Jason A Morse (1862 – 1932)
son of Daniel Rowland Morse
Ernest Abner Morse (1890 – 1965)
son of Jason A Morse
Richard Arden Morse (1920 – 2004)
son of Ernest Abner Morse
Pamela Morse
I am the daughter of Richard Arden Morse

Musical Instrument Museum

March 15, 2017 — 4 Comments

Dragons and Vines Inlay

The Musical Instrument Museum in Phoenix is a destination worth a lengthy visit. I spent the day there recently in complete awe. The special exhibit on display now is an incredible collection of artfully inlaid instruments. They exhibit includes videos to show the methods and makers of this specialized art. The intricacy they achieve is impressive, and almost impossible to discern with the naked eye. The museum furnishes the visitors with little flashlights to illuminate the inlay for better appreciation of the detail. This show is all in one large room, but is packed with amazing art. The exhibit is both enlightening and inspirational. I have a new appreciation for this fine craftsmanship.

The well designed space tells the story of the history and evolution of music all around the globe. There are instruments and videos to explain the origins and uses of them arranged by geographic region. Plan to spend a long time, or go back more than once to see the entire space. I took out some time in the afternoon to attend a concert by the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra in the small acoustically perfect theater on site. The selections played were very special for the small space, and I had a front row seat with a direct view of the conductor. It was intimate and wonderfully transformative. I enjoyed the concert immensely, and would return for another matinée the next time I plan a trip. The concert/museum combination is hard to beat. The concert series offers all kinds of music, and the prices are very reasonable for the quality. The concert hall is a real treat in itself. I highly recommend this museum for an hour or a week. It is fascinating, and feeds the soul.