ofearthandstars: A painted tree, art by Natasha Westcoat (Default)
From this week's [community profile] thefridayfive - other answers here.

1. Mysteries. Do you sleuth alongside Nancy Drew or Miss Marple? Fan of Nero Wolfe?

As a kid I was an obsessive reader and I pretty blew out my allowance every week on Nancy Drew. In later years I have enjoyed the work of Sarah Andrews, whose novels featured the forensic geologist Em Hansen as a detective sleuth. Send me all the brainy/science-y detective ladies and their adventures, I ♥ them.

2. Plan on making a batch of chili? Have a top secret recipe to share?

I think most chili is overrated, but every once in a while, I enjoy a black bean chili with cilantro pesto. This is not the exact recipe, but it's close. And yes, the cilantro pesto makes the recipe, it cannot be left out.

3. Does your car or did a family car have a name?

My car is affectionately known as the Little Teal Vegan Mobile and/or the Lean Green Vegan Machine - mostly because it is plastered with sanctuary stickers and I have destroyed the inside of it conducting rescue, transport, and other activism.

4. Did you walk to school with your friends? Take a school bus?

I went to far too many different schools as a kid due to the 80s recession and moving all over the place. There's only at one point in my life can I remember being actually close enough to walk to school, and that was a brief period when we lived in Vermont. Every other year I rode a bus, often for hours a day.

5. Ever have someone carry your books home from school?

Not too and from, though I think I can recall L. at least offering to carry them through the hallways once or twice. I was a really independent brat, though.

ofearthandstars: A painted tree, art by Natasha Westcoat (Default)

At the end of last week, I saw that one of our regional air quality nonprofits was hosting a book club centered around Wastelands: The True Story of Farm Country on Trial. So I started the book on Sunday afternoon and finished it by late Monday night.

My review of this book will reveal my bias, but this was such an emotional read. My family moved to eastern NC in the early 1990s, when the tobacco industry was failing, and contract growers began signing up farmers to build the concentrated animal feed operations (CAFOs) that now litter the eastern side of the state. These are not your traditional farm, but warehouse-like operations that can hold tens of thousands of animals in what are essentially dark, dim sheds. Beautiful farmland and forested countryside made way for these sheds, but also, particularly for pig farms, the "lagoons" (open pits) where their liquid waste was pumped, stored, and eventually sprayed into the air as a means of "treatment". When I went to university to get my environmental sciences and engineering degree, I met then the researchers who were beginning to look at the health effects of the neighbors who had to live near these operations - typically disenfranchised black or Hispanic populations, but a wide variety of people who suddenly had to contend with the reality of odor, particulate, and spray and/or "rain" from these operations coming onto their property, absorbing into their homes and clothes, and generally making their lives unbearable. It turns out that literally breathing in pig sh*t results in increased headaches, nausea, asthma, sickness, and other health effects. This is aside from the noise of the trucks, the smell of the deadboxes (often open over-piled boxes of animal carcasses from animals that died on the farm) and the trucks that carted those remains to the feed recycling facility. But of course, if you spoke out against it, you were simply told "that's the smell of money".

It has been a fight for environmental justice that I have followed for over 20 years, lifting the voices of community activists, standing outside the legislature, and traveling to some of the darkest hellholes you can imagine. I have been fortunate to meet and know several of the names mentioned in the book along the way, and the book does a great service to those who have left us - Steve Wing, Elsie Herring, and Don Webb.

The book is non-fiction, but written as a novel, and brings to life the history and story of how one of the world's largest agricultural companies (now owned by a foreign conglomerate that finds it cheaper to pollute here) has ritually screwed over everyone involved (including the small farmers themselves), and the nuisance trials in which they were ultimately brought to task to answer for the mess they created (which still persists). The book follows the history of the industry through to the circumstances that set pace for a mass-action lawsuit that made it all the way up to the Fourth Circuit.

To be fair, the prose is flowery, at times a bit much, even if you can relax into a good southern metaphor-laden drawl. But the book is well-researched and lays out the lies of the industry and the powerful political players, the ways in which the state legislature attempted to shut down the court cases, the failures/weaknesses of the state DEQ, the false narratives that were promoted, as well as the amazing work of the lawyers, expert witnesses, and advocates for the plaintiffs.

It's a book of persistence and hope, ultimately.

One of my few quibbles with the book is that it continues to push the "clean CAFO" narrative - this is not something I believe is possible. You can't have a ratio of animals-to-people of 29:1 and expect that anything humane or sustainable is happening there. There are prices to be paid for that imbalance of nature, as we have come to learn over time from the fish kills that result from spraying the effluent into our streams and rivers, and the poisoned groundwater wells, not to mention H1N1 and other near-miss pandemics in our backyards. Although the book does highlight the cases of fraud, environmental negligence, and animal cruelty that lies beneath the industry, it appears to want to hope that we're simply one engineering solution away from a romantic sense of bacon. So, if you care for animals at all, and are familiar with the life they suffer, this will ring a bit hollow there.

But beyond that - this book is engaging, enthralling, and entertaining, and I definitely recommend for anyone not familiar with the brokenness of American agriculture, and how what you consume ties into the health and dignity of others.

But first!

Jan. 21st, 2023 08:37 pm
ofearthandstars: A painted tree, art by Natasha Westcoat (Default)

So many things I need to write about/catch up on here in this space. But first, I am just going to drop a few photos from our first hike of the year, the Campbell Creek Loop Trail at Raven Rock State Park. Since it's bound to be cold and rainy tomorrow, we decided to soak up some sunshine and fresh air while we could. We looped about 5.4 miles between the Loop Trail and the Lanier Falls trails. It felt so good to be outdoors, at one point I just felt so at peace, so happy, to be spending my day away from the computer and with L. and the dog, that I was almost teary-eyed. (It has been, to say the least, a burn-out inducing week at work.)


Running water, sturdy rocks, a blue sky and cool clean air? What more could you want?

Read more... )

More Flickr photos here.

We had to wait about 20 minutes to enter the park due to high capacity, so after travel and hiking time, it took up a good 5 hours of the day. I was testing out a newer set of minimalist shoes (with some updated insoles) and was pleasantly surprised at how comfortable they were, as Raven Rock's trails live up to their name and require about equal amounts of time looking down as around.

There were a number of elevation changes (AllTrails lists it at 600 ft), between the geography of the river and that the park is located along the Fall Line between the piedmont and coast plain. But other than having the trek the last half mile back completely uphill, it was all do-able, and beautiful.

Anyway, I know my hiking photos are sometimes tedious, but it's just so nice sometimes to be in a place where you can just be, no rushing, no pretenses, just you and your own two feet carrying/climbing you onwards. And the wind in the dried leaves of winter, or the babbling creek, or the rush of the rapids - all remind me of how much bigger this world is than the little anxious broken pieces of that life seems to be sometimes.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to a day indoors, listening to the rain and catching up on my reading, and hopefully making use of some leftover spaghetti noodles in a creamy chik'n (soy curl) noodle soup.

ofearthandstars: A painted tree, art by Natasha Westcoat (Default)
Questions from [community profile] thefridayfive here.

1. What's a food you liked when you were younger but don't anymore?

Oof, I'm not sure. Much of the food I ate as a child was that of a latchkey kid - processed or boxed stuff, Little Debbies as snacks, TV dinners were a frequent occurrence when my working mom was tired. I guess if I had to choose, I'd probably have to say pound cake with sugared strawberries. Now it is rather hard to find pound cake vegan, or at least one that tastes like I remember, but it's something that my grandmother always made and had around when I visited.

2. What's a food you used to not like but now you do?

Mmm, brussel sprouts, most likely, although it's been widely reported that this is not a cultural phenomenon and that the plants have just been bred better. But I also enjoy things like asparagus, and even kale (though well massaged with oil or acid), and I probably wouldn't have touch those as a kid. Collards, though I'm still picky over them - they must either be loaded into another meal or stew, or used as a wrap - the kind my family used to slow-boil to death still makes me shiver. Oh, and okra! Honestly, it boils down to the fact that a lot of the vegetables I ate growing up were usually steamed/boiled to a mush, which does not work for my in any way, but now I eat them roasted, grilled, air-fried, or in other ways.

3. What's a food you enjoy eating both warm and cold?

Mmm, I'm a weirdo, but either potatoes or tofu. Neither change very much in texture once cold, and they both tend to soak up the flavors of any sauce or herbs they are cooked with. Last night we had tofu wraps and I sauted the 'fu with hoisin, tamari, and sriracha, and it replayed well as a snack today.

4. Are there any foods you can't get anymore? Why not?

Well, it's been several years since I've been able to enjoy any food made by my mom. She made a homemade pimento cheese, and macaroni salads, and fresh salads, and a litany of desserts - and while I likely wouldn't eat many of those things now anyway, the grief lies more in knowing that I will never have the option to eat something she made again. And my mom was big into holidays and food and special occasions - it was one of her love languages, even though she was a type I diabetic. So the foods I miss are the foods that she loved making. Her zucchini bread - I kept a loaf in my freezer for nearly 2 years after she passed, and her canned salsa - I finally ate the last jar this year, and it was still delicious.

5. What's your favorite "breakfast for dinner" (or "dinner for breakfast") food? L. occasionally makes breakfast burritos that have a 'fu scramble and Gimme Lean sausage and peppers/onions, and he made a breakfast pizza not long again that is full of processed vegan meats that is very tasty, but not something I'd eat on the regular. One thing I frequently used to do for my kids, when they were smaller, was make pancakes for dinner, with margarine, peanut butter, and/or warm fruit compote and maple or berry syrup. We occasionally do this still when comfort food is called for. The lovely thing about pancakes is that the batter is versatile and can be cobbled together from dirt cheap ingredients. I think pancakes helped us get through some seriously rough times, so I will always treasure those little golden orbs.

ofearthandstars: A painted tree, art by Natasha Westcoat (Default)
From this week's [community profile] thefridayfive.

1. What is your favorite vegetable?
This one is haaaard. There are so many great, flavorful vegetables, and their tastes change with the method of cooking. The crunch and astringency of asparagus; the natural sugars of a sweet potato or butternut squash; the humble, earthy flavors of a cremini mushroom; the simple creamy nature of a lima pea or green pea; the joy and heat and variety of peppers! Give me all of 'em. ;)

2. What is your favorite fruit?
Lately it's been raspberries, but for ease of eating, the humble banana, or a nice tart apple. I also adore kiwis and pears but do not buy them very often.

3. What is your favorite cheese?
An awkward question for a vegan, but I'll say the fermented nut cheeses, such as Miyoko's Garlic Herb or Smoked English Farmhouse. (Miyoko's is wonderful, and while pricey, well worth it for any gathering that is a mix of vegan and omni guests, as everyone is delighted).

4. What is your favorite dessert?
Er, I don't know if I have a favorite, though if it did, it would probably be carrot cake or hummingbird cake. L. makes a lovely vegan tres leches cake. Also, sweet potato pie.

5. What is your favorite beverage?
LOL, oh dear. My three main beverages are water, coffee, and wine, which unfortunately makes me a walking stereotype of 40-something femme folk in the U.S. A favorite treat is a vanilla chai.

ofearthandstars: A painted tree, art by Natasha Westcoat (Default)
Overslept this morning, which is just as well because we went to sleep very late while trying to watch Brahmāstra: Part One - Shiva, which, as of the half-way point, is just as delightfully over-the-top, corny, and bonkers as we would hope for it to be, though the lighting and scenery is a feast for the eyes.

The meal-planning and food shopping has been done for the week, with some grace as we have Friday evening plans and are hoping to host a small Friendsgiving next Sunday (which we'll shop for later in the week). After lunch, we headed out to the Bailey and Sarah Williamson preserve, since we didn't get outdoors last weekend. The temps dropped 20 degrees overnight and the high today was 55, with a steady cool breeze, so everything was very crisp.

Bailey and Sarah Williamson NP - 11-13-22
Photo of a medium-sized pond with autumn-tired trees in the distance;
the sky is a brilliant deep blue that is reflected in the pond's surface.


+3 )

Even with much of the fall foliage having dropped away, there are still plenty of interesting things to look at and explore. I'm trying to reprogram my dreading-winter mindset to look for the beauty that comes with the stillness and dormancy of the season, as well trying to learn about those plants and fungi that are sturdy enough to thrive through it. However, a lot of local trails/preserves have altered their hours for the slow season, and of course there is much less daylight, so we'll have to be more proactive about planning.

Other than those brief outings, I'm simply trying to rest up a bit before diving back into work tomorrow. I just barely started reading The Body Keeps the Score, which I have heard good things about, but haven't yet completed enough of to form a real opinion. I'm hopeful there will be something in that is helpful. I have a huge pile of books that are just-started, though, so we'll see how it goes. As we move into cooler weather, I am looking forward to curling up with more books.

ofearthandstars: A painted tree, art by Natasha Westcoat (Default)
From [community profile] thefridayfive - Los Deportes!

1. Do you play any sports on a regular basis? Which?
Not currently. A few years ago I used to play racquetball con mi esposo, but I have not been involved with any team sports for years.

2. What professional sports do you follow?
I barely follow college basketball, and that's because I'm a Carolina Girl. :)

3. Do you get enough exercise?
Oh gosh, no, but it's something I'm working on. Right now it's PT 3 days a week + hikes on weekends. But my job/life is far too sedentary right now due to work and I'm trying to get back to a balance.

4. What sport would you like to learn?
I don't have anything currently calling my name, though I'd love to get into rock-climbing - not sure if that is sporty enough to sport. It would be nice to get back to running/races, but my feet and hips have been rebelling a while, so I'm not feeling very confident about those things. I want to be more athletic, but it's going to take a lot of work to get back to a fitter version of me that could do so.

5. Are there sports activities you used to participate in but stopped? Years ago I played basketball, softball, and tennis. The most recent would be raquetball. But I miss tennis the most. Again, I'm not sure my joints would let me get back to the level of jumping and running that I did for that, but maybe it's something to try to work towards.

Other [community profile] thefridayfive players' answers here.

ofearthandstars: A painted tree, art by Natasha Westcoat (Default)
From [community profile] thefridayfivehere:

1. Do you like spicy food? 
I love love love spicy foods, though usually stick in the range from jalapeño to habanero, and don't feel a need to regularly consume something as hot as Carolina Reaper. I also prefer traditional pepper heat to wasabi-style heat.

2. Do you like your cereal crunchy or soggy?
Crunchy please. Soggy cereal is one of the very few sensory issues I have.

3. Do you like ice in your drinks?
Not generally, because I do not like very cold things in general. See the recent scandal-post of consuming plain hot water during the day.

4. What is the strangest thing you have eaten?
"Strange" is really subjective. Before I was vegan, I had elk while traveling and working on the Navajo Nation, which is obviously not "strange" for the people living there, but it was new to me and I remember being conflicted about it while also trying to honor my hosts. I would obviously not eat that now. Oh, actually, stranger than that, a really strange thing to eat - I had pica while pregnant with my Oldest over 20 years ago and I actually ate a little bit of clean red clay, more than once. I also stupidly tried powdered laundry detergent because I had an overwhelming craving at the time, but that went about as expected and was not actually swallowed. (Pica is weird, man.)

5. What food would you like to eat right this minute? I am actually not that hungry because I met a friend for lunch at the Stairway to Veggin' foodtruck, and that was a fried chik'n patty covered in alfredo sauce and topped with basil, spinach, and sundried tomatoes on toasted brioche, and tater tots. :P 
ofearthandstars: A painted tree, art by Natasha Westcoat (Default)
Just a few pictures/follow up on today's trail exploration. We returned to the Bailey and Sarah Williamson preserve, which is only about 20 minutes away, and has a number of loop trails that we haven't gotten around to exploring. We wanted to try the Magnolia Run trail, which, per the map, looked like a 4-mile squirrelly/switchback-y trail usually indicative of sharp elevation changes. The only issues to getting to it is that it is only accessed by following a number of loop trails from the north end of the preserve, or by following the greenway along the river to a connector trail, jumping on a separate loop trail (the Salamander Loop), then finally arriving at the trailhead for the Magnolia (so, about a two mile hike from parking to start the trail, then the four miles through, then the two miles back). We've done 6-8 miles previously in Umstead, so thought it would be a good challenge, and we packed a bag with plenty of water and snacks for us and the dog, and even some first aid items and extra clothing. 

As it turns out, the trail is shared with mountain bikers, and they are often flying through, up and down the many hills, curves, and even planned ramps and bike bridges that are scattered throughout. So part of our hike involved dodging those folks. We screwed up a little at the beginning by mis-reading the sign on the direction of hikers vs. bikers and runners, so there was about six-tenths of a mile we were having to watch our backs for bikers. We were able to right ourselves at the next loop, though, so it turned out okay. 

I think both L. and I were a little underwhelmed at the trail, even though it was a beautiful day. It just seemed more attuned to bikers than hikers, and while there were plenty of turns, it felt more like wandering in circles than really being taken through a more varied geological terrain (there are lots of places along the trail in which you are parallel to or running up on other pieces of the trail, which feels redundant). Honestly, after the two-mile hike in and about three-and-a-half miles through the Magnolia Loop, we tired of the trek, and so took a short jaunt through the woods to dead-end on the greenway, which runs parallel to the south-side of the loop. Of course, we were still about three miles from the car at that point, so we had a long trek back either way, but the greenway was more direct. All in all, we were out and about for about 4 hours, so we got plenty of exercise.

And really - there were a few points of visual interest along the trail.

Magnolia Run 10-22-22
The walk along the greenway to get to the trail connector.

Some pics beyond the cut, and the rest in a Flickr album.+5 )
After all of that, we came home quite tired; my hip flexors have definitely entered the chat and not shut up since. :P We considered going out to grab food, but had already packed the house with groceries earlier today, and didn't need to spend more. So L. graciously made my favorite easy Vietnamese tofu wraps, which were awesome.

I think tonight we'll wrap up watching The Midnight Club, and maybe can find something else appropriately spoopy to enjoy. Beyond that, I want to read more in my mushroom foraging book, too.

Hope all is well with you. ♥
ofearthandstars: A painted tree, art by Natasha Westcoat (Default)
From this week's [community profile] thefridayfive:

1. How many languages do you speak?
Fluently? One - English.
Somewhat decently? Two - + Spanish
Know Enough to Understand and Vaguely Not Insult Someone? Two - French + ASL
Learned but forgotten? Two - Italian + German

2. What is your mother tongue?
English.

3. What is a language that you would like to learn and why?
I've been working on Spanish for almost 2 years, mainly because I'd like to be able to communicate better with other locals. I really would like to refresh myself on Italian and French in case I ever travel to Europe, though I'd also love to learn Hindi, because I also long to travel to India.

4. Does it bother you when people speak a language you don't know in front of you? Why or why not?
No. I don't need to know everyone else's business, but also - language is simply a mode of communication, it doesn't carry emotional heavyweights in and of itself. I think it stands to reason that most people speak in the languages they are most comfortable in, and likely code-switch as needed based on their relationships with the audience and/or to better communicate their intent. I think about all the languages that capture meanings/moments in ways that English doesn't, and I wish I could plug into the Matrix and download it all, because frankly that is awesome.

5. Speak to me.
Mis queridos amigos, lamento decirles que no soy muy bueno con las idiomas. Pero lo estoy intentando.

More answers at the original post.

Bowing out.

Oct. 6th, 2022 07:39 pm
ofearthandstars: A painted tree, art by Natasha Westcoat (Default)
Regrettably, real life has taken its toll.

You know the words, you know the look. I fold.

I'm bowing out of [community profile] therealljidol. But I've had so much fun this season, and I adore all of you lovely, lovely writers so much. I'm going to try to keep reading and commenting and cheering you on, even if it requires doing so while half-buried under a pile of work.

All the best to each of you!

❤️
ofearthandstars: View of starry night through treetops (stars in the forest)
Me, trying to be "social" by playing [community profile] thefridayfive, Star Stuff Edition:

1. How many stars can you see in the sky at night where you live? (Not looking for an exact number here, just a general description.) During spring and summer, not very many, but that is largely due to tree foliage. When fall truly hits and it's just the pines, and lower humidity, then we can see a lot more and I can usually make out a few constellations. If there's something we are trying to view, though, we usually have to walk down to the end of the drive, or in some cases out to the end of our street, to get to an area with enough open sky to really see things well. Even then it's a bit dodgy on the horizon due to light pollution from the north, though we still live in enough of a "countryside" location that it's not too bad.

2. What is your favorite constellation? Bahh, I don't know. Maybe the Pleiades? Although Cassiopeia is a surefire easy find and probably the first one I taught to my kids. Years ago I was much better at going out of doors with a guide or Stellarium in tow, though I haven't done it in a while.

3. Are you able to see and identify any planets in the sky? Which ones? Usually Venus, Mars, Jupiter, rarely Saturn. We used to have a nice telescope, but it unfortunately got buggered in storage.

4. Have you ever seen a satellite orbiting above the earth? Yes, we used to regularly track the Starlink satellites, as well as the ISS.

5. Have you ever seen a rocket blasted off into space? Not in person, unfortunately, but we regularly get excited over launches and will watch them broadcast if we are able. And of course, we used to build small little rockets (spouse being a high school chemistry/physics teacher) when the kids were younger for fun. Only once or twice did we set the lawn on fire.... That said, I would love to be able to watch a launch "live" (safe distance permitting and all). There has been the rare occasion where a launch has taken itself over a path within our viewing, but it's been a while since I've seen that. It's probably one of the rare things that I still feel childlike excitement about, even knowing that the impacts of the emissions aren't great.
ofearthandstars: A painted tree, art by Natasha Westcoat (Default)
The below is an entry for Week 18 of [community profile] therealljidol, prompt "Ikigai".

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ofearthandstars: A painted tree, art by Natasha Westcoat (Default)
The below is an entry for Week 18 of [community profile] therealljidol, prompt "Swim Until You Can't See Land".

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ofearthandstars: A painted tree, art by Natasha Westcoat (Default)
I owe a much longer entry, but for now, I'm gonna try to nail out [community profile] thefridayfive.

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