What a Mess

It looks awful, doesn't it.

So is my life.

A dear friend won't answer my calls. Makes me very sad.

My husband, bless him, is working all hours and is away every night - has been for the last three weeks, and will be for the next to come.

Oh, and my mother died on the 2nd of July 2012.

Life is just a bit difficult at the moment.

And the garden looks like ...

Shit.

I Can Feel It Coming In The Air Tonight

There is a certain smell, this time of year, that I rather love, even if I don't like winter.  Or coldness. Or snow.  Or all that is associated with a winter.

It smells like snow.  When I say that to my English husband, he laughs.  "How can you smell snow?"  he says.  You can.

It's not that it's going to snow here.  Anytime soon, anyway.  Or even where I come from, just now.  It's just a smell of ... cold.  It's going to get cold eventually, seriously cold in Chicago, and cold-ish here.

I smelt it the other day and the next day, was a cold, crisp one.  Not autumnal cold, but winter cold.  Enough that you'd better get that scarf out, and maybe the gloves.

It makes me nostalgic, somehow.  For what?  Other days, I guess.  Not necessarily my childhood, which was nice and all, but no.  My salad days, I guess you could call them (how appropriate for a gardener).  When I was young and carefree and the day before Thanksgiving meant a night out with two days off, plus the weekend, after.  A night out with friends.  A night "on the tiles", as you might say.

And then the lead up to Christmas.  Parties, kissing under the mistletoe, friends, fun, family.

This time of year always gets me.  In a nice way, of course.  Perhaps this year, just a bit more so than any other year.

For my USA friends, a very Happy Thanksgiving.  Don't shop at Walmart on Black Friday.  But have a great weekend!

Found this nugget of gold.

Oh, okay then

Here's some more art.  But I promise, after this, it's back to the horror of the garden.

In all "Fair"ness

I should share with you what I've been up to over the last couple of weeks - back to back, Affordable Art Fair Battersea and Hampstead once again. For the last time.  But it's all so beautiful!  However, if you want to keep the dates in your diary, Battersea is early March next year,  Hampstead is June, and Battersea again in October.

For the time being, I can only share with you what I want.  I WANT. I badly want this exquisite piece of work, just because of the look on the dog's face.

But really, (1) I LOVE dogs (and cats, of course, but I really love dogs).  (2) There is a suitcase involved.  (3) there are seagulls, and a lighthouse.

I love this. I love this piece of perfection.

And ............ not going to happen.  £3000. :-(  Hey ho.  Not even a print of it.  I asked.  Much respect to the artist, however, Jimmy Lawlor, at least he responded to my begging email.  Hey ho.  It lives in my memory.

Sandy

Yes, I'm talking about the superstorm, and my love and positive thoughts go out to everyone who was affected by it.

I've been thinking, for the last few weeks, of making a suggestion, and in the aftermath of Sandy it just seems all the more relevant.  It started when I watched this video.

TED talk: David Roberts on Climate Change

Science, climate change in particular, made understandable for the non-scientist.

So I got to thinking, if you have children that you love, this is not a world you want to leave them to deal with.  If you happen to have too much time on your hands, that weighs heavily on you, it seems to me that time could be well spent on trying to make a change and save our planet, for future generations.  After all, we don't want to see a world like Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing, do we?  Perhaps it's not as inconceivable as it first seemed; hydraulic fracturing wrecking safe drinking water making it one of the rarest commodities on the planet; a wealthy, coporate elite controlling the general populace with a standing army on their side.

So I saw this on Facebook today -

With supporting material on how to get involved.

Fundamentally the point is this:

"These fossil fuel corporations are driving the climate crisis and spending millions to block solutions. Instead of buying climate silence, the fossil fuel industry should be funding climate relief.

We’ve set up a page where you can donate to relief efforts, as well as call on Big Oil, Coal and Gas to take the money they’re spending on political campaigning this election and put it towards disaster relief instead.

The fossil fuel industry has spent more than $150 million to influence this year’s election. Last week, Chevron made the single biggest corporate political donation since the Citizens United decision. This industry warps our democracy just as it pollutes our atmosphere. And we’ve had enough."

So he's started the Do The Math Tour, a fantastic way to get involved on one of the most pressing issues facing our future generations' life on this precious planet.

Forget gardening in the future, if the temperature continues to scarily rise.

Get involved, get reading, get organised and get out there.

I wish you luck.  This could be life-changing.