Catskills!

We had a fine time in Olivebridge, N.Y. with my old friend Linda and her husband Paul. We attended a Pete Seeger memorial barbecue and group singing session at the Ashokan Center, a community center that focus on arts, ecology, and community. It was really moving to sing songs of hope like "If I Had a Hammer", "This Land Is Your Land," etc. with others who have loved this music for decades. It felt like a deep connection with our youths, a well needed reminder that dreaming is essential. This is a beautiful area of deep forests and round, rugged mountain ridges that leap up and surprise you. Red efts (bright orange salamanders) and tiny spring peeper frogs are everywhere in the woods, along with the season's first wild fungi. Food coops and bookstores thrive here. There's also an interesting sculpture garden that was inspired by the artist's visits to Mayan ruins in Guatamala. A creative and lovely area, check it out for sure.

Surprises in Lancaster

Contrary to many rumors, this town is anything but a tourist trap. The houses are lovely.. porches, slanted roofs with dark shingles, big front yards. Buildings are Pennsylvania brick architecture, which both of us love. There is a fine and very political food coop, and several good bookstores - one is called Dog Star Books, for the Sirius reader. History is everywhere. Thadeus Stevens, the abolitionist was the congressman from this area, we is buried in an integrated cemetary. They are restoring his house... it's surrounded by the Marriott. Amish and Mennonite folks are around, but they tend to spend more time in the countryside. We did visit a market, where I had a slice of real shoe fly pie. A great walking town. Give it a look!

land of Blue Ridge Mountains and Jefferson

I haven't had time to post much, we've been busy. Charlottesville is a cool town, very connected with Thomas Jefferson. He founded the University of Virginia in the 1820s (I think), it's quite a beautiful campus with old buildings and fine gardens. We hiked near Monticello, his home but were short on time and didn't pay for the tour of his property. Nice trail, but there are many in the area. We canoed one day at a fine county park called Walnut Vreek, a quiet lake with lots of lily pads and forest around it. Shenandoah National Park is mind blowing... huge, ancient mountain ridges covered with hardwood forests rise from fog to stun you. We hiked to the top of Crabtree Falls that is actually a series of cascades- very fine hike and great view from the top. I'm also very taken with the Writer's House, which hosts many readings and workshops for us scribes. There's a very nice downtown mall with an excellent homemade ice cream parlor, and strolling musicians. Of course we had lots of fun with our friends Ben and Sue and Henry, their cat. This is Charlottesville in a nutshell. We're now in Lancaster, Pa., another creative and unique town... I'll try to be more disciplined and make more entries.

Charlottesville, Virginia is an eclectic and colorful town

This is the liberal part of Virginia, a place that has attracted people from many parts of the country. There is a fine pedestrian mall that offers Indian food, home made ice cream, CVS, outdoor bars, pizza, etc. along with strolling musicians. The Ravena trail wanders along the outskirts of town along a stream bank of dragonflies, wildflowers, many birds. We went to a presentation of a group called Wild Virgina which focuses on many environmental issues including fracking. They organize tours where people can visit areas effected by fracking and meet people who have been effected by it. We also talked with a guy with the Piedmont Environmental Council, a group that promotes policies encouraging landowners to preserve open space and not to sell land for subdivisions. On top of all this, we chatted with an oriental rug dealer who is a friend of my colleague Judy with Planet Drum Foundation. This guy is a former Digger who moved to Virginia in the 70s, bringing 12 families with him and setting up a community. He has many wild tales to tell. So yes, an eclectic and interesting town. This remains the south though. We are house sitting for our friends Ben and Sue for a few days. When we drive their car into the driveway today, we realized that an older neighbor had pulled in behind us. He had noticed the Pennsylvania license plates on cars that were here a few days ago, people who were visiting Ben and Susan then. He is from Pennsylvania (like me) and wanted to find out where people lived there. He was a jolly fellow, he told us all about his golden retrievers. He wore an IRA cap, and a t-shirt with an American eagle proclaiming, "I'll keep my guns, freedom, and money, you take the 'change'". We weren't sure he was going to leave, but he suddenly announced he had to go and gave us a friendly goodbye. We had successfully stayed away from politics... bur, it was creepy! Tomorrow, Shenandoah National Park, if it's not raining.

At it again...

We are on an odyssey as part of our ongoing need to figure out where we will spend the rest pf our time on earth. Our journey will take us through Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, ending in Pittsburgh, and will include time with old friends and family. We are in Roanoke Virginia now, an interesting town in the SW part of the state, near the Appalachians. Interesting town. It originated in the 1880s and attracted industrial workers from the north, so it was never part of the Confederacy. We chatted with a Sierra Club member yesterday. There is a big move to bring wind farms into the area, and to create greenways linking village-like neighborhoods. We walked along the Roanoke River Greenway today. It's really well done, very pleasant. It links neighborhoods and parks, very picturesque ones. Lots of comfortable houses with decks and porches overlooking the river. People here smile constantly. We even had some wonderful homemade ice cream sold by a couple who run a shop near the Greenway. Kate had Mexican chocolate, I had coconut fudge. There is a comfort to being in the east with its lush green forests in summertime. There's much we love about northern California, but it's hot and dry in summer. And dusty! Here, we love the maples and oaks, cardinals darting about, lightning bugs, and many more critters. There's a joy to the cool wind that preceeds an electrical storm, a thrill to jabbing lightning and crackling thunder. Even humidity, with its damp, warm embrace welcomes us. On to Charlottesville, Virginia tomorrow, More to come.

Summing Up from Oakland Part Two

Sorry it's taken me so long to get to this, I sure have been running around. I mentioned that I wanted to mention environmental issues in Europe. This may take a while, but here we go. In some ways, Europe is way ahead of the U.S. The public transit is wonderful. I mentioned the easy accessibility that cyclists have to trolleys in Freiburg, Germany and elsewhere. There seems to be a conscious attempt to increase people's ability to get around without cars. We thought the high speed trains we took were great. It seems like Europeans feel these get less and less practical with time.. this is partly due to cuts in funding. We know how that is. I am a great fan of Amtrak, but it demands more funding. Kate told me recently that some Republicans want to cut government subsidies for food service on Amtrak... this would be bad. We do need to get more info. here. Germany in particular seems to be trying to take a leading role in alternative energy. Freiburg, again is a center of research on solar technology. There was a recent article about how Germany has determined that much fossil fuel based electricity is more expensive than energy that comes from alternative sources, and will phase it out. Again, I really need to get more details here, but it sounds positive. Marina, our host in Paris told me that she is in touch with environmental educators in Greece. Apparently these folks have strong networks throughout Europe; they feel that environmental educators in the U.S. isolate ourselves from the rest of the world. This frustrates me, since I really would like to work in other countries at some point. I am hoping Marina will put me in touch with this person; I would like to be in touch with her about a project I have worked on for several years. With that in mind, I will email Marina tomorrow! Not all vegetarians are environmentally aware, but there are ecological sides to the practice of avoiding or eliminating meat from one's diet. We had no trouble finding very good veggie food in Europe. Some of the stores in small German town sold vegetarian schnitzel! Wales had many restaurants with veggie options... this surprised me a little, we were in some fairly isolated places. Of course, we were quite pleased! We're told it is harder to find veggie food in Spain and Eastern Europe, but we hope to find out for ourselves one day. So Europe is pretty ecologically savvy in many ways. One thing I would miss is the presence of wild places. England and Ireland in particular have experienced a lot of deforestation. It's part of Irish folklore that the British cut forests heavily to get wood for their navy. I am sure this is true, but there is evidence that early Irish agriculture also let to the loss of the island's once huge wild woodlands. Botanists have determined that the soil in the bogs that cover much of Ireland's agricultural fields is made from decomposed forest material. Ireland and Wales are beautiful, as I said, and I hope to revisit and explore them some more. The Snowdonia Mountains in Wales are wondrous! But there are largely agricultural lands. The main species we discovered in both places was... sheep. Yes, they are endearing... but definitely not native wildlife!! Again, I am told that Eastern Europe has its share of undeveloped places. The Alps are wild... they are home to bears and wolves, or so we heard. The Black Forest also demands more exploration. Of course, there is the question of what the term "wildlands" means. This is a huge debate among naturalists right now. The old style defenders of wilderness as purely undeveloped landscape are still around. Some question the idea of wilderness, saying that it is a myth that there are places where people have never lived. They also state that ecosystems are constantly changing, and the idea of pristine, eternal wilderness is an illusion. Many of these people go so far as to say that wildness exists everywhere. THey comment that a garden, a river that has been navigated by people for centuries, a field where people once settled is as "wild" as an undeveloped place if natural process are continuing to function without human management. Others claim that since people are a prime part of nature, the earth only deserves consideration so far as people have used it, lived on it, told stories and sang about it. We are the central species to these researchers, and our needs are primary. Well... I agree that people are part of the natural world, and that we can find wildness in our neighborhoods, on farms, even in cities. I have taught this for years, and have strongly promoted the idea that urban kids can find nature in their surroundings. But I am also a strong lover of undeveloped wild places. These areas are generally richer in biodiversity than areas close to human settlements. Why should plants, animals, and other creatures not have places where they can move about and survive free from our interference? We are part of the natural world, not its center. We can appreciate the positive and negative sides of human history in a region at the same time as appreciating the wildness there. Long digression, I know. The point is that there are many people in Europe who are working to educate others about wild places in their communities, and to preserve the relatively small truly wild places that remain. I am very interested in George Monbiot's ideas about rewilding, which basically means that wild places should be allowed to develop in their own ways without interference or management. Kate has read his book, I plan to get to it soon. In other words... there is much left to explore. We plan to take the attitude that this trip was just an introduction. Ok... enough for now, it's bed time. I will leave you with three thoughts: 1)I am very curious to find out who has been reading this. I know it's hard to post comments on the Blog, so please send me an email and let me know who you are! pgb@igc.org 2) I am seriously thinking of starting a natural history blog... I will get the word out if and when I do. 3)Yes, I plan to get some photos up; maybe Kate will too. I will ask her. It is so late that the community radio station is playing something called Music for Airport Furniture. Good night. PGB

Summing up from Oakland Part One

First of all, gang, sorry about all the typos especially in recent days. Keyboards in many European countries are quite different from the one in the US (especially in France, where they are downright bizarre!!!) and when one is tired from a full day, as well as racing the time deadline in an Internet café, typos come easily Europe, Europe - what do I say? In many ways, these countries have deep, civilized cultures. People are very friendly and polite, less so in the big cities, but they are kindhearted there, too. This includes people in Germany who would talk to us in German on the street or in stores, then crack up. What could we do but nod dumbly and think, "I'll bet you just told a great joke!" Maybe the experience of having a long lasting culture, along with the horrific experiences such as WW11, has helped thoughtful people gain a deep tolerance and kindness. Note that I said thoughtful people; there is certainly a dark side to Europe. We watched a TV interview with a Chinese woman who had been born in Ireland; she described the racism she faced. I was stunned by the amount of anti- Nazi graffiti we found in small German towns. Our Air B&B host in London has a German background; she mentioned that some young German men who are feeling the impact of the ongoing recession are blaming immigrants, and reviving this hideous ideology. I certainly wish them the worst in this effort; Hitler was a curse to everyone, including my people (Germans). There is also an ongoing prejudice towards the Roma (Gypsy) people everywhere we went. The immigration situation seems chaotic. I think I mentioned the African and Middle Eastern men we saw selling products on the street in Venice. Some were selling this silly putty stuff; you drop it on a board, it blobs up into a ball. Others sold these glow stick helicopter toys; one evening in St. Mark's Square, Kate was repeatedly approached by men who tried to hand her a rose ... we knew they would have wanted big bucks. We would run into four or five guys doing this work within a hundred feet of each other. People told us that immigrants from many places can get into Italy easily via its long coast line. We wondered how these men survived in expensive Venice... I wanted to talk with them, but why should they take time out from their work to do this? It also seemed that it would be easy for immigration authorities to catch them when they are so present. We did see one group of African men who were selling imitation expensive purses running quickly down the street, seeming to want to escape from someone. Then there was the guy in the gladiator costume who practically insisted I get my photo taken with him by the Coliseum (again, there would have been money involved; I talked my way out of the situation. He was Italian, actually, but you get the point.) Economics is truly one of my weak points, but I can see how the recession is having an ongoing and deepening impact everywhere we went. Ireland was in an economic boom on our last visit (2006); its now hurting a lot. We were walking on a beach near Sligo one day when we encountered some men playing the ancient Irish sport of Hurling... they have long poles with cups at the end, and they use these cups to catch the balls they have hurled. Kate asked one guy if they have professional teams, and he said, "No, we don't have enough money here." Many people, young people especially, have left Ireland because of a lack of opportunities. All countries are feeling the crunch; Germany, which is the most affluent country we visited is experiencing increasing stratification. Our Air B&B host in Freiburg told us the middle class is shrinking... sound familiar? Gentrification is also growing especially in the cities. We told our Paris host that we found a nice café that had great coffee and pastries. She commented that this is a sign of gentrification in the Belleville area - traditionally Paris cafes serve coffee OR pastries, but not both. I am not sure of how all this will work out. I mentioned the huge labor demonstration we watched the day we left Rome. Beyond that, people told us, "We take summers off from politics in Europe." We will watch these situations closely in days to come. People ask for money on the street everywhere, including young women who apparently wear their only dressy set of clothes to beg in front of the big cathedrals. People told us these were people who didn't want to get government benefits for one reason or another, or who supplement them by panhandling... but this requires some investigation - it might be situational. You do have to watch out for pickpockets. One day in Paris we were approached by young women who wanted us to sign a petition for something like the Federation of Deaf and Dumb. We declined, and a French woman approached us immediately and told us to be careful. She claimed they were a network of pickpockets; one will get your wallet while you sign the petition. Based on other conversations and observations, we believe her. There is a confusing situation where people from European Union countries can move to others that are more affluent, and get welfare benefits. We heard in Ireland that people were coming from Eastern European countries to benefit from the social safety net there. Apparently those countries are worse off than even Ireland. We heard the same story in England and France, although the people we talked with were actually fairly tolerant. Our Paris host commented, "What can you do when people don't have food?" That is the dark side, which must be mentioned and faced. I hope it comes through that we love Europe, and want to spend much more time there. The beauty is everywhere, and I am massively taken by countries that respect poets and writers as much as many Europeans do. Oh yes, even though people sometimes gripe about certain inefficiencies in their health care systems, they know they are light years ahead of where we are in the U.S., and would not take our system for anything. I wish we could replace it, too. And while traffic can be a problem, especially in cities (you take your life in your hands anytime you step off a curb in Rome!), the public transit systems are way better than anything we have here. I think the US should copy the public transit/bike transit system in Freiburg, which is the best we have seen! Enough for now. I need to do more summing up, especially about the environment. And yes, we will get photos up. Ciao!