Welcome to the Season of Light. I declare the Summer Solstice to be my personal holiday and the high holy day of the year. The little solar battery I have for a brain is a happy camper. Sleep + light = 1. More light means less sleep. More light means more activity and less time for documentation. Our vegetable garden in Lacombe was called Center of the Universe. The new veggie garden we are building at the lake might be called the OK Corral, but it's dog proof. We got all our materials from a cedar mill in town, rough cut thick planks for the raised beds, cedar rail fencing, gates, compost bins, and mulch for the aisles. Unless there is a strong breeze, we wear bug suits to work outside; otherwise we'd be a mess of black fly bites. My song download this time out is a cut by Eric Bibb who along with Maria Muldaur and Rory Block was recording an album at the theater. They spent almost a week with us. Maria was quite the high-maintenance piece of work, although she did shape up a bit after Melissa told her to go upstairs and tidy up her room. Eric, whose father and grandfather were musicians, was the sweetie of the group. He says he has a photo of his godfather, Paul Robeson, holding him in one hand and his twin sister in the other. More recently we were visited by Nathan and the Zydeco Cha Chas. Louisiana plates and cajun accents. Lots of weird spring insect stuff. Catapillars forming strange mosaics on their webs, ants helping the peonies to open. Speaking of weird species, I'm deep into the Stephen Pinker book on human nature. It's just a treasure trove of good information, and one of those books that can have a significant impact on one's world view. In the constant search to find higher ground and see a problem from a new vantage point, I thought an article by Mark Leonard in Wired showed some interesting contrasts between the European Union's business network approach and the American Empire's military approach.

Last Time