WORTHLESS, "TRIFLIN." OR WHATEVER, I'VE HAD NO ENERGY TODAY

There's something about funeral energy that takes the wind right out of my sails, and today, I've been about as worthless as tits on a boar hog. I haven't slept well since I got the call about Grandma's passing, and I also notice I don't recuperate from travel nearly as fast as I used to. So, today, I would give myself a zero (0) in terms of accomplishing much more than moving from the computer to the couch, staring into space, and making phone calls to family members to see they got home OK.

The physical exhaustion may even be surpassed by my mental fatigue. Molly and Annie may not have noted I fed them cat food, but the cats certainly let me know they weren't into the tasteless dog food that landed in their dishes. The hummingbirds looked a bit puzzled when they realized their food was colored water with no sugar added, and I'll see what effect the lemonade I poured (thinking it was a glass of water I had ready) has on the begonia outside my door.

It's not quite 6:00 PM, and I think I'm headed to bed.....Hopefully, I will have returned to life and some level of sense tomorrow.

SERVICES FROM GRANDMA

I am late getting this post up on my blog, but arrangements for Grandma were made faster than I had anticipated, and I had to get everything together in Ohio to get down to Boone by last night...

Grandma's viewing was last evening (Friday)...She was beautiful in a pretty lavender suit and her pretty earrings. She certainly didn't look 107 years old!

The funeral is today (Saturday) at 2:00 PM at White Rock Baptist...Viewing will be from 1 - 2 at the church...Donald Smith will be part of the service as one of the preachers.

Those of us who had to travel had hoped the service would be Sunday, but we've all made it home and will be in Pigeon Roost today in her honor. For those who can't be there, know that you're with us in our hearts and our love of family has never been stronger.

From everyone who came to the viewing last night, it sounds like the family reunion is going to be huge....Please come if you can.....

Love to all....Tanya

GRANDMA'S TAKEN FLIGHT

Her body finally gave way this morning, and as she has told all of us for many a year now, Grandma died, "right here in my chair." She'd had a restless night, and when my aunts got her up for the morning, it was evident she was struggling to breathe. Peacefully, she let go... right there in her chair....






Ten children, eight of whom still live...Around 30 grandchildren...Numerous great grandchildren and great, great grandchildren...a woman of great faith....the best biscuit and gravy maker in the world...as strong as the mountains that surrounded her all her life...had the prettiest dahlia gardens in all the mountains...loved her hummingbird feeders...possessed a dry humor and a cute little chuckle til the last day of her life...loved all her family through thick and thin....raised everything from a garden to baby groundhogs...when a neighbor was sick or died, folks called on Grandma for strength...spent days upon days on the ground in the mountains picking galax to sell for money to buy herself a few things...could squirt milk from the cow's udders straight into your mouth...never touched a drop of alcohol...



Other than my own mom, the most influential and loving woman in my life.....

BACK AT THE RANCH

I've been away from The Farm for a week at the annual Reading of the AP Spanish Exam, held this year in Cincinnati. I return home after a week of intense work. Sitting with headsets for 8 hours a day while listening to hundreds of high school students respond to the same prompt has left me looking like Mom Conehead.

All in all, I think there were about 1,100 of us gathered in downtown Cincinnati. The Havana Nights Bar, appropriately located just a block away from our meeting area, enjoyed a tremendous surge in cash flow with the onslaught of latinos from all over the globe. The city hosted a salsa dancing night in the downtown plaza last Thursday, and the place was crawling with giddy, tipsy hispanohablantes (and others) who couldn't sit down for ten minutes as long the music played. Then on Monday, a huge group of us ordered a roasted suckling pig at an eccentric sort of place called Bootsy's and savored the really well-prepared little Ohio porcine in fine Cuban style.

Despite the work, it was really a fine week. All of us who've been a part of this reading for so long love the chance to be together once a year, especially on the ETS budget. The friendship and love run deep.... My roomate this year, Filippa Viola, was a really wonderful person and an inspiration for me in many ways...I couldn't have been luckier!

OHHHH, how could I forget? Tto top off the week, Richard Danford, my colleague at Marietta College, and I went to a Reds game last night (where we sat through one heck of a rainstorm, knowing all the while that the game would go on), and while he was gone for beer and peanuts, I caught a foul ball....How cool is that! I can't remember who hit it, but I know he was the second batter of the inning and he was latino....I'll post a photo of my "catch" in a later post...

Well, when I got home this afternoon, I immediately took to the tractor and began chopping away at the week's worth of overgrowth around here. I was zooming around the yard when I noticed we had a visitor....a smelly, ugly visitor....and I might add a grumpy visitor who didn't take kindly to the canine or feline welcoming committees. Yep, it's been perfect weather for one of our resident snapping turtles to venture up from the field to savor the moisture, mud, and puddles at the edge of the yard. I haven't seen a snapper up around the house in many a year, and I had forgotten just how ugly and prehistoric looking they are...I'll confess to annoying him a bit with a long stick. As if I had forgotten, it's true...they do snap, and they do hold on....

Here's a look at the smelly (but fascinating) guy. He was larger than he looks in these photos.

MAY WEEKEND

Saturday:

1. Cleaned, somewhat, the house. Swept, vaccumed, cleaned my bathroom.
2. Mowed
3. Put a bench together.
4. Pulled a few weeds, put some Round Up on some nasty vines and poison ivy. (I publically confess to using chemicals on occasion).
5. Fixed a nice meal with garden broccoli, lettuce, and onions.
6. Fell asleep before my head hit the pillow.

Today:

1. Will put up the hummingbird feeders since the little boogers are hovering around my bedroom porch, telling me to hurry up.
2. Will plant some ferns.
3. Have to go to the grocery store.
4. Might watch a movie and knit a bit.

That's all folks!
__________

Sunday evening.....Scratch #3 and #4 above....
Add:

1. Raked the mown grass and mulched one of my flower gardens with it.
2. Weeded the veggie garden.
3. Moved a couple of roses to a better growing site.
4. Began the dog's annual shed brushing

PHOTOS FROM GRANDMA'S HOUSE

There are always flowers at Grandma's in the spring and summer. Until just a few years ago, the lane from the road down to her house was lined every year with dahlias and gladiolas. When I was a little girl, she had beautiful morning glory vines growing up the back side of the house, and my cousins and I used to catch bumblebees that came to gather nectar in them with clothespins.

Grandma's flowers always bring her great pleasure, and now that she can't attend to them anymore, some family members bring her baskets to adorn the porch; however, the old irises, hydrangeas, lilies, and wild flowers she put in the ground years ago still bloom, and in them, so does her soul blossom for all of us.

Porch flowers....a gift from my cousin, Bill, and his wife, Sylvia

Grandma's rhodendron from an old bush that's been in the yard as long as I can remember

Irises Grandma moved 50 years ago to the "new house" from the old homeplace. I think these irises came from her mother's flowers

A lichen bundle that reminded me of sea creatures with their tentacles

The creek bank in Grandma's back yard

Old fashioned hydrangeas - The snow ball bush, as she called it

The old wood stove that came from the old house to the new one and remained in the kitchen for a long time before she got an electric stove

Jars of vegetables, juices, fruits, and jellies Grandma canned years ago still sit on the shelves in the basement

THE FARM MOM GOES TO WASHINGTON

Yesterday, May 13, 2009, I had the honor of being the featured speaker at a congressional luncheon sponsored by nine members of Congress. I was asked to give anecdotes about human rights violations directed toward women in Cuba and to mention Las Damas de Blanco, the Ladies in White, and their struggles. Rather than being an academic presentation, I told stories of women, as well as underscored violations the risk of being a member of the opposition on the island.

Following my talk (see below), I fielded many questions from young staffers, a couple of congressmen, and reporters, and then, I went to several offices in the congressional buildings to speak with representatives and senators who need a little, actually a lot, of coaching on Cuban issues.

It was a memorable day, and I hope one in which the story of everyday Cubans reached the ears of people who will mold policy in the future.

(In this photo, my friend, Israel Abreu, is standing beside me. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, center, is one of the representatives who sponsored the congressional luncheon. The other folks in the photo are Cubans who came to the luncheon from various part of the country. I dressed in white in honor of Las Damas de Blanco.)

Here's the text of my talk:

Good afternoon….

I am honored to be here today as a representative of The Coalition of Cuban-American Women to address human rights violations, particularly violations suffered by women in Cuba. These women are currently best represented by the ongoing struggle, determination and persistence of Las Damas de Blanco, the Ladies in White, winners of the distinguished Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 2005.

As stated in the recently released (2008) Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, “Cuba is the only country in the Hemisphere where it can be stated categorically that there is no freedom of expression.” Anyone who dissents or denounces human rights abuses in Cuba, be they journalists, laborers, teachers, or grass roots activists, does so at great risk. Human rights defenders frequently suffer acts of repudiation, that is, acts of violence directed at them and their families in retaliation for their involvement in human rights advocacy and peaceful opposition of the Cuban government.

Documented accounts over the past 50 years in video, print media, academic research and personal testimonies validate executions, tortures, arbitrary arrests, beatings, public humiliation and psychological abuse. Unfortunately, recent shifts in leadership on the island have not represented any level of improvement in direct or indirect repression toward the dissident community or Cuban political prisoners, who suffer degrading, sub-human, conditions and treatment in Cuban jails across the island.

Women human rights defenders on the island are especially vulnerable to hostility and reprisals. Just day before yesterday, May 11th, Directorio Democrático released an unedited video taken on May 5th, fewer than ten days ago, that shows premeditated aggression on the part of the Cuban government against three non-violent human rights activists in Cuba. In the video, captured in Placetas, Villa Clara, three members of the Rosa Parks Women’s Movement for Civil Rights are approached on the street, beaten and removed from the sight of the cameras by uniformed officials and State Security. These women, who were en route to the home of opposition leader, Jorge Luis García Pérez (Antúnez), were dragged through the streets, and suffered contusions to the face and blows inflicted to the ribs. According to reports, the activists were taken to another street, beaten and thrown up against patrol cars, where they were held in place with simulated strangulation and immobilization techniques and subsequently placed in jail for three hours.

Like these three women, others who summon the courage to campaign on behalf of human rights are regularly targeted by governmental agencies, (State Security, the Committee in Defense of the Revolution, and the Rapid Response Brigade). Similarly, they are often attacked by “turbas,” groups of citizens organized in the spirit of a mob mentality and abetted by one of the aforementioned agencies. However, despite pressure and intimidation imposed upon them from the totalitarian regime in Cuba, the voices of women who defend human rights in Cuba –professional as well common working women…all mothers, daughters, wives and sisters -- effectively advance the rights of all people on the island by challenging inequality, injustice, and governmental repression” on the island.

Take, for example, the case of Cuban poet, María Elena Cruz Varela. “On November 21, 1991, her friends were coerced by the Brigadas de Acción in order to make Maria Elena open door to her dwelling. When she did, she was pushed, face first, into the wall, her arms pinned behind her. Her intruders dragged her down the stairs and into the street. In public view, the Brigadas de Accion “rammed a manifesto she had written to protest the 31st anniversary of the Cuban Revolution down her throat.” In an interview in The American Poetry Review (1995), Maria Elena described how she was “made to kneel in the street.” She had clenched her teeth and refused to open her mouth until she could taste her own blood and could see it flow on the ground before her. But as her accusers cursed and beat her, she remained silent. Six days after her arrest, a closed trial was held, the officials charged her for ‘illegal association.’ and she was sentenced to prison. Stories of her subsequent imprisonment, interspersed with her cellmates' stories, would later find their way into her poems. (American Poetry Review, The , July, 1995: Cruz-Bernal, Mairym http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3692/is_199507/ai_n8713749/

In the voices of the Ladies in White, one hears similar stories. Las Damas de Blanco speak out tirelessly on behalf of their sons, husbands, brothers, and fathers who were arbitrarily arrested, tried without legal representation and subsequently imprisoned during the wave of repression known as the Black Spring in Cuba, in March, 2003.

In an interview recorded in July, 2008, Mercedes Elías, the wife of political prisoner, Jesús Mustafa Felipe, tells how her family suffered two acts of repudiation in which elementary and high school children were recruited to participate with the Committee in Defense of the Revolution. “They were all at my house along with State Security and the CDR. Since people in my neighborhood are good folks and sympathize with our cause, State Security goes to other neighborhoods and brings in students and people who are drunk, people who are low class citizens, for the acts of repudiation. They surround our house and shout that we’re antisocial people, that we want to place bombs all about…The method they use is to try to convince people we are going to put bombs in schools to hurt and kill children…”

In April, 2008, Noelia Pedraza Jiménez, wife of political prisoner and prisoner of conscience, Ariel Sigler Amaya wrote, “If I got started, I could go on forever. I’ve been a victim of various acts of repudiation organized by State Security….There have been insults, arrests and threats, but the most terrible incident occurred in 2006, when (State Security) threw my six-year old son into the river, leaving him to drown. I reported the incident as attempted murder. A policeman came to my house but didn’t pay any attention to me. It isn’t just. It isn’t fair for a child to have to suffer this sort of hate crime. I also had a child who died when he was 9 years old, and these people never fail to mention him and insult him …."

And finally, we hear the noble voice of Mrs. Gloria Amaya, the 80-year old mother of three political prisoners, two of whom remain in Cuban jails. Threatened with death, she lives in a constant state of fear. “State Security fractured one of my grandson’s skull, and they beat up another one with an electric cable…When my sons were arrested, they beat me as well and fractured my spine…That’s why I’m confined to a wheel chair now…But one day I went to walk with las Damas…They took me in my wheelchair to the church, and it was a great pleasure to be there with them…I hope I can return, but my legs fail me now and I can’t walk alone anymore…But this is what I tell my sons..’ Hold your head high and keep it high, just like your mother does…”

These accounts, and multitudes like them, are on record, but those of many other women across Cuba whose stories match them in poignancy and courage have yet to be chronicled.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Cuba is a signatory, ensures that “everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” Among other basic human rights, the declaration also delineates that: 1) “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment; “2) that “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression;” and 3) that “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation.” However, the recently issued (2008) Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights expresses “its concern for the difficult situation faced by organizations to inform the international community about the situation of human rights in Cuba because of potential reprisals…Likewise, the Commission is particularly concerned that defenders may be the target of a campaign to discredit them in response to their work in defending and promoting human rights in Cuba. The Inter-American Commission reiterates the need to adopt necessary measures to prevent the various State bodies from being used to harass people who work in the defense and promotion of human rights.” Similar concern and recommendations have been expressed by internationally regarded organizations such as The International Red Cross, Amnesty International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Reporters without Borders, and Physicians for Human Rights, to mention a few.

As an American whose heart belongs to Cuba and her people, it is indeed a great honor and privilege to acknowledge the courageous work of las Damas de Blanco and all human rights defenders in Cuba, as well as those in this country and around the world who denounce basic human rights violations for all Cubans. I am committed to continue to disseminate information about human rights violations in Cuban until there is not further need to do so. When my children ask me who my heroes are, I tell them stories from my work with Cuban political prisoners and courageous women like my colleague in human rights, Laida Carro, Bertha Antúnez, and the other Damas de Blanco. The Cuban people are my heroes, for in my estimation, they truly represent the epitome of courage and dignity.

In closing, I leave you with the words of perhaps Cuba’s most famous sons, José Martí. I find great inspiration in this quotation every day as I work to disseminate information through the The Coalition of Cuban-American Women’s blog.

Martí wrote, "The campaigns of the people are weak only when the hearts of women are not recruited to carry them out. But when women step in and help, when the naturally shy and quiet woman stands up and applauds, when the cultured and virtuous woman annoints the task with the sweetness of her affection, the campaign becomes invincible."

Thank you very much…..

MORE RECENT PHOTOS

One of these days, I'll take some photos of something other than flowers. I'm just always in awe of the perfection, color and design every individual flowers offers to the eye.

ASLEEP ON THE JOB

Feline farm hand, Cato, got his pay docked yesterday for lack of productivity. He, along with three of this buddies who were smart enough to wake up before farm management captured their snoozing, managed to take a few zzzzzzzzz's on the very equipment he was charged to be operating. A pink slip's in the works, dear Cato!

FRAZZLED

Sure that changes in the workplace mean you're next in line for a shuffle?


Feelin' like the cloud's are never gonna lift?

Wonderin' if you'll ever see the return of those investments that slipped down the tubes right under your nose?

Thinkin' you might have the swine flu?

(Oops....the H1N1 Flu, I mean. Apologies to all the pigs who read Namasté...)

Dreamin' about a vacation you can't afford?

Worryin' about things you know you should worry about?

Fear not; you're not alone.... By all estimates, 98% of everyone we know seems to be in the same pickle / funk.

However, here at The Farm, where we subscribe to the Clousseau, Cato, and Hendrix philosophy of life ("Ohmmmm...eat and sleep, ohmmmm....sleep and eat, ohmmmm....eat and sleep.....ohmmmm ), our greatest source of angst at the moment is mud, lots of mud, and the fact that the Farm Mom can't figure out her latest knitting project instructions.

Is it time for a meltdown?

HAPPY MAY DAY !!

"Sweet May hath come to love us,

Flowers, trees, their blossoms don;

And through the blue heavens above us

The very clouds move on."

Heinrich Heine, Book of Songs

On May Day, I recall my childhood, the May Court at Appalachian State Teachers College weaving the colorful streamers as they danced around the May Pole in their formal dresses. The May Queen always wore a flowered crown, and as she was presented, her attendants tossed flower petals in her path.

For a little girl, it was pretty magical!

POEM - WALT WHITMAN

I think I could turn and live with animals, they are so placid

and self-contain'd,

I stand and look at them long and long.

They do not sweat or whine about their condition,

They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,

They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God.

Not one is dissatisfied, not one is demented with the mania of

owning things,

Not one kneels to another, not to his kind that lived thousands

of years ago,

Not one is respectable or unhappy over the whole earth.

AT HOME IN NC

You never know what the weather's going to do in the mountains, but this weekend, it's been glorious. As I write this, Mom's on her way to spend the day with Grandma and Aunt Audrey over at Pigeon Roost, and I've had a little time here at her house to knit and play the piano a bit. My fingers are so uncoordinated it's pitiful, but I can still get through most of the old songs I used to play for Daddy.

Spring's not in its fullest awakening here yet...Last week there was a light snow, so it's just about time for the trillium to pop through and the bloodroot to open up into bloom. I am struck by the purity of the air and the cleanliness of the Earth. Mountain folks take care of the land, that's for sure.

Last evening, Samuel and I went with Mom to the Distinguished Alumni Banquet at Appalachian, and when Mom was introduced, people stood and clapped. She had a great time, and I love the fact that she's so beloved by all. A lot of old timers stopped to remind her how she swabbed their throats, took care of them during the flu epidemic and delivered their babies. (!) I was so proud of her and so, so happy she had a good evening.

This afternoon I'll head over to see Grandma and clean up the cementary a bit. I hope to find the patch of red trillium in the rhododendron thicket down below the spring and the bloodroot that used to bloom among the galax on the path to the barn. There is great security for me in knowing my secret places in the woods around Grandma's house still know the secrets I shared with the squirrels, birds, and plants there years ago.

It's been a great trip home.....When I'm here I can see myself returning to the mountains in time...It really is here where every cell in my body finds peace and senses deep, deep love.

Off to take a walk.....

PINKS AND WHITE

I took these today at Charlotte's house when I went to feed her kitties. I love the

delicate blossoms. The begonias remind me of Grandma Shook.

ISN'T SHE LOVELY? ISN'T SHE BEAUTIFUL?

PROM - APRIL 18, 2009

Posted by a very proud mom.....

EASTER MORNING THOUGHTS

The beauty of the trees,

the softness of the air,

the fragrance of the grass,

speak to me.

The summit of the mountain,

the thunder of the sky,

the rhythm of the sea,

speak to me.

The faintness of the stars,

the freshness of the morning,

the dewdrop on the flower,

speak to me.

The strengh of fire,

the taste of salmon,

the trail of the sun,

and the life that never goes away..

they speak to me.

And my heart soars.

~Chief Dan George~

SPRING PHOTOS - THIS WEEK'S PICS

I had my camera out the other day, and here's a sample of what I recorded through the lens.
Happy Easter.....

MOLLY POSSUM

I love this 'ole dog (as well as her corgi sister, Annie Banannie)... even when she looks straight at me and runs when I call her in ...even when she rolls in juicy spring cow poop and smells to high heavens....even when she brings dried cow patties home and plops them down right in front of the door...even when she gets "skunked" and has to have a trip to the Tomato Juice Spa....even when she tracks mud into the house right after Eliza or I mop....even when she barks or howls incessantly when I'm trying to sleep...even when she's covered with fleas and ticks....even when she carries a dead mole around in her mouth for days...even when she trees a possum up the telephone pole and won't budge for days...and on and on and on....There's really no canine on earth like Molly P.

This is the girl's official spring portrait...kinda like school photos for kids. She's going into her 12th year in human age, and she's in great shape; however, as one can discern from the look on her face, her patience runs thin when it comes time for the yearly photo. As soon as she heard the camera shutter click, she was gone....off to round up the cows coming in from the back fields with sweet, chubby Annie, her partner in crime, several paces behind...

DAFFODILS

"Daffodils"
I wander'd lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;Beside the lake, beneath the trees,Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,They stretch'd in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:Ten thousand saw I at a glance,Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thoughtWhat wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;And then my heart with pleasure fills,And dances with the daffodils.
By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

MOUNTAINEER SPIRIT IN IRAQ

Richard Randall, my "life-long as close as a brother" friend shared this photo on Facebook. All of us who have long-standing connections with Appalachian know that the Mountaineer spirit would come in handy on that side of the world!