Bee Hospitality

I have two new bee houses, one I bought from Crown Bees, and a fantastic homemade one I got from my sister and brother-in-law for Christmas.

I also have a tube of Mason Bees in the refrigerator and no idea what to do with them, so a little research is in order. 

The purpose of a bee house is to attract solitary bees, who are  extremely docile and up to three times more effective as pollinators. Some of the most common solitary bees are mason bees, leafcutter bees, and miner bees. Many of these native bees are already a part of the local ecosystem, but providing them with a perfect place to nest in your backyard can improve their lives and yours.

Agenda:

1. Put my bee houses up

2. Release the Mason Bees!

3. Bee House Maintenance

Second Sunday of Lent

My theme this year for Lent is Down-to-Earth Simple Living: Over the years, my Lent activities have sometimes been complex, with layers of readings and actions. This year I plan to ease back to the basics of living my life: Eating, playing, home and garden, family and art.

At Lent I allow myself to be slow, simple, and thoughtful. I spend time each day in focused study and prayer. This Lent, I plan to continue to explore my relationship to the natural world, the cycles of the seasons, and down-to-earth living, with the simplest of actions. 

My intentions this year are to:

• Read and Journal: I intend to dive into various web sites that offer information on simple living themes.
• Simple steps: I will set myself some simple-living steps for growth each week to become more down-to-earth.
• Fast: This year I'm eating vegan at least two days a week during Lent, and exploring vegan options that are simple and grown locally, because consuming less meat and dairy is one way I can reduce my carbon footprint, and local options have fewer hidden environmental costs."

Agenda:

1. Read and journal

2. Simple steps plan

3. Make lentil stew

Full Snow Moon and Lantern Festival

Tonight is the full moon called the Snow Moon; also called the Atchiulartadsh, or "Out of Food" moon by the local Kalapuya.

We've not had any snow this month, and we are not out of food, but it is a lean time: Lean on light, barren garden beds, and low on energy.

Tonight is also Yuan Xiao, the 15th and last day of the Chinese New Year Festival. Yuan Xiao means "first night", meaning the first time that the full moon is seen in the New Year. 

We are now at the peak of the strong-energy yang phase of the waxing moon, and will soon begin the quiet-energy yin time of the waning moon. The February full moon is a good time to explore what it's like to be the receptive earth, accepting the seed and willing to nurture it. 

Agenda for today:

1. Vision walk

2. Celebrate receptivity

3. Read about inspiration

4. Make tang yuan, sweet dumplings
5. Hang a lantern
6. Riddle guessing

Pea Planting Day

Pea Planting Day is a special anniversary for us. February 22 is listed on my planting calendar as the first day to plant peas in the Willamette Valley; it also happens that this is the day W and I got engaged to each other, 48 years ago!

Peas are traditionally the first vegetable sown outside in the spring because they will germinate and grow in very cool soil. We plant peas today to ceremonially kick off the start of the planting season, and also to remind ourselves of the beginnings of our relationship; the day we decided to be together forever.

Agenda:

1. Read "The Wheel of the Year"

2. Pea planting ceremony

3. Permaculture pea tips

Morning Ritual for Lent

My theme for Lent is Simple Living, and so far I've looked at some components of a simpler schedule and a simpler house, but I'm missing a connection to simple living and intentional living; my days are currently lacking the energetic shift I get when my priorities are clear.

Today I've decided to re-evaluate my morning routine, because when it's done right my morning-time ritual gives me the energy and focus I need for the whole day. I think I need a few simple tweaks, with inspirational elements.

Morning Routine Components:

1. Review and update my schedule

2. Effective habits journal

3. Print an inspiration page

4. Visualization ritual

February Garden

My winter garden is beginning to pop. We have bulbs flowering all over, and camellias, of course. The fall planted garlic, leeks, and beets are up, and cabbages are starting to recover from the duck attack.

My main focus in February is to plan the next season's garden, and take care of the nature that continues to live here. As always, I'd rather not go into the garden in the rain and the mud, but if I can be strong, get on my rain gear, and take a short daily tour of my garden, I find many simple things to do, without getting too muddy.

The best tip I've read in any permaculture blog is: Be consistent with 15-minutes a day, year round. I try to take a 15-minute walk through my garden each day, and I alternate the front and back gardens so I don't feel rushed. The consistency of the 15-minute daily visit keeps me connected to my garden even when I don't accomplish much. As Amy from 10-Acre Farm says, "It helps me to enjoy 'being' in the garden, rather than always focusing on the 'doing'."

Agenda:

1. Read "A Comfort of Crows"

2. Garden plans

3. February tasks

4. Pepare to plant

5. Make potting soil

February Order

Humans love to create order out of chaos! It's one thing we do well. Life is filled with chaos, disorder and confusion, messiness, uncertainty, and misunderstanding; that's natural and normal. Order and chaos are fluid and interconnected: Order exists within chaos, and chaos exists within order.

Creating order when you can is a form of power; orderly habits and an orderly mind will bring you clarity and peace. Creating order is ground work: Put the order in place first, then everything that follows will flow more smoothly, and when chaos inevitably happen your orderly mind will be free to handle it with equanimity.

You cannot completely organize the chaos in your life but you can create a balance between the two, finding stability with order and using chaos as an impetus for growth. Too much order borders on obsession - I can accept that a certain amount of disorder is healthy and normal, and aim for just enough order to feel like I'm creating meaning, and accomplishing many of my priorities. (I wrote a whole book on this topic, called "Get Your Ducks in a Row." )

Agenda:

1. Habits of an orderly mind

2. My co-regulation plan

3. Household order

4. Simple steps for this week

First Quarter Moon of February

Tonight is the First Quarter Moon; we are one-quarter of the way through the moon cycle. The moon is waxing - getting larger - until it's full again. Now is the time to remain flexible, use my obstacles as fuel for growth, and show full effort for priorities.

Agenda Today:

1. Read Writing and Being

2. Collect moments of joy

3. Journal queries

4. Make a full effort plan

Nirvana Day

Today is Nirvana Day the celebration of Buddha's death at the age of 80, at around 487 BCE. It's celebrated in East Asia on February 15th, or on February 8th by some.

Buddhists celebrate the date of the death of the Buddha, because death is when the soul is released from the body to experience Nirvana. The word Nirvana means "to extinguish", but it's really more of a transformation to a new kind of existence. Nirvana is usually described as a state of bliss or peace, and a release from all physical suffering. The Buddha taught that Nirvana was beyond human imagination, and so speculation about what Nirvana is like is considered by some to be foolish.

Agenda for today:

1. Read the Buddha's teachings

2. Read "Simple Living Manifesto"

3. Eat a Buddha bowl

Ash Wednesday and Valentine's Day!

Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent, a 46-day period of preparation for the joyful Easter celebration. The word lent comes from the Anglo Saxon word lencten, which means "lengthen"; it refers to the longer days of spring. 

Lent is about mortality and transformation; death and rebirth. Marcus Borg says, "It means dying to an old way of being, and being born into a new way of being, a way of being centered once again in God."

Quakers don't traditionally celebrate Lent because we live every day being born again, centered in God. Still - I will always jump at a chance for a period of reflection.

Today is also Valentine's Day! Saint Valentine was a third-century Roman Christian who died on February 14. The poet Geoffrey Chaucer and his circle probably invented many of the romantic legends about Saint Valentine, in the fourteenth century.

Valentine made by a student of mine.

After that, it became a custom for a man to write a romantic poem to send to his beloved on St. Valentine's Day. Very fancy paper cards, with lace and ribbons, became popular in the 1840's, and that custom expanded into sending cards to Mom and Dad, and friends of all kinds.

Agenda:

1. Read "Lessons for Simple Living"

2. Simple Steps for this week

3. Make Valentines

4. Begin fasting

5. Hang up the Lent Lady

Mardi Gras

Today is Mardi Gras, which is French for Fat Tuesday - also called Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday. We've come to the end of the Western season of Carnival, which starts on Epiphany (January 6) and ends at Lent. Fat Tuesday is always 47 days before Easter Sunday.

Agenda Today:

1.Choose a theme for Lent

2. Set intentions for Lent

3. Prepare to fast 

4. Make carnival corn soup

5. Make a screen mask

Clean Monday

Clean Monday is the first Monday of Lent, in the Eastern Orthodox tradition and its actual date is March 18th this year. The clean originally referred to the purification of the soul for Lent. Today it's customary to clean the house thoroughly, and, in Greece, people go on picnics, eat shellfish, and fly kites!

I am continuing my preparation for Lent by observing Clean Monday today.

Agenda Today:

1. Prayer of Cleansing

2. Kitchen cleaning

3. Make Laguna (flat bread)

Forgiveness Sunday

Forgiveness Sunday is an Eastern Orthodox holiday that marks the start of Lent, and its actual date is March 17th this year. The Western and Eastern churches celebrate Lent and Easter on different dates - the Western dates are calculated with the Gregorian calendar, and the Eastern dates use the Julian Calendar - and this year they are an entire month apart.

Western Lent begins this Wednesday, February 14, and so I'm celebrating Forgiveness Sunday now, glomming it in with Western dates, to help myself become prepared for a time of Lenten reflection.

Agenda:

1. Ask forgiveness and offer forgiveness

2. Make tyropita (cheese pie)

3. Light a candle

Chinese New Year of the Dragon

Today is the Chinese New Year, which starts when the new moon appears in China (one day off from the new moon here, which rose yesterday).

This is the month of the Holiday Moon, and the year of the dragon, an auspicious and extraordinary creature. The dragon symbolizes power, nobility, honor, luck, and success. If you're seeking a shift in your current lives, this year might offer a favorable chance. 

People born in the Year of the Dragon are gifted with innate courage, tenacity, and intelligence; they are not afraid of challenges, and willing to take risks.

The first day of the Chinese New Year is called Yüan-tan, the "Day of Origin". This one day determines the luck for the entire year, so Chinese people are careful to use their best manners and to remain honest and peaceful.

Agenda for today: 

1. Read the Creativity Book

2. Mirror Work

3. Eat jai for breakfast
4. Give gifts

5. Make and give hóngbāo (money packets)

Chinese New Year's Eve and the New Holiday Moon

Tonight is Chinese New Year's Eve. In China, New Year's evening is called Ch’u-yeh, the "evening of discarding", because we can finally be done with the old year, and with winter.

This last day of the year is busy for Chinese families, because it’s the last chance to complete preparations and be ready to start the year fresh. When the running around is done, the family spends the rest of the day at home together -- family connections are the big theme for this holiday.

Tonight is also the new moon. This first new moon of the Chinese year is called the Holiday Moon, because it's the start of a month-long holiday season in China. The new moon is a time of high energy and clear thinking. Historically, the new moon is when women took time to be alone; it's a time to retreat, set intentions, and initiate something new.

Agenda:

1. Retreat Day

2. Choose a month theme

3. Set intentions

4. New moon altar and meditation

5. Thanksgiving ceremony

6. Welcoming ceremony

7. Have a family open house

St. Dorothy's Day

St. Dorothy lived in Caesarea in central Turkey, around the year 313 AD. She was tried for refusing to worship idols, and a mocking lawyer asked her to send him fruit from the garden of Paradise. In response to her prayer, an angel appeared and presented three roses and three apples.

"And then said the holy virgin with a glad semblant: Do to me what torment thou wilt, for I am all ready to suffer it for the love of my spouse Jesu Christ, in whose garden full of delices I have gathered roses, spices, and apples."

Because of this, she is the patron of gardeners. Also of brides, and brewers.

Agenda Today:

1. Make Persian Spiced Apples

2. Garden journal queries

3. Garden visualization & plan

4. Cold stratify milkweed seeds

5. Make plant markers

Unity with Birds in Winter

I've had lot's of time to watch the birds lately. When the ice storm hit, we put out extra food, and spent hours sitting by the window to watch them swoop in to eat.

Besides their intrinsic value as members of the Natural World, birds play many crucial roles in our ecosystems -- including pest control, pollination, and seed dispersal -- and are essential to human welfare. With an estimated 1,200 species facing extinction over the next century, and many more suffering from severe habitat loss, we must feel the impulse to protect birds. But what can we do?

I'm looking for ways to better care for birds, so I've been applying my Unity Art practice, a process that opens the doors of creative healing. My intention is to use my creative fire to forge a stronger connection between me and the birds.

Agenda:

1. Set bird intentions
2. Become a citizen scientist

3. Feed the birds

4. Plan a bird haven

5. Be an advocate

6. Bird collage

7. Bird haven tags

Prepare for Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is at the end of this week, on February 10th this year. I love having this second opportunity to mark the new year; this one is my "Happy and Lucky" celebration.

In China a whole month is spent in preparations - cleaning, cooking, and decorating the house. All of the things displayed at Chinese New Year are symbols of the ideal life - tokens and reminders of the good things we hope for: Luck, wealth, long life, and happiness.

Agenda this week:
1. Shopping

2. House cleaning

3. Nian-hua and good-luck calligraphy

4. Forced Blossoms
5. Make a Tray of Togetherness

Third Quarter Moon of early February

Kitchen God I drew a few years ago.

Today is called Little New Year - it falls one week before Chinese New Year. Little New Year is also known as the Kitchen God Festival because this is the day that the Kitchen God, Tsao-wang, and his wife, Wang Bo-jia, leave to report to heaven. A picture of these two gods, printed or drawn on rice paper, hangs in a niche just above the stove in a Chinese home.

This holiday always falls on the waning Third Quarter moon of January or February. Today's waning third quarter moon energy is yin - quiet, internal, heart-driven, intentional Being-ness. At this phase we can ease off a bit on actively pursuing goals, slow down, go within, and attend to inner work, renewal, and self-care.

Agenda Today:

1. Read from the Creativity Book

2. Renewal plan

3. Evaluation House

4. Monthly journal brainstorm

5. Kitchen God Good-bye Ceremony

5. Surrender, rest, recuperate

Imbalc

Today is Imbalc (pronounced Im-molc), the Celtic Sabbat that falls between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. It's celebrated sometime around the first of February, as the "beginning of the end" of winter.

Imbalc means "surrounding belly" - the Earth Mother’s womb; soon the seeds in the womb of the earth will begin to swell and creative forces will begin to come alive in the world.

Imbalc is sacred to Brigid, the European and Celtic goddess of healing, crops, poetry, and creativity. As a sun goddess her powers are light, fire, inspiration, and vital energy: Wow! She’s one of my favorite images of the Spirit.

Brigid is the maiden aspect of the Great Goddess and so her color is white; her symbols are a sun-wheel, Brigid's cross, snake, and cock (herald of the new day). 

Agenda for today: 

1. Look for signs of the end of winter

2. Make a Brigid's Cross

2. Make Irish seed cake

3. Seed blessing ceremony

4. Have a fire