All You Need is Love

Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
There's nothing you can do that can't be done.
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy.
There's nothing you can make that can't be made.
No one you can save that can't be saved.
Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be you
in time - It's easy.

All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
There's nothing you can know that isn't known.
Nothing you can see that isn't shown.
Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.
It's easy.
All you need is love, all you need is love,
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.
All you need is love (all together now)
All you need is love (everybody)
All you need is love, love, love is all you need.

Vermont 'Cow Power'

I am home for Thanksgiving in Vermont and yesterday we visited Westminster Farm a dairy farm which is now also a farm methane power plant. The methane plant project was recently completed and now that it is online it produces about 250 kW per hour which is enough energy to power 250 average homes per day.





The Cow Power Process

Manure is collected in a giant digester, as seen above, and heated to approximately 101 degrees F to maintain bacteria that breaks down the waste into various product including methane gas. The methane is then transferred from the digester through a pipe which separates out the moisture and sends the gas along to fuel a diesel engine which in turn is connected to a generator that produces electrical power. The power is then fed to the electrical grid.

In the case of Westminster Farm the power is fed to Green Mountain Power (GMP) and customers have the choice to now purchase their power through GMP's Greener GMP plan which includes the farm methane plant as well as a landfill methane producer.

Below you can see the digester next to the building that houses both the diesel engine and the generator and in the background are power poles that are connected into the GMP power grid.

Closeup of some of the goings on in the digester.

Ayup, turning poop into power in Vermont.

Women and The World

Woman

Each one of you
are beautiful.
Each one of you
are strong.
Each one of you
are brave.

Each one of you
are kind.
Each one of you
are true.
Each one of you
are love.

Each one of you
are experience.
Each one of you
are knowledge.
Each one of you
are wise.

Each one of you
are real.
Each one of you
are special.
Each one of you
are unique.

You are Mother, daughter, sister, wife, lover, friend.
You are Woman.

Believe it!
Revel it!
Embrace it!

The preceding poem I wrote yesterday as part of an assignment for a women's wellness circle I've been attending with facilitators Midge Patzer and Melissa Boley. The assignment was to be completed for the last class of the course and we were asked to write about each of the women in our group. The poem was inspired by each woman individually but also by the group as a whole and by all of the other women who are a part of my life.

The image that I associated with the poem is a card, The World, from my Motherpeace tarot deck by Karen Vogel and Vicki Noble. I use tarot daily for inspiration and guidance. It's imagery works very well for me. As for the card, The World, I will try to explain it without getting into a huge explanation of tarot.

The tarot deck consists of seventy eight cards that are divided into two groups: the twenty two cards of the major arcana and the fifty six cards of the minor arcana. The fifty six cards of the minor are based on four series of suits containing fourteen cards; similar to a regular deck of playing cards and the twenty two cards of the major correspond to the connective paths of the Hebrew "Tree of Life" of which these paths are lines along which life develops. The World card, which also may be referred to as The Universe in other decks, is the final card of the major arcana and as such can be read as the final step or completion of a process.

As defined in the Motherpeace book of interpretation:

The Fool (the first card in the major arcana) has grown up into a woman of the world. Leading a spiral dance, she is followed by her circle of friends and family. She skips through a chain of peyote buttons and flowers. These sacred plants part to let her by. She's come a long way. It no longer matters to her how she looks or that her clothes are torn. She takes her place among the children of the earth.

The World is breaking free into a new cycle. The old is completed and many new things are now possible since she has done her work. She knows and loves herself and all her facets have come into harmony. She may feel expanded and omnipotent because a major cycle of her life is completed and a new doorway opens.

The Motherpeace tarot is the second deck that I am learning to read. The first deck I learned was the Thoth tarot, by Aleister Crowley and Lady Frieda Harris, which was given to me by one of my closest and dearest friends. It was the deck that she learned from and it was given to her by her mother. In the Thoth deck the last card of the major arcana is The Universe.

As defined in the Crowley book of interpretation:

The Universe is the expression of the wholeness, in which the divine in its three aspects harmoniously connects with the earthly as an eye, virgin, and snake, through which the four cherubims are manifested. The number seven, the sum of the above, is an expression of a time boundary that is contained three times in the numerical value of the card 21. The card then stands for the goal that has been attained, for the climax of a development, and therefore in some cases for the goal in life itself and our place in this world, where we belong.

From the psychological perspective, the Universe personifies the waking consciousness and the self-regulating power of the creative self. This allows us to act socially within the surrounding of our community, and process emotionally the creative contractions of eternal transformation:

To experience the Self means that we are always conscious of our own identity. We then know that we can never be anything other than our Self, that we will never lose our Self, and that we can never be estranged from our Self. This is so, because we realize that the Self is indestructible, that it is always one and the same, that it cannot be dissolved or exchanged for something else. The Self enables us to remain the same under all circumstances of our life. ~ C.G. Jung

I am very thankful for all of the women that I know and that have touched my life. They have inspired and encouraged me but most of all they have loved me for who I am. Included are the women that I have found here in the virtual world who, although I have never met any of them, spark my creativity and boost my confidence almost daily. I enjoy randomly perusing blogs and I truly appreciate all of the visitors to my blog who leave words of appreciation and encouragement. Thank you all!

Still hanging on

Resisting the urge to rake leaves.
Camera play is much more fun.

Autumn Dreams

Autumn Dreams

I know the year is dying,
Soon the summer will be dead.
I can trace it in the flying
Of the black crows overhead;
I can hear it in the rustle
Of the dead leaves as I pass,
And the south wind's plaintive sighing
Through the dry and withered grass.

Ah, 'tis then I love to wander.
Wander idly and alone,
Listening to the solemn music
Of sweet nature's undertone;
Wrapt in thoughts I cannot utter,
Dreams my tongue cannot express,
Dreams that match the autumn's sadness
In their longing tenderness.

~ Mortimer Crane Brown

All photos in this post were taken yesterday as I wandered Route 20 between Arco and Carey.

The old dilapidated house is west of Arco and it sits behind a fence marked 'No Trespassing'. The house looks like it is constructed of very thin pieces of stacked slate and I really would like to get a closer look. It is a piece of art.

The car is east of Carey just sitting in a swampy field. It too is a piece of art although it changes quite regularly as different people tag it.

Both the house and the car I believe to be Route 20 icons.

As for the faded flowers I don't know what they are. Dog and I took a walk east of Craters of the Moon (Dog can't walk Craters of the Moon the rocks hurt his feet) and that's where the flowers were found. Yesterday, although blustery cold and grey was a fantastic fall day just right for wandering, by car and on foot, and for dreaming.

A Fall fade

Our Fall so far has been cold, hard, and lacking it's usual luster. The colors this year are very subtle with most of the aspen skipping any glorious display and instead just slowly fading to brown. So with photos of fabulous fall foliage lacking a few photos south of the valley in the middle of farm country on the way to Twin. It's still one of my favorite drives. You can see forever and when driving north you have a view of the mountains that never ceases to take my breath away. No mountains here though just some shots from the side of the road next to a now abandoned corn stand and some pretty busy looking power station equipment.

The power and the beauty of Mother Nature

Over the weekend we received our first snow here in the Wood River Valley with the majority of it dumping on Sunday night and Monday morning. And what a dump it was. The following is a photo from my backyard early Monday. My little house is hiding in there.

Unfortunately the snow was so wet and heavy and all our trees still had their leaves that there was a lot of tree limb loss throughout the valley. One of the trees in my backyard split right in half. Luckily it was the back half of the tree and not the front. Had it been the front it would have landed right on top of the house. It didn't even take out any part of the fence. Phew!








Just missed the fence.



























More in our local paper the Idaho Mountain Express.


The following two photos I took Sunday night as the snow was gently falling and I was excited to see it. (I was also trying to practice with the camera at night. Hence the weird photo of the chair.)




The first snow is always so special.

























Little did I know...

The only thing I've ever seen that comes close to the destruction of the trees over the weekend is the same type of destruction to trees due to an ice storm in Vermont in the 90s. I've never lived on either coast here in the U.S. or on the plains so I've never experienced a tornado or a hurricane. I can't imagine.

And although the loss of trees and the damage done to property is sad this world never ceases to amaze as I still find so much beauty in the snow and ice.