Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary, August 2011

Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden

I am in Minnesota visiting family. Today I went to the Eloise Butler Wildflower Garden and Bird Sanctuary in Wirth Park. There was some tornado damage in the Northwest part of the park, but the Garden was thankfully spared the worst of the damage. Other parts of North Minneapolis were not so lucky, a pretty powerful tornado earlier this year did a lot of damage. Here are some photos from the park, in slideshow format and video (with audio) format:

Slideshow:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rwhitlock/sets/72157627227371923/

Video with some sounds from the park:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHtsaTWNr6I

"Let Nature Be Your Teacher"

Minnehaha Falls

I am in the City of Minneapolis right now. One of my favorite places in the city is Minnehaha Falls. Minneapolis has an extensive park system. It's one of the highlights of life here for many people. This afternoon the air was breezy, thin, cold, and dry, but the sky was clear (besides some atmospheric pollution in the form of haze.) The early winter sunlight was beautiful (probably even enhanced, ironically, by the pollution.)

Minnehaha creek feeds into the Mississippi river—not far from Minnehaha falls. Today the water was flowing, it was quite interesting to watch the flowing water disappear into a shell of ice.

I have memories from when I was a teenager of climbing behind the frozen ice of the falls.

Today, I thought I could hear some of the ice cracking.

I have heard that the City turns on municipal water supplies to feed the creek. I am not sure if that's the case currently (as seen in the following photos.) Anyway, the falls are an impressive sight.

Here are some photos of Minnehaha Falls in the winter. There are a few more posted on my Flickr site.


Trees and Trail

So much clean snow. Quite a wonder.


Trees and Sky


Frozen Minnehaha Falls in the Winter


Top of the Falls


Mom

Peace! Namaste! May All Beings be Happy!

Back from Camping

I returned from camping on the Olympic Peninsula late last night. It was an awesome trip. It rained a lot, but we managed to stay almost completely dry! I have a bunch of photos that will take some time to sort through, but hopefully I will post a collection of the best ones.

While I was gone I was thinking a lot about the conflict in the Middle East. The one between Israelis and Palestinians. On last Monday night I went to see the Rachel Corrie Foundation Peace Works event at Evergreen. It was the play "There is a Field" by Jen Marlowe. I am glad I went, and I enjoyed the performance and the Q&A afterward. The play is about a Palestinian-Israeli family and the death of 17 year-old Aseel, a Seeds of Peace volunteer, who was killed by Israeli Defense Forces Soldiers during a demonstration. The play brought up a lot of difficult issues, and was an interesting glimpse into the lives of Palestinians who live in Israel proper. It seems that for these Palestinians, discrimination is the norm.

I am also looking forward to seeing Marc Ellis, who is a Jewish theologian and philosopher and author. Marc is in Olympia, and is making a series of presentations about his views and his work. There's more information about that on OlympiaBDS.

One aspect of the conflict in the Middle East that I have been thinking of, from a psychological standpoint, and in terms of diagnosing the conflict (which I believe is a disease) is the idea that given the intensity of trauma that Jews have experienced over the years—that many Jews have what might be thought of as a "survivor's complex." That is the mentality of surviving despite intense oppression and persecution-even to the point of real genuine concerted attempts at annihilation.

[added paragraph that I meant to include earlier in posting originally: One of the possible symptoms of "survivor's complex," as it may evince itself either in individuals, or in socio-cultures, is as an attitude of superiority. Another way to understand this is how when people are bullied (or mis-treated in other ways) they sometimes take on the behavior of the bully (or abuser) in order to achieve safety or security...]

This is a very serious and problematic issue. Some people might like to think that since I support human rights for Palestinians, that I don't support the rights of Israelis. This could not be further from the truth.

Human rights are for everyone-for all human beings-everywhere. The true and genuine security of one, depends on the security of all. Real security is mutual.

Anyway, I think there are some seriously deep and difficult psychological aspects of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and the best way to look at the situation is from the point of view that all people deserve to be treated well.

Below is a photo of a Buck on Rialto beach on the Olympic Peninsula. Rialto beach is just North of the Quileute American Indian Reservation.

Best Wishes, and (for) Peace!

Berd


Buck
Rialto Beach
Olympic National Park
Wednesday 26 October 2010

Olympia Washington San Francisco Avenue Sitting Station View

Citizens for the Future

Merry Christmas!

Here's a treat I want to share with you, it's from a while back. I hope you enjoy! Peace, Berd


view larger

On the trail through an urban rainforest "wilderness". This is about as wilderness as it gets in an urban setting. To the best of my knowledge, Watershed Park is a first growth forest. The reason it was never cut during the logging boom was because it provided the city's drinking water . It provided the bulk of Olympia's water until the 1950s when the city switched to other water sources. After the switch, it then took a lot of hard work by a dedicated group of citizens in order to save the forest from being logged to death. Those Citizens for the Future were successful some 50 odd years ago, and Olympia has a true gem of a park to thank them for today.

People for a Public Isthmus

There are several groups organizing opposition to a proposed rezone of building heights on the "isthmus" area in downtown Olympia. The "isthmus" (in quotes because it is not an isthmus - it's actually a peninsula) separates the water of Capitol Lake, a man made reservoir, and Budd Bay, Budd Inlet, one of the southernmost inlets of the Puget Sound.

Some of the groups organizing opposition are:

• Friends of the Waterfront
• 20/20 Vision Olympia
• Olympia Capitol Park Foundation
• One other group, People for a Participatory City, is working without a website (as far as I know - I'll update when I find it.)

On Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 opponents of the rezone proposal, and a proposed development of 141 million dollar high rise condominiums, gathered to raise awareness and to get signatures for an initiative petition that would, if successful, require the city to put the park idea on a ballot - or [thanks for the correction, Thad!] conduct a feasibility analysis into acquiring the land for the purpose of developing a park.


[photo caption:] People in support of a public isthmus, including an expanded park area to the West of Water Street in between 4th and 5th Avenues, gathered near the City of Olympia's Heritage Fountain to do a walk around for signature gathering and outreach to gain support and organize a petition that will require the city to conduct a feasibility study into the possibility of acquiring land on the Isthmus for the purpose of establishing and developing a park.

more information: Walk the Isthmus!

background on the isthmus development issue: olyblog.net/isthmus-2008

information on the park petition: groups.google.com/group/olycapitolparkfoundation/web/welcome

New Photos from Olympia

Olympic Mountains


Plant Buds


New Life


Waterfall Mist


Rushing Water


Bridge