Spring Perspective

Our Spring was so late this year, that once work began, it's been full-speed ahead. So, I thought I'd post these photos taken from the 73rd floor of downtown Chicago at dusk.

Cleaning Up In The Garden

 So much of satisfying garden work is the non-sexy parts. I actually managed my first clean-up in the garden (my neighbor Rick has been the savior and done the heavy-lifting) over the weekend. Better than yoga (not stepping on emerging plants while I reach to prune, pull, dig and toss) and a constructive way to get out aggression! Above are remnants from last summer's roofers; below a motley assortment ready for municipal pick-up (oh how I lament having no allowable space in my condo for compost) of English Ivy, Star of Bethlehem, Weigela and one of my sacrificed favorite tulips (turkestanica).

Spring Bulbs: The Day After...

Best to aspire to practice the Japanese philosophy that posits...

The Impermanence of Life and Things that manifest its force...may be rendered more beautiful by that very quality.

The Garden is always symbolic.

Spring Bulbs: The Day Before...

Sacred Earth

Kristen or I took this photo in a small, compromised mining town in Guatemala near where AFOPADI works.

The sign roughly translate: "Our Mother Earth Is Sacred; Fight for Respect.

Seeing Guatemala Through New Eyes

My recent Sustainable Sharing with Guatemala (SSG) annual site-visit to AFOPADI in Guatemala was made special by my traveling companion, Kristen Kepnick (above in blue with one of my best friends from the village). Kristen has been a fellow SSG board member for several years, but before the group materialized, she helped me at the Worldview Global Activism Expo and we were on the Board of MELA for a number of years before that. Kristen has performed the SSG Thankless Task of secretary for a while and will soon be our VP!
This was her first trip to Guatemala, but Kristen has traveled worldwide, so she was the perfect combination of open and not scared :) She's a wonderful photographer and has an amazing heart. Her Spanish is better than mine and she's younger, so I was delighted to see anew...
Below are a few of Kristen's photos from a lunch visit to the house of the new AFOPADI Agricultural promotor. He worked with AFOPADI in his village before and now walks the half hour to work with the other two agricultural promotors at the AFOPADI office in the village. This means he is often walking up to six hours a day to visit people's land when he is not working on the AFOPADI demonstration fields.

Kristen loves animals...these dogs are on the cleanest floor I have ever seen in the villages.

Here's her artistic view of coffee.

Kristen catches me admiring Chepe's home garden.

Checking out the coffee virus is the perfect activity for plant geeks.

Here Kristen captures our friend amidst the typical mountainous backdrop.

Finally, she immortalizes Chepe having a moment with his cow...

Re-entry is always such a challenge...

And that's not only because the TSA in Houston went through and opened LITERALLY everything in our suitcases (including slitting open bags of coffee) and the inevitable culture shock and GI bugs that seem to follow us home.

So we remember the great things about our SSG site visit to AFOPADI:

Amazing landscape...

impressive culture...

the most committed project staff...

the best al fresco dining with organic non-GMO homemade tortillas...

wonderful colleagues and lifelong friends.

PS: I added photos to previous 3 posts from Guatemala.