Sunday, February 26, 2012

Peacock music

2/23/12

Living at the Ithaca Zen Center / Body Mind Restoration Retreat Center brings with it the (usually positive) bonus of living with 4 peacocks.  1 female, 2 young males, and one older male.  The feathery details of the peacocks' social world are for another time, but today I find myself playing piano for a very curious peahen.  My keyboard is set up right in a window overlooking the pond and far hills, and in the foreground is some of the peacock stomping grounds.  As a young male tried his darndest to impress Ms. Peahen with his half-sized plumage, the object of his affection was curiously tilting her head at me as I fiddled around on the keys.  It's nice to have an audience to play off of, and especially one that is hearing totally different frequencies than you can ever dream of.  Here's a clip of some peacock music:

peacock music

After Peahen left, the young male came back to see what was so interesting about the sounds coming through the window, and he showed me just how cool his feathers are when he shakes them really fast.

Monday, February 20, 2012

The Pedaling Permaculture Pianist Continues

Yay!!!  It's been a good 15 months since my first, most wonderful, and only bike tour ended.  It seemed unnecessary to blog again, unless I embarked on another such crusade of joy; but I realized that I can still claim all of the titles a bestowed upon myself upon beginning this blog!  That's 2 "upons," yes.

I am still pedaling, though much less frequently ....  I live 8 miles from town, I have no car, and it's winter - but a very bike-able winter.  So I at least bike to the bus stop and around town.  Still Pedaling, check.

I am still practicing and promoting permaculture, and not just in the abstract inner permaculture/economic permaculture/mental permaculture ways.  I'm managing the vegetable gardens for a real legit healing retreat center.  Not as much perennial food growing and wildharvesting as I'd like, but there's enough scattered throughout my days to keep me satisfied.  Still Permaculture, check.

And I am still being a pianist.  I've gotten to play a good amount of music since my return to a more sedentary lifestyle - check out Polly and Travis music to see what we've been up to, and www.travisknapp.com for my own music site.  Still Pianist, check.

And as far as being "Home-Free" ....  for the residential aspect of the phrase, I've been living on the same property for nearly a year, though never in one structure for more than a couple months ....  And regarding the "woohoo, I'm home-free!" aspect of the phrase, well ... that will take some further consideration.  "Bicycle" has been discussed already.

So, in summary, I still lay claim to my catch-phrase and title, "Pedaling Permaculture Pianist," and my more-or-less "Home-Free Bicycle Blog"



This all was brought about by one silly little thing I wanted to say about spinach.  It made me laugh, and I hold no expectations that it will make anyone else laugh, but at least I hope some folks will smile.  Are you ready?

Here is the beginning of a list of things that I have never said:
1.) "Boy, I'm amazed at what a large amount of spinach I have, now that I see it cooked!"

(list to be continued, or not)

It's an oddly warm winter, so we're taking a chance to plant some spinach at an offensively early date (tomorrow).  Why-the-heck not?  I'll let you know in a few weeks if we get any greens.

For now, stay warm, keep smiling (even if you don't feel like smiling, just try it :-D).

-t