This morning, fog has iced the trees and bushes into a crystalline display as ornate as Chihuly glass. Only a coyote and I are visiting this snowy gallery.
Evening sky without the moon![]()
Morning sky without the sun![]()
January snows as far as I can see![]()
My heart lives in another country.
What a wonderful storm we just had. Maybe the best snowstorm of my life. Here is a picture of the overhang outside my study window with an icicle that is a work of art.
It has come to our environmental group's attention that an ethanol plant in the village of Mead, Nebraska is processing the leftover pesticide coated seeds from all of North America. This residue is piling up in Mead and killing birds, bees and small animals. It is making many of the people of Mead very ill. It is also seeping into the water table upriver from Lincoln and Ashland. Please read the OWH article below.![]()
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We have started a campaign to contact the governor and other elected officials. Let Pete Ricketts know that we want this ethanol plant shut down immediately. I'll share talking points in a comment below. Thanks in advance for your help. Remember, "Action is the antidote to despair."![]()
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omaha.com/video/news/mead-residents-say-ethanol-plant-is-spreading-poison-and-making-them-sick/vi...
Mead residents say ethanol plant is spreading 'poison' and making them sick
omaha.com
Residents of Mead, which is about 12 miles west of Omaha’s city limits, say they fear that the plant's waste is causing health problems, contaminating the land and harming wildlife.
I haven’t been posting lately because, paradoxically, I’ve had too much to say, too many emotions to process. Like all of us, my life has been pummeled by the gale force winds of our times. When an acquaintance asked me if I had any plans for 2021, I said that my only plan was enchiladas for dinner. ![]()
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On Wednesday, as we watched the insurrection on television, my friend Pamela* called. When her Dinka village in Sudan was burned and her parents killed, Pamela was just a child. With her three brothers, she fled on foot to Ethiopia and, later, when they were forced to leave, she and her brothers walked back across Sudan to the Kakuma Refugee camp in Kenya. I met her on Christmas Day 1999, when she arrived in Lincoln from that camp. She was 14-years-old, had never been to school, and spoke no English.![]()
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Now, 21 years later, Pamela is frightened her children will be killed. She was terrified by what she was seeing on television. I tried to reassure her, but what do I really know? What do any of us know?![]()
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This morning, it is foggy and the grasses and bare branches are filigreed in silver. A patch of blue sky just appeared in the south. I pray for our country. I pray for Pamela’s children and all children. I wish you all a peaceful and healthy new year.