Our drought here has gone from moderate to severe in spite of a couple thunderstorms this past week. Meanwhile, Vermont is underwater, the southern U.S. is baking in a record-breaking heatwave, and Canada is on fire. Other parts of the world are in no better shape. But the business of fossil energy production continues apace with no signs of letting up. Why should it? All those rich CEOs have their escape plans and bunkers as though they can lock themselves in for a year or two and come out when the worst of it is over.

Thing is, climate change is not a short term predicament, so what are they going to do when their well-stocked pantries are bare and their billions are worth nothing? Nobody is going to give two forks for Gates or Bezos or Musk or Zuckerberg when they emerge from their insulated bunkers into a completely different world. But why wait until then? We should stop giving two forks about them now. Musk and Zuckerberg and cage fight all they want in their lonely Martian habitat bubble where they will be reading Andy Weir’s book, trying to figure out how to grow potatoes because Earth has stopped sending supplies. Gates can choke on his lab-grown meat. And Bezos, maybe one of his poorly treated delivery drivers will run him down with an Amazon Prime van.

Yeah, I’m in a bad mood. When the weather forecast talks about “average” this or “average” that I grind my teeth because it means nothing any longer. The weather is not normal and it will never be normal again and the sooner we stop acting like there is any kind of normal “average” anything anymore, the better. We need to stop pretending like this year will be like last year and next year will be like this year with some variation. The climate is broken and nobody, not even the scientists, know what to expect. Buckle up kids, we are in for a bumpy ride!

We had yet another air quality alert here Friday and Saturday. There are over 500 fires burning in Canada right now and they will likely continue to burn well into the fall. We’ve had something like 25 air quality alert days of unhealthy to very unhealthy so far this summer. When things were normal, we’d have two, maybe three, air quality alerts for the entire year. And the western U.S. hasn’t even had any fires yet.

When James and I moved to Minnesota from Los Angeles in 1994, I thought, good riddance bad air! When worrying about the effects of climate change in Minnesota I did not consider bad air from fires elsewhere. I probably should have. Not that there would have been anyplace better to escape to. I am not a billionaire with a bunker.

So I bike to work while wearing a mask to protect my lungs. I hang laundry out to dry while wearing a mask. I check on the chickens while wearing a mask and worry about their lungs and that there is nothing I can do to protect them. I wear a mask while doing stuff in the garden or avoid spending time in the garden altogether. Which is probably one of the reasons I am so grumpy.

The air is better today though. I was able to weed the sweet potatoes before they disappeared beneath feral arugula, purslane and crab grass. And I was able to walk around and check on the rest of the garden.

A baby rabbit had found their way in earlier in the week and we thought we had blocked up the hole once we chased them out. We did block that hole. But it turns out there was another one. And now half a patch of shelling beans has been mowed down. Hopefully we have blocked all the baby rabbit-sized holes now. Well actually, given the feast they have had, they won’t be baby-sized for long and won’t be able to squeeze in the baby-sized holes.

My knee-high gooseberries were loaded with berries this year, more than just a tiny handful. I was so excited that I’d be able to have them in my breakfast oatmeal not once but maybe two or three times! Last I checked earlier in the week they were a light purple, not quite ripe yet. When I checked on them today they were all gone. Every. Single. One. On every. Single. Shrub. (I have 3). WTF? I think birds must have eaten them all. Birds have never bothered them before and the plants are covered in sharp thorns so this is not something I was prepared for. I came pretty close to tears.

There are lots of grapes on the vine right now, and while they have not yet begun to get ripe, I know the birds will eat them. They did last year. So we draped row cover fabric over the vine today, not having any bird netting. Must get some, because I will need to drape the elderberry and chokeberry too.

I have noticed a lot fewer bees in the garden this year. Instead of dozens of fat bumblebees there are two or three. Instead of so many of the smaller bees I can’t count them, I can count them on my fingers. I am hoping that the early spring warmth followed by a cold snap is the cause, but I am worried that is only part of it.

I’ve got three pumpkins growing, but there are a few that didn’t get pollinated and dropped off. I have two other kinds of winter squashes growing besides the pumpkins and they have yet to produce a squash. And the musk melon vines, they have been flowering since June and not a single melon has set. I have two sunflowers that survived squirrel-magedon and I have not seen a single bee visiting either of them. This is worrisome. I have one tiny zucchini the size of my little finger I discovered today, and several others the size of a toothpick, so something is going right there at least.

On a happier note, we went grocery shopping today and the Co-op was having a member sale of 20% off all ice cream. We usually make our own but decided to indulge. Mint chocolate chip helped ease the grumpy.

Speaking of treats, here is the recipe from James for the chocolate chocolate chip popcorn cookies I posted a photo of last week:

Ingredients:

2 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup chocolate chips (plus more for topping)
1/2 cup ground popped corn for topping (I use food processor and take out bits pea sized or larger that don’t chop smaller)

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup apple sauce
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup water

Instructions:

Mix sugar, apple sauce, peanut butter, vanilla, and water vigorously with a fork until it has a bit of a sheen to it. Add dry ingredients except for toppings, and mix. Cookie dough should stick together–add a bit of water if not but don’t make it too wet.

One should never make small cookies. I use an ice cream scoop because it’s uniform and it’s a good size. The cookies don’t spread much but they do rise a bit. Place cookie blobs about 2 inches apart and flatten to your desired cookie shape with damp hands.

Bake in 350 oven for 12 minutes.
Cookies will be a bit soft but firm up as they cool.

For Topping:

Melt extra chocolate chips in a small bowl and drizzle over the cooled cookies. Sprinkle a generous amount of chopped popcorn over each cookie and press gently.

NOTE: Some ovens are hotter and weirder than others. You may find cooking your cookies longer is better. I usually flip my sheets around at the half way point. This also lets me know if they are cooking faster than I expected. Enjoy!

Reading

• Book: Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval. Translated from Norwegian, this was a strange little book. This is a sexual awakening novel that oozes. It’s fungal. Boundaries blur between people and plants. Sometimes it’s not clear what is real and what isn’t, what happened and what was dreamt. It’s squishy and wet. I didn’t love it, but I did like it and its weirdness.
• Book: My Volcano by John Elizabeth Stintzi. This was delightfully weird but much less moist. A volcano rises from the reservoir in Central Park. The chapters are short, the narrators multiple. There is time travel and aliens and mythology, a person who turns into a plant, a golem, and, of course, volcanos. And while the volcanos in the book were real, one can, of course, also read in all the volcanic metaphors your heart desires.

Listening

• Podcast: Missing Witches Episode 129: Judy Grahn: Our Bonding is What Makes a Revolution Happen. I love Grahn’s poetry but I have lost track of her over the years. It was nice to hear her on this podcast from a year ago and discover she has a nonfiction book out about Inanna called Eruptions of Inanna: Justice Gender and Erotic Power. Woot!

Watching

• Guardians of the Galaxy 3. Wow, was this ever violent. Plus lots of animal cruelty. I almost stopped watching it halfway through. Of course, everything ends up ok, but I’m not certain it was worth 2 1/2 hours. But then I am also growing weary of superhero movies.

Quote

What you think you are is a belief to be undone.

Helen Schucman

James’s Kitchen Wizardy

Using mostly ingredients from our CSA box and garden, a vegan modification of Calabacitas. It not being corn season yet, he used garden green beans instead. The queso is made from white beans.