Selling Organic Toothache Plant Seedlings, Heirloom Seeds, Honey, My Tea Blends...

TOOTHACHE PLANT

Spilanthes acmella syn. S. oleracea F. Asteracea
Description: Tender annual to 40cm, with soft branching stems; ovate leaves 6cm long, with soft, wavy margins; singular, brightyellow flowers 1cm diameter, form as tight cones, on short terminal stems. Although the plant is a member of the daisy family, it does not have the typical daisy-like petals that we recognise chamomile, calendula or sunflower by.

Spilanthol, a chemical with effective local anaesthetic action has been identified in the plant. This action works surprisingly fast. If you have a toothache and rub a leaf on the gum area of the toothache, the area tingles and then goes numb within a few seconds. Or the leaf, after chewing to release the juice, is tucked in the mouth between the gums and cheek for toothache. It is also used for sore gums, teething babies, and mouth ulcers. The numbness lasts for a short period of time, and acts to desensitise the area and diminish the pain. Rub on as often as needed to relieve pain or discomfort. Over the last few years I have had many people in pain come to the farm, to experience this quick relief method for toothache. This does not mean, a person can put off going to the dentist, but it does give temporary relief until you get enough courage to see a dentist. A lady from New South Wales rang with severe mouth ulcers, asking if there is a herb that could help. I suggested this plant and posted her some. She wrote to tell me "it's great, effective and swift". As the leaf has antiseptic action too, it helps to clear bacteria and infections. The leaves can be rubbed on cuts, hard to heal sores and acne. Also, this plant has a natural antibiotic action, which adds to the healing effect. Try the leaves on cold sores and school sores.

For people who suffer with thrush, candida, frequent viruses, fungal and auto-immune diseases, eating the leaves in salads or sandwiches, can be of real benefit. The flavour is tangy. Mixed in with other greens and vegetables it is hardly detectable. Many health practitioners recognise Candida albicans as wide spread and harbouring in many people, particularly in hot climates. It may grow in the body where sugar is consumed, and bread made from fast rise yeast, some processed and chemical 'enhanced' foods, birth control pills and pharmaceutical drugs. Some researchers are now saying it is not a question of whether we have candida, but how much it has invaded our bodies and how seriously it has afflicted us. Some people have no obvious symptoms, others suffer what seems to be the entire range of human problems, either directly from candida and its by-products wastes and toxins; or from other diseases, which can gain, a foothold after candida has weakened the immune system.

Known symptoms of candida are: tiredness, chronic fatigue, aches all over the body, headaches, bouts of diarrhea or constipation; gastrointestinal discomfort; disturbance in smell, taste, vision, hearing, concentration and memory; kidney infections; sensitivity to chemicals; smells and foods; loss of libido, impotence, sinus, hayfever, insomnia, depression, respiratory conditions, lupus, fungal infections between fingers, toes, in mouth, under breasts, in groin, vagina, scrotum and penis. The candida culprit proliferates super fast in warm to tropical climates, because like yeast, it multiplies quickly. Wet, hot humid weather, and the associated problems of living in an atmosphere of mould on buildings, etc., in tropical climates, fuel candida further in the body. We can assist the body in lowering the candida effects by watching foods and other substances we ingest, and assisting the body with natural antibiotics, like the toothache plant. Regularly using plants that are rich in chlorophyll or natural antibiotics would be beneficial, like aloe vera, nasturtiums, comfrey, ginger, garlic, tea tree, rejuvelac from wheat grass, and plants rich in germanium like herb robert and watercress. Add a few leaves to salads, sandwiches, steamed vegies, and stirfries; as it might just put the candida fungus to sleep, so you can take control of your life, and be free of some unpleasant symptoms. It is of interest too, that the spilanthol in the toothache plant activates the salivary glands, and assists digestion. Sometimes when asked to speak on herbs and their uses to various community groups, I ask if someone in the audience would like to chew a toothache plant leaf and tell what they feel. When the leaf is held on the tongue or chewed it numbs that area of the tongue. When the volunteers taste the herb they are amazed at the effect. I tell them it is a good herb to give to someone who talks too much as it can send their tongue to sleep, and this brings lots of laughter from the audience. Jokes aside, the toothache plant rubbed on the right spot, can bring rapid relief.

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FOR SALE:
toothache plant $2 ea
lemongrass $3 for seedlings / $40 for big bush in container
Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli $2
Di Cicco broccoli $2
Romanesco Broccoli $2
Catnip $2 (get 'em before my cats destroy them all!)
Baby Tears/Corsican Mint $2 (good for terrariums)
Elfen Thyme $2 (good for terrariums/bonsai)
Genovese Basil (green, big leaf) $2
Purple/Green basils mixed in bigger pots $3 ea
Pink Banana $5
Red Russian Kale $2
Chain of hearts $2 (makes awesome hanging baskets & wall sconces!) $2
Irish Moss $2 (good for terrariums & in bloom right now - PRETTY!!)
'Neon Glow' chard $3 (6/pack)
'Santo' cilantro $3
Sword Fern $2 (volunteer from under sequoia - very hardy to cold & drought)
White Rabbit Paw Fern $3 (good for bigger terrariums)
Patchouli in pot $20 (make your own scents without the chemicals!)
Purple Queen Cauliflower $2
Isotoma $2
Cardamom $40
Succulents $3 big / $1 small
Sensitive plant (great for kids! Touch leaves & they close up. Don't 'overstimulate' or it will die. Water from below leaves) $4/6 pack
Variegated Thyme (pretty little leaves are striped)
Hyssop $2 (A 'holy' herb, used for cleaning sacred places. Was used to 'purify' the air in hospitals. Bee friendly!!)
Arugula $2
Sequoia $1 (volunteer from backyard)

LOCAL ORGANIC HONEY! From hives near the Rose Garden in Willow Glen 1.5oz for $2 ea. Not super filtered, so it's cloudy.

CUSTOM ORGANIC TEA BLENDS! Made 'em myself. Lemongrass/Ginger or Mint $4 for muslin bag of 10

HEIRLOOM SEEDS (most are organic. None are GMO):
- 'Rich Sweetness 132' melon / 2011 seed / 10+ seeds per pack / 1 pack available
- 'Boule D'or' Turnip / 2012 seed / 10+ seeds per pack / 11 packs available
- 'Early Flat White' Turnip / 2012 seed / 10+ seeds per pack / 21 packs available
- 'Santo' Cilantro / organic / 2010 seed / 10 seeds per pack / 5 packs available
- Garlic Chives / organic / 2011 seed / 10+ seeds per pack / 8 packs available (2 with free wood plant markers!)
- 'Libra' Radicchio / 2011 seed / 10+ seeds per pack / 17 packs available
- Yellow Onion (volunteer) / organic / 2011 seed / 20 seeds / 1 pack available
- 'Atomic Red' Carrot / 2012 seed / 10+ seeds per pack / 19 packs available
- 'White Belgian' carrot / 2012 seed / 10+ seeds per pack / 10 packs available
- 'Mailbox Mix' Morning Glory (blue/white) / 2010 seed / 5+ seeds per pack / 13 packs available
- 'Scarlet O'Hara' Morning Glory (red) / 2011 seed / 5+ seeds per pack / 2 packs
- 'Tall Purpurea Mix' Morning Glory (purple/pink)/ 2011 seed / 5+ seeds per pack / 1 pack available
- 'Tete Noir' Cabbage / 2011 seed / 10 seeds per pack / 2 packs available
- Catnip / 2010 seed / 10+ seeds per pack / 9 packs available
- Milk Thistle / 2012 seed / 5+ seeds per pack / 10 packs available
- Toothache Plant / 2012 seed / 5+ seeds per pack / 7 packs available
- Wisteria / 2009 seed from our tree / 5 seeds per pack / 4 packs available

*** FREE ITEMS ON FUNKY WOOD HUTCH ***
- seed catalogs galore
- milk thistle seedlings (class A noxious weed - grow in containers & cut off flowers before they go to seed) Used for centuries for liver ailments. Great hangover tea!
- scotch moss
- tiny broccoli
- literature about sustainable agriculture, heritage breed livestock/poultry, pollinator crisis
- beekeeping catalogs

RECYCLE YOUR PLASTIC POTS, PACKS, ETC... I always appreciate donations of pots, etc...

DON'T FORGET TO GROW FOR POLLINATORS TOO: Let a broccoli go to seed. Create a beneficial insect habitat. Pollinator & crop diversity loss is a MAJOR blow to human health as a whole. Nix the chemicals & nourish the creatures that nourish YOU.

Betty Beekeeper
twitter: @SeedBomz4Change

La Vía Campesina Call to action Reclaiming our future: Rio +20 and Beyond

On 20-22 June 2012, governments from around the world will gather in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to commemorate 20 years of the "Earth Summit", the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) that first established a global agenda for "sustainable development". During the 1992 summit, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) and the Convention to Combat Desertification, were all adopted. The Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) was also established to ensure effective follow-up of the UNCED “Earth Summit.” 

Twenty years later, governments should have reconvened to review their commitments and progress, but in reality the issue to debate will be the "green economy" led development, propagating the same capitalist model that caused climate chaos and other deep social and environmental crises. 

La Vía Campesina will mobilize for this historical moment, representing the voice of the millions of peasants and indigenous globally who are defending the well-being of all by implementing food sovereignty and the protection of natural resources.

20 Years later: a planet in crisis

20 years after the Earth Summit, life has become more difficult for the majority of the planet's inhabitants. The number of hungry people has increased to almost one billion, which means that one out of six human beings is going hungry, women and small farmers being the most affected. 

Meanwhile, the environment is depleting fast, biodiversity is being destroyed, water resources are getting scarce and contaminated and the climate is in crisis. This is jeopardizing our very future on Earth while poverty and inequalities are increasing. 

The idea of "Sustainable Development" put forward in 1992, which merged "development" and "environment" concerns, did not solve the problem because it did not stop the capitalist system in its race towards profit at the expense of all human and natural resources:

- The food system is increasingly in the grips of large corporations seeking profit, not aimed at feeding the people.

- The Convention on Biodiversiy has created benefit sharing mechanisms but at the end of the day, they legitimize the capitalization of genetic resources by the private sector.

- The UN Convention on Climate Change, instead of forcing countries and corporations to reduce pollution, invented a new profitable and speculative commodity with the carbon trading mechanisms, allowing the polluter to continue polluting and profit from it.

The framework of “sustainable development” continues to see peasant agriculture as backwards and responsible for the deterioration of natural resources and the environment. The same paradigm of development is perpetuated, which is nothing less than the development of capitalism by means of a “green industrialization.”

The “Green Economy” – Final Enclosure?

Today the "greening of the economy" pushed forward in the run-up to Rio+20 is based on the same logic and mechanisms that are destroying the planet and keeping people hungry. For instance, it seeks to incorporate aspects of the failed “green revolution” in a broader manner in order to ensure the needs of the industrial sectors of production, such as promoting the uniformity of seeds, patented seeds by corporation, genetically modified seeds, etc. 

The capitalist economy, based on the over-exploitation of natural resources and human beings, will never become “green.” It is based on limitless growth in a planet that has reached its limits and on the commoditization of the remaining natural resources that have until now remained un-priced or in control of the public sector.

In this period of financial crisis, global capitalism seeks new forms of accumulation. It is during these periods of crisis in which capitalism can most accumulate. Today, it is the territories and the commons which are the main target of capital. As such, the green economy is nothing more than a green mask for capitalism. It is also a new mechanism to appropriate our forests, rivers, land… of our territories!

Since last year’s preparatory meetings towards Rio+20, agriculture has been cited as one of the causes of climate change. Yet no distinction is made in the official negotiations between industrial and peasant agriculture, and no explicit difference between their effects on poverty, climate and other social issues we face. 

The "green economy" is marketed as a way to implement sustainable development for those countries which continue to experience high and disproportionate levels of poverty, hunger and misery. In reality, what is proposed is another phase of what we identify as “green structural adjustment programs” which seek to align and re-order the national markets and regulations to submit to the fast incoming "green capitalism". 

Investment capital now seeks new markets through the “green economy”; securing the natural resources of the world as primary inputs and commodities for industrial production, as carbon sinks or even for speculation. This is being demonstrated by increasing land grabs globally, for crop production for both export and agrofuels. New proposals such as “climate smart” agriculture, which calls for the “sustainable intensification” of agriculture, also embody the goal of corporations and agri-business to over exploit the earth while labeling it “green”, and making peasants dependent on high-cost seeds and inputs. New generations of polluting permits are issued for the industrial sector, especially those found in developed countries, such as what is expected from programs such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD++) and other environmental services schemes.

The green economy seeks to ensure that the ecological and biological systems of our planet remain at the service of capitalism, by the intense use of various forms of biotechnologies, synthetic technologies and geo-engineering. GMO’s and biotechnology are key parts of the industrial agriculture promoted within the framework of "green economy".

The promotion of the green economy includes calls for the full implementation of the WTO Doha Round, the elimination of all trade barriers to incoming “green solutions,” the financing and support of financial institutions such as the World Bank and projects such as US-AID programs, and the continued legitimization of the international institutions that serve to perpetuate and promote global capitalism.

Why peasant farmers mobilize

Small-scale farmers, family farmers, landless people, indigenous people, migrants - women and men - are now determined to mobilize to oppose any commodification of life and to propose another way to organize our relationship with nature on earth based on agrarian reform, food sovereignty and peasant based agroecology. 

We reject the "Green Economy" as it is pushed now in the Rio+20 process. It is a new mask to hide an ever-present, growing greed of corporations and food imperialism in the world.

• We oppose carbon trading and all market solutions to the environmental crisis including the proposed liberalization of environmental services under the WTO.
• We reject REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) which allows rich countries to avoid cutting their carbon emissions by financing often damaging projects in developing countries.
• We expose and reject the corporate capture of the rio+20 process and all multilateral processes within the United Nations.
• We oppose land grabs, water grabs, seeds grabs, forest grabs - all resources' grabs!
• We defend the natural resources in our countries as a matter of national and popular sovereignty, to face the offensive and private appropriation of capital;
• We demand public policies from governments for the protection of the interests of the majority of the population, especially the poorest, and landless workers;
• We demand a complete ban on geoengineering projects and experiments; under the guise of ‘green’ or ‘clean’ technology to the benefit of agribusiness. This includes new technologies being proposed for adaptation and mitigation to climate change under the banners of “geo-engineering” and “climate smart agriculture”, including false solutions like transgenic plants supposed to adapt to climate change, and "biochar" purported to replenish the soil with carbon.

• We resolve to protect our native seeds and our right to exchange seeds.

• We demand genuine agrarian reform that distributes and redistributes the land - the main factor in production - especially taking into account women and youth. Land must be a means of production to secure the livelihood of the people and must not be a commodity subject to speculation on international markets. We reject "market assisted land reform", which is another word for land privatization.
• We struggle for small scale sustainable food production for community and local consumption as opposed to agribusiness, monoculture plantations for export.
• We continue to organize and practice agroecology based production, ensuring food sovereignty for all and implementing collective management of our resources

Call to action

We call for a major world mobilization to be held between 18-26 June in Rio de Janeiro, with a permanent camp, for the Peoples Summit, to counter the summit of governments and capital.

We will be in Rio at the People’s Summit where anti-capitalist struggles of the world will meet and together we will propose real solutions. The People’s Permanent Assembly, between the 18 and 22, will present the daily struggles against the promoters of capitalism y the attacks against our lands. Today, Rio de Janeiro is one of the cities which receive the most contributions from global capital and will host the Soccer World Cup and Olympics. We will unite our symbolic struggles from the urban to the landless movements and fishers.

We also declare the week of June 5th, as a major world week in defense of the environment and against transnational corporations and invite everyone across the world to mobilize:

• Defend sustainable peasant agriculture
• Occupy land for the production of agroecological and non-market dominated food
• Reclaim and exchange native seeds
• Protest against Exchange and Marketing Board offices and call for an end to speculative markets on commodities and land
• Hold local assemblies of People Affected by Capitalism
• Dream of a different world and create it!!

The future that we want is based on Agrarian Reform, Peasant's based sustainable agriculture and Food Sovereignty!

GLOBALIZE THE STRUGGLE!!

GLOBALIZE HOPE!!!

La Via Campesina  

Inter-Occupy Media Strategy Conference Call Notes from 2/13

Being the least media-esque of the group, I hope my notes are somewhat understandable....

G8 Summit in Chicago:
'National Security Event'
Local police are training with combat sticks (info from another IO call). Expect LRADs, tear gas & more.
Media coverage is critical (both ours & mainstream)
Mark: Laws in Chicago prevent livestreaming AUDIO (& filming cops is a felony?). More info on local laws needed.
Adbusters encampment goes up May 1st (Chicago)
May 1: General Strike
July 4th: National G.A.

Suggestions/Concerns:
Occupy Media needs a Communications Hub
Work on preventing duplication of efforts
Sue: Raise awareness of resources that exist (P.R. Toolkit, Studio Occupy, Trainings...)
Occupy Freedom L.A.: Do outreach for G8/May 1st

Abe: Get word out about Studio Occupy: An online video editing bay in the cloud with phone apps available that allow journalists to edit on the fly during events using their phones. Also an aggregate of ideas/videos/themes (like V-Day Occupy Love) & call outs for submissions. Studiooccupy.org

Sue: P.R. Toolkit needs to be easier to find. Will help local occupys learn how to write press releases so we can spoon-feed local media our message & make sure they understand WHY we are doing a particular direct action. Google docs.
(she did not mention where I can find this toolkit now)

Amy/Seattle: They have been having 'Social Media' meetings to coordinate efforts in getting twitter/fb audience to find livestream of an event. Driving people towards more info.  Data sharing, finding out who our demographic is on a particular topic/posting, empowering the AUDIENCE by giving them a platform to give feedback/perception.  They also use time of day to post info aimed at audiences in particular parts of the world.

Darlene: Inter-Occupy call in radio show will be offering trainings.

Noam Chomsky will be on Occupy TV NY next week

UK Mark:
Working on network for media
Assessing media's role in OWS.. Are we reporting what's happening or trying to drive opinion? Propaganda vs. Objective reporting
Use listserve to communicate?  How do we find each other?
Proper flow of communication

Gary/L.A.: Mix Omedia with reg media, but speak for self, not for OWS as a whole

Sue: What are our goals?  Coverage from within? Countering propaganda? Getting message to local media/over 50 crowd using media toolkit?

Sue: By law, tv stations/media must serve the public interest. We are allowed to go to the station/newspaper & ask to see public records. They can lose license if they do not comply with what the public wants/needs to know vs. protecting corporate sponsors.

Guide local reporters with press releases.

O Freedom LA: Screening of 'While We Watch'

O Freedom LA: Reiterating that we are a nonviolent movement via arm bands, t-shirts, etc... & separate from Black Bloc or violent factions. Mentioned Klown Bloc, clowns that will help block violence & protect reporters. Clearly separate from other groups on camera.

Gary:
Definitions needed for reformation vs. revolution, & non-violence vs. 'diversity of tactics'
Amy: definition of Violence vs. Civil Disobedience

Do we all have the same goals during an action?

Tutorials needed:
- What is expected at an event (both of participants behavior, media's role, & possible responses we might encounter)
- Agreement not to abuse arm bands & to remain non-violent & objective observer?
- Event/action goals

REPORT BACK:
How is your occupy reaching out to local media?

 http://studiooccupy.org

 

Neighborhood MAKE-BAKE-GROW-SEW sale! Thoughtful V-Day presents

Location:

Mossbrook Circle, Student Ln, Fallbrook Ave in West San Jose (by Moreland Middle School & Westgate Mall) zip: 95130

Homemade art/crafts, regular garage sale items, baked goods, backyard produce/seeds/plants, honey, handmade fashion, unique Valentine's Day gifts & more!

9am - 5pm both Sat & Sun
Feb 11th & 12th

Garage sale /estate sale items:
mountain bike
lots of cool art (several artists in the family)
excellent books (both parents were college prof)
vintage clothing
new clothing
books en Espanol
furniture
globe collection
collection of vintage school record players from the 50's/60's
tools
t.v. with built in dvd player
nice blankets from Mexico & Peru

Organic Heirloom Seedlings:
Lemongrass
Sequoia
ferns
cippolini onions
lettuces
garlic chives
Red Russian Kale
Purple Basil
Green Basil
Milk Thistle
Hyssop
Catnip
Arugula
Purple Brussels Sprouts
Hibiscus for Jamaica drink
Romanesco Broccoli
Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Di Cicco Broccoli
Cilantro
Cour De Boef Cabbage
Tete Noir Cabbage
Feverfew
Pink Banana

handmade fashion
& MORE!!

Exploring Mt. Vernon

If you ever go, don't miss the unintentionally hysterical informative film hosted by Pat Sajeck in costume.  

First thing I saw outside was this endangered ram with a HUGE gaping wound around his horn that was at least 4" long, 1/2" wide and deep down to the muscle. It didn't look fresh either, since his eye was super swollen & hurting him.  He kept rubbing it on the other sheep, like "Please help me".  I have a feeling there's massive infection going on all the way around the horn and into the eye. Made dickish costumed guide call livestock caretaker, 'cuz I'm like that.

Name of this plant escapes me, but it added a lot of color to the upper garden's post-harvest bareness

 Where did that America go?  How far we've strayed.

 "The love of my country will be the ruling influence of my conduct."

Again... How far we've strayed.  I bristle when a-holes like the guy on my flight tell me I'm not patriotic because I support #OccupyWallStreet / #OccupyTogether. I LOVE MY COUNTRY, & yes, I'd die for it. Parcels of land in Alexandria were sold in a way that ensured the less well off had a chance to own land too.  Where did that America go?  I'm fighting for the fairness, compassion, peace, sustainability & basic human rights that made up the spirit of our original laws. Corruption & greed has perverted & twisted the interpretation of our founding fathers' words, & we need to take our country back.

What would George Washington think of Monsanto?  What would he think about the destruction of America's bread basket via pesticides, herbicides, & genetically modified crops that cause illness & hunger?  What would he do to a company that knowingly poisons Americans & contaminates our crop diversity so that future Americans will starve? What would he think of gm seed contracts & terminator seed technology that enslaves farmers today?  He'd hang them all for treason.

 

 

  George Washington was a sustainable ag pioneer.  Imagine the number of seasons of trial & error it must have taken to get the right combo of ingredients for fertilizing in his micro-climate. Our founding fathers blazed this trail for us already, and we need to get back to this way of thinking.  Unfortunately, big ag buys up nutrients & the disappearance of fish all over the world will make it hard to do so.  It's all connected... The fish in the ocean are important to the farmers on land growing grains, etc...  Earth's very thin, fragile biosphere is on the brink of being wrecked beyond the point where we can reverse the damage.  It's beginning to snowball.  We're almost at the point where a complete stop to all destructive practices won't help.  Our decline has almost taken on a life of its own. If you like to eat, you better OCCUPY.

The Mt. Vernon mansion would be completely rotted away if it weren't for a group of patriotic local ladies who banned together to save it.  The roof was falling in & had to be propped up with the masts of abandoned ships.  The site is privately owned by the women's group today.  

 Purple hyacinth beans!  I have these growing in the front yard in San Jose.  "They" say the immature pods are okay to eat, but the big ones are toxic, so not sure why they grow them here.  Most plants left in the garden & farm were left to produce seed.  I had never seen an okra flower.  It kind of looks like hibiscus or yarrow.  Okra was a lot taller than I thought it would be too.

Adorable, affectionate ram that LOVED being scratched behind the ears.  He'd lean in for good measure.  This is where my iphone camera ceased working.  I had a photo of him leaning into my hand, but won't come up.  Sigh.  Had to buy disposable camera at Arlington.

Gardener action!

Wheat grown for demonstration only.  They let it rot in piles everywhere.  Seems a shame to waste it.  They should at least share it as seed.  Stole a handful.

Tobacco

 I had never seen cotton plants close up.  Had to steal some cotton wool with seeds.  Will see if I can get it to grow in NOLA, along with the peanut, wheat, the black walnut I stole from the Capital, and the acorn I took from Arlington Cemetary.  

  Black sheep breaks away from the pack of white sheep to blaze his own trail.  My kind of sheep.

 George & Martha Washington's tomb.  We said the pledge & laid a wreath before taking our photos.

 A man dressed as a slave demonstrated plowing with oxen & showed me heritage chickens GW encouraged slaves to raise for themselves.

From here we went to Christ Church in Alexandria, Arlington Cemetery, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, WWII Memorial & (empty) reflecting pool.  Photos of those spots are on disposable camera.  Coming soon.  Have lots to say about that.

OCCUPY DC

Should have gotten closer. Great artwork on anti-GMO truck at Occupy DC.

Wow. He actually IS a cave-dwelling troll.

BIG native bee on lantana outside the EPA building. They have dots on their backs & smooth, shiny abdomens. 

While admiring the VERY busy pollinators outside the EPA building, an employee eating lunch offered to escort me inside so I could get a souvenir from the employee store in the basement.  I was so excited I almost peed my pants (NERD ALERT!)!

The Capital building burned down completely except for a small area.  The oldest part of the capital are these columns that have corn at the top. Corn being SO important to our founding fathers, it's a mystery to me why our govt would let Monsanto fuck with it.

OCCUPY DC! Freedom Plaza

 Edible landscaping outside the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.

 STORM'S A-BREWIN'

 I happened upon a quiet sitting area out on the capital grounds that had a very pretty spring/waterfall. Was my favorite part of the whole place.

Anti-GMO Rally in Washington D.C.