my first day in austin, monday, ruby and i rode bicycles over to barton springs for a dip. we did not go into the 'pool' area but instead enjoyed the water with many others just below that area. there was more water flow due to recent rains and it made for an exciting and challenging swim.
on the ride home i followed the impulse to lay out in the luxuriant clover. it is an incredible experience to suddenly have bright, emerald green filling my vision, after a couple months of dry desert environments. my sister says this has all grown quickly, just recently after some big rains. before that this area too was barren like the desert. gives me an idea what the monsoon season must be like in those arid regions i passed through.
the dried sourdough flakes i have been carrying since tucson finally came in handy. i made a batch of bread on tuesday afternoon. in this batch i used about a quarter cup of mesquite meal. it added a nice flavor and helped the culture to become more active.
this is the first time i have ever braided my beard!
i went in to east austin to check out some sxsw scene on wednesday afternoon. my search for an alley to pee in led me to this outdoor venue surrounded by a beautiful stone wall. as i looked over the wall i noticed hula hoops!
libby, one of the hoop dancers, is going to buy some land and start a farm in nevada county, california. when i told her i was into composting she inquired almost immediately if i was into composting toilets and humanure composting! um, YEAH! i told her that the method i like to use is the bucket method, combining all the compost (food scraps, humanure, weeds...) together in the same pile. she said, "that is the way people do it here mostly." i neglected to follow up on that by finding out who, and if i could meet them! i was just too excited to think straight i guess.
a young boy (about 12?) who was hooping when i arrived, and also playing with the practice poi he made, liked the mbira. he said it sounded like the forest, the sound of water... "like nature itself". he said one of his life goals is to ride around the country on a unicycle, and another is to live in a house that he will build himself. it would be in the wilderness, 'probably on someone else's property', but surrounded by a wall of shrubbery that would hide him. then the army recruiters would not be able to find him if world war three breaks out.
his job was to hand out kettle corn to all the people at the event. he offered me some, but i declined, explaining that i don't eat refined cane sugar. he brought me a box anyway and said i could give it to my sister. very sweet. i could feel his giving spirit towards me.
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