In the midst of packing a bag prior to struggling through TSA and boarding a Delta flight on what may be the busiest travel day of the year I am stopped dead in my tracks at two news items tonight that leave me incredulous. Today a group of women are demonstrating at PDX in support of a woman removed from a Delta flight for having the unmitigated gall to breast feed her baby in flight. Earlier in the day I read an article penned by a female business executive, who after returning to work after the birth of a child and while maintaining her corporate position was required to travel…all the while expressing and storing milk for her baby which allowed her husband to feed the child in her absence and ensuring an on going supply just as nature intended.
Archive for November, 2006
Pap
Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006Cattails and Cranberries…fruits of the bog
Tuesday, November 21st, 2006
Just in time for me to wish all a Happy Thanksgiving the inspiration for a little something to go along with flowers comes winging in from Charlie Ruddell in Southern Oregon. While our wildly popular ‘Thanksgiving Bouquets’ are making their way to your table you can see that his hard work might well be gracing your dinner plate. Charlie and I met years ago in Chile as we scouted that country for agricultural opportunities. On the long drives back up the California/Oregon coastline from visiting flower farms I have stopped in to see how life in the bogs has been.
Benelux…sans Lux
Tuesday, November 14th, 2006
Amsterdam on a cool, grey day that alternates between miserable downpours and patchy blue skies. Awaiting a train, killing time, propped up in a bar drinking coffees served by a woman that thinks much blue eye shadow works wonders for this day. To one side a couple of Irish guys, fresh from the neighborhood of red neon, are far into the beer and the table behind me is full of locals making like Harley Davidson billboards. My feet slide like pucks on the sand-strewn floor as I depart into a rising tide of puddle splashing bicycle riders and the world’s youth coming to and from the hostels.
The Brussels train slides quietly into the Central Station. The bright orange seat that I am going to warm as far as Antwerp is the brightest thing in sight. Although the station is nothing short of packed with pushing, shoving, and mostly scruffy people there is a dearth of color from men and women alike. A dreary day, one of a long string I am sure, might warrant some more gaiety in the wardrobe surely! This miserable grey day is matched in color by palls of cigarette smoke and the ever present grit and sand of a city underfoot. This is a rather bleak place in early November. The train leaves on the minute as advertised and I am still astonished that despite the people present, from both in country and from on the tourist trail, literally from all over the planet, this is such a colorless place. Women are in dowdy coats and boots while men wear the ubiquitous black leather jacket. Maybe, just maybe, everyone is too busy making things run efficiently to be bothered with wardrobe and grooming. (more…)