Tip Toe Botanicals

So it was off to Brookside Gardens with my friend Maura who so enjoys the great outdoors and who is also a keen gardener and actively involved in land care.

It was a wonderful time to turn up at the onset of spring - a real riot of colour that I still find amazing and so-Australian! Perhaps some of these flowers would stand a better chance in New Zealand.

I've sprinkled a few Latin plant names liberally throughout this tour to indicate my fascination with names along with my botanical credentials-not. Here are some to start with.

And here is a founding founder!

They even grow libraries with lovely sculpted roof fungus!

And here is a reminder of ground friends.

Off to the Atrium and a tropical dash of colour.

I am not in Holland.

I am in the USA not Canada say these geese.

I am not in Japan.

I am in conifer country. I'd like to introduce you to Picea Pungens 'Hunnewelliana.'

And Pinus Densiflora 'Aurea'.

And one of my faves - a flowering quince called Orange Storm.

And this evocatively named Burning-Bush - a Japanese offering named 'Kosho Myumi'.

Just seeing the flowering trees and the new leaves for me was uplifting.

Thanks for joining me on my tour. Thank you Montgomery County for continuing to support such a great space. Thank you Maura for bringing me here. Vita est arcus colore. I must remember to spiritus vitae.

Eye am watching!

You have 10 seconds to guess whose eye this is? Your 10 seconds are now over! It's George Washington. On a beautiful spring day I had the good fortune to spend time with one of our visiting teacher's - Khenpo Tenzin Norgey, a visiting teaching monk, Lama Tenzin, Tashi Dawa a monk from my immediate community and moi. Khenpo wanted to introduce Lama Tenzin, who had never been to the capital before, to the American capital. However, the inner city area was blocked off due to the Nuclear Summit so we (Khenpo, Lama Tenzin, Tashi Dawa and I) found ourselves at Mt Vernon - apparently the most visited historic site in the USA. It is a beautiful place but I couldn't help but feel ghosts of the past walking between, in and around us. An extraordinary leader, George Washington was a man of his times. He was a founding father of the fledgling United States who turned out to be trickier than the British who tried to defeat him and his men (and that's saying something), and he was a generous host within societal norms, interested in architecture and design, a man of many letters - and he was a slave owner.

Here is Khenpo with George Washington's 'Valet' - Christian - who methodically provided us with information on the number of slaves George and his wife owned - 300 plus.

And here is Khenpo and Lama Tenzin with a two more historic characters - they stayed in character now matter what! Our new friends were very surprised we had come from so far away (Bhutan, India, Australia) to see them. The exception was Tashi Dawa. He came from Bethesda but they still expressed an interest in meeting him.

And now for something completely different - ablutions - which in that period were called Necessaries. I think the name should have been slightly longer - 'Absolutely Necessary'.

It was hard to know what to make of some of the exhibits.

And in between peering into dark and light places we had opportunities to be in the great outdoors on a penultimate spring day just enjoying the day and/or each other's company.

And you can see why the main house was located where it was - just a stunning view.

 And after the great outdoors there was the sometimes great indoors - which was testimony to the question - how do you capture the spirit of place and people? Apparently taxidermy and wax works helps.Here's an unasked for close-up of George Washington's waxy visage. This is the 'watching those pesky British on the Battlefield' look.

Here is a close up of his horse. I suspect this horse is saying "not my choice but here I stand."

And one of the great exhibits - with fanfare - are George Washington's false teeth -not as easy to wear or make in that day and age: clackety clack!

So thank you everyone for a fine- slightly off the wall - historic tour kind of a day with good company and wonderful weather. Lama Tenzin offered that 17th century America was not that different to 17th century elsewhere. Notwithstanding Mt Vernon's beauty it is also a place where the tendrils of the past reach out reminding me to turn around and see that history is the light and the dark and all shades in between.

Travel well Khenpo and Lama Tenzin. I'll see you on Friday Tashi Dawa!

Such is life...a photoshopped nun!

Hi everyone,

I have finally been photoshopped - but I am in remarkably good company. My dear friend Tashi Dawa (otherwise known as Ta Da for short) is, apart from being a Monk, an illustrator and has software that  allows him to beneficially engage in the fine art of photoshopping. In this case our teacher Jetsunma asked for a picture of the ordained and this is what he accomplished. The backdrop is the Migyur Dorje Stupa at our Peace Park.

As the ordained (monks and nuns) are either scattered to the four winds and/or never in the same place at the same time photoshopping is a novel solution. Two of the Nuns in this photo have died. Their death is a sobering and a salutary reminder of impermanence including my own.  On a lighter note - for once I appear taller than I actually am while others are a tad shorter. Thanks Ta Da for your efforts!

A good Florida scrub and a different kind of gopher

I had a third visit to Florida to see my wonderful friend Ely and her parents, and a few new friends including Connie-Fur (otherwise known as Connie Mae or Connie McTaggerty).

Dog walking (or in this case Corgi walking) is always a boon because it motivates one to walk in new terrain. There is beautiful natural scrub in the Hobe Sound area including preserves of Sand Pine Scrub at Sea Branch State Park and Jonathan Dickinson State Park.

Here are a few pictures of our travels.

And this is a Gopher Tortoise's Nest at Sea Branch with resident Gopher Tortoise who apparently sometimes hangs out with an Indigo snake. Tortoise was in resident!

Welcome to the Year of the Monkey...

Welcome to the Year of the Fire Monkey according to the Lunar Calendar. When I think of Monkeys I think of cleverness, darting movement and the trickster. I wonder if this year is going to have unexpected turns and twists... more than usual anyway.

I return to this impressionistic expressionistic blog after a hiatus. No excuses there. Just a human habit of taking a break - or perhaps that's an Australian habit or a Kiwi habit! OMG.

Anyway back at the lunar ranch - the New Year begins in the second lunar month of the year. In the Tibetan Buddhist Calendar it's from the 9th to the 22nd February. It's a time of promise (including setting intention) and practice (including prayers) with virtue magnified - and non-virtue in equal amounts.  Maybe it's time for me to pay more attention to my monkey mind or less attention!

At KPC (or Kunzang Palyul Choling) in Maryland the New Year is time of the year when the Vietnamese Buddhist community visit in busloads to make offerings and prayers. The Vietnamese New Year is called Tet and the Vietnamese Pilgrims will visit a number of Buddhist Temples over the course of the day. At KPC it's a joyful occasion, and a momentarily busy time. I think it's the sense of sincerity and joy people come with that I find uplifting. Of course it can also be a little chaotic! Here are some of the pictures I took starting with my friend Ani Alyce Louise! A great beaming smile.

And me trying to take a picture of myself which is technically a selfie but not the way I took it!

Ladybird, bug or beetle!

It is getting cooler here now in these northern latitudes. A few weeks ago when it was warmer clusters of Ladybirds began to appear (Ladybugs in the USA and Ladybeetles to more aptly describe them - and Coccinellidae to entymologists!) It seems that, like migrating geese, they're looking for new homes as the weather cools

In Australia seeing even one Ladybirds is uplifting - a flash of brilliant spotted colour - solitary designer wonders. Here on the east coast of the USA they're familial wonders hanging out together. I was putting up prayer flags with a friend Dechen, and we found oodles of them on this flag pole. I had never seen so many in my entire life: a biological cornucopia.

They were also crawling over Stupas and Statues - and in my friend Rinchen's room where they had taken up residence in the corner. Here is a picture! Well you can't really see them in detail but you get the picture.

Rinchen said don't be deceived by Ladybirds - as she had been bitten by at least one of them. I was disbelieving at first but on further inquiry found they can bite when their food supply of aphids is in short supply. So they're predators! Watch out if they start looking at you like a giant aphid.

Still there's a lot of interesting stories associated with Ladybirds that are quite captivating like the associations with wishes, love - and spirituality. The most moving association I found was the use of the symbol of the Ladybird by the Dutch Foundation Against Senseless Violence. A paving stone with a Ladybird is placed at a site where senseless violence is deemed to have occurred and people are encouraged to step around the Ladybird paving tile - not stepping on that which is beloved. If we placed a paving stone wherever senseless violence occurred it would cover much terrain. In this respect the Ladybird is an uplifting sight in dark places, glossy winged light.

Iwo Jima and a legacy of trauma

What is stress? This war memorial is one of many sculpted signs in the US capital area denoting US involvement in war. This is sculpture happens to be a memorial to all the wars that the US has been involved with including the American Revolution – and to me it speaks not of war but the traumatising impact of war and its aftermath.

This sculpture by Felix W. de Weldon was based on a photo taken by Joe Rosenthal - and the photo won a Pulitzer Prize. The event it documented has been magnified into collective USA memory.

These US soldiers raising their country’s flag were part of one of the most horrific and bloody battles against Japanese soldiers in the Pacific in World War Two on the island of Iwo Jima. Thousands died, and of those that survived on both sides, countless numbers experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD).

In earlier times PSTD was known as battle fatigue, shell shock and operational exhaustion. In the American Civil War it was called soldiers heart. What happens to the ‘heart’ in war? PSTD is a huge issue for everyone impacted by war and trauma – soldier and civilian alike – but in the USA it’s particularly significant because of the high number of people involved in the armed services and the ‘off to war’ we go expenditure. One measure of its scale is the per capita figures. In the USA active service personnel per capita is approximately 4.2 and in Australia it’s approximately 2.4 per capita.

In 2015 there was an estimated 22 million US veterans potentially bearing the scars of war inside (their minds) and outside (their bodies) - or both. An article from TIME earlier this year estimated that 500,000 U.S Troops who served in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past 13 years have been diagnosed with PSTD. The health burden is enormous. The US spends $3 billion to treat the disorder and is the third most common US service disability and impacts those with and without wounds. PSTD is signalled by hypervigilance, depression, flashbacks, isolation, irritability and sleeplessness – with thousands and thousands of symptom combinations - and these symptoms describe all those impacted by violence. (I’ve riffled a few of more facts in my blog from the April 6 edition of Time Magazine.)

In the USA they’ve started a brain bank to map the structural signs of PSTD in the brain – but there is no brain bank for the mind ultimately.

This statue of flag raising on Iwo Jima is situated within a short walking distance of the Arlington War Cemetery – it’s kind of beautiful and kind of disturbing with its endless rows of white headstones. War is endless, peace is fragile. Where in that space can trauma heal: in our hearts perhaps, in our healing hearts.