Living Morganism

News Flash Fiction II

2011-08-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

Reuters Station, Andromeda - The inhabitants of the planet LS7498 in the galaxy NGC3690 have filed a class action lawsuit against the Primary Landowners of the planet and the owners of a nearby asteroid, the Quantum Minerals Corporation in an effort to block plans for a Merger of the two bodies. The merger would allow mineral extraction to continue on Asteroid NLO476, a rich producer of Dilithium Crystals, at a fraction of the current cost by utilizing the resources available on LS7498. The Inhabitants are seeking an injunction of the merger application citing the case of "Human Kind Vs. Google Mirth"1 as precedent.

1 "Human Kind Vs. Google Mirth" famously resulted in the near extinguishment of all Human life when Google Earth and Google Moon executed a plan to merge their two bodies into a single object. The merger had promised shorter commutes and was acting acting upon the advise of advertising executives to re-new their companies image.

News Flash Fiction

2011-08-06T21:07:00.000-07:00

Earth Orbit- The last Man and Woman of Planet Earth were convicted Tuesday on charges of 'Failure to Ensure the Survival of the Human Race". The conviction did not come as a surprise to followers of this unprecedented case. The last human pair has cited 'irreconcilable differences' throughout their defense, but in a dramatic turn their arguments had been thrown out when the testimony of expert witnesses revealed that humanity did not meet the qualifications for status as 'Beings of Average Intelligence'. From then on the pair were no longer allowed to speak in their own defense under Intergalactic Law IQ101D.

In previous dealings with the human race, the Intergalactic Judges Panel had been known to frequently make use of irony in their sentencing, in this case execution was ruled out due to impracticality. The pair, now being affectionately referred to as "Atom" and "Evil" (See also 'Notable Achievements of Humanity') were reclassified as Critically Endangered Species and sent to live out the remainder of their natural life spans in an emergency captive breeding facility.

Cake # 2

2010-08-26T10:26:00.001-07:00

Wedding Take 2:

Dave and Josephine's Wedding Cake

2010-08-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

My dear friends Dave and Josephine embarked on a journey of their own on July 10 when they tied the knot! I was happpily able to attend the two ceremonies in Los Angeles and happier still and honoured as well to bake and decorate the wedding cake.

There were actually two ceremonies, a smaller more intimate one in the morning for close friends and immediate family and a much larger one in the evening for all the family and friends. The cake here, the tiered one, was for the first ceremony. I made another one tier cake for a toppper to a massive tray of cupcakes also that I'll post separately.

The cakes were a vegan base with tulsi and rose flowers in the batter and a lemon "buttercream" frosting. I also made little marzipan woodland creatures and put them in a forest made of willow twigs on the cake. SO FUN!

Days in the (C)ountry.

2010-07-03T00:47:00.000-07:00

(Written July 1, 2009)

It began with a parade not celebrating the independence of a country, but the independence of eccentric locals with musical instruments.

Roughly 16 hours ago I awoke. I roused myself much too early on a Saturday with coffee (more to follow later) and a promise to be the first ever resident belly dancer in the Cheltenham Day festivities. The weather: a cool, sea-like, breeze and a cloudless sky.

Roughly 16 years ago, I was growing up here in Cheltenham, Ontario. I used to walk with my cousins through the corn fields into town for Freezies. Town, here, being defined as a grouping of houses and a general store and differing from the country in the density of said houses and lack (although not entirely) of barns and tractors. I used to play t-ball here next to the fire house with my Kindergarten mates and swim in the Credit river. Today I am reestablishing myself here, 30 days in, to the country in this Country. I shall call myself a Canadian re-patriot.

I find myself at a parade at 9:00am with members and fans of the “Music Farm” a farm for music, honey and garlic courtesy of Paul Haines (AKA Rusty Ephemeris.) The tent is full of instruments, as many in action as possible, and garlic scapes (the stalks of garlic plants) to be dipped in honey or bought by the bunch for whatever may need a garlicky flavour (stir fry, omelet, frittata… an otherwise uninteresting sandwich). We’ve gathered here; mum, myself, uncle Nik, aunt Andrea, Rusty, Sage (his daughter), Sage’s friends and at some point we picked up a horn and squeeze box playing clown, though fortunately, not a leprechaun. I’m jingling all over in my belly dancing attire and getting some second looks from the firefighters grilling next to us. This is a town where “festival” does not equate with ‘hippy clothes and bare feet’ so much as it does with pie eating contests and children on straw bales.

We drummed, we jingle jangled, we danced, I shimmied, we paraded through Cheltenham with a passionate noise. A grand success! We ate garlic scapes dipped in honey. Leaving, we agreed to meet Andrea later for more of some kind of music at another farm.

Home again, mum napping, I was struck with the desire to express in ink and then immediately with the thought; ‘upon what?’ It occurred to me then to revisit the antique flea market in nearby Glen Williams where I had seen a rather neglected drafting table. I’d seen it offered up for $20 while it sat in the rain the previous weekend. It was told to me that the table had previously belonged to the lead animator for the television show “Inspector Gadget”… what a history. It was still there, I offered $15, it came home with me, I spent a while cleaning it up and by the time mum got up again it was in my room and sadly without a useful chair. Away we went to Georgetown to visit Waste Wise; a warehouse somewhere between a junk yard and a thrift store where purchases are by the pound. Success again! They had a fairly ideal chair which took up the time of three employees (two observing, and one fervently working) to sort out how to adjust the height of said seat. It came home too for less than $10 and it is at this furniture ensemble I will sit later to write this.

By the time that was set up we have enough time for a quick veggie burger bite before heading out again for farm music. “Farm music” brings to mind something which could inspire square dancing so it was much to my surprise when we parked in a field and walked under a lit up cedar arch to find a hidden hipster fest! Most of the attendees looked like they were loyal shoppers of Urban Outfitters and thrift shops specializing in “western wear.” Fortunately I was sporting a tattoo and hipster camouflage (plaid), handy in just such a situation as this. I was thinking that the coin belt and finger zils from the earlier parade ensemble would have gone over in this crowd without the double takes. Barn yards are not commonly the place to find people in polka dot dresses with tights, or jeans, band shirts, sneakers and wide rimmed glasses. However, this barn yard was another case. The front yard was packed, Tetris form, with tents.

Evidentially this “Stones Throw Farm” is host to an annual music festival drawing out all the local hipsters and some really great local bands. The stage was set up between a shed and a grain silo in an old farmhouses backyard. The lights were set up on a ladder and inside a horse trailer and the picture-frame area between the stage and the silo displayed possibly the most picturesque rolling fields with lines of trees and dotted farms, sun setting smack in the middle of it. This made for incredible scenery and incredible difficulty in actually seeing the band. The sun was in my eyes almost the whole time, until it finally concluded in a gorgeous and long, stretched-out sunset. This I watched happily from behind the barn in the company of a doe-eyed jersey cow which I felt compelled to feed and bow to along with the sun. The music was superb. All three, of the many bands playing, that I saw, were worth checking out: 1. Tacoma Hell Farm Tragedy 2. Ridin Forward 3. Devon and the Dark Light. Of the places I could have ended up on a Saturday afternoon, especially after an already full day, I was thrilled to find myself seated on this particular back lawn on this particularly perfect day. Even our departure further complemented the day with a calm air, a rising full moon and some distant July 4^th fireworks, three days late for July 1, Canada Day. Oh Canada.

Know Thy Self!

2010-01-11T19:47:00.000-08:00

We had an exercise in one of my classes to think about ourselves as 7-9 year old's and try to express the experience of place we had at that age. The idea was to understand where we come from as designers and where our relationship to place came from. Studies, evidentially, say that largely it comes from this time in our development (7-9 years old).

I have previously written, though without explicitly stating, about this exact time in my life. My fondest memories date from then (I now know I am not remotely singular in that) and indeed my enduring desire to relate to the landscape on ever deeper levels stems from this time and the place that most inspired it in me.

I was living in an ant infested house (I loved it still) in Hockley Valley, Ontario at that point in my life and it's the only house I lived in for any amount of time (4-5 years) that I can remember (technically I lived in Caledon, Ontario in Robinson Hall for closer to 7 years but I was born there and I don't really remember consciously most of my infanthood). The Hockley house was on 100 acres going from the top of the hill all the way into the valley and through all sorts of forests; maple and beech, ceder, poplar etc...

The bulk of my years spent in this house I was homeschooled, and when I say homeschooled I mean I was primarily self schooled. My brothers and I never followed a strict curriculum that I can recall, though we had various workbooks at times, mostly Waldorf. The only "formal" class I can remember my father inventing was on mythology. This explains a lot about me. Anyway, I was a very independent little girl and I spent most of my time off exploring the land alone. In thinking about this exercise a whole host of places and experiences and memories come to mind all situated within that property. I was trying to figure how best to represent those images and the feelings they left within me but I kept returning to one in particular and it is a memory of a place I found that has returned to me many times throughout my life. However, I have never really been able to fully express it or represent it visually to someone else. So rather than try to represent specific images from my childhood I began to think about what the character of my interaction with those places was and I realized that no matter what memory I recalled the answer was largely the same. I was looking for transformation. Though I didn't understand it in quite so abstract a way at the time that was what I was doing.

For example: a favorite pastime of mine was to look for natural arches or holes in the landscape; caves, split trees, roots coming out of the ground and whatnot. I was looking for doorways and whenever I found something like that I would go through allowing (hoping) for the possibility that I may be transported to some other realm or magically transformed somehow. Generally in my imagination I would become a wolf, an animal which I am still utterly romanced by. So I explored my environment with an eye for it to change me somehow and it did every day in ways I am still coming to understand.

I interact with places and landscapes in the same way now albeit with, slightly, more realistic expectations. My childhood desire to explore nature has manifested in my adult self as a kind of wanderlust because in travel and new experience I am most lucid and present and I come to know myself better as a result. Taking ourselves out of the everyday context that we live in, the familiar, I think we can achieve a level of objectivity about ourselves (I do not believe true objectivity is possible really unless perhaps through enlightenment) and often we are surprised by how different we can be in new situations. The more experiences like this we have the more complex and holistic our understanding of ourselves and our motivations becomes. Travel for me is a pilgrimage toward self understanding.

It can also be a curse at times as I am restless and tend to blame all problems on wherever I happen to be, the solutions always being that I should go somewhere else, the "grass is always greener" scenario. Nevertheless everybody is driven by something and for many that something is a thirst for knowledge. I thirst most after knowledge of myself. This may seem arrogant but all humanity is selfish whether we attempt to ennoble it or not, we cannot help it. Except perhaps through intense spiritual dedicaition and ego denial... but that is another matter.

In sumary, it was a fascinating mental exploration brought about by a simple studio assignment and now I must figure out some way in which to express all of these ramblings concisely and with a point! The moral of the story? Focus.

I will leave you with my personal mantra from "Meditations on the Tarot"; "Learn at first concentration without effort, transform work into play, make every yoke you have accepted easy, and every burden that you carry light."

Love.

What now?

2009-12-28T18:46:00.000-08:00

It's just after Christmas, I've just finished the first semester of the Guelph Master's of Landscape Architecture program and I did very well for myself. I made A's in all my classes and though I normally don't find grades to be very good markers of standing or understanding, I am at least a little proud because this program nearly destroyed me. It kicked my ass like nothing else I have ever been asked to do. In hindsight I can't even really say definitively why, but that I don't believe I have ever been more stressed out more frequently and had so little "time" outside of a project, ever.

They say hindsight is 20/20 but I must respectfully disagree completely, I rather find hindsight to be quite blind. I find that experiences which seemed like hell in the present, that you would never get through sanity intact, always pass and are remembered fondly. My foresight (which is also regrettably terrible lately, but I think may be right in this) is telling me that in hindsight I shall have loved this program. For now, well in truth I don't believe I have ever doubted a decision, once made, more than the one to come here. Generally speaking I don't doubt decisions made at all so that is definitely saying something. I am in the midst of a quarter life, perhaps, an existential crisis, in short I'm a bit lost.

Home and the ideal of belonging in a place are elusive and ever intangible.

In my present state of being I am very, perhaps overly, aware and attuned to what I perceive as "signs". So much so that I am searching all the time for a sense of direction from the Universe, an existential road sign so to speak. There were many signs and indications; practical, emotional and spiritual which brought me to where I am right now. Returning here not only seemed the right thing, it seemed the only thing to do, it was the "natural" next step in my development. The opportunity to apply to Graduate School sort of fell into my lap and I did not, admittedly, put probably enough thought into the matter I just applied trusting that things would unfold as they should and I was accepted. So I'm here doing this but since but what exactly "this" is I am not the least bit certain of...

But, for all my doubts and anxiety I am fully aware that this program is excellent, I am in no way wasting my time by being here so if I can convince myself to relax a little I am sure I will get a great deal out of this. What I need most is a goal, I am decidedly goal oriented. If I can engage the material long enough to figure out what exactly I am trying to get out of this program then perhaps I will achieve some semblance of contentedness.

The Chai Chronicles

2009-08-14T19:13:00.000-07:00

Chapter 1: The Journey Home

It is a difficult endeavor to find a good Chai latte on the road. Over the 1600 mile or so space from Boulder, Colorado to Guelph, Ontario there seems to be a void covering most of the Interstate between Chicago and Buffalo where you cannot even find a Starbucks. And let me just say right off, that Starbucks doesn’t even qualify as decent chai, but it is often all you can come across in a pinch.

Starting at the beginning; I have lived the last 12 some odd years of my life in a lovely little bubble called Boulder, Colorado. I am 25 now so I arrived in Boulder at a ripe age for impression. A complete book I could perhaps write on the many interesting ways Boulder has changed me, real or perceived, but this is not about all of that, this is about chai. At least the latter 10 years of these 12 I have become increasingly enamored of the elixir of happiness commonly known as the chai latte, soy latte in my case. The affair began in Boulder and has taken a number of sojourns around and about the globe and currently simmers on in Guelph, Ontario but more on that later. A good deal of the early courting and romance occurred in a downtown café called Trident.

Established in 1982, the Trident Bookstore and Café has provided excellent coffee, tea, and books in a community environment for over 20 years. (www.tridentcafe.com.)

This café was in fact established before myself, I came on the scene 2 years later, fashionably late, though not onto the Trident scene until sometime in the vicinity of 1998, not so fashionable… but I couldn’t help it, I was Canadian.

Chapter 2: The Perfect Café

Oh ho a dog friendly café! Bricks, wood paneling, scuffed wood floors, eclectic light fixtures, rotating artworks, outdoor seating, impressive menu, and love of loves a pre steeped chai mix most suitable for making a strong chai latte.

They say that you judge all loves against your first and I have already detailed my first in the fine establishment that is Trident Café. I cannot say at such a young age what perfection is, but café perfection is effectively Trident to me, though I am trying to keep an open mind… Pardon me, I’m sure you won’t have noticed my absence but I just now became slightly lost and nostalgic in the pages of Trident’s website. I found myself perusing the concert and movie calendar for events I could not possibly attend… Ahh love.
Well, moving on, as I’ve said I am no longer a resident of lovely Boulder, Colorado but a recent transplant to the similarly minded University town of Guelph, Ontario. Guelph is roughly equal in size, but greater in span (Boulder’s growth being very much constrained by vast parcels of open space.) Guelph has a feel slightly more “city sized” in the downtown area and is not bordered by any mountains but is a perfectly nice town in its own right. It is considerably wetter here than Boulder and in that regard is perhaps better suited to café life, if we accept Seattle, Washington as the café Mecca of North America (a known rainy place). Boulder and by extension most of Colorado’s front range is sunny nearly every day (to most a selling point), and don’t get me wrong this is great but it makes one feel less at ease indoors. It’s a little more difficult to enjoy the café experience when one is always thinking there is surely some outdoor activity one should be engaging in at any given time. Now assuming the café has a really nice outdoor patio this is a little easier to contend with but even so. Anyway it’s considerably rainier here providing a convenient excuse to spend even more time indoors and what’s better than a spicy hot chai in a cozy café on a rainy day? Very few things I tell you, very few indeed.

Chapter 3: The Search Goes Ever Onward…

I’ve spent most of this first (since the return) summer not in Guelph but in the countryside of Caledon, Ontario. Now if we accept that even in a University town such as Guelph it is no small order to find a good chai… don’t even bother in the countryside. Around here (love it as I do, I was born and raised in Caledon, until that whole Colorado thing) you are lucky if you can find a dairy alternative in a café (or a place that happens to have chai more commonly which does not really deserve the title café).

(I may be going a little overboard with the parenthesis here but I can’t help my interjecting and digressional thoughts.)

I’ve tried chai’s wherever I can find them and some have been alright. I even feel they’re getting better on the whole but this is no doubt more due to my slipping standards. I find it hard to compare one taste to another that is slipping away into the torn sieve of memory. Most places out here in the Chai boondocks seem to find it acceptable to make a latte from a tea bag. What they are thinking I don’t know, I swear they heard of making chai into a latte somewhere and thought, we only have teabags so…. No one seems to have thought to steep them into a pitcher before hand so there is actually a strong mix. Places that have mixes usually have Tazo ® or Oregon Chai ®, neither (in my snooty opinion) are any good, both are far too sweet and not nearly spicy enough. I don’t think either even had any ginger in them!

With results such as these I suppose it’s no wonder I have had to turn to my own abilities to blend spices with other things and produce tasty things. In my past this skill has mostly been kept in the realm of cakes and stir fry’s but I have expanded my repertoire to include chai. First purchase I made toward this noble goal of enlightening this area to the benefits of good chai was an old (‘50’s era) stove top coffee percolator. I figured I could put the spices and tea in the strainer bit and boil it all for a long time until it was tasty. Man did this process smell divine! Mmmmm…. Complete liberty to add as much dang spice as I desired. Some of these first experiments met with decent results. Better than chai I could buy, but my lack of a steam wand made lattes a little on the flat and not-so-foamy side. I do like my lattes foamy.
I still don’t have a steamer and so my chai experimenting has dwindled a bit. Also it’s been ungodly hot and humid and I have not craved spicy and heated beverages so much. But I did recently purchase another must; a dedicated coffee grinder, so I could make even spicier chai now if I desired. So far I have used it to grind chai spices and make a chai spice cake. It was delicious, but admittedly not liquid. Soon though, soon the chai project can continue: In another two weeks I shall re-relocate back to Guelph and start Graduate school. I cannot imagine, University without chai so I will start up the grinder and the coffee pot brewing delicious, delectable smelling chai concentrate to be added to lattes. Oh the anticipation!

A new journey entirely, the journey home...

2009-06-19T18:52:00.000-07:00

My last post here was some time ago and relating to Canada, my much romanticized homeland. Though I in fact resided in Boulder, Colorado between the ages of 12 and 25, Canada, oh Canada was always home... *soft sigh*

Anyway, exciting news, I have now firmly declared Canada home and relocated there. Interestingly enough, a post on this very blog took on a life of its own and propelled me onto an entirely new life path. Ironic (?) that a love letter to Canada would begin a chain of events ending in my moving to Canada.

In brief: the post largely concerning the particular landscape of my love spurred a thought in my uncle -John F. (Jack) Crowley III, ASLA, professor and former dean with the College of Environment and Design at the University of Georgia, and founder and president of Urbantech in Athens, Georgia- that I might find interest in the field of Landscape Architecture. I did in fact upon looking into this find great interest and applied to the Master of Landscape Architecture program at the University of Guelph in November of 2008, was accepted in February of 2009 and moved to Guelph in June of the same year. It is still June, I have only just arrived.

This is therfore the beginning of something new which I will undoubtedly have something to say about, in fact I already have something to say upon the subject of chai so please recognize this as a preface, indeed and introduction, to my following musings on this topic. Here follows the Chai Chronicles...

2008-10-29T19:29:00.000-07:00

Since I'm already (recently anyway) on the subject of Canada, here's a poem I wrote a while back about my childhood there...

Back there, I walked barefoot through broken down barns
where moss grew in blankets across cracked cement floors.
I was told to wear shoes should rusty nails sprout
instead of muddy water between my toes,
but all I ever got was dirty.

I never cared much for shoes
and my feet will never fit into slender glass slippers now,
but any prince who hopes to win me
will not care for such trivialities.

You had to feel the earth under your feet
to keep your head out of the clouds that your heart reached for.
Back there, lucky horseshoes grew on toppled brick walls
and cinder blocks held secret treasures to humble shipwrecks.

Back there, the brightest colours I've ever seen
were lights that danced in the sky on a cold night.
I lay on the roof of a great hall and watched
as my heaven turned to stained glass.

Back there, all it took to be a hero
was to battle demons in my dreams
and rescue my mother from milk snakes,
even if I was the one who brought them in.

I built grand museums of mud
for the rocks I found on the roadside,
and fashioned wooden watchtowers and blanket forts
to frame the next adventure.

Back there, I tunneled through snowdrifts
until I had crystal palaces,
and cut pathways to other worlds
through tree stands and hedges.

Split trees and arched roots
were doorways to distant lands
that beckoned and drew me,
and I always went through.

All the ingredients I needed
for such flights of fancy;
were imagination, and room to wander.
Both I had plenty of, back there.

Thoughts

2008-10-20T15:17:00.000-07:00

So what if I'm not travelling?! It's all still a journey in the end and anyway this is my blog and I'll write what I want!

On that note here are some thoughts...

10.19.2008

The radical organization is often ineffectual because they adhere to a simple principle; no compromise. I too am idealistic and wish anyway that they would sometimes quit being so stubborn and actually try to accomplish something by means of the dreaded compromise. However, I applaud their refusals.
It is my view that the corporation (evil machine if you will) is as evil as they seem to become because all these people running the show, with no one person in charge, are constantly making small compromises. This behavior, over time, whittles away all integrity with no one person ever having to assume the responsability. Sad.

On the subject of Canada: a wistful and fanciful account of a brief visit

2008-10-20T15:10:00.000-07:00

Sunsets normally give me the feeling of being in slow motion so it strikes me as odd to watch one flashing by through the window out one side of a speeding airplane. A pretty stunning one as sunsets go even, somehow oddly like a pastry. A warm glowing red center sandwiched by the darkened and muted shades of earth and blue-black silhouettes of thin, swiftly shifting clouds. Out the other side, the day old full moon is giving an entirely different feel to the cloudscape. Instead of an intense and defiant setting sun, we have a softly glowing countryside of cotton hills. So much more the subtle and yielding, is the moon, and yet as dependable and powerful as the sun. Tonight it is the silent companion to this otherwise unseen landscape of clouds.

If I sound overly romantic and dreamy, I am.

I am in love...

I am in love with the countryside where I was born, from which I am sadly returning as I write. So much would I rather be going there. It may be that all it needs to be is home for me to love it, the feeling being something for which I constantly yearn. Ontario's countryside offers me a taste of that unique quality which so many reach for and find elusive. It's a curious thing the concept of "home", at once tangible as it is so often rooted in place and ethereal nonetheless. Truly it has only to do with the people I love who are in that place but the land itself is so central in my worldview that I cannot discount it. Ultimately I must concede, having cornered myself into this cliché, that home is indeed where the heart it, and only as tangible as love itself. (Note to those in Ontario: Sorry if I drove you all mad with my constant chatter about wanting to be living there... hehehe)

So if this letter is stemming from love, then it is planted in the intangible stuff itself and could grow any which way. I now feel very strange about putting it to paper at all.

On that note let us return to the land. As a child I spent enough time out in the woods and the fields exploring and learning the lay of it that it was always filling my head with ideas and ideals. You might say that it kind of impregnated me with the stuff of what I would eventually become (ie an incorrigible dreamer). The land was born into me as much I was born into it.

I can't help but wonder if the intensity of my feeling for it would diminish were I to live there again, as opposed to just visiting. Likely it would, however even just to take a quiet stroll in the woods and catch sight of something which brought that feeling back, once in a while, in all its expansiveness, I think would be enough. The way I see it it's like enlightenment; the fleeting moments we experience of it are enough to keep us striving toward it, each in our own way. Just as we meditate as a means to catch those glimpses of peace than if people and place can bring a similar feeling than why not be there?

Now let me describe this little piece of paradise for you… Those of you have the pleasure of living there will know it well but perhaps you may still appreciate the small reminder from eyes which see it less often. Caledon Ontario is given the hills it's known by from the Niagara Escarpment which runs through it serving to display all the better it's beautiful forests and rocks. Those with and eye for details will notice the wide variety of mushrooms, which though they sprout everywhere no less give the forest a little extra charm. Ferns give a little softness to the spaces between fallen logs in the hardwoods, and needles soften your steps in the evergreens. And everywhere else, meadows lest we forget the countryside is mostly cultivated. There are many horse farms and some dairy's. I like the mix because it reminds me of the essential character of Ontario, wild and domestic at once. Cows make me think "masses" while horses, no less domestic nevertheless give me a feeling that the essential wildness will never be bred out of them, I certainly hope not anyway. I also cannot ignore the horrible sprawl spreading out from Toronto into the countryside which is no wilderness either, orchards and farms, but despite it wolves can still be spotted and go a little ways north and you could probably find somewhere to disappear and never be seen again.

Fall there is by far my favorite. The awareness of the encroaching bitter cold of winter forces you to be present and appreciate each moment, crisp, colourful and perfect.

My family, their friends, and even some I'm lucky to still call my friends (having not lived there for the last 12 years) have set a precedent for lifelong friendship that I am genuinely grateful for. It seems to me at least in this day in age, the age of so called "mass communication" that in fact people communicate very poorly with one another and shallowly more often than not. I am refreshed finding this not to be case back there, that people I've only known well many many years ago are still good friends with one another and also welcoming to me. My heart is warmed to be so quickly and unquestionably accepted back into the fold. So before I get too sentimental which is not normally the way I am I'll leave it at that.

I love you all.

And a special thanks to Jim and Anne for helping me get there, and really for helping me get anywhere ever. You're amazing.

Two months later... (for Aviv)

2008-05-04T17:49:00.000-07:00

Once I dreamed of the Sea in Springtime
and the dream filled my soul with music and beauty,
with impulse and desire and yearning for a different way.

Though the Sea in Springtime was often unpredictable
I loved it, too, for that.
It could be rough and tempestuous at times, but it was all part of the spell.

The depth and hue of the Spring Sea was so enchanting and captivating,
none who dreamed the dream wanted to wake
only to find themselves again on on hard, dry land.

Those, like me, who dreamed this dream,
found all they wanted to do from then
was float in the Spring Sea again.

She was always obliging, inviting.
Anyone who dared enter Her domain were welcome to stay,
to flow along as long as they could, or would.

Welcome to shine brightly under the sun, glow under the moon,
welcome to keep mystical secrets with Her,
to speak Her language.

The dreamers were welcome to surrounded by Her beauty
if they were willing to taste also Her salt.

I dreamed this dream, once, of the Sea in Springtime and I hope to dream it again someday
when the slower flow of the earth brings me back again to the Sea from whence I came.

2008-03-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

...and that was it.
after three months of cartwheels and landslides, three months of laying on our backs exhausted in all different sorts of dirt, three months of crushed flowers and foreign garbage, popcorn and coca leaves, eggs and tea - a hurried goodbye, girlish shouting in the airport, and a promise to see each other again in the cave, still decorated with all the samples of our affection for pachamama.
morgan and i met in nicaragua, thousands of kilometeres north of where i am now, thousands of kilometers south of where she is. i remember being so confused, tired, and so happy to see her, throwing the pack which has since been lost to the ether on the ground and embracing her while i lit my triumphant cigarette of arrival. waterfalls, desserts, newfamilies, new words, jokes and joints, flashing the passport at everyborder and turnign that magic key to crawl into new lands, again and again. all those millions of hours like a bug with too many leggs spent turning into the weird bus aliens. its difficult to believe that a moving pen, having writ, can really move on just like that - i lookaround to tell morgan somethign funny, but shes on another continent again.this is how it goes.
its spring now north of the equator, and i know morgan will watch all those clouds part over the rockies and remember the little one clinging to the volcano at ometepe, and remember me. i know she´ll roll in the colorado grasses for me, because id do it for her.

this 3months of whirlwind vacationing has taken it out of me. though i havent stayed in one place for long since i left home a hundred yrs ago, i have also not spent much time doing what weve been doing -going from bus to hostel to bus to nature hike to restaurant to dance party to beach to bus to hostel. i am delighted to be snuggling now into cusco, the bellybutton of this earth, to drink carrot ginger juice every sunrise and watch my heart pound less and less as it gets used to the altitude. i am excited to have a job and somewhere to go for a few hrs every day, excited to make friends who arent leaving in the morning. its nice to have no schedule. i cant wait to smell the flowers.

through this crazy email list you have all been with us every step of the way. i feel like fantasia and you have all been reading morgan´s neverending story, this part of which i have been blessed to be a protagonist of. thank you all for your interest and energy, whichfuels us to fuel you with stories and puts us together in a lovely circle. this is the point of it all.

keep paying attention tomorgstar, she is a superhero, and will probably save the world.
peace out,aviv

That's right folks now if you'll kindly make some wishes (donations) pronto, aviv's kingdom won't dissapear into the Nothing.

Ahh what a whirlwind adventure it was; the winds howl around you so fast as long as you're moving that you get all caught up and befudled and think the journey will last forever and then, before you can try to locate Kansas below you, suddenly the wind drops you on top of a political hotbed (Wicked Witch of the East/ Florida) and another adventure entirely begins. This one begins with a birth, as many do, and the world welcomes onto stage right little Maya Marquez, my new neice.

My final days with Aviv (accepting of course that we are still in the cave) were spent on the sometimes luxurious, sometimes smelling of toilets busses between Cuzco, Peru and Quito, Ecuador because we had exactly 4 days to get from one to the other. Fortunately or not (too early to tell) we did make it and I boarded a plane to my current location, in Miami Florida at my sisters house. From here I managed to be interviewed and accepted for a job with the City of Boulder Open Space & Mountain Parks before even returning to Boulder. Once I finally do get back to Boulder (tomorrow), a town I always leave because I dearly love returning to, I have two days to adapt before getting right to work! Lord the culture shock, though after Miami, Boulder will be a breeze. Indeed things are all going a little too smoothly for me...us... to be entirely convinced that we have yet left the cave, the cave being where we were in the day before we "left"Cuzco.

I've spoken of mystical places and people from Nicaragua to Peru, of ceremonies involving candles to cactuses, of farming and feasting and I've spoken of friends. It was all that and more, and less it cannot be// than all the sea which only is deeper than the sea. From my place in my sisters living room where I have had plenty of time to reflect and watch television (because she had to go off and have a baby...the nerve) I saw an advertisement for a clothing label telling me that a journey (as compared with a simple trip) is an underaking that changes you. This then, according to some fancy cloth sticher or another, has been rightfully recalled as our journey. Aviv and I are very nearly opposit forces and we have acted equally on each other. It was indeed most mad and moonly. When Aviv sent me her half of this email she remarked that she attempted to write it in my style, by which she meant it posessed a beginning, a middle, and an end. Ahh yes, structure, my "style", por que yo soy una capricorna. However, since I am an Aquarius this year and in honor of Aviv I shall not end this.
Once upon a time...

morgan

---
"podran cortar todas las flores, pero no podran detener la Primavera"
-Pablo Neruda

love is more thicker than
forget more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail

it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea

love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive

it is most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky
- ee cummings

2008-03-10T18:40:00.000-07:00

This can happen to you!!! If you spend 4 straight days and nights on a bus. BEWARE THE BUS FEVER!

Then I took a flight to Miami and thus concluded the adventures in South America with Aviv.

2008-03-10T18:38:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you photograph incan ruins, at night, with no tripod... at least you can see their expert stone cutting skills.

Saqsaewaman ruins. Fondly referred to by obnoxious tourists like us as "sexy woman"

2008-03-10T18:34:00.000-07:00

VEGGIES!

Alpaca wool woven "camas" (blankets)

Mineral dyes

Images from a market an hour or so out of Cuzco

2008-02-28T15:05:00.000-08:00

Aviv´s awesome tattoo. Reads: ¨podran cortar todos las flores pero, no podran detener la Primavera¨-Pablo Neruda. Transalation: "you can cut down al the flowers, but you can't stop the Spring"

2008-02-28T14:52:00.000-08:00

Incan built wall at cave site above Cuzco

Aviv and Natalie at Incan caves

2008-02-28T14:45:00.000-08:00

Beautiful mountain view above Cuzco

Dear all,

it is diffficult to describe the events that have transpired since mylast email, it is as though another whole trip has occured in the lastmonth. Since leaving the farm in Ecuador we have been to beautifulbeaches, desert oasis, seen the most powerful sunsets, camped in avast desert under an eclipsing full moon, volunteered to clean trashfrom that desert (Peru is pretty much a vast desert until you get intothe mountains or over them into the Amazon), bathed in miracle greenwater, Aviv has gotten one beautiful tattoo, visited Incan ruins onhorseback, met amazing people, explored the oldest continuallyinhabited city in South America (Cuzco) and well, stayed there. Ifever there was a city that seemed to have all the qualities of a cityI could dream it was Cuzco.

Cuzco is where the story really begins. I am not certain I am yetequipped to tell that story as I am still in it but I will be headingback to Quito tomorrow evening in order catch my flight to Miami whereI hope to meet my new Niece due to be born on the 7th. I shall then beback in Denver on March 12 and once I´ve processed I shall relate all.I sincerely feel that through happenstance, synchronisity or fate youmight even say I have arrived in Cuzco for a reason. I, I should saywe as Aviv feels very similarly to me for her own just as importantreasons, I though feel I have been shown a map for a pathway I´vealways known I´d take but didn´t know where to begin.

When I set out from Boulder, my great and wonderful teacher, Karingave me a tarot reading for this trip. To summarize, is spoke aboutmajor transformation and a new path for me. I have been searching forthat path for the past couple of years if not all my life and that iswhat brought me here. Today my new path begins as Aviv, I, Joshua andPatrick (two of our new friends we´ve travelled with) go toparticipate in a ceremony of our own design but with ancient rootswhich is a sort of farewell for our group, and for me also abeginning. We will be watched over by a man who has many years ofexperience in such ceremony and whom I would call a Shaman. On thissubject I cannot speak much more as the experience is yet ahead of mebut you shall all be in my heart and I ask that you keep me in yourstoday.

The journey I have been on these past few months has been beautifuland powerful and changing. At the risk of sounding like an acceptancespeech, I must once again thank thank thank everyone who helped me gethere and supported me along the way. I love you all. I must also thankespecially Aviv who has been my companion and my great friend througheach new adventure.

This isn´t an especially descriptive email and I apologize buteverything is still swimming in my brain and I cannot make it into atale just yet.

2008-02-28T14:15:00.000-08:00

Llamas! Or ALPACAS! And some burros in front. Cuzco, Peru

2008-02-28T14:03:00.000-08:00

Jesus on the hill. He´s all lit up at night and very attention getting. Cuzco, Peru

2008-02-28T13:51:00.000-08:00

Window in Cuzco

2008-02-28T13:46:00.000-08:00

Streets of Cuzco

2008-02-26T16:25:00.000-08:00

Quechua women and Alpaca´s in Cuzco

2008-02-26T16:18:00.000-08:00

Flowers in the Cuzco market

2008-02-26T16:12:00.000-08:00

San Pedro Cactus and Ayahuasca vine in the Cuzco city market

2008-02-26T16:07:00.001-08:00

Wall cactus´, Cuzco, Peru

2008-02-26T16:03:00.000-08:00

Rooftops of Cuzco, Peru

2008-02-26T15:58:00.000-08:00

Streets of Cuzco. If ever there was a city that embodied all that I love about winding alleys, stone architecture and steps, it is Cuzco, Peru. I am in love.

2008-02-26T15:52:00.000-08:00

Morgan cleans the dunes! We all went camping in the dunes on the night of the full moon and complete lunar eclipse. The next morning on our way back into the village (about an hour and a half hike) we cleaned up trash that blows into the dunes from the nearby landfill.

2008-02-26T15:43:00.000-08:00

Marie-Claire cleans the dunes

2008-02-26T15:31:00.000-08:00

Peru is a vast desert, who knew? Sand Dunes surrounding Huacachina, Peru

2008-02-26T15:24:00.000-08:00

Local school kids doing a dance in Huacachina, Peru a little tiny oasis (literally) in the Peruvian sand dunes. The little kid wanted to dance with them and he was so cute

2008-02-26T15:16:00.000-08:00

The only view out of a moto taxi

2008-02-26T15:05:00.000-08:00

Pretty much the most amazing sunset ever, I almost had heat stroke trying to get up the mountain to see it but it was completely worth it. We were all vibrating with the earth while we watched the sun sink into the Pacific. Salinas, Peru

2008-02-26T14:54:00.000-08:00

View from dunes above Salinas at sunset.

2008-02-26T14:49:00.000-08:00

A very misty beach in Salinas, Peru.

2008-02-26T14:43:00.000-08:00

The crew (before the addition of Patrick) Left to right: Me, Aviv, Marie-Claire, Joshua and Natalie. We all went wandering around in the desert and scaled sandy mountains. It was really hot.

2008-02-26T14:33:00.000-08:00

Greeeeeeeeen tree in a very dry place. Near Mancora hot springs, Peru

2008-02-14T15:26:00.000-08:00

One fine sunset, Mancora, Peru

2008-02-14T15:22:00.000-08:00

Digging competition, Mancora, Peru

2008-02-14T15:19:00.000-08:00

Peruvian desert bandlands landscape. Near Mancora, Peru

2008-02-14T15:12:00.000-08:00

Morgan climbs mountains! These are the mountains surrounding the farm in Ecuador, pretty snazzy!

2008-02-14T15:08:00.000-08:00

Aviv climbs mountains! Overlooking Tumianuma, Ecuador

2008-02-14T15:04:00.000-08:00

The misty cactus covered hills of the Never Never Land Valley. Tumianuma, Ecuador

2008-02-14T14:55:00.000-08:00

Aviv and I visiting the waterfall near Never Never Land, Ecuador. This is the water of life here so we´re feeling pretty good!

2008-02-09T12:06:00.000-08:00

Paradise found in Ecuador, complete with coconut balls. Since my last
upadate I have been residing on a farm called Never Never Land that
indeed we found by following stars! It was dark when we began the hike
up from the tiny town of Tumianuma but the stars were shining brightly
and the crazy quantities of fireflies were going off like flashbulbs
or tinkerbells all around us, magical moment indeed. We were lucklily
guided by a group of lost boys and girls who were returning to the
farm from a San Pedro ceremony quided by a local Shaman (San Pedro
being a cactus that grows all over the hills here, similar in this use
to Peyote.) A bunch of really good people they were and as I write now
we are on our way again from Ecuador to Peru acompanied by two of my
countrymen (and women) from Canada who we met that very night in that
very way.

Never Never Land was a fantastic place to spend two weeks and we are
intent on returning for another two weeks after we make the pilgrimage
to Machu Pichu and a little more beach time on the Pacific coast of
Peru with the beatiful Canadians and an English chica we met in Quito
who came to the farm behind us. The houses and veggie fields there are
set alongside a beautiful creek in a very steep sided valley. The
mountains all around were magnificent and green, we climbed one the
other day for Joshua´s (one of the two Canadian cats, Natalie being
the other and his sister) birthday, and lacking much in the way of an
actual trail, it was quite a climb! The wather ine hte creek is so
beautiful and clean and cool that it is fabulopus for both bathing and
drinking, I particularly enjoybed doing both at once. It has been a
dream of mine to come to a place where I could drink the water
straight from the stream and there I have now been. This valley is the
fabled source of the fountain of youth, I certainly failed to age
myself while there. I also did a considerable amount of baking with
that water baking youth brownies, tarts and cakes of all sorts! The
farm is a 40 minute hike from the very small town of Tumianuma which
is itself an hour by bus from the next larger town of Vilcabambama,
where we all weathered Carnival. Weathered being the appropriate term
to use, but a very fine time was had by all nonetheless drinking and
carousing in the streets and gettting doused, powdered, and sprayed by
various, apprantly amusing, substances.

Never Never Land (according to something I heard) is also located near
in addition to the fountain of youth, some sort of astrological power
point. To that I will simply say that the dreams one has there are
quite something. The other day, sleeping above the aptly named ¨dream
room¨ I dreamt of sailing on a flying Spanish treasure galleon to, of
course, Spain following a very little mermaid esque dream sequence.
Also, in line with the transformation oriented purpose of my trip, I
was the only one to continually see snakes on the farm. I´m not sure
that it counts as a transformation but one thing that this trip has
brought out of me at every turn has been my interest in healing. I
have been called upon repeatedly for my limited knowlege of herbalism
and homeopathy but what I do know I have put to good use and the
people around me have come to relay on that some. I was even begining
to learn the uses of some local herbs for treatment of stomach issues
because that is what happens to everyone when they´re traveling. So
say´s the Tarot this trip will lead me to a new project that is
service oriented (in a nutshell.) Studying herbalism has been
something I have passively done for some time but wanted to do more
formally it seems as though this might be what I begin when I return
to Boulder.

As I said, from here we head to Peru, our group now having grown to
five for the time being. First we´re all heading back down to the
coast for some sun (up here by the farm it is sometimes quite cool as
the elevation is similar to Denver (5280 feet). I really need to work
on my celtic tan, which is of course a burn in fact. At some point in
the next two weeks I hope to reach my pilgrimage like goal of
surmounting Machu Pichu with my dear friend Aviv, who I am now
begining to dread the thought of leaving to return to my life in
Colorado.

Must be off this damnable machine and back into the world around me. I
do hope all are well as I an Aviv who is getting very cute with her
spikey hair! My hair however is just getting longer.

2008-01-21T17:52:00.001-08:00

Mountainous, Northern Ecuador. A pleasant sight to awake to groggy on a bus indeed.

2008-01-21T17:42:00.001-08:00

Beautiful scenery on the three day bus trek from Santa Marat, Columbia to Quito, Ecuador. The scenery was the best part because spending three days and two nights on busses otherwise pretty much sucks.

2008-01-21T17:35:00.001-08:00

Birthday picture with Tatiana, me and Aviv and the birthday altar in the foreground! YAY!

2008-01-21T17:20:00.001-08:00

Sunset over fishing boats

2008-01-21T17:09:00.001-08:00

The winswept coastal cliff trail to beaches near Tagonga.

Following is an excerpt directly from my journal so you can get a
taste of what it´s like to be here and now, and also find that I write
to you very similarly to the way I write to myself.

¨January 16, 2008

To get to the non-fishing, swimable beaches near Tagonga, Columbia you
must follow a narrow trail etched into a white limestome cliff. It is
a bit of a precarious track, steep, loose rocks and directly above a
drop of about 80 feet to the sea. My sort of trail. After following
this very trail to Playa Grande, and then a bit futher along though
the water until we found out own less populated beach, we spent a
perfectly lovely afternoon lounging in the sun and sand. There were
fishers about trawling (not my favorite) and we were cautioned not to
swim too far lest we become entangled in their nets.

Time passed, as it does, and it became dusk when it occued to us that
we had come to this beach via precipitous cliff and thought it might
not be the most fun to cross this at night. We had reached that last
15 minutes of twilight when the last glimmer of the sunset lends the
landscape a red tint and on this night, with a bright half moon
directly overhead, pink moonlight bathed the white rocks. We inched
our way along the pink trail and listened to the blissfully whispering
ocean below and watched the bright stars rise over the cactus covered
mountains to our left. All the while, a strong wind, just this side of
chilling-to-the-bones in a colder clime, but perfect for sailing, blew
us about. The kind of night to entertain dreams.

I have lived out of the contents of a pack before for longer periods
that this, but I have not lived out of one whilst moving constantly,
unable to unpack ever and settle in. I have taken to it naturally much
to my gratitude and hadn´t even realized the fact until just now.
There are many sacrifices but the nomadic lifestyle is easier to adapt
to than might be expected, and certainly for one such as myself who
has been enchancted by it for so long.

Today we also managed to decide upon a course of action for our futher
travels. We will go the the far south of Ecuador to a farm called
Never Never Land (sand Michael Jackson). One of the proprieters of
this farm is named Angel, a major point in their favour as we had been
saved by Angels this morning. We were all set to go to sleep on the
beach in this nearby National Park when a couple of inquisitive fellow
travelers informed us that that very beach in that very park is
credited with some alarming percentage of the white kidnappings in
Northern Columbia (Note: Incidentally as I write this from a hostel in
Quito, Ecuador we are being housed in a dorm room with Angels all
along the wainscotting... We might be being watched over, perhaps).

Later in evening my very sweet friends Aviv and Tatiana threw me a
completely surprise birthday party with delicious vegetarian fare,
cake, candles, sparklers, flowers, sea treasures and even some
improvised sangria. What a life! I even got a beautiful earing from a
Venezuelan man, one of the artisans that stay at this hostel we´re at
in Tagonga. We built and alter of the presents and candles and
listened to a beautiful Brazilian man serenade us with his voice and
guitar as we all sat in the dirt under the moon.¨

Yes, life can be like this.

So, my actual birthday was yesterday (the 20th) but after baking
myself a nice chocolate banana cake I fell suddenly ill and had to go
to bed. In lieu of this I decided to postpone my birthday until today
and I shall thusly spend the next year as an Aquarius, I´ve always
suspected them of having more fun anyway. Happy birthday to me and my
dear cousins Graeme, Tristan and Allison back in Canada who share this
illustrious week of birth with me. According to some hack astrology
book it is ¨The week of mystery and imagination¨ and also, we shall
all have our Saturn return´s in the year 2012, sure to be an important
year.

We head down south for our farming month in a couple of days and I
don´t know how much access I shall have to the web from there so take
care all if I don´t get a chance to send my words to everyone for a
while.

2008-01-21T16:59:00.001-08:00

Mary in a cage

2008-01-21T16:53:00.001-08:00

Fishing nets can be beautiful too

2008-01-21T16:43:00.000-08:00

Fishing boats at Tagonga

2008-01-21T16:35:00.001-08:00

Tagonga, Columbia. Cactus and the Carribean, pretty great!

2008-01-21T16:29:00.001-08:00

Sunrise as we left Bocas del Toro (Panama)

2008-01-13T19:43:00.000-08:00

Fauna, Iguana

2008-01-13T19:35:00.001-08:00

Petroglyphs on Isla Ometepe, Nicaragua

2008-01-13T19:25:00.000-08:00

The streets of beautiful Cartagena, Columbia. I am in love with this city.

Ta da!!!!!

We have triumphantly arrived on the continent of South America and
fallen under it´s most magical spell. Honestly right out of the
airport, where a crazed Columbian customs officer made hilariously
bizzare faces and sounds at me while he stamped my passport, we were
taken in by the fabulousness that is Columbia. So far the two
countries that I was warned against by the collective worries of the
¨West¨ (Nicaragua and Columbia) have prooved the be the countries I
have most enjoyed/ am enjoying. Perhaps it is only Cartagena, because
Cartagena is quite possibly the most blissfully perfect and beautiful
city I have ever visited. You see, I love cities with narrow winding
roads that have tightly packed buildings with balconies overlooking
the street... and Cartagena has these in abundance and with gorgeous
flowers hanging over the balconies to boot! It also sports carribean
weather, delicious food, refreshing beer, great people, entrancing
street performances, beautiful colours, the Carribean Sea, an ethereal
but powerful sense of literary history, a very fine bookstore and cafe
(I love these) and low cost of living. I think I´m in love. There is
also a very grand sailing vessel at harbor here which is all lit up at
night.

The passage from Bocas del Toro was relatively uneventful apart from a
very long bus ride from the Carribean coast to the Pacific (Panama
City) only to fly, the next morning, back to the Carribean coast. The
bus ride was quite beautiful, during which I remarked to my moleskin
notebok that the mountains were getting larger, and also that I
appreciate the beauty of Mountains no less for living in a mountainous
state. I also nearly went crazy from listening to the piped in 6 hours
of overly enthusiastic Mariachi music which would annoy even the
greatest admirers of the genre.

We have been wandering the endlessly diverting streets during the
days, relaxing in the relative cool of coffee shops or shady parks
during the hotter hours, snacking on delicious fruits and treats from
the many street vendors, diligently ignoring the hissing come-on´s of
machismo men, learning new divinations and writing stories in our
infant spanish (this has actually prooved perfect for producing
spanish childrens stories.) We wrote an absolutely adorable story
about a sloth that really wants to fly and who eventually learns to do
so by dancing with the butterflies to the music of the jungle because
a magic tree tells him to. I´m going to illustrate it.

I have since coming down here actually painted 5, albeit small,
watercolours and written many pages. In fact I filled my moleskin and
had to embark on what prooved to be a very difficult quest to find a
suitable new notebook. What I have now is no molesking but well it has
paper in it and that´s the most important part.

We head shortly to another beach until we have to regretfully part
with Tatianna. For those of you familiar with the Rider Tarot, the
three of us are like the three of cups incarnate, a fatefully happy
trio.

My birthday is in a week as well and I´m trying to ascertain where I
will be. Aviv and I are both determined to have cake and sangria for
our birthdays (hers is March 6, mine January 20, and Tatiana´s is
actually March 6 as well... I am swimming with the fish!) no matter
how difficult this prooved to be. I can bake a pretty damn good cake
from scratch and we can, though it wouldn´t actually be good at all,
put some fruit in a bottle of cheap wine for a while to make
¨sangria¨.

I am trying to download some of my pictures and put them on my blog
(livingmorganism.blogspot.com) but it isn´t easy. My pictures are
really large because I´m a snob for quality so it takes an absurb
amount of time to upload them. You can check but there may be very few
if any at all... I´ll try.

Next country, Ecuador and some digging in the dirt and not spending
money (We´re running perilously low.) or else we´ll have to find jobs.
I dearly hope that everyone is well and happy. I noticed in a Panama
newspaper recently that the weather in Toronto was 6 degrees or
something godawfully cold. I am sorry dear family and friends in the
north! I think warm thoughts for you (and cool ones for me).

Love to all,

Morgan

2008-01-13T19:15:00.001-08:00

Gulls flying around our ferry in Costa Rica.

Yes, these pictures are not in chronological order but there aren´t many and your going to look at them all anyway so what does it really matter. I personally have lost pretty much any sense of time anyway so this is more like my experience.

2008-01-13T19:08:00.001-08:00

Roots of a ficus tree (Panama). I love trees, in fact I can´t get enough of them. I stood here in a forest of these gnarled and twisted but elegent ficus trees, water pooling between the network of roots and stared, open mouthed in astonisment for about 10 minutes. Then I took pictures.

2008-01-13T19:03:00.001-08:00

The lovely sunset view off the back porch of our hostel on Bocas del Toro in Panama. We could wake up, do yoga on the dock and jump right into the water afterward. Wow

Greetings friends! Happy New Year!!!!!

Aviv and I, and our new good friend Tatiana from Barcelona, are in the
Carribean now so this email may be more relaxed than the others, and
when I say relaxed I mean it may make considerably less sense to
anyone who is not also presently in the carribean.

We are on the Islands of Bocas del Toro (mouth of the bull), Panama.
We arrived here on December 30 late at night by water taxi from the
mainland. This was the first time being back on the Carribean sea for
me since I sailed 3 years ago. Me and my turks head (woven sailers
bracelet-which I have had woven onto my wrist all this time) were
happy to be back here. The taxi over, which was a magical after hours
taxi we only met because we were ripped off by a road taxi who only
took us half way to the harbor where we got on a bus in the middle of
the highway and met people who knew how to get another water taxi, was
lovely. It was a speed boat so we got a little wet from the spray,
plus it was raining, but there was fireworks in the sky on the island
we were approaching and in the water. When I sailed, one of my fondest
memmories is how the bioluminescent zooplankton would flash when
disturbed. So at night the wake of the boat would sparkle with all the
little plankton being swept aside. In the speedboat this sparkling
trail was more like a sparkler or firecracker because rather than
sweeping behind us there were spraying all over the place to either
side.

Our actual arrival on the island was a little more haphazard which we
must expect at least a little of when you travel sans a plan. As I
said, it was raining and it was also two days to new years and every
hostel of hotel on the island was booked full. We wandered, we
wandered, we got soaked and eventually, THANKFULLY, we found a single
single bed which the prorietress was less than happy to allow us to
share but we were dripping and puppy eyed so she relented.

The rest is all beaches and piña coladas and stereotypical carribean
situations complete with raggae and less than legal activities...

New Years: We drank, we danced, we drank, we kissed strange men, we
danced, we played with sparklers in the streets. Just before midnight
we took a water taxi out to a deserted beach and we went into the
water with candles, a bottle of champagne and no clothes. We were
reborn at midnight, naked, in the sea. A perfect new years ceremony
for 2008, which we all agree here, is going to be a very important
year.

From here, we bide our time on the islands working on our tans (mine
being an English-Irish sort of tan and hence, in fact, a burn). Then,
we sail to Columbia. The sail is 5 days and not so much more than
flying to be prohibitive. Certainly it is a sort of pleasure cruise as
sailing around carribean islands is wont to be, but it will be our
splurge for the trip, for everything else, we are quite frugal. I
cannot wait to take to the high seas once again. My name, in Welsh,
means ¨of the sea¨ and to it, I must always return.

Best New Years wishes to all once again. I shall speak once again once
we arrive in South America.

Love,

Morgan

2008-01-13T18:58:00.001-08:00

One of the two volcanos that make up Isla Omeptepe. Conception, the active one with its everpresent cloud friend

2008-01-13T18:53:00.003-08:00

The beautiful San Ramon waterfall on the island of Ometepe. A somewhat arduous hike up up up in the boiling heat, worth the shower at the end

2008-01-13T18:52:00.001-08:00

Me and Aviv play in a tide pool in Costa Rica, our own private, natural spa!

Dear all,

Taj Mahal: A monument to love, also, a momument to San Jose's Indian
food scene. Wow so much good! Aviv and I were becoming more and more
obsessed with the idea of getting Indian food somehow (this is
something we both love dearly) and last night our fantasy was
fulfilled with one amazing meal. Picture the most amazing tastes and
aromas from you favorite food, add to that a stunning setting with
beautiful interiors and a warm tropical breeze blowing through,
visualize moonlight and multiple courses. Best Indian Food I've ever
had and it was in San Jose, Costa Rica.

Rewinding a bit... I'm in Costa Rica (those of you who receive more
regular emails from me to assuage your fears of my doom already know
this). We crossed the chaotic (at best) border between Costa Rica and
Nicaragua on the winter solstice and the weather obliged by not
burning us with tropical sunlight whilst we stood in line after line
for 4 hours. We had just come from the dreamlike Island of Ometepe
where we stayed a week on Finca Zopilote (a farm). We slept in
hammocks and worked like good little worker bees in the mornings and
cooked delightful quiches and curries in the evenings. We hiked to
spectacular waterfalls and swam in the cool lake and sweated like pigs
because it was spectacularly hot as well. Grand old time it was. Only
setback, my dear Lionel's mp3 player he leant me was stolen, along
with the extra memory cards I had for my camera so I no longer have
any pictures of anything prior to Ometepe. This is sad but I was lucky
I did not lose anything more valuable or more important than things
which are easier replaced. Sleeping in a hammock outside is less than
secure.

Sleeping in a hammock outside is also remarkably condusive to
meditation and I felt wonderful there until the sleeping outside bit
caught up with me and I got cold. It was much much cooler at night up
at the farm and quite damp so the cold was kind of inevitable but it
was textbook arsenicum and I had that particular homeopathic remedy
and it remedied quickly as promised.

I hope that everyone had a fantastic holiday! We did manage to get to
San Jose to spend Christmas with my father but really the Christmas
spirit was kind of lacking with some madness afoot at his residence
and a general lack of funds for all parties so it was nice enough but
certainly the most bizzare Christmas I have ever experienced. A story
for another time perhaps.

Now, we are about to head out again. We are taking a brief soujourn to
the Pacific side to languish on the beach in the sun a little more and
to hike into Costa Rica's oldest National Park in search of,
hopefully, more waterfalls. I do love them, in fact I painted the
first one we went to. AND since we made the amazing discovery that
Aviv's mp3 player cord bits into my camera I can upload pictures now!
But not right now because I have to go but perhaps the next email will
be accompanied by a link to some pictures???

For now, I love you all and hope you're well in the colder climes. New
years should find me in Panama from whence we hope to cross
continents.

Cheers! Happy New Years!

Morgan

2008-01-13T18:45:00.001-08:00

Tatiana and Aviv... We took a boat to the wrong island and failed to snorkel so we drank at the bar where we found out we were on the wrong island, siliness ensued

2007-12-15T18:27:00.000-08:00

Hola mi amigos y mi amigas y mi familia,

Aviv and I are well and getting tan on the shoulders
and the universe is good.

We have been meeting good people all along the way and making friends
and learing paquena espanol as we go. Currently we have left the
paradise like abode of Via Via in Leon and are staying tonight at the
Hacienda Merida on Isla Ometepe. We arrived by ferry to Ometepe this
morning having left Leon yesterday and spending much of the day
spending many hours in busses. Public transportation a la Nicaragua is
a fascinating experience deserving of the term adventure all on it's
own. At one point we passed on the road the next bus we needed to take
and pulled over in the middle of a highway got out and flagged down
the new bus very speedily. We were unfortunately unable to get to the
island yesterday and had to spend the night in Rivas which we
gennerally agreed had bad vibes. We stayed in a hostel which of course
couldnt live up to Via Via's standards but more than that we both
slept terribly and had awful (and oddly similar) dreams. We seem to be
developing a psychic connection.

Anyway this is the story of Ometepe. The ferry took about an hour and
very pleaant enough. Also aboard the boat were some Quebecers whom we
believed to be headed to the very same finca (farm) as us so we all
got a minibus together but when we passed our turn it became suddenly
aparant we were not headed to the same place afterall. My fellow
Canadians were uncommuncative prefering to tease us in french (which
they probably didn't think I understood) and unsympathtic (more bad
vibes). However, we arrived at a different finca which seemed nice
enough and by the lake unlike the one we were headed to originally so
here we decided to stay the night.

Because we were now on the lake shore we made appropriate use of this
new development by renting a kayak and striking out to explore! We
inadvertantly paddled our way to "monkey island" which the hostels
many colourful signs had warned us not to get too close to.
Evidentally the monkeys, unsatisfied with their captive existance, are
want to jump on to nearby kayaks and bite the occupants. So we
remained at a respectful distance and slowly circled the islands
getting some good primatological observation time in. The monkeys
seemed to enjoy watching us even more than we did them so there was
plenty of monkeys to be seen and also a slew of tropical birds in
bright colours.

We have been leaving our travel plans up to fate largely and
consulting th tarot cards and i-ching at important junctures. So far
things are working out just fine as such and we are having a grand old
time. For not having spent a great deal of time together ever before,
Aviv and I are getting along famously. Our motivations for being here
and attitudes toward travel are very complimentary.

Where we go next once we have had our fill of beautiful Ometepe is
Costa Rica for Christmas with my father. There though I think we shall
not linger too long because the farthest point we absolutly want to
reach southward keeps getting further away. So we have much distance
to cover if we are to reach (currently) Bolivia, with a long stopover
in Ecuador for some organic farming and more continuous spanish
immerion. The major hitch in the plan at the moment is that you cannot
go from Central America to South America by land, as was the idea,
because there is a 200 km gap between Panama and Columbia where there
are no real roads except labrythine logging roads and no real people
except loggers and narco trafficking guerillas. Needless to say we
shall not attempt this. Our options, then, are air or sea.

Sea sounds quite fanstastic as an option and evidently you can hire
and experienced sailing Captain and all inclusive 5 day trip for the
same or less than the cost of a flight (ship, weather and Captain
permitting). If the question is sailing to Columbia? The answer is
YES! Columbia is highly recommended by the Quebecers.

Tomorrow we hike to a waterfall on one of the islands two volcanos.
The volcanos are rather less features of the island than they make up
the entirety of it complete with perpetual clouds on th peaks. So off
to bed for me early with high hopes for friendlier dreams.

Cheers my dears.

Morgan

--
"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."
-Henry David Thoreau

2007-12-06T15:29:00.000-08:00

Dear everyone,

I am here.

Arrived yesterday without much ado
Spanish keyboards will take getting used to.

The details of my transport are a bit bland
Suffice it to say in Nicaragua I stand (lit. sit).

I promise I won´t write this whole email in rhyme
to do so would take really far to much time.

Basically I arrived, got through customs, got into a taxi then onto a
minibus bound for Leon. A few choice words in Spanish, most of which
were ¨"autobus", "Leon", and "expresso" and many blank,
noncomprehending looks and I arrived there without incident. There was
a very nice and importantly patient man seated next to me on the bus
who kindly wrote out questions for me which I translated and attempted
to respond to. I believe he was a police officer, but he also must
have worked for some sort of childrens charity organization in Managua
because he was very interested in whether I wanted to work (travajer)
in Nicaragua for an N.G.O (O.N.G) in perhaps human rights (derechos
humanos). He gave me his phone number for in case I wanted a job which
was very polite considering I could hardly have a conversation with
him. He also saw me to the front of my hostel which was most certainly
out of his way because I did manage to ascertain that he did not live
in Leon. The universe is kind, and I was clearly lost and out of my
element.

I rewarded myself today by spending almost the entire day (the bit
after I slept in very late) lounging in a hammock in the shade at the
hostel and reading fairy tale a la Tom Robbins (Villa Incognito).
Probably a poor choice for a novel to bring because I very nearly
finished in one go. I also did manage to make it around the corner to
the supermercado and bought some proper dorm living food, bread,
peanut butter, mango jelly, bananas and water. More on adventures as
they commence. I might visit museums tommorrow... oooohhh. I know
you´re all jealous. Aparantly there are several revolutionary museusm
about. It is unclear at this time whether the museums themselves are
revolutionary, or about the past revolutions this country has seen.
(Probably the latter but I´m holding out hope for an entirely unique
way to expereince art).

I have great expectations at this time for the outcome of this Central
and South American sojourn. Before I left a very dear friend Emily
(not the Emily you would know folks in Canada) sponsored a sweat lodge
to pray for the safety of Aviv and I on this trip and to ask that we
find what it is we were looking for. It was very powerful, very
moving, and very hot but it felt fantastic. Of course it´s true that I
am looking for something and perhaps it would be more likely found in
the sweatlodge itself and the beautiful community that held it and so
kindly welcomed me, because it seems the rule that quests, as it were,
tend to result in the quester finding their solution back at home.
There´s the rub, where´s home? I´ve spent equal portions of my life
nearly in two distinctly different locales and the concept of home is
about as an ash filled sky. The sweatlodge, prepared me spiritually
for what is to come. What is to come, according to the Tarot, is major
transformation (the tower) in the area of self and possibly a new
service project (the page of pentacles and the hanged man) or at least
some clarity and where to direct my efforts next. And my trip is
bathed in the energy of love, awww, (ace of cups), I am surrounded by
happiness and good luck (the sun) and fueled by nostalgia (6 of cups).
The nostalgia bit is interesting, perhaps hinting that Canada is home?
Anyway, it was all quite the send of and coupled with the incredible
kindess and generosity that sent me on my way (we raised in the end
$1,168 to support our trip).

This is getting very long for saying very little (I did warn you) so
I´ll be brief now. For now I am staying at the Via Via hostel near the
center of Leon, Nicaragua. Here I will remain until my traveling
companion graces me with her arrival and probably a few days after
that (the 10th). Then, though we have no set plans, we hope to spend a
few days on the island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua then take the Rio
San Juan (by boat) all the way out to the Atlantic coast and attend a
week or so of Spanish clasess in San Juan del Sur (thanks entirely to
the money we were able to raise we will be able to afford actual
spanish lessons). So thank you thank you thank you to everyone who
supported me and contributed to our adventure, I aim to give back in
kind more than I received (a general mission in life).

Now this note is probably costing me on the order of a dollar by now
so I must say adios. I´ll write again when I have something more
philosophical to say.

Buenos Noches,

Morgan

First of many destinations for a Canadian moose

2007-11-27T17:39:00.000-08:00

My aunt Andrea sent me a moose to capture (photographically) in exotic locations. The Moose unfortunately met with some difficulties when confronted by an overzealous border collie, who evidently took if for an illegal alien, and nearly lost an antler. I was able to save the affected antler and also to remove an unnecessary appendage (pictured). Time heals all wounds but it is unclear at this time whether I will regain the trust of this immigrant moose.

Thanks

2007-11-24T01:05:00.000-08:00

This experience is brought to you by generous and kind supporters:

Cherry and Friends (Andrea, Colin, Graeme, Joan, Nick and Tristan Cherry and Jennifer Grant)
Glynis Cherry
Thom Crowley
Karin DiGiacomo
David Huff (musical accompaniment)
Jim and Anne Huff
Erin Livers
Yotam Schachter
Luke Stevenson

Attendees of the "Tea, Tarot and a Trip" Divination Fund raising Dinner

2007-11-23T13:02:00.000-08:00

November 6, 2007

Hello Friends, family and miscellaneous loved ones!

Yes I am sorry this is a mass email and if you're the sort that finds
that kind of thing terribly offensive than I apologize and suggest you
don't respond to this email, HOWEVER if you desire to receive
sometimes brilliant, sometimes rambling and always amusing emails from
me whilst I travel the world than I urge you to respond affirmatively!

Let's rewind a bit though shall we? Yes, here's the story... I am
going on a trip! Yay! Moments ago I rashly purchased a one way ticket
to Managua, Nicaragua despite, shall we say, financial strain. My
intent is to wander some pathless woods (rainforest's) and [not so
(unless I find some)] lonely shores. My friend Aviv and I have
similarly wanderlust induced motivations and have decided upon this
course of action. The reason I am emailing all of my lovely friends,
family and acquaintances is because; A. you are all lovely, and B. I
thought you might like to hear about my travels.

The history: When I traveled to Tanzania last summer I sent occasional
emails (when Arusha had power) concerning the experiences I was having
there and upon my return these emails had been widely circulated and
it seems people enjoyed them. Therefore I am emailing you all now to
see if you would like to be on a list to which I will send emails from
Central and South America, wheresoever in I may end up. They'll be
great I promise! Plus who knows I may be so far off the grid that they
will be rare and you won't be over encumbered by long dawdling
emails... like this one!

OR, if you'd rather, I can create a separate list of postal addresses,
yes that's right folks, snail mail! I like to write letters and
postcards are always fun to get so if you send me your addresses I'll
send you the strangest postcards I can find with the occasional pretty
one thrown in because, well, I like scenery too.

Now, I have been working at a non-profit organization for nearly a
year now and I have learned how to shamelessly ask for money! Here's
the thing, I'm really poor! You might rightfully ask why I am going to
South America for three months if I can't afford to? The answer is
many fold: I have lofty goals in this life, I am much more clear about
how to accomplish them when I travel, travel itself figures directly
into my goals which have to do with cross cultural environmental work,
I want to learn Spanish in a Spanish speaking setting, I'm seeking
specific thesis ideas for Graduate school and I like what's going on
in South America right now, and many other reasons some of which you
all know because you all know me. As far as money goes I can use
whatever I can get and I'm MORE than happy to work for it, I can do
yard work, babysitting, art, even divination! For long distance
people, if there is something you think I can do for you from here (it
might be hard to rake your leaves), please let me know.

But anyway, this email is really just to say hey to everyone, tell you
what I'm up to, and offer to amuse you every so often with my odd
lengthy emails. Hopefully you aren't all bored stiff already.

Cheers and peace and blessings and happy November,

Morgan Crowley

2006-04-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

This is a new beginning. In fact it's the third or so new beginning, at least it's the third time I've deleted all the material from this blog and completely reformed the page into a new use.

This time it will be a grand travelogue such that I'm sure my reader base will soon rival National Geographic, however since I am not an institution I doubt it will be quite as long lived.