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Here is a neat blogpost on Joanie, from an early Greenpeace activist, who came to Denver to give shows about protecting whales.    

I went overnight camping aways up a trail for the first time in several years. We climbed up a 12,432 foot peak. Most of the snow was gone, and the flowers were out. We camped in the bristlecone pine, limber pine and spruce next to a huge willow swamp. Lots of mysterious granite pinnacles, towers, cliffs, and stacks of rocks. A friend called one a stack of pancakes and another a stack of poker chips. Some seemed precariously balanced. There were lots of the undulating, flutey, hermit thrush calls. I had a scary moment crossing a beaver pond. The water was up to my waist, and my flip flops were sticking in the mud. A friend led walking on the interwoven sticks of the dam itself. Luckily a friend led by example, getting a stick to lean on. Another friend loaned me a second staff. Earlier we had crossed two creeks up higher where they were narrow and faster. Yellow umbel type anise flowers that taste like licorice, shooting stars, bistorts, avens, marsh marigolds, ravens, vultures, meadowlarks, and an elk. The Milky Way and the teapot constellation stood out. The crescent moon was next to Venus and Jupiter. When I slow down and am quiet, I notice spiderwebs,leaves, clouds, shadows, birds, dragonflies, ladybugs, froth recurving on the creeks, swaying teetops, and sounds of streams and birds. Here are safety considerations when stream crossing a fast or deep stream : undo your waist and chest straps, wear shoes to protect your feet (after taking off your socks to keep them dry), get a tall stick to lean on, face upstream and walk sideways, and put your gear in waterproof garbage bags. If there are two or more of you, make a line facing upstream where the front person leans on a staff, and the person behind put their hands on the waist of the person in front and pushes down on their hips, helping the person in front to keep their footing in a fast stream. The first person shields the behind person from the current. Snow- and glacier- fed streams may be higher in the afternoon after the snow melt. Freedom of the Hills may have info on this.

I put my nose up against some blue irises to smell their grape scent. Suddenly, yellow and gold lines were curving away from me. A snake had been sunning on the rock by the irises, and I had startled it. The irises around town are starting to fade in the heat. A pair of hawks circled above further on along the bike path. When I stop to hug a huge cottonwood, I notice the spiderwebs and insects in the deep furrows in the bark. Also, I heard a flicker and noticed some birds chasing a perched hawk. Whenever I stop for a minute in a quiet place, I notice lots of of life. A few weeks ago, inspired by others who started to climb, after the annual University of Colorado tree walk, I climbed an oak tree. Viewed from the treetop, all the other trees stood out and seemed more alive in the gentle drizzle.

The Dervais family grow enough food on their yard to feed themselves and to make a living. Click here to see u-tube video of them. Click here for their FB page. Click here for their website. Here are books on local food production and permaculture . Here is Organic Life magazine. Here is info on organic farming. Here is the permaculture magazine. Guest Blogger Linda Hardesty suggeted the Devais utube video and here are her comments: The Dervais family, with their "Path to Freedom" (link), are spreading a truly revolutionary idea. That is the idea that an average family can free themselves from the corrupt system that supplies most of the food in this country. The massive corporations that control food production and distribution have, for the most part, succeeded in throwing off what little government inspection and oversight there was in the past. "Ag-Gag" bills and the criminalization of whistleblowers have led to a place where we are not allowed to know where our food comes from or what kinds of poisons have been applied to it. Growing your own is really the ONLY way to have a safe, reliable food supply. The bright side of this picture is that growing your own food is easier than ever! Not only is it safer - everyone knows that homegrown is the tastiest and freshest food possible. In recent years, modern science and ancient agricultural knowledge have teamed up to give you the ability to grow food on a small amount of land, for less time and effort than it would take to earn the money to buy it. Local, sustainable, organic food gives peace of mind in several ways.  

Please call your Representative. Otherwise laws that protect dolphins, water quality, food safety, and health can be overturned. Also, you can email Congress by clicking here.  

  Elk with velvet green antlers at 7000 ', shooting star flower by the creek (with its petals/sepals bent back, the neat red zigzag at its mouth, stamens poking out and down, waiting for the buzzing of a bee to release the pollen) , pasque flowers, larkspur, views from 8200 ' of the snowclad mountains along the continental divide ( Evans, Squaretop, Greys, the Arapahoes, Navajo, Apache, Toll, Audubon, Sawtooth, St. Vrain, Meadow, Elk's Tooth, Copeland, Meeker, Long's, Chiquita, Ypsilon, Fairchild, Hagues, Mummy). Also, the Pourdre running high with crème and froth amongst the haystacks.