All Hallow's Eve

Eliza, Carrie and Tim here for the weekend. We carved gourds and lit candles to ward off the spirits that are out roaming tonight. We also had a great dinner and ate chocolate cake in honor of Carrie's birthday. Two holidays covered in one night.
Topped it off with a rip roaring game of ping pong.
Happy Halloween everyone!

october

rally

As I upload my photographs from yesterday's climate change rally in Concord, Massachusetts, I really have to laugh. We New Englanders know how to have fun. Let's invite a Minuteman with drum because we know it all started here, then stand in the rain and listen to organizers and a politician from Taunton talk about climate change. At least the person with the compact florescent head gear had a sense of humor! We stood in front of the Minuteman statue at the Old North Bridge for a photo. I didn't see the New York Times pick that one up.

Look at the photos of gatherings around the world! new york times

There is so much joy, creativity and yes, urgency inherent in the rallies. I do think other countries are feeling the pressure more directly than we are.

I don't want to get into the politics of it all and I was disappointed that the New York Times gave this world wide movement such a luke warm review. The science can be argued, the methods challenged, even the number 350 debated but it is good to see people waking up to the need to do something. People are sending a message to world leaders who will be meeting in Copenhagen in December that this is an issue they care deeply about. How thrilling to see a global rally over an issue that affects us all.

350

PLEASE JUST TAKE A LOOK;

350.ORG/FLICKR

Scroll through the photos.

As day breaks across the world, people are sending
in their photos TODAY.

Look for me and David at the Old North Bridge in Concord.
Maybe there is time for you to join a group.
On the website it will tell you what is happening in your area,
no matter where you are in the world.

DHM III

My brother. A natural with dogs and children.

happy birthday to my big brother!

Let's just take a minute and think about why I am able to miraculously select this photo of my father holding his first born, his name sake, and put it on my blog. I did not rifle through albums and then peal the photo out and then scan it.

No, my brother did that. That baby in the picture did that. Thanks for all the painstaking work that went into that project, Donny.

Looking more closely I see Dad is sitting in the rocking chair that I have here in my house. Mom gave it to me when Carrie was born. Wrapped in blankets that she had knit for them, I rocked both my infant daughters in that very chair.

A link through the generations.

Happy Birthday, Donny.

Memoir

The memoir, once considered a marginal literary form, has emerged in the past decade as the signature genre of the age.

The triumph of memoir is now an established fact. Fiction isn’t delivering the news. Memoir is.

The contemporary memoir has reaffirmed the primacy of the first person voice in American imaginative writing.

Maybe a reader’s love of memoir is less an intrusive lust for confession than a hankering for the intimacy of this first person voice, the deeply satisfying sense of being spoken to privately.

More than a story, we want to hear a voice speaking softly, urgently, in our ear. Which is to say, to our heart.

from
I Could Tell You Stories
by Patricia Hampl

Sneak preview into my class tomorrow. I'm going to focus on memoir. Memoir used to be reserved for people at the end of their lives. A review. I was born and then...
Now people in their twenties are writing memoir. Blogs are a kind of memoir.
Memoir is delivering the news.

So get cracking! There are no rules. You can jump right into the middle of your life.

Fall walk

Hello Everyone.
Here are some images from a walk David and I took last weekend. The foliage isn't very dramatic this year here in Massachusetts but the light through the trees was lovely. The woods take on a different feeling as leaves fall. The deep dark green of summer gives way to yellows, oranges, reds and actual sunlight filtering through. Loads and loads of acorns this year (almost none last year) and pine cones are abundant also. Long winter ahead? Squirrels stocking up?
One brown dog discovered someone's private hide away....

The Story of Stuff

A few years ago I came across this little video called The Story of Stuff.

Now I find it has a web site, follow up activities, etc.

Take a look.

please read. thank you. just so you know.

The following was taken from the 350.org website. Whatever your attitude is about environmental issues, please read this. Thank you.

What does the number 350 mean?

350 is the most important number in the world—it's what scientists say is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Two years ago, after leading climatologists observed rapid ice melt in the Arctic and other frightening signs of climate change, they issued a series of studies showing that the planet faced both human and natural disaster if atmospheric concentrations of CO2 remained above 350 parts per million.

Everyone from Al Gore to the U.N.’s top climate scientist has now embraced this goal as necessary for stabilizing the planet and preventing complete disaster. Now the trick is getting our leaders to pay attention and craft policies that will put the world on track to get to 350.

Is 350 scientifically possible?

Right now, mostly because we’ve burned so much fossil fuel, the atmospheric concentration of co2 is 390 ppm—that’s way too high, and it’s why ice is melting, drought is spreading, forests are dying. To bring that number down, the first task is to stop putting more carbon into the atmosphere. That means a very fast transition to sun and wind and other renewable forms of power. If we can stop pouring more carbon into the atmosphere, then forests and oceans will slowly suck some of it out of the air and return us to safe levels.

Is 350 politically possible?

It’s very hard. It means switching off fossil fuel much more quickly than governments and corporations have been planning. Our best chance to speed up that process will come in December in Copenhagen, when the world’s nations meet to agree on a new climate treaty. Right now, they’re not planning to do enough. But we can change that—if we mobilize the world to swift and bold climate action, which is what we're planning to do on October 24th.

October 24: INTERNATIONAL DAY OF CLIMATE ACTION

Hello People!

If you don't know about it already, it is time to know about 350.org.

On October 24, all over the world people will be gathering in their communities to make a statement about the need for world leaders to address climate change.

The climate discussions in Copenhagen resume in December. World leaders are putting together their plans now and need to hear from their constituents about their concerns about climate change. Scientists tell us we need to keep the carbon in the atmosphere at or below 350 parts per million for the planet to stay as it is. Above that number, our planet will be a very different place, with waters rising and storms and drought increasing in intensity.

But you don't have to take my world for it. Please go to the web site to read about this movement. You can also find out about events that will be taking place in your community. I will be joining a group at the Old North Bridge in Concord, Mass. on that day.

The events that take place will be posted on the internet. An international day of climate action. 350.org. Pretty cool.

Reflections on the Blog

I started this web log a year and a half ago with the intention of publishing some of the writing I was doing with family and friends. I got so excited about the possibilities of the blog that it became the place I could publish whatever was on my mind on any given day.

Environmental issues became a focus and will continue to be. I can sense my readers have become more vigilant about taking their own bags to the store rather than using paper or plastic bags for the short trip home and then throwing them away.

I sense some of you think twice before reaching for a plastic bottle of water to quench thirst when a glass and faucet are near by.



This weekend, the New York Times did a feature article on the national debate about clotheslines. Many of you forwarded that article to me since I have been highlighting the beauty and energy efficiency of clotheslines for some time now. My mailbox filled up with forwards of the NYT article! That must mean I have an audience!!! Can I consider myself a published writer?

As the leaves fall from the trees and Eliza reports below freezing temperatures and snow in the White Mountains, I am back at my desk. I am also teaching three writing classes. I presently have thirty four students spread over three weekday mornings. At night I reread Natalie Goldberg's books, along with Julia Cameron and Anne Lamott. In the early hours of the morning, I write the agenda for each class including assignments and inspirational quotes. Some of you have asked me to forward on some of the things I cover in class. This blog may be a good place to do that. I also write a lot now that I am teaching. I write along with my students. I may publish some of those little pieces as well.

Many blogs have a specific theme. You never know what you will find at www.calleymouse.blogspot.com!! I wander here and there, knowing that my audience will travel along with me. Happily, even I am surprised by my blog when I log in and see that Carrie or Eliza has posted something. Thanks to everyone out there; our loyal followers.

Auggie turned three today!

My great nephew August lives in Portland, Oregon.
I am so glad his mother Hope has an iphone and sends photos to my sister who then sends them to me.

what happened to fall?

Oh, the difference one month can make in the White Mountains of New Hampshire!
The view of the Pemigewasett Wilderness from Galehead Hut.
The first photo was taken by me over a balmy Labor Day Weekend.
The second photo was taken by Eliza with her phone on October 1.
Anyone up for a hike?