New Painting

This is the painting of Venice that I'm working on.

The "War on Terror" PEACE REPORT

Some things I read make me feel it's hopeless, but I got some hope from this article by Noam Chomsky.


http://www.alternet.org/story/30487

Where Betsy Backlund Works

Click on this link to see the new Spring Line as well as my favorite, the 2005 Fall Line.

http://houseofhengst.com/

Monet and I Agree

Never Too Many Nasturtiums!
Giverny, France 2005

The South Germany Beer, Bratwurst, Pork Hocks and Gingerbread Diet

The South Germany Beer, Bratwurst, Pork Hocks and Gingerbread Diet

First, get well-acquainted with your sausage vendor. And then stock up on German beer. With its high-alcohol content, it's the key to a successful weight loss program.

Familiarize yourself with the recommended food choices listed in your BBPH&A guidebook; you can find nearly every food allowed at a local biergarten.

Hint: If you drink beer before eleven a.m., pair it with a sausage.

Remember to keep the proper balance of foods with your beer. For example, if you order dumplings in gravy, always pair them with pork hocks (schweinhauxsen). With enough fat and protein , you'll never have that hungry feeling.

(No-Knife Rule: Split dumplings by pulling apart with two forks for better gravy absorption.)

Always measure portions. The dieter shown knows that one liter of beer provides enough grams of carbohydrates to begin the fermentation process that kick-starts weight loss.

Use beer to maintain a constant blood sugar level at all times of the day. While exercising or hiking, drink plenty of beer. Avoid water.

For quick results, set your goals at two liters of beer with a heavy meal.

Sometimes a low-fat food just can't be avoided. When this happens, just relax, and look around the table for the antidote. Here, buttered bread and creamy potato salad save the day.

Raise carbs and your spirits with a full liter of beer whenever you like.

Dieters who relax during their meals seem to lose pounds the quickest. While waiting for your after dinner beer liqueur, the Balance The Coaster On Your Nose Game can calm nerves.

Here's a tip for Americans trying to replicate this diet at home: it takes FOUR American beers to equal ONE German beer.

Your dessert beer liqueur will help burn calories, but don't expect this to happen on its own. Your must have heavy whipped cream on top or it won't work. Without cream, dessert beer is just empty calories.

After Dinner Beer Liqueur Round Two is for those whose carb-cream balance needs adjustment.

Dessert? On the South Germany diet, you can say YES to gingerbread and still fit into your leiderhosen! Prost!!!!

Sand and Haiku

Voice Messaging

Broken, hiccupping tones

Tragically convey one who

Tried, but failed, to call

Coney Lake Morning

Montaintop clouds

slip WHOOPS down the cliffs

A tumbling avalanche of mist

Waiting

Waiting, I learn how

Our sweet embrace

Must last one year more

The Lindy

Mother, or Daughter?

We never know who leads

In our wild kitchen dance

Sentinels

Ancient boulders pose

in the tundra's twilight

spirits, watching my family

Log Bridge

Our eight feet must cross

this thundering icy stream

Four hearts make sure

Off

The cat's whiskers cast

A delicate, traced shadow

Get down now, I'm writing

Illegal

weak, I surrender

to tundra's invitation

lying on wildflowers

Meadow Mountain

Lightning preventing

A summit, we lay by the stream

Her head cupped in my arm

How My Speakers Fought the Bad Manners Blues

Click here to see Dear Reader where my guest column appeared!

http://dearreader.typepad.com/dear/2005/09/dear_reader_col_16.html




Embarking on a day of solo skiing in the high country, I eased my matronly blue van (years ago dubbed "The Mother Ship") into the ski area's wooded outer parking lot, my radio's classical station supplying the perfect rapturous accompaniment to this gloriously sunny, white-skirted day.

I parked and turned off the car and radio, surprised by a less pleasing sound assaulting my ears. In the next parking spot stood a Subaru with its doors thrown open, a booming rap beat blasting from its stereo system. Beside it, four snowboarders pulled on loose jackets and knitted hats, oblivious of the overreaching effects of their music.

"How rude," I thought, opening the hatch of my van, "to assume that everyone in this lot wants to listen to their particular, offensive music." I felt invaded--the peace of the day ebbing away.
Getting into my van to put on sunscreen gave me shelter from the noise, when a more positive move occurred to me.

I turned my radio once again to the classical station, cranked the volume all the way up and lowered all four windows at once, my speakers pouring classical crescendos from every orifice of the behicle. Thus accompanied, I got out to don my boots and unload my skis, trying to pretend it normal to function amidst this much noise. The musics dueled.

The boarders, one by one, glanced up from fastening boots amidst the cacophony and grinned. Grins broadened to smiles, nearly to laughter. They were definitely getting it. Minutes later, all ready to go, we simultaneously turned off both sound systems and locked the cars, the show-down over.

"Great day, isn't it!!!" chirped one of the boarders to me in the now silent lot, barely containing his glee.

"SO GREAT!!!" I agreed, having given up nothing, and gained quite a lot.

Painting: Filoli Gardens Oil on Canvas 9x12

Oil Painting
9x12
Filoli Gardens, Woodside, California
June, 2005

Consicience vs. Brain? Try Imagination!

This is my letter to the editor published in October, 2004, just before the presidential elections.


The great debate raging in David Heitman's psyche ("The Great Debate: My head vs. my heart," Insight, Oct 3) presents a rarity -- someone who can see both sides of the issue! He has a conscience formed by Martin Luther King Jr., John and Bobby Kennedy, yet still finds comfort and "assurance in a Republican administration in bed wiht the military-industrial complex"-- someone who may possibly believe that the war is good for the economy but who still is aware that "over there," where the president wants to fight "them," are people with innocent families whose lives could be sacrificed, so that we don't have to fight "them" "over here."
The war between Mr. Heitman's conscience and his brain makes it hard for him to decide how to vote. With so little time remaining, I have help for him and it is this fact: There is more to your psyche than a conscience and a brain. You also have an imagination, and in Einstein's words, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."
As Heitman struggles with the "great debate," imagine:

• A world in which we do not arm one country against another for nationalistic gain;
• Leaders who understand that our environment is what sustains us;
• A country that places value upon all human lives - not just those of our own nationality;
• Domestic policies that treat citizens equally;
• A country in which the only heads that roll are ones that lead to and condone torturous acts such as Abu Ghraib;
• A world in which we put as much faith in acts of peace as acts of war.

If your mind and your conscience make your decision difficult, just use your imagination.