Happy 4th of July!

The last three weeks have been non-stop guests at the cottage. And I can't seem to be with my nieces and nephews and keep house at the same time. Our living room is a nest of mattresses, there are craft projects everywhere...we LOVE it!

Today everyone is in Salt Lake except for me and O'lover. The cottage is in need of some major attention before the whole city descends upon downtown Provo for the 4th of July party. I better get cleaning but first

here's a note about a very different day in the life of a housewife...a day much colder with a splash of good old-fashioned American civil disobedience.

A blustery day last December-
Started off with visiting the Utah Offices of the Bureau of Land Management. I didn't know it then but while I was outside holding AJ's sign, Tim de Christopher was inside following his conscience. Later, the U.S. Secretary of the Department of Interior deemed the BLM's sales of public lands illegal. YAY!!! And the former director of the BLM, Patrick Shea, is Tim de Christopher's lawyer. (Aside: once Oliver and I had lunch with Patrick Shea and told him all about this, which he likes very much.)
After the BLM we went to the Black Sheep Wool Company for gorgeous yarns and expert help. Here AJ is wearing a hat she dyed and felted and a scarf she wove.
*****

And now off to sweat it out on a ladder to repair some peeling house trim, Happy Fourth of July!!!

GP

For the Love of the Ladies

Introducing Beverly Simone...

isn't she cute? And despite her looking forward, she was very aware that I was taking her picture. Beverly Simone is our sweet hen...who didn't get her fair share of press recently when the Deseret News and Daily Herald came to snap photos of the ladies. photo of Bridget and me by Stuart Johnson, Deseret News

photo by ASHLEY FRANSCELL/Daily Herald

Honey and I were front page news.

Many thanks to the municipal council members who voted in favor of urban hens.

YES on chickens!

If you live in Provo please support Cindy Clark and the other council members who are proposing an ordinance that allows for back yard hens! The council meeting is on Tuesday!

This is the address: Council2@provo.utah.org

This is my off-the-cuff e-mail:

Have you been to the Wasatch Gardens Chicken Tour in Salt Lake City? It's like the Parade of Homes only for chicken coops! They show a wide range of innovative coops that all have one thing in common: CHARM! For many reasons we support city chickens on a small scale (no to poultry farms within city neighborhoods!) I don't think chickens and roosters should be allowed to roam the streets but I do think that it is simple to look after some hens and have it be a wonderful experience that will enrich the lives of our community members who choose to have a small flock. Also, I think it would be very ironic that so many cities allow hens but Provo wouldn't allow that freedom?

Many thanks to Cindy Clark for sponsoring the ordinance change and to the council members who support it!

Provo's Inaugural Ball

all grandiose plans to knit myself an Inaugural ballgown were abandoned. sniff. i would have preferred something less "funeral" and more patriotic.

three generations of Callis women went to the ball. do you recognize my mum-in-law? she teaches art at wasatch elementary.

the red carpet!

hey we're early! why is it already packed? see obama peeking over andi's shoulder?

and then my camera died and little alarms started going off in my head reminding me of the construction urgency at home. so i skated and slid in my slippery boots all the way back to the cottage to continue the endless build fest in the attic.

see many more pics here.

a breathing matter

we have the worst air in the nation. for those of you readers who don't live along the wasatch front just know that the air in our valley is sometimes soupy and gunky and....hard to breathe for weeks in the winter.

every time i curse the small particulates ("CURSE you PM 2.5!") Ollie reminds me why inversions are a blessing.

HUH? a blessing?

excerpt from a letter Oliver wrote to our officials:

Our inversions ought to be considered a blessing, reminding us that we are responsible for what we put into our air, a call to behave ethically. As a community, we need to be dis-incentivising pollution, and rewarding those who choose not to waste. There is no accountability for those who pollute indiscriminately and affect adversely the well-being of all of us along the Wasatch Front. The young among us suffer disproportionately, and because their suffering manifests itself slowly, they and their families are left with the burden and cost of treating it, often without help. This needs to change, and you can do something about it. Do not leave office without changing our course towards a future with clear skies.

holding one of the signs my best friend sus made for a recent very packed hearing with the department of air quality.

Please join these awesome super moms in taking a proactive stand for clean air.

signed,
keep breathing... even if you do visit their website and find out the dreadful air quality data.

full circle

if you're in the provo area you're welcome to attend the official un-official inaugural ball.

martin luther king day + a glam ball celebrating Obama's inauguration = the perfect event for recognizing how far the country's come. thank you andi for putting it all together!

and to quote andi: "There will be dancing and a cash Mormon-Bar. Maybe they should name the bar The Surely-Temple. I hope you all come ... even if you voted for the other guy!"

sustainable ginger bread houses

The New York Times wrote an article about green-inspired gingerbread houses.

Such as this one:

And this one:
So clever and timely with their windmills and solar panels!

But, like a proud mum, i'm partial to the passive solar homestead i designed for Provo's candy windows.
with a raised bed winter garden, notice the coldframe.
dear reader, beware the effects of working with stale candy nonstop for a full week-- my mind is recreating everything i see into candy. it's like a trippy video game that doesn't stop when you close your eyes.

xo,
quel

It's Blog Action Day!
15,000 bloggers have signed up to write about the environment today.

(but first of all Happy Birthday! to Chris Foster, Sturat, and Friedrich Nietzsche.)

Two thoughts:

1) Slowing down is the most important thing we can do for the environment.

2) This gives me hope! We'll be there this weekend!

xoXOxo

We did seed bombs today. Sunflowers will grow where the beautiful St. Francis building once stood.

Just north of the church site AJ and I spotted this charming shack.

Emo Moment: My repertoire of emotions has been expanded today. My wish is to never hurt anyone's feelings and to be better at soothing people. k...

Emo Flashback: Back in the day Tam and I came up with "the human womb". If we knew of someone who needed love and attention we would wrap ourselves around them and concentrate on love. I also had a friend, MHen who helped me give hug trances to friends who had just experienced loss or who just needed it.

A lot of good people worked really hard to preserve the beautiful St. Francis church and its a bum deal that it was torn down. Tomorrow there's a memorial with music and speakers. Please come and show support for a new trend: preserving our beautiful buildings!
The Timpanogos neighborhood chair, Scott and Shannon Bingham put together a blog to rally enthusiasm and appreciation for our architectural heritage. Visit www.preserveprovo.blogspot.com