Doors

 

The Door

By Charles Tomlinson  (1927-2015)

Too little
has been said
Of the door, it’s one
face turned to the night’s
downpour and its other
to the shift and glistens of firelight.

Air, clasped
by this cover
into the room’s book,
is filled by the turning
pages of dark and fire
as the wind shoulders the panels,
or unsteadies that burning. 

Not only
the storm’s
breakwater, but the sudden
frontier to our concurrences, appearances,
and as full of the offer of space
as the view through a cromlech is.

For doors
are both frame and monument
to our spent time,
and too little
has been said
of our coming through and leaving by them.

 

Gardening Information for Vancouver, Washington

Repost from 2000:

It is now raining heavily in Vancouver, Washington.  The Cascades will get some heavy snow at the higher altitudes.  Temperatures in the 40's.  

The annual average rainfall (AAR) in the different places I have lived is of note for me:

1946-1967  Unincorporated East Los Angeles, Bandini Neighborhood/Varrio,
                  City of Commerce, Southern California   AAR = 15”
1948-1958  Karen grew up in Alexandria, Central Indiana   AAR = 42"
1969-1973  Biloxi, Mississippi   AAR = 65”
1973-1983  Bell Gardens, Southern California   AAR =  15”
1983-1998  Hacienda Heights, California   AAR = 15”
1998-2017  Red Bluff, Northern California   AAR = 25”
2017–         Vancouver, Southwestern Washington, Northwest USA  AAR = 42”


Vancouver, Washington, is rated as USDA Agricultural Zone 8B.

Zone 8b means that the average minimum winter temperature is 15 to 20 °F. 

Gardening Information for Vancouver, Washington:  

Understanding your gardening environment is essential to success.  What are the climate conditions in your area during a year's cycle?  What is the soil like?
What kinds of plants are grown successfully in your area?  What nurseries are nearby.  

Vancouver, Washington, USA, Zip Code: 98662

Hardiness Zone:  Zone 8a: 10F to 15F

Average First Frost:  October 21 - 31

Average Last Frost:  April 1 - 10

Koppen-Geiger Climate Zone:  Csb - Warm-Summer Mediterranean Climate

Ecoregion:  3a - Portland Vancouver Basin

Palmer Drought Index:  Extremely Moist

Average Annual Rainfall:  43.55 inches

Heat Zone Days:  Rare Over 86F 

Elevation:  171 feet above the Pacific Ocean

Soil:  

Nurseries:  Yard and Garden, Shorty's, Tsugawa in Woodland, Lowe's and Home Depot.  

General Geography: 

The Pacific Ocean and Astoria, Oregon, is 100 miles to the West from Vancouver.
The south side of the City of Vancouver is the Columbia River, and across the river is Portland, Oregon.  The Cascade range and Columbia Gorge is to the East.  Looking north: 165 miles to Seattle, 494 miles to Vancouver, Canada; 105 miles to Olympia, and 45 miles to Mt. St. Helens.  

January Average: 33F low, 46F high, 6" Rain

February Average: 35F low, 50F high, 4.99" Rain

March Average: 37F low, 56F high, 4.38" Rain

April Average:  40F low, 60F high, 3.28" Rain

May Average:  45F low, 67F high, 2.67" Rain

June Average:  50F low, 72F high, 1.88" Rain

July Average:  53F low, 79F high, .8" Rain

August Average:  57F low, 82F high, .5" Rain

September Average:  49F low, 75F high, 1.91" Rain

October Average:  42F low, 64F high, 3.41" Rain

November Average:  38F low, 52F high, 6.49" Rain

December Average:  34F low, 46F high, 6.68" Rain

Yearly Averages:  42F low, 62F high, 43.55" Rain


The Spirit of Gardening

Gardening in Red Bluff, California

Colors in the Garden: Vancouver, WA

Gardening in Vancouver, Washington

Beverly Beach State Park OR

I had planned to go yurt camping to the Oregon Coast this week from Monday thru Thursday.

I had reservations at Beverly Beach State Park, Oregon. This campground is located 9 miles north of Newport. I have never yurt camped at Beverly Beach.

The weather report indicates rain every day and night, with rain heavy at times. Winds are expected to be steady, with winds from 15-30 mph. These days are also King Tides - with high tides of 9-11 feet. It is dark for many hours these November days.

I enjoy auto touring the 132 miles from Vancouver Home to Beverly Beach SP. And, up and down the coast from Newport to Lincoln City. However, driving in the rain for four days is less appealing.

Lincoln City OR

Depoe Bay OR

Beverly Beach State Park OR

Newport OR

I decided to cancel my 11/3-11/6 reservation at Beverly Beach State Park. 

Karen and I have toured Newport and Lincoln City many times, alone or with family, and stayed at motels, hotels, resorts, and yurts.

Reflections on Biology

 I read the fascinating book "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution" (2010) by Richard Dawkins.  Scientific reasoning, fact finding, predictive powers, logic, confirmed theories, the scientific community, documentation, research, analysis, pure and applied science, testing ... are subjects that always attract my keen attention.  I have read a number of books by Professor Dawkins - a first rate thinker and writer.  He is also an influential contemporary atheist, and I share is views on religion.  

The human body is over 60% water. 

The typical adult human body consists of about 60 trillion cells (6x10^13). 

There are about 60 trillion atoms in a human cell.

Inside the nucleus of each cell are the DNA genetic
codes that govern growth, structure, and reproduction.
As these DNA strands are modified or reshuffled
during millions of reproductive cycles then variations occur over time.

The earthly timeline is measured in hundreds of thousands
of millions of years for these variations to occur
and some to survive and multiply.

Fascinating!
Amazing!
Complex!

Listening to the Rain

Repost from December 8, 2014, from Red Bluff, California:

We are today getting some much needed rain from a large storm coming up from the South Pacific into California.  Winds are now in excess of 45 miles per hour.  Rainfall up to six  inches is predicted for the next few days.  Temperatures here are between 45F and 55F.  We expect considerable snow in the mountains above 5,000 feet.  We have not had such a ferocious storm in Red Bluff since 2008. 

The elementary school district I work for on a part-time basis, 24 hours per week, is closed today because of dangerous road conditions for our buses and flooding. 

A day for some home chores, reading, exercise, and listening to the storm outside.  

December: Quotes, Poems, Sayings 


Water and Rain: Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Facts

"I have been one acquainted with the night
I have walked out in rain - and back in rain
I have out-walked the furthest city light
I have looked down the saddest city lane
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say goodbye;
And further still at an unearthly height;
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night."
-   Robert Frost, Acquainted with the Night


"Water, the Hub of Life. Water is its mater and matrix, mother and medium. Water is the most extraordinary substance! Practically all its properties are anomalous, which enabled life to use it as building material for its machinery. Life is water dancing to the tune of solids.
-  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi  


"Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life."
-  John Updike

Here are some photographs that Karen took around our yard this morning.  We are checking and concerned as the heavy rain continues.    

Weather in Vancouver, Washington

The City of Vancouver, in Clark County, Washington, USA, is situated on the north side of the Columbia River, directly across form the large City of Portland, Oregon, on the south side of the Columbia River.  Portland and Vancouver have the same weather.

Karen and I live in the Orchards neighborhood, northeast of the City of Vancouver, in Clark County, about 7 miles north of the Columbia River along the 205 Freeway.
We can see both Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens from our area.

Average Annual Precipitation: 43.55 Inches (Some sources say 39 Inches) 

Number of Days Per Year with a Trace or More of Precipitation: 151

Number of Cloudy Days: 229

Vancouver, Washington, USA, Zip Code: 98662

Hardiness Zone:  Zone 8a: 10F to 15F

Average First Frost:  October 21 - 31

Average Last Frost:  April 1 - 10

Koppen-Geiger Climate Zone:  Csb - Warm-Summer Mediterranean Climate

Ecoregion:  3a - Portland Vancouver Basin

Palmer Drought Index:  Extremely Moist

Average Annual Rainfall:  43.55 inches

Heat Zone Days:  Rare Over 86F 

Elevation:  171 feet above the Pacific Ocean

General Geography: 

The Pacific Ocean and Astoria, Oregon, is 100 miles to the West from Vancouver, along the Columbia River. The south side of the City of Vancouver is the Columbia River, and across the river is Portland, Oregon. The Cascade range and Columbia Gorge is to the East. Looking north:165 miles to Seattle, 307 miles to Vancouver, Canada; 105 miles to Olympia, and 45 miles to Mt. St. Helens.

January Average: 33F low, 46F high, 6" Rain

February Average: 35F low, 50F high, 4.99" Rain

March Average: 37F low, 56F high, 4.38" Rain

April Average:  40F low, 60F high, 3.28" Rain

May Average:  45F low, 67F high, 2.67" Rain

June Average:  50F low, 72F high, 1.88" Rain

July Average:  53F low, 79F high, .8" Rain

August Average:  57F low, 82F high, .5" Rain

September Average:  49F low, 75F high, 1.91" Rain

October Average:  42F low, 64F high, 3.41" Rain

November Average:  38F low, 52F high, 6.49" Rain

December Average:  34F low, 46F high, 6.68" Rain

Yearly Averages:  42F low, 62F high, 43.55" Rain


The Spirit of Gardening

Gardening Information for Vancouver WA.

Gardening in Red Bluff, California

Colors in the Garden: Vancouver, WA

Gardening in Vancouver, Washington

The Weather of the Pacific Northwest. By Cliff Mass. University of Washington Press, 2021, 299 pages,  Second Edition. FVRL. Excellent overview, lots of photographs, for the lay reader but very thorough.

Rains All the Time: A Connoisseur's History of Weather in the Pacific Northwest. By David Laskin. 1997, 215 pages.

Walking on a Drizzling Morning

My dog, Bruno, and I walk every morning for 45 to 60 minutes.  We walk in our suburban neighborhood in Vancouver, Washington State. The autumn season can bring cool morning temperatures between 45F to 55F, overcast skies, fog, dampness, and rain.  We wear warm clothes and try to stay dry. 

I began my daily morning walks in 1998.

"I was the world in which I walked."
-   Wallace Stevens, Tea at the Palaz of Hoon

"Allow walking to occupy a place of stature equal with all the other important activities in your life. As difficult as that might seem, here's how to do it. Make it a practice. That's right. Turn your walking into a vehicle for personal growth as well as for fitness. This will add a higher level of integrity and intention to your approach because you will find that it is a way to deepen and upgrade your relationship to your body. Instead of merely giving your legs a good workout, you'll be practicing to relax more, to breathe better, to expand your vision, to open up your range of motion, to increase your energy, to feel and sense your body. The list is exciting - and endless. With all of this to look forward to, your walking program will take its place alongside everything in your life you value most, and you'll be amazed at how easy it is to schedule time for something you really love to do."
- Katherine Dreyer, Chi Walking, p. 56

 

Chi Walking: The Find Mindful Steps for Lifelong Health and Energy. By Danny Dreyer and Katherine Dreyer. New York, Simon and Shuster, Fireside Books, 2006. Index, 258 pages. ISBN: 0743267206.


"Walking I am unbound, and find that precious unity of life and imagination, that silent outgoing self, which is so easy to loose, but which a high moments seems to start up again from the deepest rhythms of my own body. How often have I had this longing for an infinite walk - of going unimpeded, until the movement of my body as I walk fell into the flight of streets under my feet - until I in my body and the world in its skin of earth were blended into a single act of knowing."
- Alfred Kazin, The Open Street

"If you look for the truth outside yourself,
It gets farther and farther away.
Today walking alone, I meet it everywhere I step.
It is the same as me, yet I am not it.
Only if you understand it in this way
Will you merge with the way things are."- Tung-Shan

 

     "Walking meditation means to enjoy walking without any intention to arrive. We don't need to arrive anywhere. We just walk. We enjoy walking. That means walking is already stopping, and that needs some training. Usually in our daily life we walk because we want to go somewhere. Walking is only a means to an end, and that is why we do not enjoy every step we take. Walking meditation is different. Walking is only for walking. You enjoy every step you take. So this is a kind of revolution in walking. You allow yourself to enjoy every step you take.
     The Zen master Ling Chi said that "the miracle is not to walk on burning charcoal or in the thin air or on the water; the miracle is just to walk on earth." You breathe in. You become aware of the fact that you are alive. You are still alive and you are walking on this beautiful planet. That is already performing a miracle. The greatest of all miracles is to be alive. We have to awaken ourselves to the truth that we are here, alive. We are here making steps on this beautiful planet. This is already performing a miracle. But we have to be here in order for the miracle to be possible. We have to bring ourselves back to the here and the now."
- Thich Nhat Hanh, Resting in the River

 

The Ways of Walking: Quotations, Facts, Methods, Spirituality, Meditative

• Ways of Walking
• Walking Meditation
• Walking Quotations
• Walking Bibliography
• Circle Walking: Bagua
• Walking the Labyrinth
• Garden Walking
• Walking Qigong
• Walking Staff   

In the Early Morning Rain

In the Early Morning Rain
By Gordon Lightfoot (1938-2023)

Performed by Peter, Paul, and Mary

Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald  1979

By Gordon Lightfoot

Sundown   1974
By Gordon Lightfoot 

Suzuki Walks in the Fog

The Fireplace Records, Chapter 22

Suzuki Walks in the Fog

Shunryu Suzuki (1904-1971) lived in San Francisco for many years.  He was the Zen Master who was the founder of the Zen Centers in San Francisco and Carmel Valley.  Many of his students in California became influential Zen Buddhist teachers and authors.  

San Francisco often has heavy fog cover in the summer, and the Willamette Valley in Oregon has very heavy fog cover in the winter.  The Central Valleys of California can have very heavy Tule ground fog cover in the winter. Normally, clouds and rainfall come in the winter on the West Coast of the USA, and the summer's are dry and clear - a Mediterranean Climate.

Suzuki was a skillful teacher, working with a variety of students: monks and householders.  His Zen Centers also developed programs for end of life hospice care, AIDS help, food programs, retreats, Temple services, drug rehabilitation, monk training, etc.

A key to his success, besides in enlightened teaching and kindness, was his ability to be patient, stay the course, work day by day, be dedicated, and encourage others to persist in their spiritual practices.  Progress is patience, work, and letting go of attachments to "success" in your spiritual endeavors.  

"After you have practiced for awhile, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress.  Even though you may try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little.  It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet.  In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little.  If you mind has ideas of progress, you may say, "Oh, this pace is terrible!" But actually, it is not.  When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry yourself.  So there is no need to worry about progress."
- Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, p. 41

A Student’s Considerations:

Learning to play a musical instrument, cook, garden, or whatever, requires
   patience, practice, and steady slow progress.
Don't Rush so often.  Slow down.  Lower your pace.
Tortoise and Hare: Slow/Fast, Jogging/Sprinting.
Be careful of your commitments in terms of available time.
Take a walk, safely, in the dense fog - in a world erased.
Be committed and soak up the wisdom of the Masters!
Just Do It!  Don't worry about progress.
Persist, struggle forward, persevere like the sturdy Carp swimming upstream
   through a waterfall, passing through the Dragon's Gate, and then becoming
   a Royal Dragon. We have watched salmon migrating upstream to their
   Original Home, and facing their Great Death that gives life to others.  

 

Related Links, Resources, References

Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind. By Shunryu Suzuki. Shambhala, 1970, 2020 50th Anniversary Edition, 176 pages. VSCL, Paperback.  36 Essays/Chapters.

Koans:

Subject Index to 1,001 Zen Buddhist Koans

Refer to my Cloud Hands Blog Posts on the topic of Koans/Dialogues.

The Daodejing by Laozi    Best? 

Pulling Onions  Over 1,043 One-line Sayings by Mike Garofalo

Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans

Taoism

Buddhism

Fireplaces, Stoves, Campfires, Kitchens, Pots, Firewood

Chinese Art

Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong

Meditation Methods

Zen Koan Books I Use

Koan Database Project

Brief Spiritual Lessons Database Project: Subject Indexes

Subject Index to 1,001 Zen Buddhist Koans
(This is an ongoing project in the Spring of 2023)

Sparks: Brief Spiritual Lessons and Stories

Matches to Start a Kindling of Insight
May the Light from Your Inner Fireplace Help All Beings
Taoist, Chan Buddhist, Zen Buddhist, Philosophers
Catching Phrases, Inspiring Verses, Koans, Meditations
Indexing, Bibliography, Quotations, Notes, Resources
Research by Michael P. Garofalo

The Fireplace Records
By Michael P. Garofalo

Subject Index to 1,001 Zen Buddhist Koans

What Runs But Never Gets Tired?

The annual average rainfall (AAR) in the different places I have lived is of note for me:

1946-1967  Unincorporated East Los Angeles, Bandini Neighborhood/Varrio,
                  City of Commerce, Southern California   AAR = 15”
1948-1958  Karen grew up in Alexandria, Central Indiana   AAR = 42"
1969-1973  Biloxi, Mississippi   AAR = 65”
1973-1983  Bell Gardens, Southern California   AAR =  15”
1983-1998  Hacienda Heights, California   AAR = 15”
1998-2017  Red Bluff, Northern California   AAR = 25”
2017–         Vancouver, Southwestern Washington, Northwest USA  AAR = 42”


Vancouver, Washington, is rated as USDA Agricultural Zone 8B.

Zone 8b means that the average minimum winter temperature is 15 to 20 °F. 


"Ancient traditions have long associated holy wells and springs as very special places of the Goddess or anima mundi: symbolic of the Great Mother and associated with birth, the feminine principle, the universal womb, the prima materia, the waters of fertility and refreshment and the fountain of life. The dreaming sites, as they are called, have also been associated with visions, healing, and other paranormal experiences. In ancient Greece, for example, there were more than three-hundred medical centers placed at water sources, where patients experienced healing."
- Christopher and Tricia McDowell, The Sanctuary Garden, 1998, p. 62

"Day after day we looked for rain, and day after day we saw nothing but the sun. Lavender that we had planted in the spring died. The patch of grass in front of the house abandoned its ambitions to become a lawn and turned into the dirty yellow of poor straw. The earth shrank, revealing its knuckles and bones, rocks and roots that had been invisible before."
-  Peter Mayle

Water and Rain: Quotations, Sayings, Thoughts

What runs but never gets tired?
Water

"Water is the driver of Nature."
- Leonardo da Vinci

Interstate 5 Highway Bridge from Vancouver, Washington to Portland, Oregon.  

This bridge crosses the Columbia River.  

Columbia River Valley

Mt. Hood and Hood River Valley, Oregon
The Hood River flows into the Columbia River.

Astoria, Oregon, where the Columbia River meets the Pacific Ocean.

First Rains of 2021-2022

It began to rain on Saturday and continues to fall today.  Finally!!  We have not had any rain for many months.  We need rain and snow in the Northwest.

Tomorrow, 9/20/2021, I drive from Vancouver to Grayland Beach State Park.  I will be camping at the beach in a yurt for 3 days.  

Lately, lots of reading!  

"Estuaries are a happy land, rich in the continent itself, stirred by the forces of nature
like the soup of a French chef; the home of myriad forms of life from bacteria and
protozoans to grasses and mammals; the nursery, resting place, and refuge of
countless things."
-  Stanely A. Cain

"When you look at that nature world it becomes an icon, it becomes a holy picture that speaks of the origins of the world.  Almost every mythology sees the origins of life coming out of water.  And, curiously, that's true.  It's amusing that the origin of life out of water is in myths and then again, finally, in science, we find the same thing.  It's exactly so."
-   Joseph Campbell, The Hero's Journey, p. 10

Water Quotations

Rainy Day in the Valley

We are today getting some rain from a large storm coming up from the South Pacific into California.  Local communities in the Valley got some snow last night.  Temperatures here are between 35F and 55F.  We expect considerable snow in the mountains above 3,000 feet.  

A day for some home chores, reading, exercise, and listening to the storm outside.  

December: Quotes, Poems, Sayings 

Water and Rain: Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Facts


"I have been one acquainted with the night
I have walked out in rain - and back in rain
I have out-walked the furthest city light
I have looked down the saddest city lane
I have passed by the watchman on his beat
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain
I have stood still and stopped the sound of feet
When far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,
But not to call me back or say goodbye;
And further still at an unearthly height;
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong nor right.
I have been one acquainted with the night."
-   Robert Frost, Acquainted with the Night


"Water, the Hub of Life. Water is its mater and matrix, mother and medium. Water is the most extraordinary substance! Practically all its properties are anomalous, which enabled life to use it as building material for its machinery. Life is water dancing to the tune of solids.
 -  Albert Szent-Gyorgyi  

"Rain is grace; rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life."-  John Updike

I originally posted this to this Cloud Hands Blog in December of 2016.  

Step Out in the Rain

Day after day, wind and rain, rain and wind. Everything is soaked in our yard and gardens.

"When you look at that nature world it becomes an icon, it becomes a holy picture that speaks of the origins of the world. Almost every mythology sees the origins of life coming out of water.  And, curiously, that's true.  It's amusing that the origin of life out of water is in myths and then again, finally, in science, we find the same thing.  It's exactly so."
- Joseph Campbell, The Hero's Journey, p. 10

"Water is a good servant, but it is a cruel master."
- John Bullein, 1562

Haiku - February

Water and Rain: Quotes, Sayings, Lore

"I am sure it is a great mistake always to know enough to go in when it rains. 
One may keep snug and dry by such knowledge, but one misses a world of loveliness."
- Adeline Knapp

One apple left on a branch of the tree.  It shares the space with a Praying Mantis egg case and a few emerging apple buds.  

A lovely apricot blossom that survived the rain and wind.  A the local almond orchards are in full bloom - white blooms.  

"Coming home
long necked geese–
Canadian-Americans.

A warm rest for
coots, geese, and ducks–
wet rice fields.

The white geese
ascend from the far fields
fleeing popping shotguns.

The honking geese
a quacking cacophony
flapping overhead.

Flocks of white
geese in the light gray fog–
this way and that way."

- Mike Garofalo

Come in From the Rain

"Man is not an aquatic animal, but from the time we stand in
youthful wonder beside a Spring brook till we sit in old age
and watch the endless roll of the sea, we feel a strong kinship
with the waters of this world."
- Hal Borland, Sundial of the Seasons


leafless trees
dripping-
winter storm
Mike Garofalo, Cuttings


Rain and Water: Quotations, Poetry, Sayings.  Compiled by Mike Garofalo.


It has been very windy and raining in Red Bluff.  Northern California has received more than normal rainfall and snow during the month of January.  

Here are some photographs of the flooding on our property in Red Bluff.

We are home now and back into our normal routines.  

We continue to make improvements in our home.  We have realtors and buyers contacting us about selling our home.  Buyers are coming this weekend to visit our home.  

Our camping trip to Bullard's Beach State Park in Oregon was outstanding.  

Our next beach trip in March will be to Rockaway Beach in Oregon.  

We now have a portable beach tent and low beach chairs.  Essential for extended outings out to windy and cool beaches.  

Yesterday, we watched the documentary film "Cooked" based on the book by Michael Pollan.  Excellent insights into a variety of aspects (social, scientific, culinary, agriculture, cultural, manufacturing) of food and cooking.  I am now reading his book "The Omnivore's Dilemma."