30 Years Singing About Peace and Social Justice



1985 Choir: Founder Gaye Fifer 2nd from Rt., Top Row



Estelle Phillips began singing with the Charlottesville Women’s Choir in 1985.  The longest serving member of the current choir, she is also its official archivist, unofficial photographer, and hence its historian as well.

 

Estelle recounts the choir’s origins this way: “In 1984, a group of women, including Gaye Fifer, used to gather around the piano at the Prism Coffee House to sing after meetings of CLASC (the Charlottesville Latin American Solidarity Committee).”  Gaye proposed transforming this ad hoc group into an ongoing choir to sing about social and political concerns. 

2001 Concert



At its origin, with only five singers, Estelle felt too intimidated to join, but by 1985, when the group had grown to about dozen, she joined.  In 1985, she became one of the volunteer directors, and ever since has been singing and directing with the group.  On June 1, she will direct three pieces in the upcoming 30^th Anniversary Spring concert, and a number of her current and former sister choir members will direct several others.  This year, the choir also contracted with retired music teacher Renita Banks to lead two pieces.

The concert scheduled for Sunday, June 1 at 4:30, will be held at the Haven (First and Jefferson Sts., Downtown Charlottesville).  After the concert, the choir will host a reception open to attendees and honoring the early members of the choir, especially Gaye and Deb Shapiro, another early leader.

This event will mark the   30^th year since the choir’s founding.  Gaye, who now lives in Pittsburgh, will return to lead a Spanish round from the ‘80s that started it all -- “Nicaragua” (Remember civil war in El Salvador and Ollie North and secret American support for the counter-revolutionaries in Nicaragua?)

In addition, the choir will sing a wide variety of other pieces from the past 30 years with themes of women’s rights, peace, social justice, and environmental awareness – including everything from a song of women’s empowerment, “Nana was a Suffragette” to the exile’s yearning for a home in “By the Waters of Babylon” and the comic “Girl Shoes” and “The Royals,” a tuneful commentary on pop culture, performed by a quartet of choir members.

Although, according to Estelle, Gaye did most of the work when the choir was founded, the choir now operates with members selecting music, coordinating appearances, and conducting warm-ups before practices.  In its decision making, it aspires to reaching consensus on major matters.  In day- to- day administration, two or three coordinators or “chords” manage the organization with a treasurer collecting dues that pay the bills.  A half dozen choir members currently also teach and/or direct the songs.  

In addition to the spring concert, the choir also performs a number of gigs throughout the year, including the annual fall vigil for victims of abuse sponsored by the Shelter for Help in Emergency (SHE), the Martin Luther King Day Community Celebration, and a service for imprisoned women at the Fluvanna Women’s Correctional Center, one of the choir’s favorite venues.   The group also sings a couple of times a year at Sojourners United Church of Christ, where they practice, and have sung at events sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Church and the Association for Interfaith Ministries.   Each fall, the group opens its membership, and interested women attend several rehearsals before a decision is made.  The group includes women from a wide variety of professions, and includes students as well as retirees, mothers, grandmothers and at least one great grandmother.

The Spring Concert is the culminating event of the Choir’s 2013-14 season before the women disperse for summer vacation.  Donations at the door are requested, and proceeds are shared with a local nonprofit group, which over the past years has included SHE, the Urban Agricultural Group and the Walker Middle School Choir.  This year’s beneficiary will be the Barrett Early Learning Center, which has been providing exemplary day care since 1935, making it the oldest day care center in the Commonwealth of Virginia (so also the oldest in Charlottesville.

  The Charlottesville Women’s Choir 30^thAnniversary Spring Concert

Sunday, June 1, 4:30 p.m. at the HAVEN (corner of 1^st and Market Sts., Charlottesville)

The Barrett Early Learning Center will share in the proceeds from this event.

Donations appreciated but not required:  Suggested:  $5-$15 adults; $4 children 5-12;

free -- under 5.





2013 Spring Concert at the Haven

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AGING GRACEFULLY (Published in C-ville Weekly December 12, 2013)

When did I get this old?

My friends are aging also. While I used to deplore any conversation that mentioned health for more than 30 seconds, now I relish every detail of surgery for a torn meniscus or a knee or hip replacement. Life has changed.

My friends and I aren’t like our parents were in their prime. We’ve traveled more, and we regularly go to the gym, walk the urban trails, and hike in the Blue Ridge.

On the other hand, there’s no shortage of stories about old people left to die in nursing homes or even in their own homes. Recently I read about a dignified man who —despite the presence of family—died at home covered in bedsores, living in squalor. His daughter received a jail sentence for neglect.

This story and others like it motivate me to look for alternatives to aging. While I am in good health now, I realize I’m an accident or illness away from needing help. I have wonderfully supportive adult children and grandchildren—they wouldn’t leave me to rot, would they?—and friends always willing to assist (except when they have their own mishaps). But I’m searching for other pathways for this stage of life, and I am not alone.

As baby boomers age, a tsunami of seniors and their adult children will need to figure out how to acclimate to the later stages of life, as evidenced by the fact that Charlottesville has already seen an influx of newcomers seeking out the area for retirement.

With only modest financial resources, a large number of us cannot afford lifelong retirement communities. Besides, some—like me—prefer living close to town for the libraries, farmers’ markets, movies, live music, theaters, and art galleries. We also enjoy our intergenerational neighborhoods where we see children playing near their homes and on the playgrounds, and young couples doing yard work. I also like walking around my garden and sitting in the woods behind my house.

Ten years ago, I read about communities setting up systems for seniors called villages, where people remain in their homes and receive assistance from neighborhood volunteers, existing social services, and discounted home maintenance services. Boston’s Beacon Hill and Washington’s Capitol Hill Villages were two early examples, but there are now more than 100 nonprofits in the U.S. either coordinating a village or developing one.

Last year, CvilleVillage got started here in town, and I have become one of the worker bees to make it a reality. Our area has lots of services, each in a different location with different qualifications and protocols. A village can simplify the process of finding these services, making everything accessible through one easy phone call.

CvilleVillage’s tagline is “neighbors helping neighbors age safely and happily in their homes and communities.” It’s currently in a planning phase as we identify the needs of the area’s seniors, as well as the people and monetary resources needed to meet these needs. Neighborhoods would supply some volunteers with the larger organization providing additional resources. Until it receives its IRS nonprofit status, CvilleVillage operates under the fiscal sponsorship of the Thomas Jefferson Planning District Commission.

Most villages in the U.S. operate on a budget from affordable membership fees, foundation grants, and individual contributions. Hired staff connect members with the services they need for small household tasks like changing ceiling light bulbs, climbing ladders, and moving large belongings. Transportation and socializing are also important functions in a village.

Over time, CvilleVillage hopes to identify tradespeople at a discount rate who have been vetted for safety and honesty and who can help with larger tasks such as yard work and household maintenance. Volunteers and others would also be recruited to help with technology (computers, smart phones, DVDs) or paperwork (insurance, taxes, bookkeeping).

Recently, CvilleVillage—in collaboration with the Woolen Mills Neighborhood Association—developed a pilot project to try out the concept. With a small grant, CvilleVillage will recruit and train volunteers to conduct a needs interview with Woolen Mills residents. After compiling the results, the group will begin coordinating some services from volunteers and area agencies. A neighborhood coordinating committee is being assembled, and the project should begin in 2014.

Aging—at least in Charlottesville—now offers an alternative pathway. Fortunately, I’m still chipper enough to volunteer to help my neighbors so I expect to be part of the pilot project. And I’m hoping that when the time is right, CvilleVillage will be here to assist me.

Until then, carpe diem, baby boomers! Sphere: Related Content

SING MY SISERS SING!

I've known I was a feminist for a long time now -- since the mid-1960s at least when I read Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique.  But over the last two years, I've experienced my feminism in a new way outside of demonsstrations, politics, and essays -- singing with a woman's choir!

Yesterday, at our annual spring concert, I thought about this as the Charlottesville Women's Choir sang  songs of justice, peace and freedom.  For example, "Never sit Down" about the Suffragettes -- Elizabeth Cady Staunton, Sojourner Truth, Susan B. Anthony -- and "Warrior" about women standing up for themselves in the face of discrimination, abuse and violence against women. 

The great thing about Feminism is that it embraced diversity and justice not only within its own ranks but also within the broader world.  So yesterday, the Choir also sang "By the Waters of Babylon"  about how difficult it is to "sing" your song in a strange land.  While it's based on a gospel song about the Israelites going into Egypt, it reminds us  of the history of American slavery, and also now -- as we think about immigration reform -- about the feelings of all immigrants coming to the new world.

In our four part harmonies, we're not always pitch - perfect but we sing with passion and heart.    And we keep working on our musicality.  Our directors from within the choir  radiate the strength of thier individual feminism in  the way they lead us through out numbers.

Expressing  politics through music is a good thing:  The medium becomes the message without a lot of fanfare.

We sing of peace and justice -- "Lo Yisi Goi" --  a Hebrew song  -- and of rejecting the false religions that teach us to hate and separate rather than "do unto others that which you'd have them do unto you."--  "I ain't afraid."

Every year our choir chooses a recipient to share concert proceeds.  this year, the recipient was the Walker Upper Elementary Choir, to whom the funds will be allocated to help pay for field trips and excursions that some families would not otherwise be able to afford.

Our audiences seem always to be appreciative, and especially heart warming are the several elderly mothers of choir members who show up.  .   . and our daughters, my own dear Margaret especially a boon as she helps us collect donations at the door of the Haven -- a stained glass church hall turned into a place of respite for the homeless of Charlottesville.  And yesterday, a sanctuary for song and celebration.

As a choir member, I especially loved  watching a small group perform "Places in the Choir" celebrating God's love for ALL his creatures - human and otherwise.  The children joined us to make this piece especially adorable and fun.

Sing, my sisters, Sing on . . .


https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=10200411463267979



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March 5: Birthday of Margaret Anna Miller

PARIS, MARCH 5, 2012:  Today is my mother's birthday.  Had she lived, Margaret Anna Miller Slaughter would be 101 years old today.  Born March 5, 1911 in Victoria, Virginia (near her mother's ancestral home of Coleraine), she grew up in Sperryville and Flint Hill, moving to the town of Culpeper in the 1920s in order to attend the "better" high school there.

She boarded at my Grandmother Kate Slaughter's and there, met my father, Jack who was attending VMI.  After graduation from high school, she went off to college at Ward Belmont in Nashville, returning when her father died in 1930. 

Shortly after this, she saw my father again and they began dating.  She wrote that she knew she wanted to marry him after only a few dates.  But the Depression was on, and they did not marry for six years.

She loved books, and to this day, I still have many of her original copies -- poems of Rupert Brooke and Edna St. Vincent Millay, An Anthology of American Negro Poetry, art books, Anna and the King of Siam (which I re-read last summer after seeing The King and I in production by Ashlawn Opera).

Like many women of her generation (and even after), she began to dream of greater vistas but she did not have the opportunities that have occurred during my lifetime.

She was troubled by life in many ways, but despite ups and downs, I always felt loved by her.  As a mother, grandmother (and now great grandmother). I know how important that is for a child. 

Here in Paris, as I remember her, I think how happy she would have been to see this beautiful city along with all the other beautiful places I have experienced in my lifetime.

Happy Birthday, Mama. Sphere: Related Content

Lincoln in Virginia?

I wrote the following piece for the Hook, to be published this Thursday, a few days before Lincoln's birthday but already on line at http://www.readthehook.com/102762/abe-va-quiet-rides-and-sad-sojourn-merit-celebration

It begins:

About 20 years ago, I saw an illustration of Abraham Lincoln entering Richmond, the familiar Jefferson-designed Capitol building looming in the background. I figured the drawing was Union propaganda; I had never heard of Lincoln in Virginia during the Civil War.


Eventually, I learn that the picture had accompanied a Harper’s Weekly story reporting Lincoln’s visit with his son Tad April 4, 1865, the day after Union troops occupied Richmond, five days before Appomattox, and 10 days before Lincoln is assassinated on Good Friday.


Emancipated slaves and black laborers greet the President, falling on their knees. “Don’t kneel to me," Lincoln allegedly tells them. "You must kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy.”

With further research, I find that Lincoln had in fact visited Virginia at least nine times during the War.

I query friends from Virginia and elsewhere: “Lincoln in Virginia during the War? No, I never heard that.”


Like most Americans, I learned in childhood about Lincoln’s humble birth in a Kentucky log cabin; his issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation to free the slaves, and the simple eloquence of the address delivered in the cemetery in Gettysburg.

As a Virginian, I visited many Civil War battle sites and cemeteries dotting the Commonwealth and observed numerous silver roadside historic markers noting every campsite and bivouac of various southern generals, as well as the ubiquitous statues of Rebel soldiers in court house squares.

Union General Custer crossed the Rivanna, and Sheridan burned Scottsville. But Lincoln– what did I know of the Great Emancipator in the Old Dominion? How did so many of us miss the presence of Lincoln in our landscape?

CONTINUE THIS ON http://www.readthehook.com/


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ALICIA BOWLER LUGO: A LIFE

http://www.readthehook.com/102558/remembrance-alicia-bowler-lugo Sphere: Related Content

Water Supply Revisited . . . Again

Today, those of us supporting the Charlottesville. Water Supply Plan showed up in Richmond to testify before the Virginia State Water Control Board in favor of a permit modification to increase the capacity of the Ragged Mountain Dam, built in 1885 to serve the water supply needs of Charlottesville and now the focus of a contentious debate over water supply.

Even though proponents and opponents were present to make their cases, the Water Board voted 6-0 to grant the permit modification.  Proponents of the supply plan and permit included Sally Thomas, former Chair of Albemarle Supervisors  representing a coalition of environmental organizations; Jason Halbert, the foremost proponent of removing dams in Virginia; Bill Kittrell of the Nature Conservancy,  and Liz Palmer, a citizen who also serves on the Albemarle Service Authority, and myself, a former mayor and environmental attorney who specialized in water issues.

Opponents were those who say our real need can be supplied by dredging the South Fork and these include a newly elected member of city council, Dede Smith, who believes her election was due to people's support of her water position. 

Proponents pointed out why the dredging alternative will not serve the real water needs; opponents criticized the data, the lack of stream monitoring gauges ("no funding" says DEQ), the consultants' reports and the cost estimates but offer no real solutions except to assert -- in the face of the studies and other evidence -- that dredging will resolve the water supply issue.

We can go over the numbers forever, but the common sense question is:  Will the South Fork, if dredged back to its 1966 level, be able to supply enough water for the Charlottesville-Albemarle urban area of 2020, 2030 and beyond?  If you look at the growth of the region since 1966 to the present, even with conservation measures in place, this supply will not suffice.

Hopefully, as soon as the cost agreements between city and county are approved and a final pending permit from the Corps of Engineers is issued, we can move on to rebuild the dam, secure our water supply and think about other important issues.

For me, even though I loved working as an advocate, I do not like to spend my retirement years doing this kind of work.  I had to miss a fabulous class on women's short stories today to go to Richmond to advocate.  I decided to make this final push, and I'm glad I did.  One Water Board member told me our support  for the project made a real difference in his thinking about it. We do have credibility and today was the day to put it on the line.

Now back to women's short stories, my own and others . . .

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Writing A Novel

Last month I took the challenge of November as Novel Writing Month and wrote a novel (50,000 words) in 30 days.  It was exciting to try to turn a short story into a novel.  People who had read the story said it would make a good novel, and I threw numerous temper tantrums saying "I don't want to write a novel; I want to write short stories." 

But when a writing acquaintance recommended that I consider joining the fun of trying to write a novel in one month, it seemed like a good idea.  I took the short story I had written as an outline and started.

I got a friend to read it when I was at about 20,000 words and could not imagine how I could get to 50,000.  But one thing led to another, one character led to another and voila!  a novel was born.

The interesting thing is that I fell in love with my characters.  It was kind of like reading a novel -- which I have done a lot of over the years -- except that I was the writer of the novel I was reading.

I don't know when or where I will show this to others, but I must admit that writing the novel was very empowering. Sphere: Related Content

Occupy the Polls? Hardly!

People will complain today about the voter turnout, and it will be low. But the choices we face statewide – elections for the Virginia General Assembly – are unfortunately fewer than they should be.

Of the 100 members of the Virginia House of Delegates, only 26 seats have candidates from both major parties running. That means that only 26 districts in the entire state have races that might interest voters.

Percentage wise, the Senate is more competitive – 24 out of 40 seats have choices between the two major parties. (Additionally, a recent write in campaign has been mounted by a Republican against Senator Don McEachin (D-Richmond). Oh, goody, three fifths of Virginians will have a choice for their senator.

This is down from 2009: there are fewer rather than more competitive races for these seats.

When we look at women’s standing in the General Assembly, the record is even worse. Right now, we have 19 women in the 100-member House of Delegates, 13 Democrats and 6 Republicans. I haven't checked the polls statewide but I'm betting this will remain about the same after the election. I'm hopeful that Connie Brennan will get elected and raise this number to 14.

In the Virginia Senate, beginning with a female “surge” in 1996, we now have 8 women, all but one Democratic. Two of those veterans from the 1996 days, Patsy Ticer and Mary Margaret Whipple are not running for reelection, and their replacements will not be women. Oh well.

Hopefully Connie Brennan will be elected tonight in a very conservative district, but I suspect the race will be tight even though her main opponent has had a record of a number of law-breaking incidents (hardly the right person to write laws).

And Senator Edd Houck who has been very good on women’s reproductive rights as well as environmental issues faces a real challenge from a well funded opponent who has received much money from the Governor’s Political Action Committee. Fingers crossed on this one.

The polls have closed. Now we’ll have to wait for the count.

PS:  On Election night, I always miss the late great Emily Couric, who, had she lived, would have been our first woman governor.  Of that I am sure.  Wherever she is, I suspect Emily is with us night. 

This year also, I miss Mary Ann Elwood, former City politico and civil rights activist, who died this year, and Drewary Brown and Grace and Robert Tinsley, all of whom worked so hard for all Charlottesvillians and for the Democratic Party's sense of justice  -- we remember you always. Sphere: Related Content

Gertrude Stein: My Letter to Editor Regarding Post Review of Stein Show

Published: November 4 Washington Post

I get it: Philip Kennicott loathes Gertrude Stein [“Gertrude Stein knew the right and wrong people,” Arts, Oct. 23]. While he has his reasons, I wish he had at least described the exhibition ”Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories” before launching his diatribe. I viewed it at the National Portrait Gallery the day before I read his review, and I was disappointed by what he wrote.

The show seeks to tell us about Stein and her time in “5 stories”: Stein as the subject of portraiture; as art collector; in her domestic life; through friendships; and as defined by her legacy as writer, celebrity, mentor. I left the exhibition wanting to know more about this interesting but human woman, whose many shortcomings are noted throughout. Kennicott instead creates a sixth story, the “sins” of Stein.

One does not have to worship Stein, her work or her life to learn from the exhibition, and the review could have described more of the exhibition’s structure and the pieces instead of hammering on Stein, her work, her character, indeed her very being. Must he hit us over the head with the intensity of his disdain? Why does he not respect the readers enough to let them decide on the ultimate value of Gertrude Stein as cultural icon?

I encourage others to visit the National Portrait Gallery and judge the show for itself.

FOR OTHER VIEWS SEE THE REST OF THE LETTERS AT THE WASHINGTON POST WEBSITE


http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-many-sides-of-gertrude-stein/2011/10/24/gIQAavUSnM_story.html Sphere: Related Content

KENYA: The Constitution, Widows and Orphans

"We have one of the best-- if not the best -- constitutions in the world today," said Ambassador Elkanah Odembo, Kenya's emissary to the United States. In Charlottesville at the invitation of the African Development Project at St. Paul's Memorial Church, Ambassador Odembo is an old friend of the church and Charlottesville.

Beginning in the 1988, when he worked for World Neighbors in Kenya, Odembo visited Charlottesville to talk about the work of that nongovernmental organization. Educated at Bowdoin College in Maine and the University of Texas, he had returned to his native Kenya.
Sue Rainey, who met Odembo in the 1980s and introduced him Friday night, said she followed his career because she knew this young man was going to make a difference.

An advocate for social justice, Odembo found himself fighting the Kenyan government. Eventually, government leadership began to change, and Odembo became part of that change, participating in a Constitutional Convention to rewrite Kenya's Constitution.

"It is a revolutionary constitution," he claimed, covering not only the basic human rights of free speech, religious freedom and civil rights but also guaranteeing the basic needs of human beings for food, health care, water and shelter.

With this framework, he explained, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) like World Neighbors and others can more appropriately serve the needs of others.

Kenya has also improved the status of women in Kenya, providing them with rights that they lacked only a few years ago. For example, women can now own property rather than being considered the "property" of their husbands to be inherited by brothers-in-law when they are widowed.

He also explained that Kenya is in the process of creating more local governments in the newly created 47 counties (like our states). The Ambassador believes that the tribal wars of 2007-08 are a thing of the past and that Kenya over the next 10 years will be working to improve its infrastructure of roads and access to electricity. He predicts that Kenya will become the first country to depend totally on renewable energy, and he anticipates that geothermal energy production will reach 10,000 megawatts.

In response to questions, the ambassador said that Kenya is working to reforest its lands which in recent years had been reduced from 10% tree cover to 3%. He noted the work of Kenyan Nobel Peace Prize recipient, Wangari Maathai (who died earlier this month) to reforest Kenya. Currently, the nation is reforesting at the rate of 70,000,000 trees per year. It also has passed a law requiring farmers to allocate 10% of their land to trees.

The Ambassador also said the Kenya would not close its borders to Somalis fleeing the famine. Currently, its camp on the Somali border, built for 80,000, holds 560,000 refugees, mostly women and children. The camp is the fourth largest settlement in Kenya, after Nairobi, Kisumu and Mombasa.

In addition to the Ambassador, the Rev. James Ouma spoke about the Nyalwodep Project for Orphans which pairs orphans (resulting from the HIV deaths of their parents) with widows, most of whose spouses died from HIV. Currently the west Kenyan project is supporting 65 widows and 120 children. There are schools for the children and occupational training for the widows. His too is an inspiring project and one of several that is sponsored by the African Development Project.

Later, in October, the Rev. Peter Indalo, leader of the Oyani Christian Rural Services in western Kenya, will also be speaking in Charlottesville. His is another of the projects along with Kitui Development Center that receives funding through the African Development Project, which includes many citizens in Charlottesville but which has been a partnership between St. Paul's and Trinity Episcopal Churches. Sphere: Related Content

LIKE HALPRIN PASSONNEAU HAD A VISION FOR CHARLOTTESVILLE

http://www.readthehook.com/101079/halprin-passonneau-had-vision-charlottesville

PUBLISHED IN THE HOOK, SEPTEMBER 29, 2011

Joseph Passonneau, a renowned American architect-engineer, died in Washington, D.C. in late August at the age of 90. Among his accomplishments was his design of I-70 through Glenwood Canyon in Colorado as well as his ability to persuade a timid St. Louis political hierarchy that the controversial Arch would be a successful gateway to the West.

In the late 1980s, Passonneau also worked on Charlottesville’s gateway: U.S. 29 North. In fact, his proposed urban expressway became so controversial that “expressway” became a pejorative word in Charlottesville transportation lexicology. It shouldn’t be.

In his 1988 report, Passonneau pointed out that it was possible to design “large urban roads that delight the communities in which they are built,” and he envisioned such an expressway for through traffic on 29 with adjacent and parallel landscaped local traffic lanes. (The recent Places 29 Plan proposed a similar design but avoided the “expressway” term.)

Passonneau analyzed the various bypass pathways, including his own adjustments to an urban expressway expediting southbound traffic through Charlottesville and connecting to 29 South via the 250 Bypass. The design built on the so called “base case” traffic improvements of grade-separated interchanges to foster the flow of local east-west auto and pedestrian traffic at Hydraulic and Rio Roads with crossover roads at other points like Greenbrier Drive and Shoppers World.

Such an urban expressway, Passonneau pointed out, would take 242 fewer acres than the proposed bypass, destroy no residences, farm, forest or subdivision land, and impact less business land than any of the bypass pathways. Certainly, an urban expressway would be the least environmentally-damaging option.

Despite Passonneau’s vision, neither he nor his proponents (the Piedmont Environmental Council and Supervisor Tim Lindstrom among the most vocal) could convince the powerful North 29 business owners that a more attractive roadway not only would provide a better solution for local and through traffic but also would serve long term economic interests by creating a more attractive 29 business district. After all, in addition to the local lanes along 29, the network of parallel roads to serve local traffic would include Hillsdale and Commonwealth Drives. That would allow development of an expanded business district– not just the 29 strip.

At the time, however, the 250 interchange flyway, perhaps most controversial piece, was criticized as having too large a footprint. Yet Passonneau had designed it and the rest of the roadway to national safety standards, not to VDOT’s more gargantuan scale. In fact, the 1988 design has no larger a footprint than the Bypass/250 flyway now proposed (and shown in 3D modelling on the Charlottesville Tomorrow website).

Passonneau's urban expressway (and its later version in Places 29) were nixed largely by those representing local business interests, which have evidenced in the 29 discussion little imagination, creativity, or commitment to the region's long-term economic health.

Glenwood Canyon above the Colorado River was a far more difficult engineering challenge and an even more controversial project. Nevertheless, Passonneau’s design preserved and even improved on the terracing above the Colorado River, weaving a 12-mile highway through tunnels and bridges to complete I-70. The result is a beautiful, functional, and scenic highway, which earned Passonneau a Presidential Award for Design Excellence.

Here, in Charlottesville, state politicians have engineered (pardon the pun) a political decision to build a western bypass that will cut through the rural landscape, including Stillhouse Mountain and the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir, impact beautiful residential areas and several schools while spending between $240 - 500 million of taxpayer dollars for just six miles of road ($40/million a mile at the lowest estimate)– while removing just 10 percent of the traffic from 29 Business. The interchanges, by contrast, would cost $40-50 million apiece.

If we want a real solution to local and state traffic issues through Charlottesville, one need look no further than to the vision of Passonneau. If Glenwood Canyon could benefit from this excellent designer-architect, why shouldn’t Charlottesville get a landscaped gateway that welcomes visitors to the uniqueness of Jefferson’s country?

Over 35 years ago, Charlottesville invited another visionary, landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, to design the Downtown Mall. Despite naysayers in the business community, the Mall thrives thanks in large part to Halprin’s vision and the leadership of the two Councilors who voted aye on the then-controversial issue: Charles Barbour and Mitch Van Yahres.

An urban expressway on 29 would transform an Everyplace USA strip mall road to vindicate Passonneau’s vision, but more importantly, it would be a true testimonial to the long range vision of our local and state leaders.

Will the expressway design be revived? Probably not.

But imagine what could happen if we could scrap the special interests to execute a truly win-win solution not only for transportation and beauty, but also for business, for the community, and for the Commonwealth. Sphere: Related Content

A Day for World Peace: Reflecting on Thomas Merton

I attended a world peace commemoration at St. Paul's Memorial Church this afternoon and then enjoyed a community dinner with a large crowd of St. Paul's parishioners and other community members.

Rather than stay for a film, I came home to watch a DVD documentary about the life of Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk and writer whose books I had read frequently 30-40 years ago.

It was a fitting day to remember Merton. Although he had converted to Catholicism as a young adult, then to joining Gethsemane Monastery in Kentucky, over time he came to believe there could be no separation between the secular and the sacred.

Although he craved solitude, he also sought out holy persons from other religious traditions -- the Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh, the Dalai Lama and others. By studying their traditions, he came closer to his own. He believed that the religious person had to be engaged with the issues of the time -- for him -- and also for me -- nuclear war, racism and the War in Vietnam. He inspired thousands of young people from the '60s to this day.

In the film, Merton is quoted from one of his essays: he stands at an intersection of a shopping district in Louisville, Kentucky, suddenly realizing that he is at one with all the people walking past. He had experienced the oneness with humanity that many of us only talk about. From that vantage point, he had to be care about social issues.

One of the exercises we did at St. Paul's was to write on a sheet of paper:

What would peace look like?

My response:

Every person would have a home.

Strangers would be no more; we would greet one another with respect and caring.

We would listen to one another, especially when we disagree.

Egos would be left at the door.

Our politicians--local, state, national, and international-- would reflect us: they too would seek to listen to one another, to resolve issues with respect for the other's opinion when it differs from their own, and they also would leave their egos at the door.

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An Uncivil Discourse on the Downtown Mall

I along with two other former members of Charlottesville City Council held a press conference to raise the issue of paying attention to consequences of decisions and specifically to address our concerns about the fiscal implications of reversing the Council position about building the Meadowcreek Parkway. We were greeted by a group opposing the Parkway, several of whom kept interrupting and shouting as I tried to read our statement. I feel very sad about the lack of civil discourse, especially since many of these same people have been friends of mine and have been quite vocal (without interruptions) in speaking their minds on this and other issues. Below I print what I tried to say over their shouts.


As you can see, most of us are former City officials. All of us have been deeply involved in the life of this city over several decades.

We are here -- in advance of the City Council firehouse primary on Saturday -- because we know from experience that City Council members make important decisions that have consequences on our lives and pocketbooks.

Some in the council campaign have raised the issue of reversing the decision on constructing the Meadowcreek parkway.

Regardless of one’s personal stance on the Meadowcreek Parkway, the City Council has made and reaffirmed its decision to build the road. In fact, the County has completed its portion.

Yet City Council candidates who have announced they would reverse this decision have yet to discuss the financial implications of not building the roadway.

Those here today have varying opinions about the wisdom, the alignment and other specifics of the parkway. It is one thing to have a personal opinion. It is another when those opinions get translated into decisions, for decisions – unlike opinions -- have consequences.

What would be the consequences for the citizens of Charlottesville if the decision on building the Parkway were reversed?

A major consequence is $13.4 million.

Thus far, this amount of taxpayer funds -- $13.4 million -- has been spent for preliminary engineering and right of way for the Parkway and the Interchange.

Reversing the city’s stance and removal of the road from the City’s Transportation Plan would result in the city being required, by statute, to repay $13.4 million in taxpayer dollars to the state and federal governments. The VDOT Board may waive this requirement, which seems highly unlikely under today’s shortfalls in transportation dollars. Decisions likely would be reviewed on an individual basis.

The reimbursement requirement is part of VDOT's standard agreement with cities who request urban transportation projects. It is included in Charlottesville's agreement with VDOT about the MCP. The General Assembly placed this mandate in the state code in order to protect state taxpayers from arbitrary decision-making when a project is requested, millions of public dollars are spent on planning and right-of-way, and then it is cancelled. Yes, the project can be cancelled, but not at the expense of other transportation projects that might have been funded with this money. The locality is held responsible for refunding the money. We know of one city Alexandria which repaid $1 million dollars for a cancelled project.

Another consequence is that if the City were to balk at this repayment, the Virginia Department of Transportation could withhold funds from the City in the amount of this reimbursement, thus putting off for years, if not decades, other important City projects such as Hillsdale Drive, Belmont Bridge and Ramp Improvements at 29/250 interchange.

Yes, decisions have consequences.

We here care about our city and we believe the candidates do also. We know from experience that our citizens care about Charlottesville AND her fiscal condition.

Yet, it is clear – when one is elected to Council, individual views, if translated into action, have consequences. We believe the voters would want to know how the candidates would deal with these consequences. Where would they find the money to reimburse the millions in state and federal tax dollars that have been spent at the city's request on planning, engineering and right-of-way for the MCP and the interchange? How could they justify a request for the CTB to waive the requirement to repay $13.4 million

All signs are that, in the present fiscal situation and with the severe shortage of transportation funds, the state would indeed require repayment of these funds, either from the city's general fund or from transportation allocations for future projects.

Thus, we urge all candidates to clarify any statements that they have made reversing the decision on the Meadowcreek Parkway.

Likewise, we urge all citizens voting in Saturday’s primary (or in the absentee voting on Thursday evening) to be aware of and think about the fiscal consequences of reversing previous parkway decisions, and to ask this question of their candidates: "Where will Charlottesville find approximately $13.4 million to reimburse VDOT for cancelling the project?" (That, incidentally, is about $788 per city household.)

Thank you. We are glad to take questions as a group, and we refer you also to the VDOT District office. We do have a handout citing the Virginia statute that deals with repayment.


Project MCINTIRE ROAD EXTENDED- 2 LANES
Scope of Work NEW CONSTRUCTION
Description FROM: ROUTE 250 BYPASS AT MCINTIRE ROAD TO: MELBOURNE ROAD INTERSECTION
Prelim. Eng. (PE) $3,700 Complete
Right of Way (RW) $0 N/A

Project RTE 250 BYPASS - CONSTRUCT INTERCHANGE
Scope of Work RECONSTRUCTION
Description AT MCINTIRE ROAD/MEADOW CREEK PARKWAY (0.5000 MI)
Prelim. Eng. (PE) $3,871 Complete
Right of Way (RW) $5,867 Complete

Total PE and ROW for MRE and Interchange $13.438 million

Charlottesville 2010 census stats 2005-2009 # Charlottesville Households = 17,037. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/51/51540.html
$13,438,000 reimbursement/17,037 households = $788.75 per household

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Carolina Reunion http://http://www.photoshow.com/watch/sG9kK8Hz

50th College Reunion -- Wow ! Time flies when your life is full. I took a few photos and have posted them for interest.

Carolina in the late 50s and early 60s was a time of change. We had our first African American undergraduate students in our class; nearby the Greensboro sit-ins began. In Chapel Hill, we boycotted the Carolina Theater when it would not allow African Americans to attend shows -- the irony of Blacks not being able to attend "Porgy and Bess" was the occasion that showed just how ridiculous segregation was.

It was good to revisit with friends, remember the times, and see the changes. Thankfully, Franklin Street and the old campus looks much the same even as the University has grown in other directions. Sphere: Related Content

"We're Mad as Hell and We're Not Going ToTake It Anymore!"

With the death of director Sidney Lumet last week, I recalled his 1970s hit, "Network," which I viewed for the first time last summer. I don't know how I missed it, but it was prescient about the transformation of TV News from journalism to entertainment and, in the process, the manipulation and exploitation of indivdual malaise into mass anger.

If you haven't seen the film or a while or if you missed it (maybe you were too young or out of the country or - like me - living a rural "hippie" lifestyle), the story is about a network changing from the production and dissemination of hard news to exploiting and fulfilling a perceived need for "entertainment." In addition, a newscaster who has a melt down ("Im mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore") becomes the catalyst for this change by becoming its star and leading the audience to their tribal yell.

Hmm. . . remind you of any network we've heard about?

Maybe Fox News?

Or does it remind you of any other group we've heard from since 2008?

Like maybe the Tea Baggers (aka Tea Party of the Republican Party)?

These people claim to be so angry because their rights are being taken away, but they don't mind tromping on the rights of those who disagree with them.

Rent "Network" from your favorite DVD vendor. This film is still relevant. Sidney Lumet made it and other classics that remind us of issues that continue in importance today. Ironically, it is also entertaining (which of course is the goal of the filmmaker). (A bonus: the film stars the great William Holden, playing a very "Ben Bradlee" newsman.)

See the movie and let it inspire a life sequel: a revolt to demonstrate that we want neither infotainment nor reactionary politics. Any takers? Sphere: Related Content

Hogwash Anew: Trump and "Birther" Conspiracy

Donald Trump, hoping to be the presidential nominee in 2012 for the Republicans (Tea Bag Party?), is lending his name to the birther conspiracy, and a flurry of utube pieces (including one in which the President is sarcastically talking about birthers' claims) to "prove" that the President was not born in the U.S. and thus was illegitimately elected president. I don't know why this is bugging me, maybe it's because even liberal friends are sending me this hogwash now. In that spirit I want to share a link to an Andrew Sullivan article in 2009 rebutting the birthers. Common sense asks why would Ann Obama, a 19 year old first time mother in 1961, plot to leave the country to have her first child in an undeveloped country AND keep that fact a secret in 1961? Was she plotting her son's presidency in 2008 and have all the others who have examined this issue participated in the same conspiracy? (THIS IS SARCASM, lest I be misquoted). I am disturbed that so many people still believe this hogwash. Because of this, Andrew Sullivan's piece, regrettably, is still relevant: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/andrew_sullivan/article6788515.ece Sphere: Related Content

Geraldine Ferraro: In Memoriam

She was smart, she was funny, she was accomplished. And she made a difference. Geraldine Ferraro, the first woman to be named to a national presidential ticket, was a trail blazeer for many aspiring female politicians.

For me, it was the 1984 Democratic National Convention in San Francisco which nominated her that became the starting point for my involvement in electoral politics (beyond voting and working on campaigns). I still have a red, white and blue "Ferraro" poster hanging in my house.

I had taken my first step toward a more active political life by entering law school the year before the convention. I was then 44; Geraldine -- only 4 years older than I -- had done that decades before. She had served as an outstanding prosecutor in New York, and was elected Congresswoman from Queens, serving with some of the greats -- Bella Abzug, Shirley Chisholm and Pat Schroeder -- in the House of Representatives during the same period.

All these women were stars at the Women's Caucus at the Democratic Convention in
1984. They -- along with feminist icon Gloria Steinem -- organized a women's caucus during the 1984 convention, and delegates like me attended daily to hear what was going on behind the scenes, to discuss issues and to network about our home communities during a most informative sharing session.

That's when I heard from the women from all parts of the nation who were holding office at the local or state level or who were running for office. That's when I got inspired to run for office.

Back to Geraldine Ferraro: She was our star during those sessions, and her words to us were always common sense and down to earth. Gerry -- as she was know -- was accessible, smart about issues and pragmatic about politics.

I saw her again in person some 30 years later when she spoke at the Center for Politics at University of Virginia. Then, she was working on the White House Project, a bi-partisan group dedicated to getting a woman in the White House. She inspired me that time to investigate and then write a series of essays about the dismal numbers of women in state legislatures and Congress.

Of course a few years later, Hillary Clinton ran for the Democratic presidential nomination with Gerry Ferraro's hearty endorsement. I also worked for Hillary. Although she lost to a formidable and worthy opponent, our current President, Hillary currently serves superbly as Secretary of State, a critical part of the presidential team during this time of unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.

Geraldine Ferraro should never be forgotten for what she contributed to women becoming players in the politics of America. She is the successor to the suffragists who marched in the early part of the 20th century before women got the vote. She was a pioneer for all the women who have come after her. May she rest in peace, and may we remember and celebrate her always. Sphere: Related Content

A COSTA RICAN JOURNAL - JANUARY 2011

Traveling to Costa Rica for the first time, I learned that this country has two particular political claims on me: It abolished its army in 1948 and it elected a woman president in 2010.

But most importantly Costa Rica invaded my senses and my heart. I hope the entries from my journals and a few photos explain why.

January 11, 2011 Bougainvillea, San Jose

When we arrived at the San Jose airport, I felt the soft air and have been savoring it ever since. I awoke at Bougainvillea Hotel to hear a rooster crowing at 5:30 and the soft call of a barn owl.

This morning I wandered through the and saw my first mot mot – an iridescent blue green bird with long tail feathers – and the clay-colored robin, Costa Rica’s national bird. Among the tropical plans, I most enjoyed the large dangling white “Angel trumpets.”

After breakfast of granola and Costa Rican beans and rice, we drove in vans up to the garden of Ileana Temar on a coffee plantation. The wife of the grower, she has been tending her beautiful orchid gardens for 48 years.

Ileana had stones on the patio from Old San Juan, which had been removed for the construction of buildings. In her garden and greenhouses, she used wood, trees, logs as planters as well as sugar cane pots for fountains, and arranged concrete or stone salt boxes (for cattle) and metates for grinding in various combinations to create walls and waterfall backdrops.

Entering her garden was like coming into fairyland, mosses and ferns sprouting from the steps, orchids clinging to trees and cascading from logs, large varieties of bromeliads, miniature orchids, begonias of all kinds, including clusters of miniature begonias and orchids, ginger bromeliad, fathgotis (flowers springing from leaves), the “little boy” plant, lady’s slippers and always sweet aromas wafting through the soft air.

The house is broad, opens to the gardens, and broad vistas. It is beautifully furnished, and a wide variety of modern art hang on the walls. Ileana gave us a tour of the garden and house, showed a DVD of the work of her foundation (which educates third and fourth graders about the natural world, especially Costa Rica’s native an national flower, the guaria morada, a purple orchid native to the country.
Ileana served us lunch of ceviche with cod and avocado, cilantro with a splash of lemon and cocktail sauce; chicken tamale, plantain, papaya juice, white wine and sangria.

From Ileana’s porch we could see Norfolk pines and much coffee in the valley below.

Birds here included the Inca Dove, Blue and white swallows and a brown swallow (tree swallow maybe?). We next visited San Jose: an historical museum, the gold museum and the National Theater.

Factoids: Costa Rica ‘s army was disbanded in 1948, and the money contributed to public education. The U.S. has a pact with the country to defend it in case any other nation attacks. Lauria Chinchillia is the new and first female president (2010-2014).

Although bananas are a major export, they originated in China; the Spanish brought them to the Canary Islands and from there to the Western hemisphere.
Coffee is another important export; Arabica is the best Costan Rican coffee.A bushel of beans produces two cups of coffee! After the beans are roasted, the small seeds which pop out produce the “coffee” we grind. Harvesting brings only $1 per basket to the pickers.

In the 1850s, Tennessean William Walker sought to create slave holding states in Central America, referred to as the Philobusters. I think my 19th century great uncle James Edwin Slaughter mentions this in one of his letters to his father from Mexico.

We learned there are over 100 snake varieties in Costa Rica, 24 of which are poisonous. We also were introduced to cecropia, a tree that emits a sleeping substance – sloths like it and it can be used by humans to cure insomnia.

We learned about the aboriginal peoples and their hierarchies of caliques, chammes, warriors and “ladies.” The people traded gold with Mexico, and they fashioned in into sheets, melted it for molds forming shapes such as eagles and frogs. In Costa Rica many of these animal figures have human features, and the golden objects are put in burial plots.

By the end of the day, I was exhausted, but we saw more as we drove through the city, the market areas and the diplomatic residential areas, including the home of former President Arias, a Nobel Prize winner for supporting Costa Rica as a peace loving nation.

Finished the day with a drink – guarne – and the Plato Tipico: black beans, salad and grilled sea bass. Muy bueno!

Wednesday, January 13

We left at 7:30 stopping in San Ramon where I purchased new reading glasses to replace the ones I lost. Then on to Nectandra– a beautiful preserve started by Evelyn Lennette and her husband plus others. Nectandra is about 400 hectares but surrounded by other preserved lands. It is in the cloud forest although, as a result of climate change, the hot months are increasing and animals are moving higher to seek the cooler climes. Because of this there are more snakes, crested wren and kill deer and less cloud forest. I took pictures of the waterfall with pond above.

Evelyn and her husband were molecular biologists in San Francisco area who gave up their careers for the new adventure. They built trails, replanting ferns and other plants that had to be removed; and they carried heavy beams up mountains to build a visitor center. In addition to conservation and education at the reserve, they have developed a micro-loan program to local water districts to give

funding without interest for expansion and improvements in return for conservation measures to protect the watershed.

More recently Nectandra is negotiating with a private hydroelectric company to give them a loan with the expectation that it could become a lender to other water districts. For more on Nectandra, see http://www.nectandra.org/

Evelyn also told me that, despite having a woman president, Costa Rica has not liberated women – the males still rule in government; the women rule the homes. Still, no women serve on the local water boards.

We had a fabulous lunch – salad with avocados, mango papaya and hearts of palm and lettuce; cassava (delicious root vegetable), chicken wrapped in palm leaf and of course beans and rice.
On the bird walk through the preserve we saw black and white warbler, bush tanager, tucanet, black guans (with orangy pink feet). These also included the black faced solitaire; silver

fronted tapacula; green hermit and purple throated mountain gem (hummingbirds), slaty-capped flycatcher. Enroute, we also heard a redstart and saw black buzzards and cattle herons as we passed many farms with Brahmin and angus cattle.

At Monte Verde, we also looked at a variety of plants and agin many birds, including Wilson’s warbler, yellow warbler, tropical kingbird, black crested flycatcher, grass quit, black throated green warbler, chestnut sided warbler, golden crowned warbler, and a red bellied trogdon.

From Nectaranda we went south back through San Ramon toward west and then north. Although inland, we had a number of Pacific Ocean views, and could see the Golfo de Nicoya clearly although the clouds hang above it like a mystical mirage. As the van ascends the mountains, the landscape keeps changing. First it has the steep hills reminiscent of Northern Tuscany. In Costa Rica, the pinnacles are punctuated by palms instead of Italian cypress. Longer ridges remind me of the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. Then, there is a steep incline from the valleys to the mountain tops, mostly covered with forests, but a few areas -- cleared fields – are dotted with golden Guernsey cows and Brahmin cattle accompanied by small herons – white with hints of Guernsey tan on their crowns and wings. Even the misty sky has clouds the color of the golden Guernsey.

The sign shows a mere 20 kilometers to Monteverde, but the road is hardly more than a narrow track, a graveled and rutted switchback, making this leg arduous and slow. Barely wide enough for two cars to pass, in some places, the road narrows even more. Ahead, an arc of a rainbow reaches up from the valley on the left-hand side; as the van follows the switch back, the other end of the rainbow appears on the other side. Back and forth on the road, we follow the rainbow arcs until, at last, as the road straightens out, the two arcs join in one bow. I ask the driver Juan Carlos, the Spanish for rainbow. “El arco-iris” he says pointing to his eye. We had left Nectaranda at 1 and arrived at 6 p.m. at Casa Vela.

Thursday, January 13, 2011 Fonda Vela, Monte Verde

Yellow throated euphonia. I love the word euphonia and we heard it sing yesterday at Nectandra. A fluted sound, truly beautiful.

This morning we walked with Jorge (Cokie) who’s been a guide for 18 years. We started at the Coffee shop shop where we got a good view of a toucanet.

A lot of mist and rain so we didn’t see a lot. Even so, we spied or heard 30 or so species plus white faced capuchin monkeys and we heard howler monkeys.

After lunch at the hotel, several of us go on a bird walk on the Baja de Tigre trail. Extremely windy, we did not see a lot of birds – black guans, some warblers, tanagers. After halfway, we hit a less windy side and sat for a while at a mirador looking across the valley – very peaceful and meditative.

We marched also through a colony of army ants which went on for some distance. Fortunately we knocked off a few that had made it onto our clothes, but it was a close call. I found myself racing down the path to get away from them.
Once back, we had about a mile walk home, mostly uphill. About halfway through that, as the others, I trod homeward. It was a time when the destination - my bed - seemed more important than the proverbial journey.

Just at the entrance of Fonda Vela, a group of monkeys ran across the road into the culvert. Our guide Vern later told me they were probably howlers.

Dinner that night was grilled corvine (sea bass) with two martinis and a glass of wine. I slept like a rock.

Friday, January 14, 2011 Fonda Vela Monte Verde

This morning we rose for breakfast at 6:30 and departure an hour later for Sana Ana Preserve. As it rained hard, the cloud forest transformed into a rain forest.

Our guide – “Johnny” – was excellent – showing us birds when they appeared, explaining about the Caribbean and Pacific sides of the Preserve, the old growth versus first succession forests, etc. He found plants and bugs, told us about the many species (he counted 78 species in the Xmas 2010 down from 98 in 2009).

We heard: Ruddy capped nightingale thrush; Spangle cheeked salator; buffy cheeked tanager; striped warbler; ochraceous wren; golden cheeked warbler; black faced solitaire.

A shopping excursion into Monte Verde before dinner: Chile relleno with veggies, salad and soup and chocolate cake. We also had a rum sour popular with the locals, acc

Mirage? Pacific gulf in the mists below Monte Verde

Saturday January 15 La Quinta

This morning we left Fonda Vela - a long ride back through San Ramon, stopping at a restaurant by the Rio Seco and then on to shopping at a so-called "artisans' mart", really a tourist trap, but a pleasant one, in Sarichi, and then lunch around the corner overlooking the flame trees. A long drive to La Quinta in the Carribean lowlands.

Bird of the Day: White Tailed Kite.

Ginger

Ginger deserves its own heading. I love ginger in recipes and salads, pickled ginger with sushi and candied ginger as a sweet so I truly enjoyed seeing all the various varieties of ginger in om. Here are but a few.

Sunday January 16, 2011 La Quinta

Today we toured La Selva Biological Station run by a consortium of universities including Duke. Our guide Edgardo was most informative and showed us around the plants and birds: including sloths, old growth forest, tropical kingbird, Tennessee warbler, blue gray tanager, white collared swift, rufous wren, yellow billed elenia, cholortona, rose fronted parakeet, long billed hermit; montezuma orapendual, crested guan, golden hooded tanager, rufous mot mot, wedge billed wood creeper. Also boat billed toucan, chestnut mandible toucan, white crested parrot, cinnamon woodpecker, long tailed tyrannulet, chestnut sided warbler.

Whew ! (see montezuma orapendola above).

Tuesday, January 17 La Quinta
Gale and I continue to lose items in either our room or our purses and then find them. This morning after an early breakfast, we left for a boat trip on the Sarapiqui. We travelled on a flat river boat, two and one-seat wide separated by an aisle and with a canopy. We motored up and down stream viewing critters and birds including 8 howler monkeys in one tree, iguanas, sloths, egrets. We returned to the hotel for lunch salad with beets, cukes, chayote. Then we travelled to Helleconia Island to view the gardens there. Birds seen: chestnut collared woodpecker; cinnamon woodpecker; black faced woodpecker; black cowled oriole; dusty faced tanager; spectacle owl (a pair roosting in a tree); blue cheeked hummingbird; belted kingfisher; bare throated tiger heron; Nicaraguan seed finch; crested caracara; honeycreeper; buff throated salator; red throated ant tanager; Baltimore oriole; blue green honeycreeper. At hotel: crimson cowled tanager; redleg honeycreeper; golden hooded tanager; palm oriole.

Active Turrialba Volcano

Wednesday, January 18, 2011 Rancho Naturalista

We arrived here early afternoon. Now it is only 9:30 but Gale has been asleep for a couple of hours. Today, we drove today south into the central highlands, stopping first at Costa Flores near where we toured the gardens (privately developed but now owned by the CR government). When we left they gave each of us a bouquet of ginger and other flowers (which we photographed).

We had lunch on the way at a nearby restaurant and then drove to Rancho Naturalista –our final stay. It’s the best !

We watch hummingbirds at the feeder and then a group embarks on a hike. We stop at a feeding station to observe more hummers – in hope of seeing the snow capped. We don’t see them yet.

As we descend the trail it grows darker and we worry about whether it is circular and where we would return. We decide to turn back.

We arrive back where we started. After showering and changing I arrive for dinner – pork and mashed potatoes, green beans, gravy and salad and a delicious cake with a sweet milk sauce.

Back in the room I read “Mint Leaves” by Aguilar but when I finish I realize Gale is asleep. Early Wednesday: I’ve been awake for at least an hour, feeling fully rested and wondering if I reset my clock by mistake when I reset the alarm. I want to go at 5:45 to see the birds feeding on the moths.

Wednesday , January 19
Starting with the evening, dinner was delicious – chicken, rice, beans.
Today we went to a research center SIECE ( and visited the agricultural fields as well as the botanical gardens with lunch in between0. One building was was named for Henry Wallace who apparently helped found the center in 1942. As usual, a great guide a young man named Marco.

We saw so many different plants and trees. Both Gale and I truly felt the spirits animating the environment here.

Thursday, January 20

Today, our final day, we went to the archeological national monument of Guaybo which also is an “engineering” monument because it shows that the aboriginal people had advanced infrastructure – viaducts conveying water from underground springs into a sedimentation pond and then into a reservoir for future use.

We drove south from Rancho Naturalista to Turrialba near the volcano then north again along a local road to the monument.

From a visitor center we descended into an open area where there were mounds (each for a home for a different group in the hierarch with the chief in the center and the highest mound). The village is placed between two rivers, a mountain range and the volcano, thus in a secure spot. It is dated from about 800 BC existing until about 1400 or 100 years before the Spanish arrived. Along the way we viewed tombs and a plinth into which a cougar and an alligator (legato) are carved.

After a picnic at the park, we split into two groups – I went into Turrialba for shopping – and most important for me – to get dollars for tips, traveller tax and hotel bill. Gale and I walked around town purchasing a couple of things including two great collages of people but mostly looking at the fish and meat market, vegetables many stores of “stuff”, shoe stores, etc.

Upon return we got ready for dinner and prepared the book on plants which I donated as a gift to Vernon and Juan Carlos. Dinner was festive – beef in mushroom sauce, cauliflower tempura, salad and potatoes, chocolate mousse.

Home to our room early so we read aloud two Costa Rican stories, including one about Elena Gonzalez, who disappeared. These are wonderful mystical realism and Gale and I now are thinking this way.

Food: Almost every morning we have rice and beans, prepared with touch of parsley, peppers, onions, salt and pepper). Today we had eggs probably fried, then basted with water, still soft, parsley and pepper, tortillas and fruit and delicious sausage.

Friday January 21, 2011 Rancho Naturalista to San Jose: Leaving Costa Rica

Views of Turrialba volcano from all sides. Steep valleys through coffee plantations shaded by eucalyptus trees, chayotes growing, other plants, including Boston ferns. Through Cartago, the early capital: photo of the ruined cathedral, bottlebrush trees.

I did not sleep well. After reading two costa Rican stories, I went to sleep but awoke again at 1:30 so I got up went to the bathroom, read some more and by two something I went to sleep again until 5:45. This morning after an omelet with mushrooms, avocados, peppers and bacon and fruit, we departed from Rancho Naturalista. Even before we left we saw another bird, the brown headed orapendula, my favorite. This morning the volcano was more active or at least the steam or lava was going vertically into the air – we all got many pictures on our way.

We stopped to purchase our coffee beans at Cristina’s – she worked on the Panama Canal with the US Army communications and her husband was a pilot (I joked “Agency people”). They retired, according to Vernon, and bought the coffee plantation.

In the air now, I’m looking at Costa Rica from 34,000 feet – saw a volcano which I’m guessing is Turrialba. This would mean we are traveling northeast – I can see the Caribbean coast with a line of islands.

Homeward bound!

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