sustainable spirituality

Its been some time since I photographed the water garden. It has been a very cool and wet winter in Portland. All plants and animals are at least 3-4 weeks behind schedule. Today Jason and a parent volunteer zapped the fish to get an idea what was in the pond. The shock didn't hurt the fish but allowed easy capture and release. Last summer I placed 6 catfish and one Crappie. Today we recovered 5 of the catfish and the Crappie had nearly doubled his size. Check out these pictures they are cool.

DaVinci has a one of the largest cob bench in the city of Portland. It was built 4 years ago by myself and several classes . The bench is over 45 ft in length. Since my retirement Andrew Butterfield the ceramics teacher at DaVinci has taken on the role of maintaining the bench. Since we live in the North west we get a tremendous amount of rain. This excessive moisture tends to breakdown the outer coating of the cob bench. Every year Andrew with the help of several students reseals the bench. All the cracks in the plaster are resealed and then oil is applied to make it water proof. The following photos show the recently oiled bench.

I have been very busy this summer and only yesterday did i visit the water garden. The pond has floating clover all over the surface. The living machine is cleaning itself due to the addition of water hyacinth. Everything is growing. Notice the size of the wapato near the ponds edge. Its quite a sight.

Its been raining like crazy in the Portland area. But that doesn't seem to faze the art students at davinci arts middle school. Its amazing to see these students handle this very hot material and the results are spectacular. Kudos to their teacher Andrew Butterfield.

the water garden is more than a natural garden.  It is set at Portlands art magnet school Davinci arts. Today it was raining but that did not hinder the ceramics class from firing their latest pieces out side in the garden. the technique is calleds raku. It results in a metalic coloring on the glaze.  This is accomplished by heating the ceramic s and then placing them into newspaper , causing a fire and then reducing the oxygen. Check out these films .

Today I saw a new flower in the garden. It was a japanese iris. It was growing beneath the solar panel. This is also the home for strawberries and day lillys. Another interesting adventure involved the witnessing of a bee working the lupine flowers. The lupin are of the pea family and feature a flower that resembles a slipper. Inside the slipper are the pollen laden stamen. When the bee land on the flower its weight pushes down the the slipper section revealing the stamen nectar areas.. Check out the movie