wednesday witterings

i have wasted 24 hours of energy and sacrificed a good night's sleep over the most ridiculous casual vacancy-esque local control-freak, power-hungry, senseless game-playing situation that should never have been a situation. but i always think of these things as fodder for an eventual novel. or at least a memoir. i do wonder when i'm going to get around to writing that? and somehow, just like that, my brain cleared of it sometime this afternoon. possibly because we are having glorious autumn weather - sunny days, just the right temperature, no wind. i am so affected by the weather, both good and bad. and by a new set of possibilities opening up. dare i say there is excitement and hope stirring in the days ahead? and a trip to copenhagen.

the color sneaks back into my world

i suppose it's just these sunny, summer days we've been treated to, but it feels somehow like color is returning to my world. it's been a tough time recently with molly's mastitis, our chickens disappearing (it turns out it wasn't a fox, they were stolen!), my borrelia diagnosis and then losing frankie. a lot of things happening in quick succession that have sapped my energy and robbed me of my inspiration and, you probably noticed, my words.

despite losing frankie on monday, it was on the whole a good week. i took the last of my antibiotics and i feel myself returning to more or less feeling normal health-wise, tho' i do occasionally run a low-grade fever for most of a day (i hope that stops now), which zaps my energy again. but spending time with sabin in the sunshine, doing creative projects helped greatly.

it's hard to be down in the dumps when your old favorite converse have been turned into bright, cheery rainbows.

the garden, especially the fruit bushes and those strawberries, are in full swing and picking and processing all that fruit makes me feel industrious and satisfied. i know how much we'll enjoy the fruits of all my labors come autumn and winter. that has raised my spirits as well.

the perfect afternoon i spent painting in the garden with sabin on friday also went a long way towards reawakening what has been a dormant sense of creativity. i have a tendency to go through a low-level depression at times without even really realizing it myself, except in odd ways (i think the bits of blue in my hair were an attempt to pull myself out of it that i wasn't even really aware of on a conscious level). it's only when it begins to lift that i realize it was there.

but it is beginning to lift. like a fog clearing away. one that i had become so accustomed to, that i wasn't even really aware of it myself. it likely started with our prolonged winter and ever-protracted spring. then molly got sick and i spent a couple of weeks of sleepless nights, worrying over and feeding kittens in the night. i've also been reading some douglas kennedy novels, which are wonderful, but full of tragic stories that feel like they're happening to friends of mine, so well-drawn are the characters. and i realize now that it has all fed an underlying feeling of blue (and not the good blue room kind).

but today, as i pulled fabric for several baby quilts (suddenly, my friends are all having babies), it hit me that the blue of my world was turning more colorful once again. and it seems at least some of my words have returned. molly is well (and begging to go outside to rendezvous with the papa kitty again (don't worry, she's not allowed)) and the kittens are at at the very height of playful perfection and tho' i miss frankie very much, i now get to keep little frieda, my kitten who smiles in her sleep.

it also helps that dinner came from the garden - fresh kale, shallots and new potatoes. there is little that feels more satisfying than that, unless it's a kitten who smiles in her sleep.

here's hoping that summer is treating you all very well.

in which she gets all excited about the wind

snapped at 7:43 this morning

i had the most amazing day. i attended a course today that was an introduction to the wind industry. a wind course in a place called middelfart (giggles), what more can you ask? and in the interest of learning something better yourself by passing it along, i have to share it with all of you. 

some facts about wind power:

~ there are 160,000 installed megawatts of wind power in the world (as of end 2009)

~ China supports their wind turbine producers by giving funding to every turbine produced (caring nothing about whether they're installed).  all of those pretty turbines dotting the landscape around Beijing for the Olympics? not in operation or hooked to a grid.  however, because of this government subsidy, china has three of the fastest growing wind turbine producers in the world and all three are in the top ten.

~ the blades are key...it all happens with the blades as the energy is "captured" there.

~ the blades are also the primary brakes on a wind turbine, but there are, of course, backup brake systems. however, it's best for the turbine to change the pitch on the blades in order to stop them.

~ the colder it is, the more megawatts you can access, tho' the loads are greater (meaning it's harder on your turbine).

~ turbines constantly adjust themselves to face the wind optimally. even being 5° off equals a 10% loss in production. since the wind is constantly changing, so is the turbine.

~ denmark has 3,408MW of installed turbines. (the US leads with 35,159MW). on an average day, that produces 20% of denmark's electricity needs (far higher percentage than any other country in the world) and on a windy night, it produces 150% of denmark's electricity needs, enabling the utility to sell further into the european grid.

~ the accessible energy in the wind for a 3.2MW wind turbine in optimal wind conditions at optimal temperature (15°C, 4000m2 area with wind at 11 meters per second) is 59% (with three blades on the turbine).

~ there are actually wind atlases.

~ wind is free. and endlessly renewable.

i have so many ideas bubbling. a day filled with inspiration and and energy mainlined into my brain was precisely what i needed.

i'll leave you with this....

and because i can't resist....this: