Mystery Cairns in the Garden

Working at the Greater Des Moines Botanical Garden is such a nice escape from the doldrums of an Iowa winter.  I was there on Saturday morning doing maintenance in the Gardener's Show House.  As I was wiping down tables, removing dead leaves from plants, and sweeping up, I discovered these cairns that had been built among the succulents.

A cairn is a man-made pile of stones. They are built as a landmark, a memorial, or a trail marker, and they have been used since prehistoric times. The word cairn, comes from Scottish Gaelic:  carn. Cairns are often placed on a hilltop or at the skyline. These cairns were placed on larger rocks placed among the potted plants. I wouldn't even know what a cairn is, if not for my cousins, Rich and Susan Cairn, who adopted that name when they married.  Seeing these cairns definitely made me think of them.

These are actually mini-cairns, because they are made of pebbles and just an inch or two high.  I don't know if they were built by someone who works in the garden, or a visitor who was passing through, but I hope they remain undisturbed for a while. I always discover something new when I spend time in the Gardener's Show House, and that is such a treat. It really makes me smile.

The seed magazines are starting to arrive in my mailbox, and the gardening programs are showing up on QVC, which I watch a lot.  I am getting the urge to set up my greenhouse shelves and start some seeds, though I know I should probably wait another week or two.  I did dig out some of my Iowa gardening books.  It's not too early to start planning.

I like the ideas suggested in Gardening In Iowa and Surrounding Areas by Veronica Lorson Fowler. She says to set up a three ring notebook.  Draw a plan for the yard and garden.  Take photos of your garden.  Use folders to keep empty seed packets, so you know what to order the next year.  This is right up my alley!  Last year I used a website called, Plangarden.com.  I may do that again, but I kind of like the more hands on approach, drawing my plan and taking photos of my garden.  I may do a combination of the two.  It is just so much fun, to know that it is time to start planning and thinking about my garden.

Gratitude for Today

1. I am grateful for the horticulturists at the Botanical Garden, who work so hard to create and maintain this beautiful place. They are so kind and welcoming, and I am learning from them.
2. I am grateful for the courage to try new things.
3. I am thankful for time at home.

The Iowa Caucus

Last Monday I participated in the Democratic Iowa Caucus.  This was my fourth time participating in the caucus, and this time I was caucusing for Elizabeth Warren. 

My caucus site is a middle school about a mile from my home.  It is handicap accessible and we used the gym.  In an earlier caucus, we used the auditorium.  In both cases, there were plenty of places for people to sit or move around to talk to others.  This time our precinct  had 157 participants.

Before we entered the gym there were tables set up to sign in, register, or even change your affiliation.  So if you were an independent or Republican and you wanted to participate in the democratic caucus, you could do that by changing your party affiliation.  If you were not registered, but had identification, you could do that and still participate that night.

Initially most people sat in a section with others supporting the same candidate.  As people came in, it became easier to see which candidates had the most supporters.  At our site, Bernie Sanders had the most, followed by Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden and then Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, and Andrew Yang.

It's important to understand that the caucus is organized and supported by volunteers.  From what I understand, there were approximately 1700 volunteers across the state of Iowa.  These people have given of their time, attending training, and doing their best to understand new rules, set things up, and keep things organized and friendly. I was supposed to be one of those people, but when my mother became ill in January, I was not able to follow through.

Shortly after 7:00, the leader of our caucus introduced himself and began explaining the caucus rules.  He invited questions, and went over things carefully so that we would understand the procedure.  Then the precinct leaders for each candidate gave a short speech on behalf of their candidate, explaining why they supported that candidate.

One of the things I am most impressed by is the way people began to talk with others about their reasons for supporting their candidate.  They supported their opinions with information they had read, and many did further research as we sat there.  It was all done politely and with a willingness to listen to others.  This was a whole lot different than the political ads and rhetoric we hear on television.

In order for your candidate to be viable, you had to have enough supporters.  I believe it was 15% of the total voters present. At first Elizabeth Warren was a few people short.  Some of the members of our group invited Amy Klobachar's supporters to join us.  She did not have enough caucusers.  Several of them did, making Warren a viable candidate.  Again, I was impressed with the conversation between the two groups about the issues that these two candidates shared and where they were different.

Once people had sorted into their groups we filled out our paper ballots.  Filling out a paper ballot was new this year, and I really liked this.  It means there is a physical record of where the voters stand.  As these were turned in, the caucus leaders carefully sealed them into envelopes.  This was done right in front of us, so there was no question about how it was done.

I finally left around 8:40.  The volunteers and those who wanted to represent us at the next step, remained to get further instruction and wrap things up.

This was an event where people were trying to do their best to be good citizens who participate in the political process.  People were courteous, kind, and friendly, even though we didn't all share the same viewpoint. 

It was a huge shock to wake up the next day to a divisive hate storm from the press and people across our country.  Now it is coming out that there was purposeful interference from a Republican organization to interfere with the counting of votes. Here is a link to an article on Business Insider:  Trump Supporters Swarmed Iowa Caucus Lines.  This is dirty politics!  For the most part people have chosen to ignore that and post memes about how Iowa democrats can't count or are stupid. 

I am stunned and disappointed, but I am going to learn from it.  I am going to be more careful about my criticism of others.  Social media and reality TV have made it okay to make fun of people, to be divisive and hateful.  This is a very dangerous road to travel, and it is easy to get swept up in it before realizing what we are really doing. 

• Our democracy is at stake!  
• Our way of life is at stake!  
• The future of our kids and our planet is at stake!  

I am going to try to do better.  We all need to.  I am not really a political person.  I am going to change that.  I am going to be more active as we move toward this next presidential election.  I'm not only going to vote.  I'm going to support and campaign for my candidate, whoever that ends up being,  I pray that others will do the same.  We cannot afford to be passive.