Tom: Despite the occasional raccoon grunting past in the dark, I sleep better out there in the fresh air, with the sound of our pond and waterfall gurgling nearby. I usually stay up much later than Lyanda and Claire, and I love that moment when, instead of heading upstairs to bed, I head out the back door, into the cool night air, and walk through the garden under the moonlight, with the sunflowers towering over my head and the the occasional spiderweb already spun across my path.

Claire: Well, first of all, it’s really cozy in there. Plus I sleep really well on the ground. It’s also  fun when it rains because it’s about 5 times as loud in the tent. Quite meditative. But the real fun part is you can hear all the raccoons, opossums, etc., and boy they are LOUD!!! My dad is an expert sleeper, but when he hears the raccoons shaking the wind chimes above the tent, he goes crazy! It’s really funny.  The tent is just awesome!!!!!!

Lyanda: I love crawling outside at midnight (OK, because I have to pee in the grass…) and finding myself in the night world–sky, moon, stars, the rustling of night creatures, real and imagined.  It always feels new and surprising.  And, being something of an insomniac, I love that I sleep so much better out there, tucked in a big flannel sleeping bag, cool air on my face and the stars overhead.

We are huge breakfast muffin fans around here, especially now–during fresh, local berry season.  My absolute favorite muffin recipe is one of Martha Stewart’s, loaded with butter, sugar, buttermilk, and other lovely things.  The muffins weigh about a pound each, and come out of the tins almost dripping with melted fat.  Heavenly.  But not for everyday, alas.  I like to make super-healthy, reasonably tasty, multi-grain muffins for my family, but Muffin Enthusiasm does not run nearly as high for such things.  Today I’m sharing my favorite compromise “very-yummy-and-almost-healthy” recipe:  mixed flours, no white sugar, chock full of local blueberries–a true super-food.  Some mornings (like today) Claire works the compromise further, wooing me into streusel topping.  But why not?  Harvest season blueberry muffins are cause for celebration.

Here’s my recipe, adapted over time from Ginny Callan’s Horn of the Moon Cookbook (no longer in print):

Tangled Nest Almost-Healthy Blueberry Muffins

Mix together dry ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 3/4 cups unbleached white flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

In a separate bowl, mix well:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup milk or buttermilk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup honey (if your honey is crystallized, warm  it to liquid before adding to the mix)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Make a well in the dry ingredients, add wet ingredients.  As usual with muffins, stir just enough to moisten–don’t overmix.

• Fold in  1 1/2 cups of blueberries, fresh or frozen, with a few strokes.

This recipe makes 12 standard size muffins.  Fill muffin tins and if you’re feeling celebratory, add a sprinkle of your favorite streusel recipe, or use this one–

Mix together with your fingers until crumbly:  5 tablespoons melted, unsalted butter; 2/3 cup flour; 2/3 cup confectioners sugar; 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon; dash of salt.  Press lightly onto the tops of muffins before baking.

Bake 20 minutes at 400 F, until golden brown on top.  Let the muffins sit for a few minutes before removing from tin, and cooling on a baking rack.  Enjoy!

Hello, dear readers.  Natural burial is a subject that has been on my mind for years, and I have been pondering how best to introduce the theme on The Tangled Nest, so I was thrilled to meet “death midwife” Nora Cedarwind Young at a recent speaking engagement, and even more thrilled when she agreed to write this guest post.  There’s something for everyone here:  personal philosophy, care for the earth, and even a DIY coffin plan!  I hope you’ll share this post with your friends and dear ones as a way of inviting discussion on this essential theme–finding our way gracefully through the turning of life.  Here’s Nora…

Greetings friends! Recently I had the pleasure to meet Lyanda when she was the keynote speaker for People’s Memorial Association. I have been a fan of hers, so imagine how deeply touched  I was she asked me to be a guest author for The Tangled Nest!  I am Nora Cedarwind Young ~ Death Midwife, Green Burial Educator, Hospice Chaplain and Ceremonialist. I live and work on the Olympic Peninsula, teach nationwide and assist families remotely; but I am especially devoted to the area in which I live, Western Washington. I create and facilitate ceremonies for all of life’s passages, from birth through the grave; however, my heart truly lies in end-of-life work. My belief system, deeply grounded in the seasons and cycles of nature, has taught me that death is as certain and sacred as birth. I envision individuals and families fearlessly facing death, feeling free to extend this “time out of time” with a loved one, and knowing who to call for support. I believe in educating families that at-home-after-death-care is their legal right, and I help empower individuals and families to make educated choices around their final act–especially how small choices can create amazing change when it comes to greening our final act in this world. My dictum is “proudly reclaiming family directed choice at end-of-life.”

Procession to burial at White Eagle Memorial Preserve in Goldendale, WA

Today, the United Kingdom and Australia together host over 200 natural burial locations; in the US we have sadly, only twenty. Even more shocking is the reality that every year in the United States 22,500 cemeteries bury:

• 827,060 gallons of embalming fluid (including formaldehyde)

• 104,272 tons of steel for caskets & vaults (enough to build another Golden Gate Bridge!)

• 2,700 tons of copper and bronze for more caskets

• 30 plus million board feet of hardwoods

• 1,636,000 tons of concrete

(Statistics compiled by Mary Woodsen, VP Pre-Posthumous Society of Ithaca, New York, and a science writer at Cornell University).

Natural grave at White Eagle Preserve

More than ever it is time for each of us on the planet to awaken our mortality and our deepest nature. We can live with heightened awareness of how we affect others and the interconnectedness of all. As we embrace the idea that we are the stewards of this beautiful earth, we welcome “womb to womb” awareness.   May we have the wisdom to return from the toxic environment

Burial with shroud at White Eagle

of institutions, consumerism and sterile buildings to the safety and sacred space of home.

Until the modern era, our formaldehyde-free bodies were laid in the ground, serving as nutrition to the earth. Embalming is often unnecessary and not required in any state under most circumstances. Metal or hardwood caskets and steel reinforced concrete grave liners are options people can choose to go without. Ask yourself; is it necessary to place your casket into a concrete and steel reinforced lined grave, simply for easy maintenance of the cemetery grounds?

We are learning it does not have to be all or nothing, simple changes will create great change. For a Natural Burial you can choose all or any part of the following:

• A clean, unembalmed body

• A biodegradable container such as a plain pine box or natural fiber shroud. You can go to my website and find directions of how to build your own wooden casket that serves as bookshelves until you are ready to repurpose it to be a casket!

• A vault free grave

Some natural graveyard providers have restrictions such as no synthetic materials, jewelry or buttons. Some allow headstones; others reveal no trace that a burial site exists. Global positioning satellites can allow us to have marker free graves, while precisely locating and visiting our loved ones. Even if you are buried in a conventional cemetery and choose any part of natural burial, you lessen the ecological footprint for the planet.  You can:  avoid synthetic and non-natural materials in your container and clothing;  choose biodegradable or recycled materials, wicker, sea grass and woods like pine for caskets; choose non-virgin, organic materials and sustainable production, supporting local family business, handcrafting, and artisans; support burial goods with organic, fair trade, and eco-certifications; talk to your local cemetery provider–tell them you want Green and Natural Burial options.

In Washington State, we are fortunate to have two options for Green Burial. Other community resources are considering this change, so you need to let your local providers know you want Green Burial available in your community.  Moles Funeral Home in Ferndale has dedicated four acres for Natural Burial called The Meadow,  and White Eagle Preserve in Goldendale is a perfect model for Conservation Burial.

About Biodegradable Coffins

Biodegradable coffins, also known as green caskets, come in a multitude of styles and materials. They were designed to satisfy the growing number of individuals who prefer to have a “natural burial” instead of a traditional funeral. Cremation was long thought to be an eco-friendly option, but many people have been raising concerns about its excessive use of fossil fuels.

Biodegradable caskets can be made to bury someone in the ground or at sea. They will not harm the environment and budget-wise, they are a very cost-efficient burial option. These coffins do not use a vault — cement or otherwise — and everything, including the hardware and lining, is completely natural.

Biodegradable coffins can be made from:

• Cardboard
• Biodegradable plastic
• Fair-trade-certified bamboo
• Wood
• Recycled paper
• Formaldehyde-free plywood
• Hand-woven willow or wicker

You can always consider building your own casket, or a plain pine box–have a look at these simple plans from Last Things.  You can even build a coffin that doubles as a bookshelf or an entertainment center until you are ready to repurpose it! My website has several resources and pictures for you to consider.

Simple pine casket, from Last Things

Thank you for taking into account some of the simple choices you can make that will add up to great change. When I imagine eight Olympic-sized swimming pools full of embalming fluid being buried every year in this nation it inspires me to be a change maker; I hope it will inspire you also! Join me in committing to change and to the stewardship of our planet. Join with me and choose to green your final act! All or some, the choice is yours!  Together, we are creating change we can live with! Blessed Be!

From Lyanda: Thank you, Nora, for your wise words! And thanks to the good folks at White Eagle Preserve for the beautiful photos.

For more information, and links to many many more resources, explore:

–Nora’s lovely Thresholds of Life website, and sign up for her Newsletter

–White Eagle Memorial Preserve website

–People’s Memorial Association

–I also highly recommend the documentary, A Family Undertaking

All goes onward and outward, nothing collapses, and to die is different from what anyone supposed, and luckier.
~ Walt Whitman, Song to Myself

"Last View," courtesy of White Eagle

Claire's sign welcomed people to the garden.

Among the many lovely people we met were Alison, whose delightful blog called A Bit of Butter features vintage recipes, and Jessi, an ecological landscaper with a beautiful website and a special interest in gardening with chickens.  The garden drew almost as much attention as the hens, and the whole day reminded me how the interest in connecting with food and nature through our home lives is such a deep-running current.

The flow of people in the garden was steady throughout the day.

Recently there was a long article in the Seattle Times that was rather critical about the recent popularity of backyard chicken-keeping.  The author cited concerns about odor, noise, and quoted folks who said things like, “If people want to keep chickens they should live in the country.”  In a media frenzy that has played up the positives of urban chickens, I welcome this article as adding some nuance to the choice of whether or not to keep chickens.  My hope is that all of us will consider ways to grow some of our own food from home, to find that even in cities we are deeply connected to life and soil.  But the worst thing that could happen is for the chicken “trend” to end up being just that–a “trend.”  Chickens should not be “The New Black.”  It takes more than initial enthusiasm to keep chickens–it takes commitment over time, and occasionally some tough choices (if you are vegetarians like us, what do you do when you chickens stop laying?).  That’s one of the reasons we were so happy to be part of the Coop Tour–the very best kind of community event, where people could gather to ask questions, share experience, pet chickens, nibble peas, plan and scheme, see the reality while dreaming big.

The map for the tour is available all over Seattle–see the Seattle Tilth Coop Tour page for details.  Maps are $30 for a family, or carload/cycling group of 4.  Proceeds benefit Tilth–one of our favorite local nonprofits.

Are you a West Seattle-ite looking to stay in the ‘hood?  For just $15 you can get a map to both the local edible garden tour, and the West Seattle section of the Coop tour.  You’ll be supporting another of our favorite groups:  Glean It/Community Harvest.  See their website for details.

Join the tour!  Come see us!  We’ll have a big plate of cookies going, and we’d love to meet you and talk chicken as we join together in finding new, creative, delightful ways to participate in our food lives and the cycles of nature from our urban homes.

Peecyle directly or by peeing into a container you can carry outside and:

–Apply to soil or woodchips

–Add to your compost pile (pee helps leaves and woodchips to compost more quickly)

–DILUTE with 9 PARTS WATER to 1 part pee and pour around (not on) plants (distribute widely to prevent nitrogen burn).

Goodness, I hope my friends will still eat salad at our house after reading this!

For more information on the process and hygiene of peecycling, see Carol Steinfeld’s book, Liquid Gold:  The Lore and Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants.

No matter what you think about peecycling, it’s time to reconsider our shockingly wasteful water treatment system.  Separating wastes and toilet paper at the source, rather than mixing them directly with clean water, makes good societal and ecological sense. The wonderful folks at Eco-Waters, a Massachusetts-based nonprofit, are exploring ways to incorporate source-separation, graywater use, and composting privies into our everyday lives. Steinfeld’s newest book, Reusing the Resource:  Adventures in Ecological Wastewater Recycling, available through the Eco-Waters website, is enlightening.

Meanwhile, the invitation to awareness offered by Pee-On-Earth day is a great place to start.

At dawn on the Solstice (also the anniversary of my wedding to Tom!), I will be, inshallah, climbing the ruins at Tikal, Guatemala with my family.  I promise I will not pee on the ancient, sacred ruins!  But I will be thinking of you all, and wishing you a beautiful Solstice in the spirit of another favorite William McDonough quote:  “Celebrate Fiercely.”

Claire came home from school today with a backpack full of tinfoil balls. Apparently at lunch all year she has been collecting tinfoil from her classmates’ sandwich wrappings, and making a ball each day. She had ninety two balls of various sizes, which she showed off with pride.
And seeing them reminded me that I wanted to write about a plastic cup.

Three years ago this month, we traveled to the American southwest on a week-long family exploration of Zion, Bryce Canyon, and the Grand Canyon. It was a great week, with lots of wonderful outdoor adventures as we explored those majestic and iconic landscapes.

The week came to a somewhat jarring conclusion in Las Vegas, where because of an early flight, we were staying one night at another icon: the strip’s Stratosphere Hotel. It was super cheap, and Claire and I liked the look of the pool from the website. None of us had ever been to Vegas before.

Sprawling, overbuilt, car-dependent, Las Vegas is almost gleefully unsustainable, with the highest per-capita water use in the country, as well as the highest mortgage foreclosure rates. It’s the poster child for sprawl, indulgence, materialism, and American excess, and it didn’t disappoint. Despite the fact that I took them to see white tigers and bought them dinner at the foot of the Eiffel Tower (and an eclair in a French patisserie, even!), three years later Lyanda and Claire still haven’t quite recovered, and like to exclaim about (Claire) the giant TV screens in baggage claim at the airport, and (Lyanda) the cooling misters on the sidewalk to gently mist Lake Meade water onto the passers-by in the 110-degree desert heat.

Still, we needed a souvenir, so on our departure from the Stratosphere, I took the two disposable plastic cups that had been left in our room (each of them individually wrapped in plastic for us). They’re no different from the plastic cups they gave us on the airplane in both directions, except that they say “Stratosphere” on them, and I kind of liked the idea of a little sin city memento as my bathroom cup back home in our den of organic all-natural earthiness.

To make a long story short, three years later, the cups are still with us. They come out to hold water or juice when we have little children as guests. They do occasional duty in the bathroom. They travel out to the picnic table. They are indestructible.

Not green in any way whatsoever.

There’s no great epiphany here. If you’re here reading this then you already know that America is insanely wasteful, that we use over a million plastic cups per day just on airlines, and that tinfoil and all manner of other detritus streams into our landfills at an alarming clip. Many other wonderful blogs focus exclusively on the plastic issue, and although our family tries, we are not even especially good about leading plastic-free lives ourselves.

But we do try, and somehow the endurance of that plastic cup from sin city keeps me a little more honest. It’s like a mindfulness bell – every time I open the cupboard and see it there among our recycled Mexican water glasses and our hippie mason jars, I am awakened a little bit, reminded to try a little harder.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, of course, our kid diligently collecting her funny little tin foil balls all year long. There was lots of joking around the house tonight about which of us needed a tin foil beanie, and what kinds of mischief we could get up to with all those foil balls. Then we settled into a serious round of Napoleon, a simple but addictive trumping card game we highly recommend. The foil balls worked perfectly as our score keeping “chips.”

And as usual, I overplayed my hand, and they beat me mightily. One more reason why I’m not cut out for Vegas.

Check out Tom’s great blog Bikejuju.com for more from him.

My husband Tom, who manages the technical side of this blog, has been watching the search terms that bring traffic to the site. While the random one-off searches can make for interesting reading (today someone found the Tangled Nest by searching for “the world is our tool for love”–I guess that’s good!), certain terms come up over and over. One of the most common search terms bringing people to this site lately is “divebombing crows.” Or, as someone searched for today, in a resonant plea that has finally moved me to write: “crow divebombing help!” Questions about divebombing are also frequently asked at readings for my book, Crow Planet.  I’ve written a little about this before, but given the volume of searchers seeking help, here’s a little more.

Divebombing of humans by crows is a seasonal occurrence, linked to the most vulnerable stages of nesting.  Right now, fledgling crows are emerging from the nest, all of them are naive, and some of them are unable to fly.  It really is a dangerous phase of life for a crow family. Even if you don’t actually see the young, the adult birds may be protecting a nest with eggs, a hidden nest with freshly-hatched chicks, or chicks that have left the nest, and are tucked away in the branches or shrubbery.  In a couple of months, when  the young are grown and self-sufficient, the dive-bombing will stop.

Being so large and loud and bulky, crows are at a disadvantage as nesters. Think about it–most of the urban tree-nesting songbirds are so small.  Robins, chickadees, sparrows, finches.  They can build sweet little nests tucked into shadowy corners, well-camouflaged and difficult to find.  Their young are small too, and easy to hide.  Crows have no such luck.  They are stealthy for their size, but really–it’s hard to hid a big nest full of baby crows, all of them cawing in that baby-crow way, sounding like ducks.  As large, unpredictable mammals, we are rightly perceived as a threat.  HERE’S WHAT TO DO:  If a crow is calling at you during this season, just cross nonchalantly to the other side of the street, ignoring it completely, as if that’s what you meant to do anyway.  Continue on your way, enjoying the day.  If you are divebombed anyway, just keep going–the farther away you get, the better.  Think nice thoughts for the well-being of the crow young–who knows, it might help you seem less threatening to the crow.  If a crow has already determined that you are a threat and is divebombing you on sight (not ideal–other crows will think that this crow has a good reason to hate you, and might join the fun), then avoid the area for awhile.  If that’s impossible, consider a disguise–for real!  A hat that hides your hair color, some sunglasses…

Crows attacking hawks and owls is another common occurrence, and that happens year-round.  Many hawks and owls prey on both adult crows and their young, so crows are very proactive about discouraging their presence.  It’s amazing to watch a few small crows attacking a huge hawk or eagle.  If you hear crows suddenly calling in the neighborhood, it’s worth taking  little walk outside to see what’s going on–you’ll frequently be led to a wonderful wild scene.

The same impulse, of course, is what leads robins to attack crows this season–crows do prey on robin eggs and nestlings.  Robins don’t usually attack crows unless they actually see one approaching or pestering their nest or young.  You have to admire their guts!

I’m not a crow apologist, but I do think it helps to consider matters from the complicated standpoint of an urban-nesting crow parent.  And I think it’s wonderful that, no matter how urban our lives, we can witness firsthand the circle of life from our home places.  Enjoy.

Thanks flickr user Dr. Pat for the great crow image.

That same day, I heard adult Bushtits chirping in our yard, and followed them to the lilac tree and our own little cluster of newly emerged Bushtits.  I love how they huddle, all smooshed together in a little group.  When I mentioned this to Kathryn, she said, “Yes, just like they must have been in their nest.”  True, and wonderful to imagine, as Bushtits lay their eggs and grow their young in the loveliest hanging-basket nests, delicately woven of mosses, lichen, and spider webs. The inner chamber, where the eggs are laid, is lined with the softest possible things–animal fur and feathers–and the whole nest sways gently in the wind, like a cradle.

As nests go, they are relatively easy to spot:  hanging instead of tucked into the fork of a branch; often quite low in the tree; and built in open woodlands, at forest edges, in suburbs, parks, and urban neighborhoods, where we regularly wander.

Even though they are so common here in the western states, Bushtits are sometimes tricky to identify.  We are taught to notice the “field marks” on a bird–the colors, wing bars, eye stripes, tail shape, etc., that are clues to distinguishing it from other species.  But of all the birds in the entire North American field guide, Bushtits are perhaps the most “field markless.”  They are pretty much all brown, often described as “drab,” with no stripes or bars of any kind, just a vaguely lighter-brown breast and a longish tail.  There is one interesting field ID trick with which you can amaze your friends:  the adult female’s eye is light, the male’s is dark.

Bushtits are tiny, tiny, tiny, with a fabulous social structure.  Excepting spring, when the birds pair up for nesting, you never see just one or two Bushtits.  If you do see one in a shrub, look around–there will be a dozen, or three dozen, or more, all traveling as a little Bushtit organism, and if you spend some time watching them in action–their feeding acrobatics and constant movement as they glean small insects–you could never call them drab.

I’ve written before about how I prefer feeding birds with plants, rather than maintaining feeders.  For Bushtits, I allow a few of the invasive fennels that flourish in our herb garden to grow to maturity, even though none of us like fennel.  When the plants go to seed in the late autumn, they are covered with Bushtits and chickadees.  Bushtits weigh almost nothing, and though the fennel fronds are thin and delicate, they don’t bend in the slightest when the Bushtits land on them. We bring dried fennel branches onto the deck, so we can watch the birds feed at close range through the kitchen window.

Y’all know I never miss an opportunity to deliver my favorite sermon, and the season is ripe for it:  If you find a baby bird that has fallen to the ground, but can’t fly, please just pick it up and put it near its nest if you can find it, or on a nearby branch out of harm’s way.  Settle the bird on the branch by covering its eyes lightly with your hand until it is calm.  Softly remove your hand, and then leave.  The adult birds will continue to care for their young.  They cannot “smell human” on the little bird, and even if they could, birds are fabulous parents, and would not abandon their chick!  Let’s work to dispel this myth…

Meanwhile, enjoy this season of wonderful bird behavior, where naive young are learning their way in the world, and protective adult birds are so bold and busy.

The nest and fledgling photos in this post are by Kathryn True, an incredible naturalist, educator, writer, and dear friend.  Visit her website to see some of her work.

Thanks to Flickr users Rick Leche and judy h for adult Bushtit images.

For a spring refresher, have a look at my line-drying tutorial, “Laundry Secrets From our Grandmothers,” and  enjoy this lovely rite of the season.