My Corner of the World

My Trusty Pack

2008-06-27T09:32:00.001-07:00

My Trusty Pack, originally uploaded by peggydaly.

FoosBall in Senegal

2007-10-07T09:57:00.001-07:00

SENEGAL 2007027
Originally uploaded by peggydaly

i'm getting my cross-blog skills honed. i don't want to have to upload pics to multiple sites, given the limited band-width i may have available when i travel, so i'm linking my Flickr photo site to this and my travel blog so that i can be more efficient. This photo (since i mentioned the foosball playing in senegal) is actually hosted on the Flickr site.

Dakar, Sengal

2007-10-07T09:11:00.000-07:00

I didn't post many thoughts on my trip to senegal, did i? i must admit it's a little overwhelming to try to capture a place in words. especially a place so very different, where one absorbs so many sounds, sights and smells that to decide what to write down becomes daunting. it increases one's respect for gifted travel writers!

then a little while ago i ran across a music video i had seen before i went to senegal. i watched it again and it amazed me how well it captured dakar, the capital city of senegal. it's amadou and miriam's "senegal fast food" with manu chao. watch the youtube post below and you'll get a really wonderful glimpse into things that define dakar - from the white goats kept at each house for good luck, the colorful fishing pirogues, the way the children dance, play marbles or foosball, the donkey carts and car rapides (blue and yellow buses), djembe drums, people on the roadside selling all manner merchandise, long queues at immigration offices, tea, dust, color and music, color and music, color and music.

it made me feel as if i were walking the streets of dakar again. what a great way to get a mini-vacation!

Senegal Fast Food

2007-10-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

video amadou and mariam ft. manu chao

preparing for travel...

2007-09-29T20:03:00.000-07:00

yes, it's getting closer. leaving my job for 5 months in central america. well, the leaving the job part is indefinite but the CA travel is defined. while traveling i'm going to have a separate blog, to keep travel material separate from my personal blog thoughts. so please visit my travel blog and i'll have a link to the right as well.

i will post my progress and some pics at
peggy's travel blog
and i will be posting my pictures on flickr at
peggy's travel photos

i'll post more specific links when my travels begin in december.

so stop by there as most of my activity will likely be travel related for the next 6 months. i will try to pop in here occasionally to post more general thoughts. cheers!

"vents and black smokers in the mid-oceanic rift" circa 1979

2007-08-19T21:47:00.000-07:00

this was the title of first report i recall producing. it was for a 7th grade earth science class. i loved that class. at the time, reports of these "gardens" around deep-sea thermal vents were exciting. before then it was assumed that life needed the sun's rays to flourish - but now we know this incredible diversity existed without access to the sun's rays. however we still cling to the traditional belief in strictly carbon-based, oxygen-dependent life forms. what if life has evolved in a COMPLETELY different way on another planet just as life around those thermal vents have? how much we don't know!!!

i see you. you see me

2007-07-29T21:50:00.000-07:00

st louis, senegal. near fishermen's beach.

funny smiles

2007-07-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

more toubab dialao children excited by the toubab. how i wish i had more to offer them.

senegalese tea, beach in cassamance, senegal

2007-07-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

road - oussouye, cassamance, senegal, w. africa

2007-07-14T21:30:00.000-07:00

A Texas Grand Dame Lost

2007-07-13T15:02:00.000-07:00

the ranks of remarkable Texas women are smaller now. Lady Bird Johnson was one of the last of a generation that has suffered some terrible losses in the past several years - Ann Richards and Molly Ivans being among the greatest. and like those women she had a way with words (like only a texas woman does). A nursemaid described her as “purty as a lady bird”, giving birth to her nickname. Of that nickname she said “I was a baby and in no position to protest.”

But she also contributed to LBJ’s work. Of her role as first and second lady she said “My role was to be an extra pair of eyes and ears for Lyndon.” She made many trips to explain her husband’s programs like Head Start, the Job Corps and the War on Poverty.

not to mention her trailblazing as a conservationist. her contribution there was all her own and all home-grown. the lady bird wildflower conservation center is lovely if you are ever in the hill country around austin, TX.

we don’t get enough of this sensibility today. certainly not out of our current first lady.

filters OFF!

2007-07-08T21:17:00.000-07:00

san antonio, tx - circa 1974. how i love this pic. always have. this is, from left to right, julie (my older sister), david (my cousin and nemesis from day one), sharon (cousin and younger sister of david), ME - peggy. now, i'm not sure why julie is poking david so severely, but i love her dearly for it. look how peaceful and comfortable she is! he clearly deserved it. david and i would have battled to the death had we been allowed...from the moment we entered the playpen together. how can i deny inherent repulsion? and then why not inherent attraction?

oh yeah, and at the time this was my favorite dress. of course the cowboy boots were mandatory. man i loved ruffles but that didn't mean i couldn't wear my boots.

LOOK!

2007-07-04T23:13:00.000-07:00

view across big sur at sunset

(Fire)Crack-Ho

2007-07-04T22:48:00.000-07:00

happy july 4th americans! this is my first july 4th in my perch over lake merritt. wow! this city really cracks on july 4th. i never quite had this vantage point and i can see berkeley and marin's fireworks as well. all but the biggest of SF's are hidden by downtown oaktown. so after several years of spending july 4th with "those who do not like fireworks", trying to not seek them out, i must finally surrender to the fact that i like fireworks. it's not only the colorful blooms in the sky; it's the near simultaneous eruption of celebration that happens across my community. this is readily evident in the explotions of light and sound across the landscape. when else do you have a "visual map" of people all across an entire region celebrating a holiday? i see south SF, and all the eastbay/northbay "crackers". hours after the first of them started i can still hear them echoing from end-tp-end of oakland. it's moving :).

but then i see a local news-cast interviewing people at a local parade. talk is of the iraq war and supporting our troops. no disrespect to our troops but july 4th is not about iraq. it's about why and how the united states of america became an independent nation. it's about the values we thought were important enough to fight for (throughout time). and we won our independence!!!! so today i think we should consider what the US has fought for thoughout our country's history. and what we can do to see that these standards are being upheld. fight-on!!!

cheers!

The Sacred Baobab

2007-06-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

a stark contrast from the lush evergreens of the russian river, but a classic west african vista. the sacred baobab.

Russian River High

2007-06-10T21:18:00.000-07:00

it was a lovely weekend in the russian river valley. what an amazing place! the occasion was wendy's bachlorette party, held at an old railway baron's former retreat. not posh by any means, but as remote as you can get in the russian river valley. it was beautiful but i think i enjoyed the drive more than anything - off 101 to river road to cazadero highway, then up/down a dirt road thru fern-laden valleys to a house on austin creek, a feeder to the russian river. i felt so lucky to be driving in my cool car thru such beautiful places! and then to drink wine and have fun with good friends and crash and awake to the same beautiful scenery the next day. wow!

for anyone considering wine tasting north of SF, consider the russian river valley. it is more beautiful than napa and sonoma and less crowded. but i don't go for fancy buildings so i speak of good wine and friendly people. that doesn't mean there are no beautiful wineries - there are!

so i'll be off to TX next week, where i will spend time with my family during our annual weekend at the TX coast. Port A to be exact. i always love going back to this timeless place, as my previous posts will attest. and we have the whole fam back for the occasion. yay!

so i hope you enjoy your home as much as i enjoy mine.

cheers!

River Life, Senegal

2007-06-02T11:47:00.000-07:00

My Dialog About God

2007-05-29T20:43:00.000-07:00

this past year i received an email plea from my mother. i don't have 100% recall about the context, but she pleaded that even tho she knew i no longer attended church, she was certain that i still believed in God and "couldn't i just do" such-and-such. i'm pretty sure it was to attend church for some holiday.

because the assertion was delivered via email, it was not necessary that i respond. she clings to the belief that i still believe in God and i'm in no rush to dispell that myth. but were i to be asked in person, i know i would have a hard time denying my beliefs. just as a Christian is instructed to not forsake their belief, their God. were i to deny my beliefs i would truly be declaring a "false God".

as i face a visit with my family in june, i inevitably day-dream about potential conversations. i like to be prepared. with a matter as important as this i want to be able to intelligently articulate my position. i have an internal dialog, but i want to be sure i possess what equates to my spiritual "talking points". is that crazy?

so i decided to attempt to document this. i'll be working on this entry and will try to post it soon. insha allah.

oui, si....yes

2007-05-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

aparently i have 2 language settings: speaking english and speaking "something else". that something else is determined by where i last vacationed, so currently i can only speak french when i determine that english is not the language being spoken. and it's compulsive. that's not to say i can speak french but i'm talking about the basics like yes, no, how-much and can-i-have-the-check. those are the words that are formed instinctually

so today is when it struck me that i have no ability to assess the language needs of those with whom i am interacting. as i entered my building i was confronted by several asian, non-english speaking folk looking for the on-site property manager. they pointed to an envelope with the name and address and because i knew his office was inside the building they were having problems accessing, i wanted to indicate that "yes - i will take you inside to the office". the central part of that statement being "YES".

and this is where, while fumbling with my keys, i fumbled verbally..."oui...si.....yes" even though clearly none of those languages was ideal. i should have reverted to my default setting of english - but that didn't happen. all i knew was that english wasn't being spoken and out spouted the "oui".

how wonderful it would be to be seriously multi-lingual. but for now i fumble with what i got and can only take comfort in the fact that i try.

TOUBAB!

2007-05-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

funny story. this pic was taken in the fishing village of Toubab Dialao on the coast south of Dakar. as i walked alone down to the village fishing beach i was surrounded by children shouting "toubab!". i totally knew this meant "white person" but somehow filtered out this fact and attributed it to "hometown pride". hehe.
toubab, from what i hear, is the word for doctor and is of arabic origins. it is used thoughout west africa to describe a white person. much like mazungu in east africa. it's always kinda good to know that stuff when one travels. and good to ignore it occasionally as well :)

wondering...

2007-05-14T20:19:00.000-07:00

...how yesterday's post about bbq morphed into a ramble about the absence of a "vested" relationship in my life. some of it had to do with a visit with a friend who is going thru a nasty divorce and is in complete denial. i talked to her about solo travel and it prompted me to extoll the virtues of these adventures. and all the while i am preparing myself for my biggest solo venture to date. it will be divulged over the coming months, but i suppose i'm trying to convince myself as much as anyone else that this is a reasonable thing to do! and i must admit that it demands my attention for one big reason: so much is riding on my departure from the day to day world i know so well now. unwisely, i'm sure, i've identified this as some opportunity to transform my life. but deep down i know these drastic changes, like my move from TX to CA, often result in fewer changes than one anticipates. either way, i hope it will be a wonderful escape.

Captain

2007-05-13T22:59:00.000-07:00

i can hardly keep from smiling when i see this pic, so this is what i am ending the evening with. this was our able captain in cap skirring. he navigated the mangrove swamps with skill. eventually i will have his deats on my virtual tourist site. see link at right.

2007-05-13T22:35:00.000-07:00

lone cap skirring cow - making the trip to the beach, as the flies are not there during the day.

a treasure recovered

2007-05-13T21:08:00.000-07:00

i'm a big believer in simple pleasures. for years i found pleasure in cooking over a fire. i'd come home after work, light a small charcoal fire, and cook up my dinner on the back porch. one of the few losses i suffered when i moved to CA was the space in which to do this. but i'd noticed a small grill on the front fire escape...undisrupted...and figured i could do the same on my even wider back stoop. so after a very hot week in the bay area i was incented to find a way to cook my dinner and keep my kitchen cool.

i bought a portable grill and acquired a small second-hand table from a&b to make my set-up complete. a charcoal grill - to be clear- as this is the only self-respecting way to grill. i did a decent job stacking and lighting the coals considering how long it's been. the skewered shrimp and yellow squash were as good as i'd thought they would be and lo and behold it satisfied something deep inside of me. i was in the fresh air, blowing on the coals, looking out at lake merritt.

but just now it struck me: god i miss my backyard in new braunfels. it was a stunningly natural spot. birds en route to points south during the seasonal migrations found it attractive, the neighbor's roosters poked around back there, the slope to the house and railroad track below was covered with wild chili-pequeno and any other plant ready to grip the unwatered hill. oh my it was lovely.

well, something has been awakened in me. it will be interesting to see how it manifests itself. my constant restlessness amazes me! what in the world am i all about? that i still believe that is a question worth asking amazes me! and yet i'm unwilling to yield to anything less me than "me". essentially that leaves me with me - and the birds that i love to watch, and the food that i love to grill, and the books that i love to read, and the places around the world that i love to explore. it's at once a very full and very empty place.

how long will it be before i believe that someone else is better company than me, alone? how long before i believe that the potential joy that a person brings me is worth the potential misery this person may bring me? there are so few relationships out there to admire and aspire to. there are so few relationships i see that i think would be more satisfying than my status-quo.

the cutest girl in the world

2007-05-07T21:48:00.000-07:00

coy while her mother undoes her braids with a porcupine quill. the heat of the day. nothing much else can be done, that is understood. aaaahhhh. perfect way to complete my transisiton to vacation