Family and menagerie; good times close by and far away; new faces in the family. Below is a gallery of 2012 images; click on any image for more info and a slideshow.
Let's start 2012 with an update on the menagerie: George is doing well, and spends about 95% of his time right next to me…except when the sun is streaming into the window.
Joy visited Elise (who's still at Lewis & Clark College) and me in Portland several times this year…that is, when she's not in Swaziland, where she lived for several months in 2012.
And Beagle Bailey is well too!
And I had my usual set of quick conference trips to here and there, this one to NYC in late February.
Sperm whales commonly migrate through the Wadden Sea, and used to be harvested for their oil and other products; here's a handshake from one displayed at the UNESCO Wadden Sea World Heritage Center.
2012 was a big travel year for me, actually. In May I spent time in northern Germany planning a possible overseas program for Lewis & Clark with faculty and students from Jacobs University (Bremen), and we took a great field trip in the Wadden Sea area to study land and energy. In this photo we're looking down from a wind tower; the round divots you see on the ground are from WWII munitions.
One excursion was to a peat bog that's being restored. Peat is this amazing stuff when you feel it.
We overnighted on Juist Island, one of many destinations just offshore. Germans and neighbors apparently take hearty holidays, given the brisk climate up here. (You can see I'm a bit bundled up.)
After Germany I traveled down to Swaziland to prepare for an overseas program we are planning to run during May-July 2013. This weaver works for Rosecraft, a mohair production facility in the rural community of Egebeni.
Our students will visit Egebeni as part of a rural excursion and homestead stay. We got a good tour of one homestead in Egebeni via this young guide!
Our student participants in the Swaziland overseas program will conduct an environmental health assessment in communities of the Ezulwini Valley, and in the mornings they'll be volunteering in neighborhood care points (NCPs) with area youth, many of whom have been touched in some manner by HIV-AIDs.
One important thing they do in NCPs is feed the young ones who show up; here are the noontime meals cooked and ready to go.
Our overseas program students will stay at Lidwala Lodge, a short scramble from a famous rock formation overlooking the Ezulwini Valley known as Sheba's Breasts.
After returning from Swaziland I stopped over in New Mexico to visit my sister Mary…and to participate in our annual Kojosho Memorial Day weekend karate camp up in the Manzana Mountains near Albuquerque.
Speaking of Mary, we were fortunate to have her visit Oregon several times this year, as her current plans are to move to Oregon in 2013! Here she is with Elise at our favorite walkable destination, Portland's Rose Garden.
And I was fortunate to take a brief trip to Santa Barbara in summer to catch up with Joy, and to visit my workout spot on the beach.
Here's the office Joy shares with a partner. Her Joy de Vivre event design business continues to thrive in Santa Barbara…though a big piece of her heart is far away in Swaziland.
Here are a bunch of Lewis & Clark students who attended an academic conference with me this summer—it was an environmental studies meeting near San Jose. Several of them even presented as part of the conference. We're so proud of our great students!
Back in Canyonville, things are going well too. Here is my good friend and fellow Alder Creek Community Forest board member Phil Rich: we're all excited because we finally ran electricity to the barn and got the old table saw running again! It's been quiet for nearly two decades, more or less since Dad stopped using it.
We're sloooowly building a place in southern Oregon, as some of you know. It's been a struggle and we're now on our third builder; that's what you get when you hire a Portand architect and try and build his design in Canyonville. But we made some progress in 2012. One recommendation by the architect was to do dark exterior siding so that the surrounding trees and vegetation are highlighted…and he's right!
In fall, our friend Siphiwe from Swaziland visited us in Portland, along with Joy and Bongie. Here we are back at the Rose Garden!
Amazingly, Lewis & Clark has a number of students from Swaziland; it's all part of a special fellowship program. Here are three incoming Swazi students: of course we took them out for sushi!
Also in fall, I traveled to Malta for an international conference on concept mapping. Here's the residential neighborhood where I stayed, close to the University of Malta.
Inside the Valetta Palace for a reception.
Being a Mediterranean island means having traded with/been taken over by basically everyone. The Maltese language, for instance, is Semitic but written in Latin script and has a bunch of Italian words.
Malta is an easy flight to/from Europe, but not direct to the US, so I had to overnight. Eventually I learned why hotel rooms were hard to come by in Munich: Oktoberfest!
I saw quite a few big manly guys in lederhosen wearing these darned hearts around their necks. I guess after you drink enough beer at Oktoberfest you'll do anything?
Another highlight was our first ever fall Kojosho karate camp in Portland. Some of you know that we started a fall camp in Berkeley over 20 years ago—but never with live swords!! My teaching partner Mike Somoza was plenty safe, btw, but poor mister squash head.
Also in fall, Alder Creek Community Forest held its tenth anniversary. It's amazing that we have survived this long! Here are board members David Parker, Laurie Newton (also ACCF president), and Larry Ames.
Speaking of survive: thank goodness we all survived the 2012 general election. Here is one of many billboards that were on prominent (and frequent) display up and down rural Interstate 5 between Portland and Canyonville. I believe that every one of the candidates and measures supported by these billboards—typically located on farmland/ranchland adjoining the freeway—ultimately lost. Such is the urban/rural divide.
And the newest member of the family is Kahdo Fujihara Eisen! Brother Bob and partner Merrilee are now grandparents, and my nephew Brooke and partner Ryoko are learning what it's like to not sleep.
I've been playing my songs with several small combos. One we put together in fall involved a current and former student: here's Elijah Probst, a Lewis & Clark student and great tenor sax player. (And a smidgen of my guitar.)
In early December I flew to France to participate in a PhD thesis defense at the University of Grenoble. We spent the weekend working in Villeneuve-de-Berg, located in the Ardèche department of southern France.
Claire Tollis, at left, was the PhD candidate, and she passed with distinction!
Here's a small chapel alongside the road near where I stayed in the Ardèche.
While I go on these trips, who takes care of Beagle Bailey and George? Well, there are some great Lewis & Clark students who adopt them for a few days. Here's George at their place with his, um, friend.
Some photos from the land in Canyonville: here for starters is a portion of the memorial area.
In late December, Joy flew up to join me and Elise to celebrate Christmas in southern Oregon. And of course I put them to work! Here they are helping move some really heavy trifold door panels.
For Christmas eve in Canyonville, Joy, Elise and I made a bunch of music, just like we did years ago. Here we are at the Forest Glen Senior Residence before performing: this piano player was really good!
We also joined a packed choir for a candellight service at the Methodist church my family attended years ago.
Bailey enjoyed sitting on the Christmas tree apron Mary made forever ago…the tree is from the land, hence a Charlie Brownish variety of incense cedar.
Here are Joy and Elise (and a bundled Beagle Bailey) with our builder, Alan Peters. This structure is ultimately going to be a bath house, but in the interim it will be our sleeping quarters.
One project we have on our land in Canyonville is a memorial area we are constructing near some old incense cedar trees; we hope to remember Mom and Dad, and other loved ones, here.
The northwest secton of our forest has trails running through a steep-sloped area. It's really beautiful in the morning.
When it rains (a whole lot), there's a little stream running under the sword ferns and maple trees in this lovely place toward the middle of our land.
After our Christmas celebration in Canyonville, we swung by Eugene to spend time with—you guessed it, Kahdo!
Brother Bob, now Grandpa Bob—sounds weird, but he and Merrilee have assumed their roles with gusto. (And they do have the right color hair…good thing I don't have grandchildren yet.)
So, 2012 goes out and 2013 comes in with the newest member of the Proctor-Eisen-Fujihara-Nxumalo-Marshall-Spector clan, getting all the attention he deserves! Happy 2013, everybody.