u/CookingPurple

Every concert I’ve been to has had at least one moment so powerful, it is unforgettable.

Sometimes it’s something the band does. Like when I saw Mumford and Sons in 2019, and I witnessed their single mic B stage set for the first time. The chase center was packed, yet you could hear a pin drop as everyone stayed silent to hear their brilliant vocal harmonies.

And sometimes, it’s less about what the band does and more about how they create space for life. That is what happened last night in Albuquerque. My husband and 15-year-old son and I flew out to Albuquerque from California for the show. And they were amazing. But the power last night came from the last song of the encore set. As the band ended with “conversations with my son”, my husband and I closed out the night with our arms around our son (and his arms around us) as we soaked up the music of a phenomenal band after an unforgettable weekend in Albuquerque. All of us more than content to simply be together, ending where another began, as the music washed over us.

I will never forget that moment. And can never thank Mumford enough for making the space for it to happen

One of the stands at my local farmers market has an amazing, unknown fig variety. Even the farmer doesn’t know what it is because the tree grew from a cutting gifted to him from his uncle in Syria who is now long deceased. No one in the family knows what kind of fig it it. But I am obsessed with it!! It is a green fig with a deep red/pink flesh, and strong hints of berry in the flavor. It has made me wonder if I could grow my own from some of the figs. We currently have a black jack fig tree in our yard (transplanted less than a year ago, small but healthy and growing fast, and bearing some fruit). We will be adding an addition green fig tree ti replace that didn’t take. So in theory there are other trees to help pollinate. I live in zone 9b (silicon. Valley area).

With this background, how possible is it to try to grow one of these mystery figs from the fruit? How should I go about, and how many should I attempt to grow to try to make sure I get a fruit bearing female tree?

Or is this a lost cause and I just hope my local farmer doesn’t go out of business?

A few years ago we planted some fruit trees in our backyard. The trees are doing great. Started producing far earlier than I expected and the fruit is delicious. But I used my get any of it because I’d those f-ing squirrels!! Netting doesn’t work because they just chew through it. Has anyone found anything that works?

My 15-year-old is a singer and guitarist. He’s the one who introduced me to Noah right before Stick Season blew up. He’s in his room covering Busyhead and Sink right now. And he’s good.

I love the way music transcends generations.

(Oh, now he’s moved on to Orange Juice)

I figured this group could appreciate how awesome this is :-)

Listening to TGD has spun a web of lyrical and thematic connections. Some to other artists (mostly Mumford and Counting Crows). Some staying writhing Noah’s works. But the one I can’t shake today is the way the following are weaving themselves into a picture in my brain:

“Where I’m from and what I’m worth have gotten so damn intertwined” — Spoiled (so far one of the biggest gut-punch lyrics of the album for me)

“I was born into a one-hundred-year storm

Foot of ice across Vermont, and in that dark

And in that frost a heart was formed” — Doors

“If I get too close

And I'm not how you hoped

Forgive my northern attitude

Oh, I was raised out in the cold

If the sun don't rise

'Til the summertime

Forgive my northern attitude

Oh, I was raised on little light” —Northern Attitude

I’ve always been fascinated by the way place shapes who we are, especially the place we grow up, and to what extent we can ever really escape that no matter how far away we go. That place becomes a part of us. Love it or hate it, it is always in there. There’s always a pull back, even if running away was the best thing you could have done. I see a lot of wrestling with that in this lyrical web.

(So many parallels in general between Doors and Northern Attitude, but this is the main one playing in my head at the moment. The other tangential tie in I see to this theme as well is a line from “The Tall Grass” by Counting Crows “some of us are broken when we’re children and we can never get it back once it is gone.” But that opens up an all new direction to explore!)