FIJIAN FEAST

On June 7th I ate at a Fijian feast at the Methodist Church that I attend. I walked there about 8 miles that day. It is on Montgomery St. where I had attended a Mom's group when my son was about 2. The food was prepared in honor of the Baptism of a one year old Fijian baby. Their traditional food too many starches and few vegetables. They do not even know about organic foods.

I will one day teach them about that and visit Fiji someday with my 2 sisters who I have known for about 1 year now. They serve a lot of fish from Hawaii, beef mixed with some peppers and carrot strips, a tapioca type of bread, taro root bread, curry beef, watermelon and plenty of cakes. About 80 people were there and I was one of the few Caucasians. I am part Hawaiian and many Figians have skin as dark as mine. There were many children running around as well as babies.

It is interesting that the women have very large feet like I do...

COYOTE TAILS

I hiked over to Spring Lake Park about 8 miles around the Rincon Valley area. I spied a very thin coyote which was evasive. He reminded me of several coyotes that I have seen at Sears Point rock art site that are inscribed and etched in stone.

I have seen very healthy and friendly wolves that are attracted to people in Yellowstone and in California wildernesses. They are very unlike the coyote as they are friendly.

Native American people consider the coyote to be a superstitious creature - they do not eat them. Coyotes are known to cause bad luck and they are also known to inflict disease upon people. Similar to Kokopelli - they have been mythological characters for over 50,000 years.

When my family went to Albuquerque one hot summer we saw coyotes inscribed at Petroglyph National Monument. We also saw a cute cat petroglyph and took a photo of it.

My son loves cats and I also prefer the calmness of cats..

CELTIC FESTIVAL

Last weekend I attended the Celtic Fest at St. Michael's school, an old restored house and quarters in Roseland. It was wonderful to hear the music and watch the various dancers doing old Irish jigs and dancing. Many types of instruments were played in the bands including harmonicas, accordians, small guitars, fifes, flutes, and drums.

The gathering was underneath some redwoods and fig trees, and there was a lovely garden too. The dancers were dressed in 19th century costumes. I enjoyed being present with this ethnic entertainment. It reminded me of being in Williamsburg back East.

A SPRING DAY AT SPRING LAKE

One Saturday I visited Spring Lake Park to hike around the lake and back through Howarth Park. There is a peacefulness about the park. I helped the park planners with the concept of the visitor center in the 80's, and I helped the crew conceive of the storyteller's cavern which is made of basalt. The basalt was mined at Annadel State Park by Italians in order to pave streets in Petaluma and in San Francisco.

There are many geese that visit the park throughout the winter and spring. The baby goslings are very cute as they follow each other around in the lake and play and flap their tiny wings.

I also noted a white egret atop some trees. The small swimming lagoon is still not open yet. The lagoon and the lake is fed by an underground spring located toward the east of the lagoon.

SANTA ROSA PARADE OF ROSES

May 10th I walked downtown to view the parade of roses and I saw some nice looking rose floats which reminded me of the Pasadena parade of roses. The parade participants were themed in various decades, and there were many people lining the sidewalks. Some people even came from San Francisco. There was a group of people throwing pizza pies as they strolled from Mary's Pizza shack. Others were clowns, and of course shriners dressed like Arabian knights. Several horse groups were groomed with rose flowers. The horses pranced and danced. I walked about 8 miles down to the southern part of town. There were some acrobats and bikers with dogs in carts lined with various roses. All in all it was a fun and sunny day.

CINCO DE MAYO

May 5th I went to the Cinco de Mayo festivities at Roseland. It felt like I was visiting Old Mexico again. When I had finished my BA degree I decided to travel throughout Mexico and participated in an archaeological field school near Cuatla.

I overheard conversations in booths about how the French over took the Spanish to control Mexico during the 1800's. There were so many people dressed up and dancing with the Mariacho bands. There music was very loud and everyone was enjoying the summer night. I walked down Sebastopol Road which was my old stomping grounds when we lived in that neighborhood many moons ago.

The communal food, happy families, and giggly girls reminded me of how different our American community is from that of Mexico's.

KEEP A WATCH OUT FOR KOKOPELLI

Kokopelli is a mythical god and a trickster to Native Americans in both North and South America. He is especially well known in the Southwest. He is seen as a dancer in the Pueblos. He can cause disease or on the other hand cure you. He has been around since prehistoric times. I recorded a Kokopelli rock art symbol on the buttes at Tempe, Arizona. At the time there had been no other symbols of Kokopelli found in the Hohokam area.

If you look at Hohokam pottery books you can see that he is always disguised as a beetle or humpbacked flute player. And he is phallic on some rock art and on pottery. He functioned as a Kachina in many Southwestern tribes. He could bring fertility to women and his humped back was filled with charms to bring more rain and fertility to the crops - which was very important in the desert Southwest.

He is certainly well known in many cultures of North and South America. The Hohokam believed he functioned as an evil and powerfully good God. This is very similar to the belief of Coyote in North American tribes. Keep a look out for him in your life.