How high’s the water, Mama? Five feet high and risin’. How high’s the water, Papa? She said it’s five feet high and risin’. Well, the rails are washed out north of town. We gotta head for higher ground. We can’t come back till the water goes down, Five feet high and risin’ ~ Johnny Cash, […]
Gardening is about optimism. I look through the catalogs in winter and read articles about plants and vegetables, dreaming of what this year’s garden will be like. I am excited to order seeds and get excited all over again when they arrive. I dream of fresh veggie dishes as I ponder the cold and snow […]
“These are the consequences of the old ways with which I feel easiest: walking as enabling sight and thought rather than encouraging retreat and escape; paths as offering not only means of traversing space, but also ways of feeling, being and knowing.” ~ Robert Macfarlane Our elementary school was about six blocks from my house. […]
“A weed is a plant in the wrong place.” ~ George Washington Carver When I bought our house just over 40 years ago, the neighbors told me that the backyard had at one time been a show garden. People came from all around to see it, with the variety of plants and flowers carefully tended […]
“I shivered in those solitudes when I heard the voice of the salt in the desert.” ― Pablo Neruda It was Earth Day and the environmental department that I worked for had planned a party celebrating the environmental movement. Unfortunately, no one had told the building landlord about it, and at 9 am a crew […]
“A big part of the problem is most people don’t know much about trees, and think, well, trees are good and no trees are bad,” he says. “But trees are just like people, they have a multitude of differences. Some trees are human-friendly, and some are just the opposite.” ~ Tom Ogren quoted by Sabrina […]
“Once upon a time … there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn and to sing at dusk was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated …” ~ Terry Tempest Williams One cold mid-winter night outside of Fairbanks, […]
“In every town and city today, cutting across parks and waste ground, you’ll see unofficial paths created by walkers who have abandoned the pavements and roads to take short cuts and make asides. Town planners call these improvised routes ‘desire lines’, or ‘desire paths’.” ~ Robert Macfarlane In the mountain parks I know, one rule […]
“The message is clear and so is the pathway. But time is running out. We need to take a bold stand and act upon it now.” ~ Nicole Schwab and Kristin Rechberger Long ago, when I was working on the Navajo Reservation, there was a winter flood. Although few homes were directly impacted, the heavy […]
“This implies a rapid and significant shift from conventional, monoculture-based and high-external-input-dependent industrial production toward mosaics of sustainable, regenerative production systems that also considerably improve the productivity of small-scale farmers,” the report concludes. ~ TechnologyWater Years ago, I traveled extensively across the country, and enjoyed stopping in bars to try out the local beer. Living […]
