These maple leaves are still alive and capturing the sun — some of them. Others are dead. None are attached to a tree. None can reproduce. None can feed a root or […]
What is Life?
How Much Soil Do We Need, Who Gets to Decide, How, and Why?
Today a little tour through democracy in action. Note the two anti-insect bands. Given that a gram of soil continues 1 billion microorganisms, beating out seawater’s 1 million, how much topsoil does […]
The Bed of the Wind
The wind and the rain made a mysterious shape in the grass on the hill. We had quite a storm. It looks like the grass was pushed against itself, with wind-surge meeting […]
The Beautiful Creatures Who Put Up With Us
This poplar is inspiring. It’s hard to say which is more beautiful, her young bark or her old bark. To be young and old at the same time, that’s not a human […]
The Life of Water
Under certain conditions, water freezes in curves around the expanding pressure of air, in a shape reminiscent of liquid water giving way to form. At other times, it freezes in the shape […]
Resisting The English Language for the Sake of the Earth
The English language, as it has evolved, is a problem. Here’s an image. The language assures us that these are “clouds”, which culture defines as water vapour, blowing across the sky, which […]
Taking a Second Look: It is Not Erosion
This is how we change the world. We change the world. Mullein Changing the World on Some Crushed Gravel Leftover from Road-Building This is going on across the slope of a gravel […]
Learning to Swim in the Sea of the Sun
Water. Here’s some caught in a flow of energy. This flow is called the Thompson River. You might as well call it “poetry”. Or “agriculture”. (And for that, a few words might […]
The Field of Life
Water flows in a film over rock. When it strikes dry faces, it breaks into rivers. Then it reforms and becomes a lake again. It is a story of water tension and […]
The Power of Stone
It is good to state the obvious. Stones are hard. They are solid. This give them force. When enough of them get together, it gives them gravity, and a tension between […]
