The amount of land (more or less) under my control right now is 0.14 acres. This amounts to: 1.79 x 10-5 of my town 4.84 x 10-7 of my county 6.01 x 10-9 of my state 5.76 x 10-11 of the United States 3.82 x 10-12 of land on Earth So, not much. HOWEVER, this is an advantage when I attempt to think about the energy flows. For example, I was never very worried about food waste since it is biodegradable and would break down in the landfill fairly quickly.
Green Man’s Grotto has been extended and now includes a small pond (4’ diameter, 2’ deep with a shelf at 1’ deep). We’ve added water lillies, water lettuce, cattails, and blue flag iris within the pond. Around it we’ve planted creeping jenny, sneezeweed, and yarrow. The stone is limestone which we gathered from the area. (We live in the limestone capital of the world, you know.) The pebbles are landscaping rock taken from another part of our yard, which we have future plans for.
Swamp milkweed
The next step we’ll be taking to increase relatedness here at our house: vermicomposting. We have a thousand worms on the way. 😂
Bumblebee on purple coneflower 🌱
Butterfly weed in Green Man’s Grotto is starting to bloom. Come on, butterflies!
About three weeks ago, a friend asked me if I wanted to help him keep bees–to which, of course, I said yes. The bees live on his property, which is much more spacious and near bee amenities like woods, water, crops and flowers. And so we set up our first hive. And then (a day after I posted about wanting expand the web of relations in my life), a wild swarm showed up at my friend’s house.
I’ve emphasized below an essential line from Gordon White’s interview with Tyson Yunkaporta: Gordon White: “What are the hallmarks of indigenous thinking?” Tyson Yunkaporta: “It’s an externalized psycho-technology that exists in your unique web of relations. Your thinking and your knowledge sits in the relational space between you and others. Not just with humans but with non-humans, places, landforms, and all the people that you’re in relation to. You have this beautiful set of relations sitting there, waiting for you to engage with it.
Bee friends (sweat bees?) pollinating our strawberries.
Pleated inkcap mushroom popped up in the raised beds this morning. The raised beds sit on brick, not soil, so I take this as a good sign that the soil is complexifying, building mycelium. Bonus: cute green strawberries. Pictures taken by my daughter Darcy.
