Butterfly weed in Green Man’s Grotto is starting to bloom. Come on, butterflies!
Ted Goia on fourteen signs that you are living in a society without a counterculture. This is true. It is, however, ironic that the article takes the form of a listicle consisting of screenshots of tweets. As Cory Doctorow says, the internet has become “five websites, each consisting of screenshots of text from the other four.”
American Columbo is in bloom.
I made some pawpaw muffins this morning using this recipe. I would have liked them to have a stronger pawpaw flavor, so maybe the pulp should be increased. (I cut everything in half because I didn’t have enough unfrozen pulp to make the whole recipe.) The recipe is actually for bread but I had a notion to make muffins instead so I used this article as a reference for how to convert a quick bread recipe into muffins — basically increase the heat and decrease the time.
Pawpaws are the largest edible fruit native to North America. They’re often described as a mix of banana and mango flavors. This National Park Service article describes the tree and fruit and says the trees are becoming increasingly dominant in the understory because deer do not like them. An interesting case of the interrelatedness of the ecosystem: as deer population increases due to a decrease in predators, pawpaw trees increase because deer don’t eat them and instead eat other species. As pawpaw trees increase, the NPS says, the forest canopy may become more patchy or shorten (see the article for the reasons why).
Clive Thompson on the words he has never spelled correctly. Likewise. I’m a good speller but words with double consonants—especially pairs of double consonants—get me every time.
Trans-species collaboration
In the stirring closing lines of Carmel Point, Robinson Jeffers writes: We must uncenter our minds from ourselves; We must unhumanize our views a little But how is this to be done? One way is surely as a philosophical practice that builds ways of thinking with the more-than-human world instead of thinking about it. That is essential. Yet for those of us who tend to live too much in our own heads, what practical actions can be taken?
In response to Jean, sharing my favorite picture of the Oregon coastline from our (best) vacation (ever) last year
Gray, beautiful Oregon coast evening. I’m on a short visit until Wednesday, but still popping into my microblog to post photos.
Entwined being of plant and soil
In the course of this article on future agricultural possibilities that actually build the soil, George Monbiot passes on some interesting facts about plant interaction with soil. Plants release between 11% and 40% of the sugars they make into the soil, into the area around the plant called the rhizosphere. These released sugars activate bacteria in the rhizosphere needed for the plant’s health and growth. The rhizosphere acts as an “external gut” for the plant.
I’m a beekeeper now
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.
Hear me out: octopuses are aliens.