With The Boys…

…for a good part of the day. And what a fun duo they are—able to say almost anything, including “pillow,” which is what we used for a bit of a pillow fight.

Photo by Ben or James

Photo by Mimi

Green Manure

The green manure cover crop planted last fall, and just recently freed of its burden of snow, is springing into action.

And below some notes on the book Wildness.

Wildness

Note and Quotes
The book is a series of essays addressing the ideas of wildness and wilderness. Much like the book Wilding, Wildness sees humans as part of the wild, and wilderness as capable of existing almost anywhere.

Gavin Van Horn, “Into The Wildness”
Whether its is a place, a nonhuman animal or plant, or a state of mind, wild indicates autonomy and agency, a will be be, a unique expression of life.

Curt Meine, “The Edge of Anomaly”
If the Driftless Area is not “pristine, nor thoroughly humanized, neither is it like the rest of the agro-industrial American Midwest. It is not wholly engineered to serve as a mere medium for corn and soybeans bound for the global market. It has not been made efficient to the point of diminishing returns. The goat prairies, woodlands, bottomland forests, riparian wetlands, rivers, streams, and springs keep the landscape diversified. Smaller-scale diary and livestock operations, with actual grazing animals, remain relatively viable so that a large portion of the land is covered in permanent pasture. The corrugated topography does not lend itself to ever-expanding economies of scale. Even the big-box stores have hard time squeezing into the narrow valleys.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, “Listening To The Forest”
Jeff Grignon explained that the idea of wild, untamed land did not exist in their (Menominee Nation, of Wisconsin) world but came along with the surge of newcomers, who pressed up against the Menominee homelands, misunderstanding their nature. The Algonquin languages, to which Menominee belongs, contain the pronoun Pekuac, meaning “growing on its own,” which  indicates the freedom of that being to live where it will rather than the site of its landscape. He says that for him , “When you can feel the aliveness of everything around using all the senses, you are experiencing wilderness.”

Laura Alice Watt, “Losing Wildness For The Sake Of Wilderness”
Those who are fundamentalist about wilderness, demanding a purist definition of these landscapes, are driving humans and nature farther apart; what we need is a return to a more pragmatic vision of wilderness, one that recognizes that not all human actions diminish wildness, so as to make room for the relative wild once more.

Margot Higgins, “Inhabiting the Alaskan Wild”
“I like getting up and looking at what I get to look at every morning.”
—a comment by an elderly, long-time resident of the land that became the
Wrangell-St. Elias National Park. 

Gavin Van Horn, “Healing the Urban Wild”
Quoting Gary Snyder:
“When an ecosystem is full functioning, al the members are present at the assembly. To speak of wilderness is to speak of wholeness. Human beings came our of that wholeness, and to consider the possibility of reactivating membership in the Assembly of Alll Beings is in no way regressive.”

And, speaking of Greencorps in Chicago:
Ecological restoration in the city is one attempt to ensure that all members of the assembly are present. 

Seth Magle, “Building the Civilized Wild”
Also speaking of Chicago:
And slowly we can make cities into places where we can conserve rare species, too. This is called reconciliation ecology, and it opens up possibilities for cities that are a far cry from lifeless wastelands.

John Hausdoerffer,  “The Akiing Ethic”
Akiing, then, is both land to which the people belong and land that requires the people.

The future of wildness lies in the discovery of the self-willed human and nonhuman communities that make up my “rice” and in the akiing, the land to which my people (whoever they might be)belong. I must, somehow, cultivate the Akiing Ethic.

Walk Along the Rock

And a perfect day for it.

Fog Over Snow

Not much snow left, but where it is, fog from a warm, damp wind blowing over the remnants in the lee of hedgerows.

Not much snow, but, instead, snowdrops.

Can’t forget to mention that Will helped with yesterday’s soil block making, too; in fact he did all the heavy lifting.

Dance Recital and then Soil Blocks

Katy on stage, and then stamping out blocks of dirt.

Flying West But Going North

Small flock of Sandhills winging hard almost due west but moving rapidly almost due north.

Meanwhile, Bri’s friend and contemporary, Chad, won the Nite Nationals. Here’s how his boat ended up (after soft ice with a hard wind):

Missed The Regatta

Nite Nationals begun today on Green Lake. Conditions not ideal, and no regrets at not participating. On to next year.

Windy and warming.

March Winds

Morning dog walk, evening concert.

Very windy, with early spring clouds chasing spots of blue.

And, later, Maddie’s second grade musical concert.

And That’s That

Honda crf250l. Ad placed March 1. Bike sold March 4.

Photo by Sue

A fun 4.5 years, but times change. And now I’m thinking about e-bikes. Two wheels aeternum.

Meanwhile, the Blues Brothers are getting ready to ride.

Photo by Renee

Two-eyed Jacks…

…can be wild, but that will have to wait a day or two.

So, an older fellow is so proud that he put a jigsaw puzzle together in under two hours that he calls his wife over and tells her about it. “And look here on the box,” it says, “6 to 8.”

North With The Spring

Sandhill cranes overhead, and red-wing blackbirds at the ponds. Robin yesterday. The early birds are here, and they are pretty sure spring is right behind them.

Also spotted, on a high ledge of the old stone water tower, what I think are a pair of American kestrels.

Sun Swinging

Along with Go Fish, pancakes, and long bike rides. A springlike day.

And, riding the warmth north, Robins, this year first sighted by Sue.

Photo by Sue

Lots of snow gone; lots of snow remaining. And where it’s gone, traces of life in the former subnivean zone.

Overnighters

Will, Kate, and Abby here for dinner and fun.

BLTs, cornmeal-cheddar waffles, mac&cheese for dinner. More good food and more good fun planed for tomorrow. And, katy brought her Polaroid camera, and used it to take a shot of the one eyed wonder. She then scanned it and gave it to me for posting.

Podcasts and Playlists…

…are appreciated.

So, the police arrest two guys caught in a burglary. One has a car battery, the other a bunch of fireworks. There’s an arraignment, but then, as you might expect, one is charged and the other let off.

This is from one of my favorite podcasts, “The Infinite Monkey Cage,” a blend of science and humor—with most of the humor better than that above.

And, then, in the same vein, this from Gina Barker’s FB page:

Become the Sky…

… and the clouds that create the rain, not the gutter that carries it to the drain.
—Rumi 

Blundering along, half-glassed, but purposeful. Able to take two good walks with Pax. And to work on the computer using my monocle. Chilly, with a keen wind, and near zero tonight.

El Arco Iris

What color is a rainbow? Well, it depends on which eye you use (after a cataract procedure).

Bright, with forgotten blues, in the remodeled eye, along with 20/20 vision. Not so much in the pending oculus. And that’s the hard part—having two eyes that are so very different. To deal with the problem I’ve ripped an old pair of spectacles in half, and am using the right side as a monocle. It almost works (no photo available).

Once eye number two gets its upgrade, I thinking of some Oakleys.

Optical Upgrade…

…in progress. Please stand by.

Oak burl

A Tinkling of Little Bells...

… out of some far recess of the sky.
—Aldo Leopold, “Marshland Elegy,” A Sand County Almanac

Jace, a character in Tig of the Marsh and Wetland, hears the cranes returning north. One of the dozen or so illustrations being done for the book by friend Tom. (Antigone canadensis, the sandhill crane)

Sunny Sunday

And warm enough to get out on two wheels, around town, including the footbridge over the rail road on the east side.

Soft southerly, and no impossible ice patches or impassable melt puddles (If you were willing to detour a bit). Lots of walkers, bench sitters and other two-wheelers out pretending spring has arrived.

We did a little bench sitting, too, on the back patio, watching snow melt. Pax reluctant to come back in.

Potted up 4 Kentucky coffee tree seeds and 8 shagbark hickory seeds (gathered last fall, and kept in the cold garage all winter). Expectations low, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

You Make The Call

Which…

Pip? Is that you, Pip?

…of the following should be included in elementary school vocabulary lessons?
(Choose all that apply)

☐ Phish
☐ Click bait
☐ Acorn
☐ Whack-a-mole
☐ Tweet
☐ Kingfisher
☐ Virus
☐ Troll
☐ Newt

Note: three of the above are among a group of (no longer used) words that were dropped from the most recent edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary. Which three are they?