Green Tribe of Belonging

 In celebration of rising temperatures, I decided to watch a course on gardening. Yes, I have gardened for many years, but it sounded like fun to hear about other people's discoveries and experiences. Little did I expect this series to attack everything I believed, discounting all my experience. I tried to give it a chance. Surely there was some good there. But by the time I took the first disc out of my player, I was ready to stomp on it, break it in little pieces and throw it in the trash! Who knew that gardening could be such a controversial subject? In my mind, the approach of this gardening course epitomizes everything that is wrong with our civilized approach to nature. The horticulturist told us to discount everything we'd learned previously, all the hard-won wisdom of our ancestors, all our own practices. Anything passed down should be labeled as old wives tales and dangerous. We are warned not to read anything about gardening if it has not been strictly controlled by d

 It's been a long time here in the frozen midwest since I posted on this blog. I've had a month of medical incidents that landed me in the hospital and then in a recuperative phase. Not my plan! And it would seem it may have all stemmed from two tooth abscesses that ended up taxing my system including my heart.  I seem to be on the mend, though, and it's at the same time as the weather is warming up. Any hint that spring is on its way finally is cause for celebration! Already the huge drifts of snow are starting to melt and little patches of bare ground are appearing here and there. While I was recovering from sky-high blood pressure, I looked for calming things that could put me at ease. And the story of the Ents was just what I needed. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings has been my go-to book for many years, whenever I need something that puts me in touch with the inner core of meaning that sustains me. I have a wonderful set of CD's of the whole trilogy read by the Bri

Would you be surprised if I said I love trees best in winter? Of course leaves can make them beautiful. But in winter you see to the core, the heart of a tree. The soul maybe. You can see that each limb is in precisely the right place. Every curve fits perfectly into the whole, with balance and grace, especially on a day like today,. with soft snow outlining a  whole grove of mixed species. The world seems a magical place,  crisp white highlighting above each limb. A whole woodland, peaceful, cold, quiet and patiently dreaming of spring. NF 2/3/21