selecting stones

Ella and I went to Marenakos today and selected the 7 stones for cutting.  Since we had a 20-ton limit and igneous river rock weighs 165# per cubic foot, we needed to be conscious of size.  To accommodate the overall weight limit while maintaining sufficient sculptural scale in relation to the site, we chose a range of sizes from 7' x 4' x 3' to 4' x 3' x 2' (6 tons to 2 tons).  We also looked for 'cool-hued' blue-green stones that would help reinforce the water theme we're developing throughout the overall project.

I'll return Wednesday to mark cutting lines and locate fossils.

  

scientists discover plants can hear

"When you go out into the forest, into an estuary, or a different ecosystem, where you're going to be harvesting a plant, food, or medicine, is you want to get yourself into a space of respect and understanding that we are interacting with the plants who are considered our second oldest ancestors that we have after the rocks, which are called the grandfathers and the plants are referred to as the grandmothers. Those offerings are meant for the plant and meant also for the ancestors who walk beside us when we go out and harvest on the land."

http://www.cbc.ca/radio/quirks/hearing-plants-awkward-bees-arctic-gems-farting-fish-and-chicken-bones-1.4234437/indigenous-stories-lead-scientist-to-discover-plants-can-hear-1.4234449

elemental haiku

A review of the Periodic Table composed of 119 science haiku, one for each element, plus a closing haiku for element 119 (not yet synthesized). The haiku encompass astronomy, biology, chemistry, history, physics, and a bit of whimsical flair.

http://vis.sciencemag.org/chemhaiku/

Is our environmental future better than we think?

If the political world is divided between the globalisers and the localisers, so too is environmental thinking. And never more so than in these two compelling tracts.

In Inheritors of the Earth, ecologist Chris Thomas says that we are witnessing a virtual recreation of the single continent that dominated the planet until 175 million years ago. The subtitle to his book invites us to celebrate how “nature is thriving”, rather than buckling under the strain, with extinctions more than compensated for by a sudden upsurge in evolution, driven by globetrotting migrant species.

On the other side of the environmental aisle is Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist, a series of touchingly written, but deeply pessimistic essays. Here, former eco-activist Paul Kingsnorth retreats into a world of nativist angst, offering an extreme version of the environmental longing to protect what is local, whether it is an endangered species or a traditional way of living. He mourns “the breaking of the link between people and places”.

Both authors have been on a long road. In 2004, as a young ecologist, Thomas made front-page news for a prediction that up to a third of species would die out due to climate change. He stands by that apocalyptic forecast, but now reckons the plus side is even bigger. While most ecologists bemoan the sixth great extinction in the planet’s history, Thomas says we are also “on the brink of a sixth major genesis of new life”.

we should never have called it earth

Before we existed, and after we are gone, the ocean will continue to whisper to the atmosphere. Weather patterns will change back and forth with the natural oscillations of air and water. But we do exist, and we are treating the atmosphere as a limitless dumping ground. A signal of our handiwork is emerging against this cacophony of noise. Things are changing.

https://onbeing.org/blog/kate-marvel-we-should-never-have-called-it-earth/

Pacific Northwest Meadowscaping

Pacific Northwest Urban Meadowscaping (PNUM) is a collaborative effort to develop lawn alternatives using native bunch grasses and wildflowers well suited to the Pacific Northwest’s Willamette Valley. As homeowners become more aware of the environmental impacts of their landscape choices, naturescaping programs are receiving more requests for lawn replacement options. Although common, lawns provide little benefit to storm water infiltration, water quality, or wildlife habitat and require polluting inputs such as fertilizers and mowing.

The goal of PNUM is to provide public education, technical support and assistance with the planning, planting and monitoring of meadowscapes on residential landscapes and in public parks to increase wildlife habitat and stormwater infiltration in the urban realm. Continuing analysis of available data will be used to determine best management practices for installing and maintaining urban meadows. In addition to answering practical questions, PNUM aims to cause a paradigm shift in what people think of as a beautiful “lawn.”

https://wmswcd.org/programs/pacific-northwest-urban-meadowscaping/

our lawns are killing us

Pristine turf grass lawns are as synonymous with America as baseball and apple pie. For those of us who grew up in the suburbs, waking up to the lulling drone of lawnmowers signaled the start of a summer Saturday with all of its anticipated pleasures. I’ve yet to meet a person who doesn’t enjoy the smell of fresh-cut grass. And deep down, even those of us who are staunchly anti-herbicide harbor a secret hatred of dandelions, if only for the glares they evoke from our neighbors: Do they think I’m lazy? Or letting my property go downhill?

Yet despite what Scotts®, Bayer, TruGreen®, and other corporations in the so-called green industry would have us think, lawns are far from green, environmentally speaking. (They’re not American, either.) We’ve known for decades about the harm lawns cause, but we are still mowing and blowing: Irrigated turf grass covers nearly two percent of the land in the United States, more than 40 million acres. Every square inch of it replaces diverse habitat for wildlife with a monoculture of nonnative plants, and we keep it going with fossil fuels and chemicals toxic to most living things.

http://www.ecolandscaping.org/07/lawn-care/lawns-killing-us-time-kick-habit/