Afternoons I wear many hats, but mornings I get to be a farmer. The job pays nothing, indeed it costs money, but the rewards are priceless. Yesterday, glimmery, gloriously light and cool, and the sun smiled on the work of many spiders. They must have been working all night, creating mystical magical receivers in the branches of the trees and in corners of the barn and all through the fields among the grasses. I was headed for the barn, my first chore to get breakfast to the horses, but I had to stop and marvel. From my spot on the path just outside the barn door, I counted five enormous round webs among the beech branches. Thank you, spiders, thank you sun, thank you shimmery leaves and sparkling dewdrops for making my morning. Keeping horses on smallholdings requires steady maintenance and cleaning, and I include in my morning routine time for pasture maintenance. While Oakley, Dora and Diego are settled eating the rations I bring them, I decide the lot …READ MORE >
The Rule of Law
Environmental Lawyers are at work in 2018 to exercise and strengthen the laws that protect earth. A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats. –Benjamin Franklin I’ve heard a lot of lawyer jokes. I’ve read some history and enjoyed conversation with friends and family who practice law, and I know…READ MORE >
Saving Seed of the New Zealand Pear – an organic gardener’s journey to the twilight zone
An acquaintance, a gardener, sent tomato seeds one year. Sharing seeds among gardeners fulfills part of the historical imperative that keeps plant varieties vital – the multiplication of seeds through dispersion. I took the important first step of planting some of the seeds she sent, and then I saved seed from the fruit of my…READ MORE >
