L.G. Cullens's Blog
April 21, 2022
Is it possible?
Because it is the most straightforward and unequivocal explanation I've come across recently, I'm inclined to offer up an excerpt from the book The Treeline: The Last Forest and the Future of Life on Earth by Ben Rawlence.
“It seems strange that trees should evoke such extreme reactions, but Glen Feshie [a private Scottish rewilding project] poses a fundamental question about land. Without sporting income or productive value as forestry or for commercial agriculture—without the prospect of a financial return—what is land actually for? The simple answer is life. We need land to grow food, but we also need to set aside enough wild land to produce the oxygen and the biodiversity that we require to survive. There is enough land to feed everyone if it is distributed and managed properly and if issues of lifestyle, of consumption, of values, of equity and justice, of the disconnect between livelihoods and the living world are addressed. If there is not enough diversity and abundance in the living world, then there is no life, human or non-human, at all.”
We're but another life form in evolution's varying iterations, with similar behavioral aspects. One of those behavioral aspects is self-interest, which in essence is simply an inherent survival drive. Problems arise, though, when any life form is prolific enough to eclipse a substantial number of other life forms, causing ecological imbalance which spurs accelerated extinctions and evolution.
The question is then, with all the evolutionary baggage we carry, does humanity posses the wherewithal for a critical mass to recognize our missteps and act responsibly in our closed loop little blue canoe?
Excerpt from the postamble of Togwotee Passage by L. G. Cullens:
"Sashaying in the streets of Pompeii,
our steadfast way naïve to natural sway.
Oil and water seething at every crossway.
Nature oblivious to right or wrong,
adapting life forms in moving on.
Oil and water."
In closing:
"The value of wilderness and biodiversity boils down to a question of intellectual humility. While the self-absorbed prate of political and economic empires, the natural history student sees successive excursions searching for a durable quality of life, only to fail time and again. Each failure the result of not realizing our potential is a matter of aligning our interests with the overriding scheme of the connectedness of all life."
~ paraphrased from Aldo Leopold
“It seems strange that trees should evoke such extreme reactions, but Glen Feshie [a private Scottish rewilding project] poses a fundamental question about land. Without sporting income or productive value as forestry or for commercial agriculture—without the prospect of a financial return—what is land actually for? The simple answer is life. We need land to grow food, but we also need to set aside enough wild land to produce the oxygen and the biodiversity that we require to survive. There is enough land to feed everyone if it is distributed and managed properly and if issues of lifestyle, of consumption, of values, of equity and justice, of the disconnect between livelihoods and the living world are addressed. If there is not enough diversity and abundance in the living world, then there is no life, human or non-human, at all.”
We're but another life form in evolution's varying iterations, with similar behavioral aspects. One of those behavioral aspects is self-interest, which in essence is simply an inherent survival drive. Problems arise, though, when any life form is prolific enough to eclipse a substantial number of other life forms, causing ecological imbalance which spurs accelerated extinctions and evolution.
The question is then, with all the evolutionary baggage we carry, does humanity posses the wherewithal for a critical mass to recognize our missteps and act responsibly in our closed loop little blue canoe?
Excerpt from the postamble of Togwotee Passage by L. G. Cullens:
"Sashaying in the streets of Pompeii,
our steadfast way naïve to natural sway.
Oil and water seething at every crossway.
Nature oblivious to right or wrong,
adapting life forms in moving on.
Oil and water."
In closing:
"The value of wilderness and biodiversity boils down to a question of intellectual humility. While the self-absorbed prate of political and economic empires, the natural history student sees successive excursions searching for a durable quality of life, only to fail time and again. Each failure the result of not realizing our potential is a matter of aligning our interests with the overriding scheme of the connectedness of all life."
~ paraphrased from Aldo Leopold
March 31, 2022
The subtlety of women II :-)
Driving home from Concord today, my wife and I were talking about what-all, and the name Bob Bristol came up — he is the JP that married us. He passed on some time ago after a long life, and I mentioned that I was told he stepped outside for some firewood, slipped and fell on the ice, and died of exposure. Then out of the blue my wife said, "Why do you think I keep sending you out for firewood?"
January 30, 2022
The subtlety of women :-)
Recently a friend was telling my wife that on a past Valentines Day her husband was gone on a snowmobiling trip out west. She wasn't happy with the timing, but gave him an early Valentines gift, a three pack of boxer shorts with a heart pattern on them. He, in turn, wasn't happy with the heart pattern, but took them with him.
I can only imagine his vexation when stopping to relieve himself out in the woods, working his way through layers of clothes, and finding his wife had sewed the flies of the boxer shorts shut.
I can only imagine his vexation when stopping to relieve himself out in the woods, working his way through layers of clothes, and finding his wife had sewed the flies of the boxer shorts shut.
October 25, 2021
The Book Of Passing
In reading CHIEF JOSEPH AND THE FLIGHT OF THE NEZ PERCE: The Untold Story of an American Tragedy by Kent Nerburn I was reminded of a poem of sorts I wrote back in 2017.
The Book of Passing
By L. G. Cullens 2017
Yet again in the cycles of rebirth a new nation was born,
a phoenix of aristocratical oppression in a new land.
Intent on the ideals of freedom and equality for all,
oblivious to the seeds of discordance in native genocide.
Lo in attendance was a great and mighty God.
One whose words written by man allow exegesis.
So defended, the colonizers actions intensified,
propelling the new nation towards divined greatness.
Thusly ancient tenets were new abroached,
nourishing crops with the blood of enemies.
And as the populace vanquishing foes were attainted,
divisions arose within as to equality for who.
A great war was waged within, brother-on-brother,
with the leader of the nation championing equality.
The majority’s conscience was abated in victory,
albeit in part by blanking out a less noble genocidal role.
The struggle great with resources hard won,
the populace prospered to ever greater heights.
Equality and freedom the bywords of choice,
applying to ever narrowing distinctions as want.
Inevitably the few acquiring extremes of material gain,
flexed their influence with ever increasing tenacity.
And like a cancer, filthy lucre grew amongst the populace,
speeding the spoil, and hastening the plunder.
The excesses of resources plundered for profit,
paradoxically diminishing quality of life for all.
Tenets of ever increasing gain a double paradox,
in the closed loop means of our natural world.
Will our great nation at an apex of pleonexia
cause the upheaval of societal norms yet agin,
or will it be the last in a long succession,
with humankind given over to Charon?
Our natural instincts, taken to overindulgence,
trigger accelerated change in the natural world.
Existing only in a void of reason and conscience,
they evidence the base nature of the beast.
And we wonder the whys with horse blinkers on.
The Book of Passing
By L. G. Cullens 2017
Yet again in the cycles of rebirth a new nation was born,
a phoenix of aristocratical oppression in a new land.
Intent on the ideals of freedom and equality for all,
oblivious to the seeds of discordance in native genocide.
Lo in attendance was a great and mighty God.
One whose words written by man allow exegesis.
So defended, the colonizers actions intensified,
propelling the new nation towards divined greatness.
Thusly ancient tenets were new abroached,
nourishing crops with the blood of enemies.
And as the populace vanquishing foes were attainted,
divisions arose within as to equality for who.
A great war was waged within, brother-on-brother,
with the leader of the nation championing equality.
The majority’s conscience was abated in victory,
albeit in part by blanking out a less noble genocidal role.
The struggle great with resources hard won,
the populace prospered to ever greater heights.
Equality and freedom the bywords of choice,
applying to ever narrowing distinctions as want.
Inevitably the few acquiring extremes of material gain,
flexed their influence with ever increasing tenacity.
And like a cancer, filthy lucre grew amongst the populace,
speeding the spoil, and hastening the plunder.
The excesses of resources plundered for profit,
paradoxically diminishing quality of life for all.
Tenets of ever increasing gain a double paradox,
in the closed loop means of our natural world.
Will our great nation at an apex of pleonexia
cause the upheaval of societal norms yet agin,
or will it be the last in a long succession,
with humankind given over to Charon?
Our natural instincts, taken to overindulgence,
trigger accelerated change in the natural world.
Existing only in a void of reason and conscience,
they evidence the base nature of the beast.
And we wonder the whys with horse blinkers on.
September 29, 2021
Human Mindset Quandary
In beginning to read Elizabeth Kolbert's Under A White Sky the epigraph struck me as symptomatic of the human mindset relative to the environmental predicament we've gotten ourselves into.
“Sometimes he runs his hammer along the walls, as though to give the signal to the great waiting machinery of rescue to swing into operation. It will not happen exactly in this way—the rescue will begin in its own time, irrespective of the hammer—but it remains something, something palpable and graspable, a token, something one can kiss, as one cannot kiss rescue." ~ Franz Kafka
Keeping in mind that the biodiversity we evolved with is imperative to maintain a biosphere necessary for human existence, the current ratio of people and their domesticated animals to all wild mammals is exceeding twenty-two to one.
Cellular homeostasis to ecological homeostasis are the means by which the natural world develops and maintains productive ecosystems. The greater and more accelerated environmental changes are, the more severe the consequences existing life forms will suffer.
“Atmospheric warming, ocean warming, ocean acidification, sea-level rise, deglaciation, desertification, eutrophication—these are just some of the by-products of our species’s success.” ~ Elizabeth Kolbert
“Sometimes he runs his hammer along the walls, as though to give the signal to the great waiting machinery of rescue to swing into operation. It will not happen exactly in this way—the rescue will begin in its own time, irrespective of the hammer—but it remains something, something palpable and graspable, a token, something one can kiss, as one cannot kiss rescue." ~ Franz Kafka
Keeping in mind that the biodiversity we evolved with is imperative to maintain a biosphere necessary for human existence, the current ratio of people and their domesticated animals to all wild mammals is exceeding twenty-two to one.
Cellular homeostasis to ecological homeostasis are the means by which the natural world develops and maintains productive ecosystems. The greater and more accelerated environmental changes are, the more severe the consequences existing life forms will suffer.
“Atmospheric warming, ocean warming, ocean acidification, sea-level rise, deglaciation, desertification, eutrophication—these are just some of the by-products of our species’s success.” ~ Elizabeth Kolbert
September 28, 2021
Apples and human intelligence
I was reminded recently when visiting the grocery store that organic apples are now sold in plastic bags. More evidence that human intelligence is an oxymoron ;-)
June 4, 2021
One author's social media and giveaway experiences
Once an indie author publishes their book, building reader awareness is an onerous row to hoe. Especially for a first time book author, and even more so for writers that cater to Edwin Schlossberg's maxim, “The skill of writing is to create a context in which other people can think.”
The advent of indie publishing opened a floodgate of books, too many of which are poorly written, and minimally edited if at all, which aren't helping to broaden reader's frame of reference. There are, of course, well-written, scrupulously edited, meaningful indie books published also, but they are commonly buried in the quagmire and stifled by bias.
Traditional publishing (usually) enforces writing and editing standards, but the preponderance of for-profit enterprises pandering to the greater audience of readers that only want to be entertained/titillated also limits quality books that might help broaden reader's frame of reference. On top of this they exert significant control with an emphasis on short-term profit, and may involve many hands in the pot in their marketing. Good for the economy I guess, but not for the writer that takes a longer view.
My only experience with a traditional publisher was that they wanted to remove from the print version the illustrations I feel complement the storyline. That so the print version wouldn't have to be printed in color, lowering the cost and increasing profit.
So, having decided to go indie, I set about trying to build readership awareness. That with a book that illuminates our being in relation to the natural world, which doesn't necessarily appeal to the heads-between-the-legs, horror, mystery, whatever crowds.
In my research, a good number of online articles lauded social media for indie authors, and some specifically recommended Facebook and its acquisition Instagram. In the time I spent on Facebook I found I had little interest in seeing ad nauseam what people had for dinner and the like, or discussing politics. I also became aware of scant interest in reading, seeing negligible discussion of what members might be reading. Common enough in this online age of rampant materialism, I found their model of generating profits by facilitating and controlling paid ads too limiting and pricy, and it was the first avenue to be abandoned. Instagram, with its emphasis on image sharing also proved limiting and unproductive, despite research on how an author might best use it.
Not giving up on social media avenues, I saw where Twitter had a great many author members, and I have been active there for a few years. No bones about it, Twitter is primarily a stumping platform, to the point they assist each other in retweeting content, but where are the readers? It might be that there are readers for the other genres mentioned in the preceding paragraph, but I haven't had any success there. My latest effort on Twitter was a month long e-book giveaway, with a bonus print book, using twenty-some varied ads tweeted every several hours, many of which were retweeted numerous times. Twitter's analytics say there were near two hundred thousand impressions (whatever they are), and near twenty thousand profile visits, and my own website logged an additional couple hundred visits during the giveaway month, but it all came to naught. Having more interesting things to do in my few remaining years than playing the Twitter two-step, I've since become inactive there.
Onward and upward, as they say, I've had more success where actual readers hangout, interacting as primarily a reader (which I am). That is, I've been active on LibraryThing and Goodreads for several years now, and have had giveaways on both platforms. The giveaway on Goodreads was successful, but looking back at those requesting the book I see many have very large to-read shelves (one up to eighty thousand books) and commonly have few Goodreads friends. I suspect some are here simply to pick up any free books they can for whatever purpose, but I don't mind because I not in this for fame and fortune. Rather my agenda, if you will, is to try to get more people thinking about and understanding the environmental crisis we are creating with our materialistic ways — that for the sake of my grandson, and all the other innocents, whose futures are threatened. In any case, I've only had one giveaway on Goodreads, because such is another case of an eight-hundred pound gorilla profiting from both the producer and consumer.
LibraryThing, on the other hand, is a different situation. Granted, it has a thirtieth of the members that Goodreads has, but to me has extensive Early Reviewers and Member Giveaways offerings, both free (my cup of tea living on a small SS pension). What's more, a prior e-book giveaway on LibraryThing attracted more than enough requestors, and resulted in four more reviews, which to me was a success. This coming week (June 6th through June 12th) I'm having a print book giveaway (5 copies) on LibraryThing which I hope will also be successful.
Thus, my social media interactions are now limited to Goodreads and LibraryThing. I'm more active on Goodreads because as an extensive reader I spend a good deal of time looking for books I might be interested in reading. Contrarily, I avoid most popular lists, prize winners, and marketing hype, focusing on previews, and to a lesser extent on reviews. I also check in on LibraryThing to see what's going on there. Additionally, I'm limiting any future giveaways to LibraryThing, because I've already spent more than I could afford in engaging a substantive editor and two copy editors in producing my book.
A book I'm currently reading has given me some insight into why my experiences aren't surprising. That book being Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky.
The advent of indie publishing opened a floodgate of books, too many of which are poorly written, and minimally edited if at all, which aren't helping to broaden reader's frame of reference. There are, of course, well-written, scrupulously edited, meaningful indie books published also, but they are commonly buried in the quagmire and stifled by bias.
Traditional publishing (usually) enforces writing and editing standards, but the preponderance of for-profit enterprises pandering to the greater audience of readers that only want to be entertained/titillated also limits quality books that might help broaden reader's frame of reference. On top of this they exert significant control with an emphasis on short-term profit, and may involve many hands in the pot in their marketing. Good for the economy I guess, but not for the writer that takes a longer view.
My only experience with a traditional publisher was that they wanted to remove from the print version the illustrations I feel complement the storyline. That so the print version wouldn't have to be printed in color, lowering the cost and increasing profit.
So, having decided to go indie, I set about trying to build readership awareness. That with a book that illuminates our being in relation to the natural world, which doesn't necessarily appeal to the heads-between-the-legs, horror, mystery, whatever crowds.
In my research, a good number of online articles lauded social media for indie authors, and some specifically recommended Facebook and its acquisition Instagram. In the time I spent on Facebook I found I had little interest in seeing ad nauseam what people had for dinner and the like, or discussing politics. I also became aware of scant interest in reading, seeing negligible discussion of what members might be reading. Common enough in this online age of rampant materialism, I found their model of generating profits by facilitating and controlling paid ads too limiting and pricy, and it was the first avenue to be abandoned. Instagram, with its emphasis on image sharing also proved limiting and unproductive, despite research on how an author might best use it.
Not giving up on social media avenues, I saw where Twitter had a great many author members, and I have been active there for a few years. No bones about it, Twitter is primarily a stumping platform, to the point they assist each other in retweeting content, but where are the readers? It might be that there are readers for the other genres mentioned in the preceding paragraph, but I haven't had any success there. My latest effort on Twitter was a month long e-book giveaway, with a bonus print book, using twenty-some varied ads tweeted every several hours, many of which were retweeted numerous times. Twitter's analytics say there were near two hundred thousand impressions (whatever they are), and near twenty thousand profile visits, and my own website logged an additional couple hundred visits during the giveaway month, but it all came to naught. Having more interesting things to do in my few remaining years than playing the Twitter two-step, I've since become inactive there.
Onward and upward, as they say, I've had more success where actual readers hangout, interacting as primarily a reader (which I am). That is, I've been active on LibraryThing and Goodreads for several years now, and have had giveaways on both platforms. The giveaway on Goodreads was successful, but looking back at those requesting the book I see many have very large to-read shelves (one up to eighty thousand books) and commonly have few Goodreads friends. I suspect some are here simply to pick up any free books they can for whatever purpose, but I don't mind because I not in this for fame and fortune. Rather my agenda, if you will, is to try to get more people thinking about and understanding the environmental crisis we are creating with our materialistic ways — that for the sake of my grandson, and all the other innocents, whose futures are threatened. In any case, I've only had one giveaway on Goodreads, because such is another case of an eight-hundred pound gorilla profiting from both the producer and consumer.
LibraryThing, on the other hand, is a different situation. Granted, it has a thirtieth of the members that Goodreads has, but to me has extensive Early Reviewers and Member Giveaways offerings, both free (my cup of tea living on a small SS pension). What's more, a prior e-book giveaway on LibraryThing attracted more than enough requestors, and resulted in four more reviews, which to me was a success. This coming week (June 6th through June 12th) I'm having a print book giveaway (5 copies) on LibraryThing which I hope will also be successful.
Thus, my social media interactions are now limited to Goodreads and LibraryThing. I'm more active on Goodreads because as an extensive reader I spend a good deal of time looking for books I might be interested in reading. Contrarily, I avoid most popular lists, prize winners, and marketing hype, focusing on previews, and to a lesser extent on reviews. I also check in on LibraryThing to see what's going on there. Additionally, I'm limiting any future giveaways to LibraryThing, because I've already spent more than I could afford in engaging a substantive editor and two copy editors in producing my book.
A book I'm currently reading has given me some insight into why my experiences aren't surprising. That book being Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst by Robert M. Sapolsky.
May 28, 2021
The Music Plays On
▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼
The Music Plays On
by L. G. Cullens
(Author of Togwotee Passage)
Long, long ago by our reckoning
man thumped simple cadence on a log,
beckoning bone flutes and rattles
to enliven and exalt his chanting.
Mimicking Nature and imagining,
man increased tonal efficacy,
his music developing in intricacy
diverging from natural harmonies.
Yet to those aware and desirous
Nature's wondrous music plays on,
echoing in the mountains and oceans,
enveloping in the forested basins.
The songs of the humpback whale
to the chittering of the beluga,
and seabird hubbub above the waves,
wondrous in escaping man's bale.
The trumpeting of elephants,
the bugling of elk,
and the scream of an eagle,
speak to Nature's majesty.
The hoo-hooing of the horned owl,
contrasting with the howl of the wolf
and plaintive yipping of its pups,
is awe inspiring polyphony.
The rattle of a diamondback
and growl of the puma,
eliciting barks of prairie dogs,
melds cautionary strident quota.
Night sounds of chirping crickets,
and in the day bumble bees,
whispering to our being
agin the warning cry of a loon.
The dawn chorus of many birds
accompanied by a babbling brook,
and a breeze rustling leaves,
itself a pastoral composition.
In all, orchestration unsurpassed
if only we had ears to hear,
beyond our bustling cityscapes,
and walled in perceptions.
The symphony of life's harmony
fading in our discordance
hopefully returning in crescendo,
therein our real salvation.
▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼
The Music Plays On
by L. G. Cullens
(Author of Togwotee Passage)
Long, long ago by our reckoning
man thumped simple cadence on a log,
beckoning bone flutes and rattles
to enliven and exalt his chanting.
Mimicking Nature and imagining,
man increased tonal efficacy,
his music developing in intricacy
diverging from natural harmonies.
Yet to those aware and desirous
Nature's wondrous music plays on,
echoing in the mountains and oceans,
enveloping in the forested basins.
The songs of the humpback whale
to the chittering of the beluga,
and seabird hubbub above the waves,
wondrous in escaping man's bale.
The trumpeting of elephants,
the bugling of elk,
and the scream of an eagle,
speak to Nature's majesty.
The hoo-hooing of the horned owl,
contrasting with the howl of the wolf
and plaintive yipping of its pups,
is awe inspiring polyphony.
The rattle of a diamondback
and growl of the puma,
eliciting barks of prairie dogs,
melds cautionary strident quota.
Night sounds of chirping crickets,
and in the day bumble bees,
whispering to our being
agin the warning cry of a loon.
The dawn chorus of many birds
accompanied by a babbling brook,
and a breeze rustling leaves,
itself a pastoral composition.
In all, orchestration unsurpassed
if only we had ears to hear,
beyond our bustling cityscapes,
and walled in perceptions.
The symphony of life's harmony
fading in our discordance
hopefully returning in crescendo,
therein our real salvation.
▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼▲▼
May 14, 2021
Publishing and Promotional Services
I thought it would be helpful to other authors to note some positive experiences.
First, if you have published through IngramSpark, they have a free Indie Author Program you should check out. Besides regional book contests, they curate your book for inclusion in packages they offer to libraries. Something at no additional cost that can generate additional royalties.
Many of us publish through the 800lb gorilla, Amazon, but an author can achieve wider distribution in also publishing with IngramSpark, and can avoid Amazon's hefty additional 'extended distribution' levy. This brought to mind a brick and mortar book shop (and other businesses) considering a book, and seeing it was distributed by Amazon. They would likely be thinking "Yeah right, I'm going to deal with the 800lb gorilla that is stomping all over my business, fat chance."
Personally, I also avoid what I see as indie publisher's conversion shortcomings by building my own epub, and doing my own print formatting.
Moving on, I have had a positive experience with WordRefiner's promotion service recently. Mark not only worked diligently on the seven day promotion, but his exceptionally sharp eye caught a handful of typos that three other editors had missed. All that, and the cost was well within my limited SS pension budget.
Additionally, to benefit readers, in conjunction with WordRefiner's promotion, a limited number of FREE e-book copies of Togwotee Passage by L. G. Cullens are available during the month of May on a first-come, first-served basis. See https://lgcullens.com/tpigiveaway for details.
First, if you have published through IngramSpark, they have a free Indie Author Program you should check out. Besides regional book contests, they curate your book for inclusion in packages they offer to libraries. Something at no additional cost that can generate additional royalties.
Many of us publish through the 800lb gorilla, Amazon, but an author can achieve wider distribution in also publishing with IngramSpark, and can avoid Amazon's hefty additional 'extended distribution' levy. This brought to mind a brick and mortar book shop (and other businesses) considering a book, and seeing it was distributed by Amazon. They would likely be thinking "Yeah right, I'm going to deal with the 800lb gorilla that is stomping all over my business, fat chance."
Personally, I also avoid what I see as indie publisher's conversion shortcomings by building my own epub, and doing my own print formatting.
Moving on, I have had a positive experience with WordRefiner's promotion service recently. Mark not only worked diligently on the seven day promotion, but his exceptionally sharp eye caught a handful of typos that three other editors had missed. All that, and the cost was well within my limited SS pension budget.
Additionally, to benefit readers, in conjunction with WordRefiner's promotion, a limited number of FREE e-book copies of Togwotee Passage by L. G. Cullens are available during the month of May on a first-come, first-served basis. See https://lgcullens.com/tpigiveaway for details.
April 26, 2021
QUIZ
Greetings All,
Biding my time, reading and playing with a free ebook offering, I created a trial cover. The quiz is to identify the nine different plants represented in the background of the cover image. The prize to the first few that correctly identify all nine plants . . . umm . . . I don't have much, but maybe I could do some digital artwork for you — something like making a portrait photo image of your choice look like a watercolor painting image, or a free epub copy of Togwotee Passage. I'm open to reasonable suggestions.
Anyway, here is the trial cover image:
Beyond the above activities, despite my age I'm starting to get out in my natural garden more. I got the fallen tree cut up, and the mess cleaned up, and have started thinning out the bittersweet shoots and pesky wild raspberries. While out there, I noticed a patch of ramps ( Allium tricoccum ) doing well — the above ground leaves are only visible in the early spring.
What I've got to get to is starting more plants, especially over harvested trees. My pride and joy Shagbark Hickory trees are well, but I won't live to see them fruit. In over a decade they've only grown to eight to twelve feet high, taking some forty years before they fruit.
It's disheartening at times because I know I'm not accomplishing much. For every tree I get started, I notice a dozen or more loaded logging trucks go by on the road. Funny that, with so many people working at staying healthy, knowing they are missing the most important aspect. Unless many many more work at keeping the Earth healthy, their efforts are shortsighted. That is, without a biosphere conducive to our existence, . . .
Humm, I'm headed downhill again so it is time to sign off.
Hope this finds you all in better spirits :-)
My best to you and yours,
Lee
Biding my time, reading and playing with a free ebook offering, I created a trial cover. The quiz is to identify the nine different plants represented in the background of the cover image. The prize to the first few that correctly identify all nine plants . . . umm . . . I don't have much, but maybe I could do some digital artwork for you — something like making a portrait photo image of your choice look like a watercolor painting image, or a free epub copy of Togwotee Passage. I'm open to reasonable suggestions.
Anyway, here is the trial cover image:
Beyond the above activities, despite my age I'm starting to get out in my natural garden more. I got the fallen tree cut up, and the mess cleaned up, and have started thinning out the bittersweet shoots and pesky wild raspberries. While out there, I noticed a patch of ramps ( Allium tricoccum ) doing well — the above ground leaves are only visible in the early spring.
What I've got to get to is starting more plants, especially over harvested trees. My pride and joy Shagbark Hickory trees are well, but I won't live to see them fruit. In over a decade they've only grown to eight to twelve feet high, taking some forty years before they fruit.
It's disheartening at times because I know I'm not accomplishing much. For every tree I get started, I notice a dozen or more loaded logging trucks go by on the road. Funny that, with so many people working at staying healthy, knowing they are missing the most important aspect. Unless many many more work at keeping the Earth healthy, their efforts are shortsighted. That is, without a biosphere conducive to our existence, . . .
Humm, I'm headed downhill again so it is time to sign off.
Hope this finds you all in better spirits :-)
My best to you and yours,
Lee
