The Frog Notices It Is Getting Boiled

Oops. It’s been a week of conflicting curfew alerts. Each time my phone buzzes with these alerts my already simmering anger boils over, mainly because I think that this mess we’re in could have been easily avoided. Rather than simply stew in my own anger this morning, I thought I’d sit through the Los Angeles Police Commission’s emergency Zoom meeting held, ostensibly, to address the unrest that’s taken place over past few days. The meeting remin...

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My Favorite Podcasts

...balloon over the North Pole and Victorian children’s author Favell Lee Mortimer’s offensive travel book. In Our Time Host Melvyn Bragg corrals a posse of academics to discuss topics in history, religion and philosophy. When guests drop big words like “hermeneutics” and “teleology,” Bragg always brings them down to earth and makes them explain things in plain English. This show has filled in many gaps in my education and functions as a reminder th...

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Free Biodynamic Composting Seminar in LA on November 16th

...rt–for free! We’ll be there. Date: Saturday, November 16th (rain or shine) Time: 10 AM – 1 PM Location: The Pico-La Brea area. You’ll get the exact address when you RSVP. RSVP to Rayna: larayna@gmail.com And here’s the details: Learn the Secrets of BioDynamic Composting from Jack McAndrews Recognized as one of America’s leading experts on biodynamic organic agriculture, Jack’s biodynamic composts have been the secret behind some of the most beauti...

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De-Cluttering the Garden

...gangly, trees shade out other plants and things just generally change. Sometimes you have to mimic nature’s floods and fires and make a radical shift. Weeding and thinning. We got behind on this and we’re paying the price. This is a matter of poor scheduling, subject matter for an upcoming series of posts (if I can ever schedule time to write those scheduling posts). Let’s just say there was some cursing while pulling out a robust and thorny Opunt...

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Land Girls

...wn Women’s Land Armies, too. It seems in some cases the women took on full-time waged agricultural work, and in other cases they formed temporary voluntary emergency relief teams, helping short-handed farmers at harvest time and the like. The images, both photos and graphics from the period are fantastic: U.K. women in working the plow, and workin’ some fine style, too. Women volunteering in an Oregon hops field. They look so happy (and stripey)!...

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