post #474, during the 8th year of Sideway Views posts, and THE SUN IS OUT THIS AFTERNOON.
I realized since last week that I can't post just one tree every week. I love trees, and I have many, many tree photos to share. So my way of branching out.... will be to show a random selection of these photos every few weeks. Please join me in celebrating our hard working trees. Every one is essential.
redwoods in California
rain on the windshield near my mailbox
view from the side, after the rain
squirrel in motion
nearest neighbor
beech trees in the forest
drinks for trees and wildlife
Grayson Lake, eastern Kentucky
view from below in the forest
Yahoo!!
stopping,feeling surrounded by care and magic
working hard to clean the air
I'm counting on trees to be there for me and you and for the planet.
post #473 I am not following the president impeachment happenings each day, though I do try to stay informed since I am, in general, a bit of a politics junkie. However I'm finding the toxicity spills over everywhere, with much that stuns and dismays. Cruelty tears me up. (Kids in Cages??!) Not facing the changing climate, in particular, makes no possible sense at all to me. (Fossil fuels forever? I don't see how or why.) I don't want to take time tonight to make any kind of long list. Where my house is located, we don't talk politics a lot and when we do It doesn't feel unfriendly. My Kentucky county has, until Trump, always voted for the Democrat for president. My monthly writers group of over 20 years enjoys giving a joint donation every year instead of gifts to each other at Christmas. This year we decided to find some way to express support for actual ongoing projects that are trying to do something on the ground, so to speak, directly related to the climate. Here are two articles we use to research our decision. I don't include either one in its entirety, so I hope it doesn't end up being too confusing to be helpful.
article #1: How to Stop Freaking Out and Tackle Climate Change
Here’s a five-step plan to deal with the stress and become part of the solution.
By Emma Marris
Ms. Marris is the author of “Rambunctious Garden: Saving Nature in a Post-Wild World.”
You are scrolling through the news and see yet another story about climate change.
Australia is on fire. Indonesia is drowning. At the same time, Donald Trump is trying to make it easier to build new fossil-fuel projects.
As
you read, your chest tightens and a sense of dread washes over you,
radiating out from your heart. You feel anxious, afraid and intensely
guilty. Just this morning, you drove a gasoline-powered car to work. You
ate beef for lunch. You booked a flight, turned on the heat, forgot
your reusable grocery bags at home. This is your fault.
As
an environmental writer, I’m often asked for guidance on coping with
climate change. I have thoughts. Even better, I have a five-point plan
to manage the psychological toll of living with climate change and to become part of the solution.
Step 1: Ditch the shame.
The
first step is the key to all the rest. Yes, our daily lives are
undoubtedly contributing to climate change. But that’s because the rich
and powerful have constructed systems that make it nearly impossible to
live lightly on the earth. Our economic systems require most adults to
work, and many of us must commute to work in or to cities intentionally
designed to favor the automobile. Unsustainable food, clothes and other
goods remain cheaper than sustainable alternatives.
There's much more to the article, but I want to include here an earlier article that was helpful for us, from VOX, December 18, 2018, by Sigel Samuel: article#2: Want to fight climate change effectively? Here's where to donate your money.
The article features 5 options, and we are going for the first one, called COALITION FOR RAINFOREST NATIONS. If anyone wants help locating the article, please let me know and I can dig around and send a link. Note: Since I do believe that trees are essential for life on earth and irreplaceable, and since I will probably end up writing other posts on this topic, I am also going to feature a tree each time. I revere trees. Here is one of many photos with trees that I've made. The photo was made in England; it's an oak, in January. Thank you, tree. We need everyone of you.
Stay warm, keep your cool, be bold, encourage bravery, appreciate a tree.
post #470 Welcome to almost the new year, with a return for me to doing my post every Sunday! Today is very wet, after a week of warm that included Christmas. I seem to be more and more distressed by the current scorched earth elimination by our so-called leaders of environmental safeguards. I especially fear the ones that would otherwise address the effects of our warming globe. Our one and only globe. Every weird moment to do with weather causes concern; every discarded regulation gives me the shivers. I have absolutely no understanding about the political determination to deny the reality of rising seas, increasingly severe storms, coral damage worldwide, and the human price here in the Appalachians of polluted streams and dirty air. I can't even make light humor, like asking "What are they thinking!?", when the only possible question, really, is "Why have they forgotten totally how to think?". Anyway, now that winter is actually here, I am going to celebrate it by sharing photos I made in 2015, during two major snow storms. It was the winter that I divorced, after 46 years of marriage; I had quite a bit of maintenance to handle on my house and driveway. Luckily my neighbors helped out, and some local teens helped me as well. Resourcefulness training is always handy. Making art from the world that surrounds me brings me great pleasure and satisfaction. I don't remember that time being anything but interesting. After all I was a New England girl until my early twenties; I grew up loving to play in the snow with my sister, Cathy.
views of the steps from car down to the house -- a good judge what work the snow will require
Thanks forever, Melva, for all your help during that March visit with that surprise storm.
In my former house, where I lived over 40 years, I often felt I was living in a nest, with life happening outside of it and around me. The birds especially came by to visit. And if the light were right, which it often was, I could make photos from inside the house. I will talk more about this aspect of my work in another photos + stories post.
a Coopers hawk, passing by and taking a rest
experimenting with the light and the snow, at night (did not achieve mastery....)
morning snow and sun
I'll always wonder what went on overnight -- who ate whom.....
For this last photo, I see another path, other steps, to a home, and I celebrate the mysteries in the natural world.
With wishes for a new year with fewer lies, more truth, less disregard for the world we all share, and with more kindness, curiosity, and occasions for laughter. Also, my thanks for looking at this blog post! Ann
post #428 Next week: flowers. This week: Notre-Dame photos, since I happen to have some from a week's visit to Paris 2 1/2 years ago, thanks to my son and his family. We stayed in an Airbnb very nearby, and we also took a boat that goes around the island where Notre-Dame has stood since 1163. In light of the tragedy of the terrible fire last week, I wanted to honor this Parisian landmark for those who have not ever had a chance to visit there. Like many other people, I was close to tears when I saw what was happening, even though it is not my country and not my religion. Notre-Dame has instead some kind of universal stature, some significance for having stood there for so many centuries, through so many wars, as a reminder of beauty and human persistence. Today it is true that the money to preserve the church as it was may now be better spent helping us in other ways. A fire reminds us that things can change very quickly. Like our climate that is changing faster than we are willing to admit. Keeping things the way they were is no longer a good enough solution to anything. Anyway, some photos:
The tall tourist is my son.
an inside chapel
incense from a church service that was ending
I may add a few more photos tonight, including one of us in Paris. But the time has come to spend time with my family here today. I do hope these photos give a personal feel to what can be a lot to take in.
squirrel in motion
