The Story of More, Our Story Begins

2.9.23


"All human beings are a lot better at describing what is happening than at predicting what will happen. Somewhere along the way, however, we began to hope that scientists were different - that they could be right all the time. And because they're not, we kind of stopped listening."

Under the Sky We Make

20.7.23


"We are living under the sky we make. We have made it with our behaviour, and we can remake it that way too."

Finally opened my eyes to what is actually happening to this planet (what we've done to it) and it's terrifying but it's not too late, not yet.

Crocuses Emerge from Damp Soil

28.2.22


But there is hope in it. Crocuses, beloved as early harbingers of spring, stand out, a little pool of brightness in a sea of drab. That combination of rich purple and zinging orange is an antidote to gloom.

I hope you can find some crocuses this week.

Anne with an E, episode 3.5

22.2.22


Miss Stacy: I can assure you no one will become pregnant from dancing.

Ruby: But there was so much touching!

Miss Stacy: That's not how it works, it's not...topical.

Clear Light Shines Through Mist

4.2.22


Spring is round the corner, but the corner is long.

English Pastoral: An Inheritance, Progress

18.1.22


Read the whole book.

new farming had taken two mutually beneficial things - grazing animals and fertilizing fields - and separated them to create two massive industrial-scale problems ... farms with thousands of animals had more muck than their land could possibly accommodate, while crop farmers now had no animals, and thus no muck to fertilize plants


English Pastoral: An Inheritance, Nostalgia

17.1.22


Read the whole book.

As I sat in the back of the tractor watching the seagulls, it felt as if Grandad and the seagulls behind his plough were part of the same whole, the one as true as the other. They both had timeless claims on the earth; they both belonged to the same cycle in that landscape.


Lab Girl

15.1.22


Just popping this book on my wishlist.

A plant that lives where it should not is simply a pest, but a plant that thrives where it should not live is a weed. We don't resent the audacity of the weed, as every seed is audacious; we resent its fantastic success.

Art & Fear, Chapter I

17.12.20


In large measure becoming an artist consists of learning to accept yourself, which makes your work personal, and in following your own voice, which makes your work distinctive.

Art & Fear, Introduction

16.12.20


Making art is a common and intimately human activity, filled with all the perils (and rewards) that accompany any worthwhile effort. The difficulties artmakers face are not remote and heroic, but universal and familiar.

The Concise Guide to Self-Sufficiency, Chapter 1

10.7.20


Cows are not the problem with our world. Over-farming of cows is. Over-farming of everything is. Cows are great for the planet when done properly.

"It is no secret that rotting cow manure is the very best source of 'humus' which will make your garden give a bumper disease-free harvest. The cow is nature's superb storehouse of beneficial bacteria which magically transform grass into protein."

The Concise Guide to Self-Sufficiency, Chapter 1

9.7.20

I always wondered why I couldn't find my 'one thing'.

"We were not meant to be a one-job animal. We do not thrive as parts of a machine. We are intended by nature to be diverse, to do diverse things, to have many skills."

Lewis, episode 7.1

1.6.20


"Just because I'm uncomfortable with it, doesn't make it wrong."

Lewis, episode 6.3


"He's good with kids, used to be one himself."

walkhighlands.co.uk

13.5.20


Ever find yourself poking around the Internet, pursuing mere notions of interest, only to discover glistening gems of sentences?

On the summit of Ben Hee, with a cloud bank surfing over rock-swell and waves of snow-sharpened ridges and summits heaving up close by, I saw the three coasts of Scotland. 

[https://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/news/who-goes-there-mapping-extreem-wildernes/0018781]