Howdy folk. Let me start this by expressing my gratitude that you're reading it, and that you've subscribed to it, if you have. If you haven’t:
(If you're getting this and don't remember signing up for it: you're an active donor to my Liberapay or Patreon so I transferred you.)
Second, please forgive any issues these newsletters might have early on - I've never used Substack before, and I'm sure I'll click the wrong button at least once!
Third, I'm inviting and encouraging y'all to interact: please respond to these newsletters if you'd like. (There might also be discussion features as part of Substack, I haven't explored yet.)
But I really want this to be a place of communication: organized around these newsletters, sure, but I'd like us to develop these topics as a conversation.
Now, what can y'all expect from these newsletters? I plan on sending out two: one for paid subscribers each Wednesday, and another for free subscribers on Friday.
(A note about paid and free: I'm quite willing to gift a paid subscription to someone, especially people I know, friends-of-friends, and folk who aren't white or white-aligned. If that's you, reach out and let me know!)
Alright: that's the preliminary information about the newsletter out of the way. What is it I want to share this week?
Well, first off: I was in a bad way of thinking last week. The difficulty was that I felt - and feel - as though I cannot actually do any work that does not enrich the settler-colony in which I live. As I wrote in my journal, "people explicitly tell me that modeling my behavior helps them relax after a hard day's Collaboration"
I spent the week sulking and ruminating over this problem and its many facets. I'll spare y'all the long rambling road and skip to sharing the two conclusions I reached:
1) The actions of land stewardship matter in their own way, even if they are co-opted by or enriching the kyriarchy.
2) Since I live in an environment that is hostile to growth, I need to make seeds.
Now, I'm still figuring out what "seeds" are, but given my background tinkering with words and computers, "stories and software" seemed the self-evident answer.
That's made me really want to take my writing from being an incidental thing that happens because I'm using computers, and that made me decide that I should try my hand at putting out a consistent newsletter, among other things. I'm not ready to share those other things, yet, but, here's the first newsletter!
I don't really have anything more to share at this point, so let me close with some updates about my local weather and gardening! I'd love to hear back from any of y'all about your own weather or other efforts!
Where I am has been experiencing the last rainfall of Hurricane Delta. Yesterday we got about 2 inches of rain, according to the weather station!
It's hard not to let any day's weather feel indicative of a collapsing climate. I read recently a New York Times piece that said climate scientists were trying to petition against some official body to designate the the Arctic no longer has a climate, due to the rapidity of weather pattern change in the region.
It made me wonder if that is true for other places, and simply impossible to have recognized due to political pressures?
I've also been moving plants around, now that I've realized that produce crates lined with landscaping fabric make pretty good planters. The area is finally starting to look nice! (Assuming I figure out how, there should be some photos of the garden below here.)
Weather here (Eastern PA) is largely in line with the last few years. We seem to be seeing most of our weather weirdness over the winters. Last few years I've gone into winter with a 'wonder what it'll be this year?' attitude.
My garden isn't where I hoped it would be by this time, but still making progress. I got sick and forgot to water the beans for a couple weeks, just as they were ready to start harvesting. So that was a bummer. Still, I now know that I CAN grow trellised beans in the windows here during spring and summer, so that's pretty big all on it's own.
Now I've got one big tub of mixed lettuce w/ some marigolds. I over planted -- the lettuce is obviously overcrowded. So salad for dinner tonight. I need to start planting marigolds earlier in the year. Except in summer it tends to be too cool for them to flower in our apartment, even (or perhaps especially) right in the south facing windows. This is the second year I planted too late and will not be getting flowers (and thus, no tea).
I really want to start some guerilla gardening and/or serious foraging next year. Trying to figure out NOW what I want to do so I can do the mental work to be ready for new stuff, rather than leaving it til the last minute again and not being able to do anything. Honestly, part of it will be as simple as 'have a basket or something I can grab and take with me when I go out', but executive dysfunction is a bitch so there is nothing 'simple' about that for me.
Huh. Easter baskets. There's usually basic baskets for sale in the spring meant for folks to make easter baskets with. Could grab one of those. Easy enough to grab and carry with me when I go out for a walk. Not so heavy it'll cause problems. Shit mass produced stuff, but will work for one year to get me in the routine of foraging/guerilla gardening. Look into getting better quality from crafter person in the future.
Area along one of the walking paths that the electric company basically clear cut this year to keep wild growth from getting too close to the wires. Good spot to put out some seeds, maybe a makeshift garden plot.
Okay. Plan. Also panic attack. LOL. Hence the needing time to prepare.