Musings

Gwen Robbins Schug, in The Long View of Climate Change and Human Health on the American Anthropology Association website, writes:

Broadly speaking, bioarchaeology demonstrates that there are no grand narratives in human history. Small-scale societies are often resilient in the face of environmental change; mobility, flexibility, and adaptive diversity are a largely successful strategy for avoiding negative consequences…. Complex societies, in contrast, are often much more rigid and they are built on social inequality. When these large-scale societies overshoot—undergo rapid population growth and practice unsustainable agricultural overproduction in the context of rapid climate and environmental changes—those who are resilient and who survive the short-term crisis may experience other forms of suffering….

I’m not clear about the implied link between rigidity and social inequality, although I do see how inequality can be destabilizing, especially in times of food stress…short-term or long-term…. I am not commenting on how much this is now in some places in the USA and many places in the world.

Posted at 8:35 PM | Comments Off on In which she gets academic

Bench for the tired. Or tired bench.

Legal limit. Boundary issue.

A rose is a rose….

Posted at 6:32 PM | 3 Comments »

I was thinking centered as in the California hippie-dippie meaning.

Because these pictures aren’t…centered.

First: white clover. Second: clearly a rose, and I think a Cherokee rose. Third: lily.

Clematis, clematis, clematis. Got it.

Posted at 6:47 PM | Comments Off on Centered

For an unknown reason, I decided to take an exercise selfie with my handkerchief mask. I am NOT adept at selfie-taking. I tried several backgrounds and camera angles.

I found a nice dark tree, then I realized I was hearing an angry or upset bird overhead. I looked around. Upset. I moved on…looks like landscaping straw is the principal nest ingredient.

Several ways to read this…all positive.

I am astounded by this peach. Not much size (like a golf ball plus), but look, it’s blushing.

Built environment still life with plants.

Posted at 7:18 PM | Comments Off on Perils of selfie-taking, no. 47

I’m not the first to note this, but: these covid days can blur together #hometogether.

We watched a movie tonight as a palate cleanser: “Hopscotch” (1980) with Walter Matthau and Glenda Jackson, plus a young (as the phrase goes) Sam Waterston…and more. Plenty of laughs.

* Blurred together plants: big hosta leaves, small purple something-blooms, periwinkle leaves, tiny bit of some vine-weed…so four species here, I think.

Posted at 9:51 PM | Comments Off on I am bouyed

I’ve been seeing tiny blooming weeds lately. Blue/white…something.

Yellow…something.

Noticed these fungi on this heartwood, and thought, “un-oh.”

Looked up, and, yup, it’s a dying tree. Sadly.

Posted at 5:31 PM | Comments Off on Not covid infection

I traipsed around different streets again, still on foot from the house. This sidewalk tunnel is within five houses each way of at least two properties that would be put on the market at over a million bucks. Why this sidewalk is ignored is a mystery to me.

Not far away, inside a mini-dead-end-loop, I found this teensy almost-park. With resident lichens that are five-star quality.

On the return leg, I found this over-vegetated fence, with a poisonous denizen…nasty amounts of PI with ordinary, non-toxic, vines.

BTW, fifteen feet is the social distancing gap recommended if a person is exercising or breathing hard—because those exhale-droplets are projected a far piece under those circumstances. FYI.

Posted at 9:04 PM | Comments Off on 15 ft is the new 6 ft

Rain this morning, and more coming.

The creek will rise.

A rose is still a rose…

…even if it’s a big plant with lots of blooms.

Posted at 6:57 PM | Comments Off on Precip reigns (haha)

The title nails it (if I do say so myself). Decorative maple, with a few seed/helicopters (bright red).

Evergreen showing new green (pushy, up-and-coming, feathery) and old green (tired, monotonous, inflexible).

Hedge-trimmed something…with a few blossoms…rather a mixer.

Posted at 6:43 PM | Comments Off on New growth visual textures

“Found objects” is a bit of a stretch, although it gets at what I’m thinking…. A chipmunk is not an object. You can quote me.

Artsy rock. Is this an Easter thing, to paint rocks and put them out instead of eggs?

Cement pond. The maroon color is from an Acer palmatum looming over the pond. Interesting light filter.

Another metallic paint study: burnt orange this time.

Posted at 8:40 PM | 3 Comments »