I had intended to review, “A Sense of Humus” but Heather was looking for some light reading this week. Her review suggests that it will be a worthwhile read.
Meanwhile, I went to the bookcase and found “Beginning Again: People and Nature in the New Millennium” by David Ehrenfeld. While written in 1993, looking towards 2000, it holds true in 2020, looking towards a post-COVID world.
I think it was Tuesday. I was preparing the bed to transplant some tomato plants from the greenhouse and discovered a common toad.
Ehrenfeld’s second essay is titled ‘The Roots of Prophecy: Orwell and Nature”.
What was Nature to George Orwell?
Ehrenfeld lists three qualities:
- honesty
- reliability/continuity/durability/resilience
- beauty and serenity
He also makes reference to Orwell’s thoughts on the common toad’. For example,
“At any rate, Spring is here, even in London N1 and they can’t stop you enjoying it. This is a satisfying reflection. How many a time have I stood watching the toads mating, or a pair of hares having a boxing match in the young corn, and thought of all the important persons who would stop me enjoying this if they could. But luckily they can’t. So long as you are not actually ill, hungry, frightened or immured in a prison or a holiday camp, spring is still spring. The atom bombs are piling up at the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither dictators nor bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it”. p.6
Here is my second observation. Heather feeds the kitchen vegetable waste to her worms in the basement. We use the worm castings to add to our soil in the greenhouse. One of the by-products from the worm humus is that it is full of tomato seeds. The seeds and skins are separated in the making of tomato sauce. Those are the tomato plants which I transplanted into the garden, under the watchful eye of the common toad.
This raises a larger question. What are the memories of earlier lives and events that build up the human humus? Time to read Bertha Damon.
(It is interesting to note that George Orwell was born in 1903 and died in 1950, aged 47 years. He saw the end of the Second World War).
Returning to Ehrenfeld:
“If this alternative way of living grows and prospers, I doubt that it will do so by some master plan or protocol…..
“Nature will have entered their lives at an early age and will remain as a source of joy and as a measure of their best and worst efforts. They will welcome the challenge that Orwell hoped for, a simpler, harder world in which machines, like their inventors, are understood to be limited. They will devote their first energies to the places where they live. They will come to authority not by violence but by their evident ability to replace a crumbling system with something better’.” p.193
Acknowledgements
Heather for her commitment to life and Nature. Edward for his collaboration and creativity. Jane for starting this conversation.
References
David Ehrenfeld, 1993. Beginning Again: People and Nature in the New Millennium. Oxford University Press.
George Orwell, 2010. Some Thoughts on the Common Toad. PenguinRandomHouse Books. Great Ideas #99.
Bertha Damon, 1943. A Sense of Humus. Simon & Schuster.
This week, I picked up the book ‘A Sense of Humus’ from the post office in Bridgetown (Lawrencetown is closed). It had been sent to me by Jane Nicholson. She thought that I would enjoy it. Written in 1943 by Bertha Damon.
Meanwhile, Saturday, we went for a drive to Annapolis Royal and Victoria Beach. At 
Finally, tonight, I notice in the 
Passing by Nuttby Mountain, we remembered the Hermit of Gully Lake, written by Joan Baxter. Further along the Berichan Road, I was reminded of Peter Sanger’s book Spar: Words in Place. We also recalled attending ‘
We found Anemone (
This week it has been all about Spring and gardening.
In 
Tribute to Uke. Uqaliq (Rabbit)
I have been in touch with Gregory, one of our municipal councillors. If you go to 
Last, I have been looking at our collection of music CDs, mostly Heather’s, and wondering how to incorporate music into the EBE blog. I have two CDs from Haida Gwaii featuring the guitar playing of Tassilo (Gotz):
It includes interviews by Christopher and Judith Plant with Gary Snyder, Peter Berg, Murray Bookchin and others. First published in 1990, with a Foreword by Kirkpatrick Sale. I found it hiding between 
I was teaching Biogeography and Computer Mapping in the 
In the McGinnis book, there is an excellent chapter by Doug Aberley.
They are offering a surprise package of five books on any topic you are interested in for $60 includes delivery. I should send my $60, my topic would be ‘Bioregionalism’.
Ernest Blair Experiment 