Sunday Reading

Office assistants after the dash-by.
I know, I know. It should be vegetables or something literary.
But aren't' they cute?!?

The heat wave settled over the region at the moment leaves little energy, frankly, for anything beyond long naps and trips out for ice cream. A stint at the garden yesterday morning knocked me for a loop until sometime in the early evening. Luckily, with some ice cream and the occasional office assistant dash-by, I do manage to get some reading done.

Farming

From Internment Camp to Beloved Farm: One Family's Version of Achieving the American Dream at the Munchies is a powerful reminder both of what immigrants have always brought to the United States and the long-term effects of discrimination.

The Young Farmers Behind Puerto Rico's Food Revolution at Vogue is uplifting, inspiring, and made me want to dance on the table. (Just drinking coffee, thanks.) Essentially a profile of Rodriguez Besosa, one of the young female farmers leading the charge, it offers lessons in food independence, sustainability, and community resilience.

Farming and Conservation

The Magical Wilderness Farm: Raising Cows Among the Weeds at Knepp at The Guardian is a rich, long read about a farm letting itself go wild again and putting grazing animals at the heart of it. There is, of course, much more than that going on at Knepp that is exciting and wonderful and not without controversy. As something of a rewilding gardener, the work there is fascinating.

Green Gold: Pakistan Plants Hundreds of Millions of Trees at al-Jazeera presents, like The Guardian story above, a welcome tale of nature being supported and realizing the benefits on a variety of levels. I was also reminded by this story and a recent conversation with some fellow growers of Masanobu Fukuoka's book, Sowing Seeds in the Desert, where he describes the how and why of similar efforts undertaken around the world.

Writing

How to Be a Writer: 10 Tips from Rebecca Solnit at LitHub appeared while I was researching a piece on writer's block. I've been struggling with it a bit of late, and I often find that writing about what is troubling me is the best way to see what is going on. One of my favorite writers, Solnit reminded me of what to do and why.

How to Beat Writer's Block at The New Yorker was also part of the aforementioned research in order to write about what ails me. While I cannot say that I found this piece as helpful and heartening as Solnit's, I did find it interesting. I can certainly relate to each of the four groups mentioned, but I am not avoiding my writing habits and tools yet.