In his compact and fascinating book, Li, Dynamic Form in Nature, the architect David Wade identifies and catalogues repeated patterns found in the natural world. Wade defines Li as something that falls between pattern and principle. Li can be found in wave-washed sand, ice crystals and tree bark, to name only a few. It demonstrates […]
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The Hummingbird’s Tongue
It’s the longest day of the year, with the actual solstice at 2:43 p.m. I woke at half past 4 this morning, enveloped in the cacophony of birdsong floating in through my open bedroom window. Juncos, robins, swallows, sparrows, and even the most ordinary of crows were greeting the solstice as if this might not […]
Taking the Leap
February 29th, is one of those breakouts – a rogue day in the standard calendar. The year (as we measure it) has been around, more or less, since Ancient Rome. A far older calendar common to most Indigenous cultures is one based on the cycles of the moon. Every four years, February adds one day, […]
Choosing Beauty
Recently, I stumbled across an astonishing place, one where beauty has emerged from a surprising source. In the Los Angeles basin, where water is ever a precious resource, a traditional Japanese garden filled with ponds and streams takes as its source sewage from hundreds of thousands of households. In the 1980s, Donald C. Tillman, an […]
From Sea to Source
Yesterday found me speaking at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon. It was a fulfilling moment – sharing the story of the impact of Columbia River Treaty storage dams located in the headwaters region, with people who live at its mouth. After my talk, I drove out to the edge of the continent, […]
The Generosity of Moss
During a recent writing sabbatical in Seattle, Washington, I spent many hours wandering the streets around Capitol Hill. Within this cultured environment of heritage homes and mature gardens spreads an unobtrusive, still-wild landscape of moss. Fed by the rainy climate, moss softens the hard angles of a staircase. It transforms rock walls into verdant mountains. […]