Nature’s Best Hope

I got my Amazon subscription credit renewed a few days ago and decided to listen to another Douglas Tallamy book, Nature's Best Hope. Long story short: it presents very little new material from his previous book, Bringing Nature Home. But that's good. Hope makes the same argument that Home did a few years before: we … Continue reading Nature’s Best Hope →

What Individual Action Does For The Climate Emergency

One of the most problematic misconceptions about the climate emergency is that individual action doesn't matter. Sometimes it's paired with another myth, that 71% of emissions are caused by 100 companies, so that individual action like riding a bike to work or having a Meatless Monday is framed as just an empty gesture. This just … Continue reading What Individual Action Does For The Climate Emergency →

Transformation Playing Cards

I landed on this Wikipedia article about Transformation playing cards and found them very cool.

Outfits poll

Going nude for any length of time on purpose counts as an "outfit" for the purposes of this poll. If you are a full-time naturist, choose "One (1)". Feel free to share your typical outfit schedule in the comments. If your bank use this as one of the security questions for password recovery, please skip … Continue reading Outfits poll →

The Social Conquest of Earth

With back to school time, everyone else in my household was leaving in the morning, except me, who continued to work at home. I started feeling that I wasn't getting the basics of my life handled every day. I've found myself just getting everyone out the door before I start my first meetings in the … Continue reading The Social Conquest of Earth →

The Moonstone

I've been trying to avoid news and current affairs podcasts, which is leaving a big gap in my audio listening schedule. I've been filling it by going through The Guardian's list of the best 100 novels in English in haphazard fashion. The list's editor, Robert McCrum, called The Moonstone (1868) the greatest English detective novel, … Continue reading The Moonstone →

Voting in the Canadian Federal Election 2021

I moved to Montreal in 2003, and I've been a permanent resident since 2011. Both my kids are dual citizens, USA and Canada. Last year, Maj and I decided to take the plunge and become Canadian citizens, too. I'd been holding off for a while. I love it here, but I'm also proud of being … Continue reading Voting in the Canadian Federal Election 2021 →

The Third Policeman

My daughter and I finished watching LOST last year; her for the first time, me for the second. One part of LOST is that the writers and producers dropped references to related books and movies and historical figures loosely related to the events of the show. One of them was The Third Policeman, which sounded … Continue reading The Third Policeman →

Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants

Last year we bought a house in Richmond, Quebec, on the banks of the Saint-François River. We've got a big backyard, and a main source of joy for me in the last few months has been working in the garden. Inspired by The Ministry for the Future, a near-future scifi novel about climate change and … Continue reading Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants →

Wine work this weekend

Earlier this year, I decided to plant grapevines in the backyard of our country house. The grapevines in question I've liked wine for a while. My grandfather had grapevines and made wine. I've done some home winemaking with fruit wines, and they've come out pretty good. And we have this plot of hillside land with … Continue reading Wine work this weekend →