-
From Death Springs Life
The following piece was inspired by an encounter with a partially fallen tree in our forest. From death springs life. We gather around a large fallen tree- half fallen actually; the top is supported by the limbs of a neighbouring one. It is suspended at an angle; its root base lifted from the soil and exposed. The tree is lifeless; no new growth is evident on its upper limbs. Its greyish hue is washed out, colourless. The tree is dead. Or is it? We begin to explore this tree with fervour- poking, picking, kicking, scraping, knocking- trying to scare up any sign of life. Maybe deep down I hope that…
You May Also Like
Working with Charcoal and Paper
Muddling the chronology
Walking, Storying, Tracing
-
Shadows and Tracings: thinking through poetry
Shadows and Tracings snow reveals tracks tracks reveal possibilities possibilities reveal stories shadowy stories of humans and nonhumans that have crossed time and space wonderings and wanderings moments fleeting what tracks go unnoticed when snow no longer reveals shadowy presence remembering and forgetting stories untold erasing, rooting following, leading, walking, crawling, slithering, running, leaping away from and towards paths converging and pulling apart snow reveals tracks who/what walk(ed) these places? waiting watching listening what might the presence and absence of tracks reveal being neither (a)lone nor lone(ly) Maria Puig de la Bellacasa (2017) reminds us that speculative inquiry “pushes the boundary of acceptable” (p. 73), while Val Plumwood (2002) writes…
-
Paying Attention to the Sounds of Water: A Simple Encounter with a Storm Drain
listening on a simple walk around the parking lot We can’t stop too long in this frigid weather but even a brief listen and look at the run-off drain provokes a range of meanings and possible thoughts. It is loud. We peer down and look and listen. Where is it going? What is down there? What is happening? Are there fish? Where does the ladder go? We discuss this simple, often overlooked feature so prevalent in urban worlds. It prompts us to look at the road and wonder what’s underneath us? A storm drain is an innocuous item yet part of our system of living. It connects surface to soil,…
You May Also Like
Disturbance
-
Simplicity: Simple and Slow
Thinking a lot about simplicity lately and was inspired to be poetic… Simple. Slow… Static? NO! Everchanging. Ebb and flow. Search for answers. Knowledge grows. Simple. Slow… Static? NO! Transformations. Shifts and change. Thoughts and feelings rearranged. Simple. Slow… Static? NO! Reconstruct, revise, redo. Discover what works best for you. Simple. Slow… Static? NO! Seeing things through different eyes. Understandings realized. Simple. Slow… Static? NO!
-
Living on the “edge”: Bridging the gap between inside and outside experiences
As we walk through the forest, we stop every now and then to think about how we can continue to live deeply in our forest experiences when we are not physically there. In our minds and hearts, we search for meaningful experiences and materials that would satisfy our curiosities, nudge at our comforts a little, and maybe even pull at our heartstrings. Passions, connectedness, meaningful, exciting… all the words and concepts make their way into our discussions. I think about what inspires me to come to work each day—what excites me, what drives my curiosities, where I find joy. Some days it’s easier than others to realize these things. Thankfully,…
-
Snow Monkeys?!?
As one child began to look for the snow monkeys we wondered where this came from. Of course, we can never be fully sure, but the guess is that it began with the vines that are intertwined throughout the forest space, tangled around and across the trees (both the living and the dead). The vines are called monkey vines. But one particular walk there was a lot of snow that clung to the trees and vines, and when you shook them the snow fell and hit our faces, bodies, and the ground. Perhaps the movements of hands, limbs (human and nonhuman) and snow together storied the mythical snow monkey. Perhaps…
-
Back to the Forest….
Today we welcomed back the research team after a long break for the holidays. A lot had changed while they were gone, and we were all feeling very excited to jump back in and start up our investigations again. While they were gone we still re-visited some of the ideas that we were exploring with charcoal and paper during our morning meetings, and we still went to the forest as often as we could, but there’s something energizing about their presence. On our first trip back to the forest with Carrie, we went to a part of the forest some of us had never visited before. Immediately I noticed connections…
-
Paths
Seeing tracks on the ground from animals and others. Making our own tracks in the snow. Noticing and following tracks and paths of tree branches and vines twining through the snow. Trying to follow an auditory track of a bird we hear in the trees but cannot see. Using landmarks like the school, the path, to find our path out of the forest. Looking at a path as a route or course that tracks movement. We see this in charcoal works, in the concentrated energies in some places, then the trickle-out effect where marks and energy are less dense but still there. Following animal tracks that will presumably lead us…
-
The Spider Web
In the forest, we stumbled upon an area with large tree trunks, branches, sticks, and vines intertwined. The children stood together on this entangled mass almost in awe, possibly wondering “What is this? Why is it here?” Some of the children started walking towards it and the rest followed. As we got to the edge, the children stopped and seemed hesitant to proceed. We entered slowly at first, ducking under the low branches to go further inside. Some of the children observed how the entangled mass resembled a spider web. Some wished to climb it. A small group began not only ducking under but climbing over top of the branches,…
You May Also Like
Trees of Life
-
The Hollowed Log
November 16 Today we walked to the forest. One child offered us a question that inspired our forest visit: Where does charcoal live? The walk to the forest was especially exciting: the first snow of the season! The children are unusually aware of their surroundings because everything looks different with the snow.
