Links that may or may not be related to gardens, food, travel, nature, or heterotopias and liminal spaces but probably are. Sources in parentheses.
long article: GHOSTS ON THE GLACIER (John Branch and Emily Rhyne/NYT gifted link). Janet Johnson and John Cooper became part of the folklore of South America’s Aconcagua mountain when they died there, and now, almost 50 years later, an old camera has emerged from the receding glacier. “Folklore happens when facts are short and time is long. After all these years, this story is not about long-gone Americans on the mountain, but the unknown that lives in those who remain. It is less about certainty than memory and imagination. … Not every discovery leads to revelation. Some just make you want to know more.”
8-1/2-min video: My Mom Has Two Sons: Me and a Squirrel (Tom Krawczyk/NYT/YouTube).
article: Bird-Friendly Plants for Winter Forage (Shannon Currey/Izel Native Plants). She suggests specific plants we can grow to attract specific birds; how to besides providing plant food sources for birds (and others) also provide shelter, nesting sites, and escape routes; and she offers short lists of favorite fall and winter natural bird feeders in the form of perennial, grasses, and shrubs.
photo essay: Native Plant Garden 10 Years In: 5 Plant Lessons Learned: The plant details! (Nuts for Natives). Shari shares lessons learned on her 1/8-acre mid-Atlantic property, with plenty of photos: Eastern Red Cedars and Cedar Rust; Native Pachysandra (more interesting than the Japanese variety, very manageable, and not as slow growing as people say); scrawny, gangly plants that are worth it over time, including Callicarpa americana, Euonymus americanus, and Symphoricarpos orbiculatus; Heucheras (cultivars not as long lived or as good for insects); and her preference for straight-species honeysuckle vine (Lonicera sempervirens) over cultivars.
article: Zola understood our lust for shopping: ‘The Ladies’ Paradise’ captures how consumerism was born (Agnes Callard/UHerd). “What Zola showcases about capitalism is that it is a powerful source of optimism, of momentum; and that people, once they become wealthy enough to attend to something other than survival, need some such engine. … We don’t have an intuitive understanding of capitalism, of the desires it creates in us, of the relationships it throws us into. We don’t understand why we like shopping, and often pretend that we don’t. We will come up with an excuse as to why we ‘have to’ buy something. … The fact that these secret urges are now driving the show: that is the uncomfortable thought.”
