Links that may or may not be related to gardens, food, travel, nature, or heterotopias and liminal spaces but probably are. Sources in parentheses. Unless mentioned, all links should be free of paywalls.
article: A Rare Winter Flicker of Red and Yellow (Colby Galliher/The Outside Story/Northern Woodlands) Northern flickers (Colaptes auratus), unlike other woodpeckers, feed “on the ground in open areas, including urban and suburban environments, where their choice dish lives: ants. … Deep and persistent snow cuts off the birds’ access to these buffets and other ground-dwelling insects like beetles, leading most flickers to fly south in the fall in search of suitable feeding grounds.” But not all of them: some remain, feeding in areas of exposed grass and dirt, including on “pond edges, along plowed roadsides, and in fields where wind has scoured the snow from patches of soil, particularly during thaws.” And they will also eat seeds, fruit, and if available, birdfeeder suet.
essay with photos: Winter Optimism (Cathy Weston/Goldenrod Gardens) Last winter Weston (on Cape Cod) bought and stratified 19 kinds of pollinator flower seeds to plant out in spring in a freshly weeded garden, but things did not go as planned. So she pivoted, tried something else, and is ready again this spring to plant, but in the intervening time she’s learned more and has narrowed her list to 12 flowers that as a group will be in bloom from spring through fall, and she’s included her list. Just the ticket for mid-Feb. reading.
short essays w/ photos: The Year in Gardening: Looking Back With Joy (and Looking Ahead With Hope) (Melissa Ozawa/Gardenista) “a selection of our ecological gardening friends … share what keeps them going — plus one small thing we can all do in our yards next year to keep the momentum going.” Includes thoughts of Jeff Lorenz and Kayla Fell of Refugia; Uli Lorimer of Native Plant Trust; Richard Hayden of the High Line; Georgia Silvera Seamans of the New York Biodiversity Task Force; Yinuo Sun and Nadia Alquaddoomi of Terremoto; Kelly Norris, author of Your Natural Garden [which our permaculture group is reading now; and I loved what he had to say about what keeps him going]; and Edwina von Gal of Perfect Earth Project. Some ideas for this year: do no harm; embrace the beauty in decay; start something from seed; hand water the garden; notice things.
article: Mink (Hiker’s Notebook) Of note: The origin of the name is “possibly from Swedish menk, which meant ‘stinking animal from Finland.’” Also: “Males play no role in parenting, consistent with typical mammal behavior.” TW: There’s much talk of trapping, skinning/killing, and farming mink.
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