Writing Samples
I What is?
Personal agriculture is a legal term about renter/landowner rights in the efforts of growing food, flowers and landscape expression. Like personal adornment, the archeological term for jewelry, clothing decor, Homo sapiens express their personal bubble through possessions and shelter modification. With 8 million people occupying Earth, resource conservation is the preferred land share option as we negotiate resource conflict from our personal bubbles. Please Choose: science. organic. compassion. Live mindfully so other beings in biodiversity may simply survive. We, an incomprehensible number of we/us, are in this together.
II A Calendar of Blooms
The Blue Heron garden incorporates winter blooming plants and frost tolerant plants to provide visual solace as the cold rain of PNW winters overshadows summer's ease and fall's gracious descent into winter.
In December Hellebore's beguiling, downward gaze belies the intricate beauty of it's complex blooms, some varieties speckled with purple-on-white, some intense mauve. Snowdrops' diminutive white blossoms and Yellow Crocus peek out, as Camillia's (Camellia japonica) perfectly symmetrical white flowers with maybe splashes of pink proudly challenge austere January. As ever, English Primrose refuses to be daunted still presenting it's tiny, dicot-5 petaled sweet flowers against all odds, even in snow. Heather tirelessly proclaims tiny purple blooms as Solomon's Seal (Polygonatum spp.) sends up the first brave shoots towards presenting snow white bell-shaped flowers. As March approaches Forsythia begins to spark rebelliously with fireworks of yellow flowers in time for Beltane, as the Magnolia Tree unfurls a luscious riot of large, white, whimsical blooms. Elderberry's pink and white florets appear close in time, to provide umbrellas for the fairies & tonic for winter colds. By late May, it's safe to bring the Princess Flowers (Tribuchina sp.) from their overwintering in the greenhouse. By mid summer, they offer continuous blooms in rich purple. Originating in Brazil, Tribuchina require shelter before fall's first frost. Grasses (Gramma sp.) bloom all summer culminating in their tassle-flowers chasing in the afternoon sea breeze. Beauty berries' (Callicarpa americana) purple fruits appear mid- summer : edible berry gifts for birds and people. A variety of cultivars present a color array of the ever-loved Rose, the traditional flower to announce emotions by color and historical nuance. Across summer Sunflowers, Foam Flowers, Daisies, Wisteria, Butterfly Bush and more !) tease for pollinator visits. There's a host of plants to enjoy in the garden, all wondrous in their botanical perfection. Our joy is to present them at their best expression, as they deserve.
WRITING & PHOTOGRAPHY - P U B L I C A T I O N S
2022 The Unraveling of a Pollinator Sanctuary, (essay) permacultureeducation.org (US) & permaculturenews.org.au
2022 Glam Gardening, (essay) permacultureeducation.org (US)
2022 "PFAS: Forever Is A Long Time", Tillamook, OR, Master Gardeners Assoc.
2021 MEME development for permacultureEducation.org - Permaculture Principles
2021 Article: "Weeds & Invasives:Towards a Neutral Perspective" permacultureeducation.org
2021 Article: "Mullein, Friend to All" published in Small Farm Journal Fall Edition,
reprint: PermacultureNews AU
2021 and permaculture education.org
2012 Hunting photo from my thesis reportage published in AZ Wildviews magazine
2008 Textbook cover for "Waiting for the Outs", NAU, AZ
2008 Umpqua NF: Synopsis of The Rattle Fire
2007 Textbook cover for Second Edition: Exploring Differences, NAU,AZ
2006 Photo published in Crime, Media, and Culture, Fall issue, UK
2005 Nonfiction short in The Strange Fruit, Seattle, June 2005
2005 River Postcard series for Lewis and Clark Festivities, MT
2004 Brochure layout for AZ Game and Fish
2001 Photo essay on Martial Arts, York U, Toronto, Les Cashiers de la Femme
2000 First Place Award for Photo Essay, NAU Graduate Exposition
1999 Book Cover for Exploring Differences, First Edition
1994 Mile High Poetry Society publication "Aganippe" (poetry