Solstice

I've been discovering more affordances for the materials that nature (and people) offer me. At this time of the year there is an abundance of colours, textures, forms, and smells to choose from. They open up many possibilities for creation. Marking the Solstice, I finished the weaving of the last tapestry, prepared the loom weft and started the initial selection of natural materials for the next work. 

Suzane Simard's book Finding the Mother Tree as been traveling with me. In it, I just discover that if you cut the leader shoot "the pines won't know how to grow toward the sky". 

Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) June 20,  2024.

December

"Humans, pines, and fungi make living arrangements simultaneously for themselves and for others: multispecies worlds."  Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing (2017). The Mushroom at the End of the World: on the Possibility of Life in capitalist Ruins. 

 

20220103 note: pinus pinaster and pinus pinea descriptions in European Atlas of Forest Tree Species (2016): https://ies-ows.jrc.ec.europa.eu/efdac/download/Atlas/pdf/Pinus_pinaster.pdf; https://ies-ows.jrc.ec.europa.eu/efdac/download/Atlas/pdf/Pinus_pinea.pdf .