Tag: connectivity

  • The Structural Wonder of a Hedge in Winter

      Even in winter, hedgerows are working in the landscape. Not only can they prevent snow drift on to roads (a feature or ‘ecosystem service’ I’m keen to explore more in work in Ontario, see 3 Go to Canada: Hedges, Novel Ecosystems and Damn Fine Donuts,HedgeCanada Revisited: healing the landscape and connecting communities with a new hedgerow…

  • Hedge Canada 3: The Planting

      “I bequeath myself to the dirt, to grow from the grass I love; If you want me again, look for me under your boot-soles.” – Walt Whitman On an unseasonably warm and sunny Thanksgiving Weekend (6th October 2017) visitors to the Open Day at Mount Wolfe Farm in Caledon, Ontario were able to take…

  • HedgeCanada Revisited: healing the landscape and connecting communities with a new hedgerow story

    HedgeCanada Revisited:  healing the landscape and connecting communities  with a new hedgerow story

    – Way back in the mists of time I completed a short school project on the Monarch butterfly Danaus plexippus.  Young Jim had read an article in a magazine with a picture of a tree dressed from root to branch in thousands of Monarchs. He learned about the incredible migration of this beautiful butterfly up and down Central…

  • Smeuse, smout and squiggle: the language of hedgerows

     Working on a new Citizen Science project Hedgerow Heroes for Surrey Wildlife Trust, I am exploring the connections between people and hedgerows and how we can use past relationships with this important semi-natural habitat to shape future ideas about sense of place and environmental stewardship.   One measure of our connectedness to nature is how…

  • 3 Go to Canada: Hedges, Novel Ecosystems and Damn Fine Donuts

    3 Go to Canada: Hedges, Novel Ecosystems and Damn Fine Donuts

        Where I find myself in Ontario Canada introducing the technique of hedge-laying and discovering social-ecological complexity, Novel Ecosystems theory and Community Supported Agriculture along the way     I’m writing this blog as US Citizens go to the polls and a baked potato crisps in the oven, getting ready for a date with…