intriguing (in-tree-ging) Wood wide web

From Jane Cobbald's 'Implementations' copper tools newsletter:


In the last few years there has been a fundamental shift in how scientists view the way the plant kingdom works. Take trees, for example. The old view was that woodland trees grow tall because they compete for light - and the strongest win. That view has been questioned. Researchers like Suzanne Simard have shown the level of co-operation, not only between species (she demonstrated how paper birch trees support douglas fir) but also between kingdoms. The fungi underground allow themselves to be used as a food bank. They store surplus nourishment for the trees in the good times and give it back in leaner periods. They also provide minerals which the trees can't access for themselves, and they act as a woodland communication system. The world in a woodland has been shown to be a distributed network, with hubs (the 'mother' trees) and links.





This is the diagram Suzanne Simard used in her TED talk. The darkest circles are the 'hub' trees, the paler ones younger trees. It looks like a diagram of the internet. It has been called the wood-wide web.
That was the preamble to my ponder. My ponder is - if that is happening in woodland, what is going on in my house and garden? How can I best work with this intelligent, caring, interconnected world?
One immediate response from us was to think differently about potplants. For a single plant in a pot, life must be like solitary confinement. So, nowadays we put more than one plant in a pot, or we make sure that their leaves are touching other plants nearby. And we brush the leaves as we walk past them.
A lot of good gardening practice makes sense in the context of the wood-wide web. If you take something out, put something back, whether it is a bit of compost or a sprinkling of fish, blood and bone. Minimum-interference gardening practices like 'no-dig' and permaculture are in tune with this view. The biodynamic approach sees the entire piece of land as a single entity, an 'organism'. That also makes sense. And of course, our view is that the bronze tools help. Copper is a connector. Like the fungi in the forest floor, it links things up. It's in our wiring. In our bodies, copper is to do with energy transfer. So at the very least, bronze tools should be less disruptive in the garden.

shocking.......

Last Saturday, I took part in a group clean-up action on a piece of land on the edge of Guéret, where it is hoped a large collective garden project will develop (just waiting for official stamp to go ahead).

There are open fields, flat and sloping, plus a pretty little stream running through a copse. We concentrated on clearing debris among the trees and along the banks of the stream.
 Wearing wellies, I waded over to the far bank to gather visible plastic....and being up close, gradually saw that the whole bank was completely fouled up with...baby-wipes ('lingettes' en français). They were grey/brown, could date back as far as 30 years when the current sewage works was installed, and largely concealed by sediment and leaf litter.
Starting to pull the immediately visible stuff away, more and more and more became apparent, and it was possible to fill up heavy sack loads of the yukky synthetic pollution within a tiny surface area, barely moving a metre along the bank per hour.
It was so shocking and desperately sad to discover this grim pollution along a pretty stream just down from a small town 15 000 inhabitants....there are hours and hours of clean-up necessary to get rid of all the contamination....and this must be a tiny example of all there must be to deal with in the world.

caddie 'attrape lingettes'

Baby-wipes are not an essentiel item, we can well do without....and certainly no flushing down the loo, the equivalent of a synthetic washing-up sponge each time....at the very least, a sponge can be used lots of times before disposal.
The main consumers...and culprits....I guess are women, whether through baby-care or make-up removal etc.
Please please please, for the welfare of your children aswell as numerous beings who have to live in these habitats, never flush synthetics down the toilet (sanitary towels included), and better still, stop buying these superfluous products which, in return for a few seconds of 'cleaning', then leave behind a devastating pollution for decades, and for miles.
I have never ever bought a pack of baby-wipes in my life, and am not deprived by boycotting such a terrible product. I have used sanitary towels of course, though never flushed them down the loo....I hope my participation in the clean-up Saturday....and even more, if this message helps others to stop consuming and flushing....these small acts help to compensate for my own contribution to plastic waste during my life-time.
We all have a long way to go to clean up our acts, for now, the past and the future.

recolte d'un après-midi avec les chasseurs de déchets creuse à Guéret: plusieurs caddies, une mobylette, les bouteilles, plastic diverses, et les sacs et sacs et sacs de lingettes dégoûtant qui sont accroché sur les rives du risseau

deuxième edition, en août

Cuisine sauvage aux bénéfices Secours Populaire!

Atelier Feldenkrais

Les mouvements du jardinier

Dimanche 26 mai 9h30-12h30,
au Blé en Herbe, à la Cellette

Dans cet atelier nous nous intéresserons à explorer des mouvements liés à l’activité des jardinier(e)s.
A travers des séquences de mouvements, nous chercherons comment aller vers le sol plus facilement, comment améliorer la flexion des jambes et prévenir des maux de dos.
Nous irons sentir comment on peut se baisser et se relever avec moins d’efforts, bouger avec plus de souplesse et de mobilité. 

Parallèlement nous visiterons les liens entre respiration et odorat, pour humer le doux parfum du printemps.
Un atelier ouvert à toutes et tous, pour qui souhaite jardiner en toute liberté!

Prix : 25 € (Pour que l'argent ne soit pas un frein, en cas de difficulté financière, n'hésitez pas à me contacter)

Pique nique partagé à la suite de l'atelier, repas tiré du sac! (végétarien)

A bientôt !

Chloé Touchais
praticienne de la Méthode Feldenkrais
Le mouvement présent
www.lemouvementpresent.fr
contact@lemouvementpresent.fr
06.95.33.25.05

des cours hebdomadaires   19h les mardis

1h de leçon de Prise de Conscience par le Mouvement : à partir d'un thème on explore des séquences de mouvements.
Dans cette recherche,
on découvre que plus notre sensation de nous même en mouvement s'affine,
meilleure est notre manière de bouger.
Plus on laisse aller les tensions et plus on se sent léger,
le mouvement devient facile.
et petit à petit : la joie de se sentir en mouvement. Tarifs : 9 € l’heure , 40 € les 5,  70€ les 10
(Pour que l'argent ne soit pas un frein, en cas de difficulté financière, n'hésitez pas à me contacter)

4 Rue de La Cascade, 23350 La Cellette