A community page for those inspired by nature.
One
Give me your body
Make a place for me to embrace you
In your strength I follow you and lead you.
You are fragile in my nature,
I cling on to you, you hold me
Planted inert in my land
Steely intimacy, we flourish
We are one
love does not corrode
love does not corrode us
we rust love
We look like one
Contained
Your foundations initiate the end of a beginning,
My roots end up assuring us, unscathed.
Hello Nature-led friends!
My apologies for the brief post but I did not want to let Indigenous Peoples Day (aka Columbus Day) to pass without recognize. I am an ally of the rights of indigenous people especially here in my home state of what is now Washington State in what is now the country of the United States. These lands have long been the home of the Spokane, Colville, Kootenai, Cayuse, Umatilla, Walla Walla, Snoqualmie, and Duwamish to name only a few.
The Native Land Digital is a Canadian Non-profit organization building an interactive map so that people can explore the native land that they are standing on be it your own native land or someone else’s. If you are in the United States or Canada I encourage you to visit the websites of your local council tribes to see what they’re working on or if they have museums or cultural events that you might be interested in attending.
Native-Land.ca | Our home on native land
Below is a link to a brief article from CNN about how Columbus Day came to be in the United States and why recognizing Indigenous peoples’ rights today and everyday matters regardless of where you live.
https://www.cnn.com/us/indigenous-peoples-day-native-americans-cec/index.html
Were I living in Australia, I would also support The Voice of Aboriginal Australians. You can learn more about that referendum with this link: https://voice.gov.au/resources/fact-sheet-referendum-question-and-constitutional-amendment
Here is the link for anyone wishing to explore the cultural heritage of one of my closest tribes, The Tulalip tribe. I have visited this wonderful museum personally and invite any of my local friends to do so as well. You can even take me with you! I wouldn’t mind the opportunity to go again.
https://www.hibulbculturalcenter.org/
Have a great week!
While on a video call with our resident Nature-led Poetress Patricia Lezama she asked me what to do about slugs eating her plants. Not thinking anything of it I started to describe getting a shallow bowl, setting it flush with the ground, and pouring cheap beer in it. Wait for nightfall and by the next morning you’ll have a bowl full of dead drunk slugs. The look on her face was priceless! Her eyes got big and her mouth fell open in a mix of both horror and bemused interest, “Whaaaat?!?!“
It was at that precise moment that I realized, “Yeah, helping slugs drink themselves to death is a bit odd.” I can’t even tell you when I first learned of it. Someone in my family or a family friend must have shown me this trick when I was a kid. I only do it once or twice in the spring when the slugs are at their worst.
We rarely buy beer in this house so imagine my surprise when I come around the corner and find my spouse drinking one only to ask, “Why’d you buy such cheap beer?”
“Because it’s for the slugs!” I said. “If you want beer, put it on the grocery list.” This precise exchange has happened at least five times almost every spring. Last year was the first year I think I finally remembered to put a sticky note on the beers. It read: Slug Beer!
As I told Patricia, I like to think of the slugs having discovered a wonderful beer party where they all drink themselves into a wet coma and die. Happy and none the wiser to their demise.
I don’t like killing things. (I’m a vegetarian for crying out loud!) Sometimes though population need to be crashed to maintain a balanced ecosystem. The slugs are attracted to the sweet smell of the yeast in the beer and I only do it when I can visibly see I’ve got a massive slug year on my hands This year there weren’t enough slugs to bother with a beer trap. I’m not a robot AI bent on the complete annihilation of a species!
I’ve never had an issue with unintentional victims, not so much as a drunken squirrel! According to multiple online sources there are natural predators to slugs including ground beetles, some birds, frogs, toads, snakes and apparently hedgehogs!?!? Well, now I’ve learned something new!
I probably don’t want to know about the first time someone figured out that leaving beer unattended overnight attracted slugs. The novelty of it though makes me think of carnivorous plants, specifically Pitcher Plants, using the sweet smell of nectar to lure unsuspecting insects down their throats where escape in unlikely.
So now I’m curious, do you have any gardening tricks that might seem weird to others?
The Nature-led Life 