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January 17 2022 Work Party / MLK Jr Day of Service
“I would even come up to the early thirties, and see a man grappling with the problems of the bankruptcy of his nation. And come with an eloquent cry that we have nothing to fear but “fear itself.” But I wouldn’t stop there. Strangely enough, I would turn to the Almighty, and say, “If you allow me to live just a few years in the second half of the 20th century, I will be happy.” Now that’s a strange statement to make, because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around. That’s a strange statement. But I know, somehow, that…
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January 2022
Retreat. Rest. Quiet. Hibernation. Decay. Death. All that is needed for life is right here–trust–even when we can’t see or feel it. And how beautiful it is.
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January 8 2022 Work Party
Wetlands are a necessary and precious ecosystem, and they are in our care. Thank you, friends, for showing up for one today. You are so needed, appreciated, and loved. Learn more about wetlands.
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December 11 2021 Work Party
“Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.” — Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heartfelt Advice for Difficult Times *** Something happens when we come together, something greater than the sum of us. When you…
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first baby trees
Quinn, our favorite City of Kenmore parks person, planted four baby Western Red Cedars–our first native plantings!–in our second restoration area recently. One of the plantings, a grouping of a baby and a baby baby, got a protective cage today, and the rest we will monitor for grazing to determine if caging will be necessary for all the new plantings in this area. A big, heartfelt thank you to Whitney Neugebauer and Whale Scout for donating the cage materials, teaching me how to construct and install a cage, and continuing to inspire me with her passion and heart for killer whales, salmon, healthy watersheds, and experimenting her way through this…
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two years
Today marks the two year anniversary of Swamp Creek Habitat Restoration Project. We do this work on the ancestral land of the first peoples of this region–the Coast Salish, the Stillaguamish, the Duwamish, the Suquamish, the Sammamish–peoples who have stewarded this land since time immemorial and who are very much alive and present as good stewards of the land to this day. It is with gratitude to and because of them that we have the honor of tending to this land with the hope of restoring it to a healthy, native ecosystem where native insects, fish, birds, and mammals, including humans, can be sustained and thrive for generations to come. …
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November 26 2021 Work Party (two years)
Swamp Creek Habitat Restoration Project turned two today. What better way to celebrate than to continue as we began? Thank you to all who came out in the drizzle and rain today. It’s magic when you are there. Happy birthday, us!
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November 14 2021 Work Party
Rain. Garter snakes. Adventure. Layers peeled. Fallen logs. Fungi. Leaves. Soil. Earth. Us.
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October 30 2021 Work Party
The ground is saturated again after a dry summer spell, strewn with fallen cottonwood branches and leaves. The Big Leaf Maples have cast down their own humongous fall foliage, sending sky messengers to ground to be devoured by yellow spotted millipedes. Sporocarps are everywhere, disguised by mulch, the bark on fallen branches, in the nooks and crannies of nurse logs and stumps. What was once alive is being returned to the earth to be born anew from rich soil co-created by death. And we are here, witness to and participant in this endless, beautiful cycle of decay and renewal, practicing being human together. With gratitude for all things, until we…
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October 16 2021 Work Party
Sometimes it is enough simply to show up. Goodness often grows from grounded presence.
