This week my youngest daughter started her final high school exams. For the next two weeks my agenda is conspicously empty, leaving enough room to help out in a moment of need and to ensure that the home situation is calm and stable. And no, she is not hoping to continue in my footsteps or wanting to convince the world to plant trees or to eat mushrooms. She is convinced that I am a little strange and I imagine her shrugging her shoulders in light embarrasment every time she struggles to to explain the sort of work I do.
Less kilometers on the road this week inevitably lead to more brain activity, definitely more environmentally friendly and a effective way to travel the world without having to move a meter. Discussions with friends and colleagues included the (poor) state of our forest soils, the lack of practical experience and intuition of many well-meaning employees in the forest service, the growing number of food forests on private land, the possibilities of agroforestry, the negative effects of overgrazing of deer on biodiversity and the increasing awareness that many anwers to questions and “problems” in a man-made environment can be found in well-functioning natural systems.
My work week ended with hands in the garden, getting delightfully dirty and making the first preparations for an insect garden.
The weekend ended learning about native edible plants, weeds for some but food for others.
