Celebration 5-5
What Shall I celebrate? by Martha Ressler Celebration. On a personal level I’m celebrating our decision to upgrade our beloved backyard fire pit area, including pavers and a new firepit that eats it’s own smoke!!Plus, the fact that (surely!?) spring is coming before too long and this long, cold winter
Dare to Dream of a forest floor
5-5 Fallen Leaves Martha Ressler I have a modest but maybe impossible dream. I would like to live long enough to shuffle through the fallen dead leaves accumulated in our private forest. Since we planted it in 2020, the trees are not yet big enough to produce enough. I know
Flowers Among the Stones
I got an inspiration I got during my trip to Portugal. I couldn’t help but notice the beautiful flowering bushes that broke up the cobblestones and stone homes in the ancient city of Óbidos. A guide told us that the flowers were mandated by the dictator Salazar (until his overthrow
Thoughts on Urban Nature
Martha Ressler 5-3 There are so many possibilities for Urban nature. Community gardens, roof gardens, parks, green spaces, and back yards are all dear to my heart. I’ve been influenced by Doug Tallamy’s work promoting the benefit of people’s individual yards when planted with native plants as an invitation to
Underground Networks
Underground Networks, 5-2 Martha Ressler It turns out that trees can communicate with each other through Mycorrhizal networks, mycelium, a fungal network of tiny roots whereby fungi provide additional nutrients to the tree roots, and the trees in turn provide the fungi with sugars produced through their photosynthesis. The mycelium
Nature’s Harmony: The Hole Story
I knew right away what my theme would be for “Beauty in Imperfection.” As a fan of the work of scientist Douglas Tallamy, I have learned the importance of planting native plants and trees on our land to support the food chain. Insects have evolved with plants for millions of
After the Darkest Night . . .
A recent struggle with depression inspired this take on Wind of Change
Thoughts on Winds of Change 4-12
Martha Ressler There are so many ways to interpret this versatile prompt. The original comment was made by UK Prime Minister Harold McMillan in 1960 in a speech in Cape Town, South Africa. He was referring to the spirit of anti-colonialism that was sweeping across the African continent and in
The Unfinished American Revolution
The Unfinished American Revolution 4-11 Martha Ressler My idea was to use a small sampling of the political buttons I’d collected over many years of political activity to illustrate how the promise of the American revolution has fallen short and how realizing its promise has taken – is taking –
Prompt for 4-11
Martha Ressler Revolution, 4-11 Politically, revolution is the most radical of changes. As an American I am particularly interested in the American Revolution – the war for independence from England. And the Civil War, which was also a revolution to overturn the slavocracy in the South. But our country is
Crossroads of the World
My visit to Istanbul revealed to me a geographical wonder of languages and cultures.