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The place and weather descriptions in this book made me reaaaallly want to run around outside and play somewhere outside the city.

@jchawkins #nature #trees #treeproject

jchawkins I would run around too if it wasn't the time of year when the effort of breathing is enough to drip with sweat 😅😂 5y

Sunraven @jchawkins: Right? That‘s probably part of why it made me feel that way — talking about nice cool Wisconsin springtimes and frozen winters... 5y

jchawkins 😆I LIVE IN WISCONSIN. 5y

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Sunraven @jchawkins: 😆 I spent a couple of months in Sheboygan one winter just to see snow, but yeah, I hear it gets pretty hot in the summer ... Came back to Florida for that bit. 😉 5y

jchawkins @Sunraven Ha, yeah, I sometimes joke that I should live in Alaska because I'm most comfortable when it's 35 and snowing, and so much of the summers around here are above 80 degrees, and I go full-blown Wicked Witch of the West mode and just melt all over the place. I could never do Florida! 5y

Sunraven @jchawkins: If you need visitors in Alaska I‘d be happy to bring books. 😁 I like both beach weather and snowy weather, and probably require both for true life satisfaction. 🏝☃️

Also, fun Florida facts: It‘s always fuhreeeezing indoors in the summer (air conditioner freezing is not like snowy freezing ... much less charming), so in a way it‘s hot and cold here at the same time. 😆 5y

jchawkins @Sunraven Ugh I hear you! I don't have AC at my place but my work has AC. So I'm at home wearing as few clothes as possible, sweating profusely, and then have to bundle up in pants/hoodie for the commute to work so I don't go numb. 😆 5y

Sunraven Sounds about right, so I might have to disagree with your earlier statement — you totally already have the skills to survive Florida, at least as far as the heat goes. 😆 5y

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jchawkins

Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings | Shel Silverstein

@Sunraven #treeproject

Shel Silverstein saved my sanity as a child. I don't know how many times I read his books. I had a lot of his poems memorized for years.

Sunraven My sister loved this book, too! I was more into fairy tales and epic fantasy and pioneer stories (which probably “saved” my sanity by making me seem only questionably sane 😆), and all I really remember from this book is the illustrations ... though I feel I should re-read it, because surely I remember at least a poem or two, hmm. 5y

jchawkins @Sunraven Hahaha that's awesome. Yeah, I got into fantasy as I got into middle and high school, but these dark little poems were great. Phillip Pullman talked about this once...something about how it's important to acknowledge darkness to children. I should find that quote. (edited) 5y

Sunraven IME that could be a statement about how adults often avoid what they think of as darkness more than a statement about kids, but I do have copious Thoughts on this subject, thanks to the perils of my brand of weird. 😆 I‘ve just noticed that adult fiction sometimes handles “darkness” shallowly, while YA classics sometimes bludgeon you like causing trauma is the goal. I always preferred the route where dark and light are both real, and balanced... 5y

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Sunraven

The Great Failure | Natalie Goldberg

This quote is from a part of the book after the author loses her mentor and teacher to cancer and is still grieving. In a foreign city, she arrives and sees the tree as him (and now this sounds like something someone would write a paper about in high school English) and sits on a bench staring until she almost forgets she‘s supposed to meet her friend.

@jchawkins #nature #trees #treeproject

📷: Nitish Kadam on Unsplash

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jchawkins

Aspen Gold | Janet Dailey

@Sunraven #treeproject #trees #nature Ever heard of Pando? It is an entire forest...made up of A SINGLE TREE. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pando_(tree)

Lady_Tigana_20 That was interesting. Thanks for sharing. I feel like I had heard about this years ago, but then I forgot. 5y

Sunraven The Hidden Life of Trees, which I just read, mentioned that, or else I‘d be saying the same thing as @Lady_Tigana_20. 😁 I also find it entertaining that there‘s a massive 2,400-year-old fungus in Oregon that basically eats trees (again, mentioned in that book). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armillaria

Nature is full of wacky stuff. 5y

jchawkins @Sunraven that's super cool! Nature is indeed pretty crazy! 5y

jchawkins @Lady_Tigana_20 yeah I love random trivia like this 😁 5y

49 likes4 comments

Sunraven

John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir | John Muir, Linnie Marsh Wolfe

“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”

@jchawkins: Tag!

#nature #trees #treeproject

jchawkins Heck yeah John Muir! 5y

Sunraven @jchawkins: Any John Muir recommendations? He‘s on my mental TBR but I‘ve never actually looked into where to start with him. 😁

(I totally failed to tag you on this earlier ... Sheesh. I was clearly not in copy editor mode today. 🤪) (edited) 5y

7 likes2 comments

jchawkins

Untranslatables: The Most Intriguing Words from Around the World | C J Moore

#nature #trees #treeproject @Sunraven

Sunraven One of my favorite Japanese words! 💖🌳☀️ (And one of my favorite things, haha.)

...Also, I see our game of tag has a tag now. Guess it‘s my turn tomorrow. 😆 (edited) 5y

jchawkins @Sunraven yes! I wanted to make it official 😁 5y

Sunraven The Tree Project liiiiiiiives!

(...and stuff.) 5y

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jchawkins @Sunraven 🤣🧟‍♀️🌳🌲 5y

Sunraven ...I‘m not sure I‘ve ever seen that one emoji before. Is it ... a zombie? 5y

jchawkins @Sunraven yes, but I was thinking Frankenstein, but there wasn't a Frankenstein emoji. You know, cuz you said it liiiiiives! 5y

Sunraven Zombies are sort of ... “It unliiiiives!” I guess. 😆 5y

jchawkins @Sunraven 😂😂😂 5y

Sunraven 🤪 5y

42 likes9 comments

Sunraven

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate--Discoveries from a Secret World | Peter Wohlleben

Extended quote: “Thanks to the migration of trees, the forest is constantly changing. And not just the forest — all of Nature. And that‘s why many human attempts to conserve particular landscapes fail. What we see is always a brief snapshot of a landscape that only seems to be standing still. The illusion is almost perfect in the forest.”

@jchawkins: Apparently I still have trees on the brain. 😉

#nature #trees #treeproject

jchawkins Tag, I'm it! 😁 I'll find one tomorrow for you lol! 5y

Sunraven @jchawkins: 😆🌳🍃 5y

8 likes2 comments

jchawkins

Figuring | Maria Popova

#top6reads I would highly recommend all of these, for different reasons. Vuong, Roy, and Oz are masters of emotional resonance. Figuring celebrates queer women who changed American history with their lives' works. Brusatte spins a great yarn with nonfiction. And Anzaldúa changed how I see the world.

SamAnne Vuong has been on my list for awhile! 5y

Sunraven Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs is on my endless TBR list ... Maybe I‘ll move it up a few notches. 😁 5y

jchawkins @SamAnne he's so good!! 5y

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jchawkins @Sunraven it feels like a beach read to me, so the summer is the perfect time for it 😁 5y

Sunraven Good to know! Maybe I can use it to convince myself to go to the beach. 😆 5y

jchawkins @Sunraven I'll leave you to it, I hate the beach 😂 5y

Sunraven I‘m actually sort of terrible at reading on the beach, anyway. I want to just stare at the scenery instead ... I‘d much rather read on a picnic blanket under a tree. Are “picnic reads” a thing? 🤔 5y

jchawkins @Sunraven maybe we call them Alice reads, since Alice fell asleep under the tree and dreamed Wonderland? 😄 5y

Sunraven Or enlightenment reads, since the Buddha was theoretically enlightened under a tree? 😉 Or tea reads, because tea was supposedly invented when a leaf fell into water that was boiling under a tree?

I didn‘t know I knew of so many things that happened under trees. Now I sort of want to put together an anthology involving tree-related occurrences. 🌳 5y

jchawkins @Sunraven or that Odin gained his wisdom under a tree, or that Newton figured out gravity under a tree... 😁 Sounds like a good project to me! 5y

Sunraven This is totally getting written down. Maybe it will even happen, haha. 5y

jchawkins @Sunraven ahahaha yesssss! 5y

jchawkins #treeproject 5y

merelybookish Sorry for the late response! Ive read a bit of Gloria Anzadula but I need to read more! 5y

merelybookish What an eclectic set of books! I also loved

God of Small Things

jchawkins @merelybookish I hear Borderlands is the staple to read by her, but I haven't read that one yet. And yes, I'm a bit of an omnivorous reader! 😅 5y

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