17 Comments

Hello Lenten-comrade. I am already re-immersed in the real world- it feels so good! I bought a package of A2 paper and started a book-map. It didn't come out as I expected it to, but then I wrote for 8 hours, so... Magic of the diagram!

Expand full comment

'Magic of the Diagram' would be a book title par excellence.

Expand full comment

Thank you Caroline.

I agree: don't use AI to generate, just for autocomplete and typos I reckon ok.

But increasingly, AI is being used On Us.

Expand full comment

Stay wild, Ash! And teach the bairns it too, or let them teach you...

Expand full comment

I have restacked for the first time, hope it helps. Lots here and links for those 'happy bobbing along in the waste stream'. Hope to see some you over at Hadden and Kaira's sometime.

AI and being human? A shout out for the work of Jeremy Naydler. He writes books, and I attempted a couple of reviews at my beginning of a substack. (Mark Vernon wrote a review or two wayback before I caught up with the opus.) I must still beware my Faustian Bargain though.

Expand full comment

Thank you. So you are out east of England way?

Expand full comment

I knew parts of E England in youth but migrated north for work yonks ago: Scotland and north of the Cheviot with the Northumberland coast to hand.

It has to be zoom and email at the moment but recently joined Hadden and his Wendell Berry group. Corresponded about agriculture and Greenstead Church and other such.

Expand full comment

Hi Caroline, In case you have not already had a response to your 'what shrub' question - it may be tamarisk, which can get much larger but readily 'coppices'. best wishes!

Expand full comment

Thank you so much for this! It is about to get cut back by the council. I may pip them to it. I shall research tamarisk.

Expand full comment

To read your essay is to flow gently down a stream, the bubbling over small stones and the delight of slow-passing undergrowth and blossoms. My favorite line, "I find that Joy has the same weight as water, and is as true a source of buoyancy, as long as I don’t try to grasp at it." Lovely. He Dog, an Oglala Lakota, once said, "We should be as water, which is lower than all things and stronger even than the rocks." Water teaches me so much.

Expand full comment

Deeply though I love the bairns, they are "digital natives", poor dears.

I do still drag my boys them off on the odd jungle adventure.

Expand full comment

Maximo dadding.

Expand full comment

I’m a mouth taper of several months as well and all in favor. Who knew?

Also riding along in your ground grinding words and remembering the pleasure of making egg tempera every day for a couple of years. The loom took me away from it (pick two…), but I can still feel the delight of making “real” gesso. Not that I ground my own chalk then. But now I’m curious

Expand full comment

Oh crikey, yes, the 'pick two' is impossible with crafts. These days I am always glad when a new craft doesn't attract my hands as much as my mind, because I am pretty full up. And so are my shelves. Still, the hands love what they love, eh?

Expand full comment

They do indeed....

Expand full comment

Ahh Caroline yes! the joy of mixing stuff - transforming the stuff and transforming the self in the action. Nuances of colour, tone, texture... attentive contemplation, it’s all there. I loved reading Spike Bucklow’s book on Alchemy of Paint - we need more of this! I often joke with friends on how much I love watching paint dry. Thank you.

Expand full comment

I read that book in 2016 I think, and it made me want to go and learn the traditional putty method for ultramarine extraction from lapis lazuli. I finally get to do that this summer with David Cranswick, (a very expensive, long awaited gift to myself, as much as it is 'continued professional development'). There is little better than smashing a handful of colourful rocks up and making pigment from them in good company.

Expand full comment