Beamspun 1.4: 31st January 2021

Local sunrise / publish time: 0736 UTC (-10m)

Nature Makes its Own Soil

Green this, Green that. In the middle of winter darkness, stepping gently round the slowly-composting and otherwise-empty vegetable patch, I question what we mean by being Green. The furtive leafscapes and chaotic fields of summer feel so far away right now - everything is returned to its state of potential, the soil slowly replenishing and readying itself for when the sun gets highers and the air is warmer.

Surely, I think - surely Brown is the colour of revolution? This dark range of colours encompasses the rich red ceramics of clay, the thorough robustness of the earth, and all the way through to the pale yellowed echoes of sunshine left behind by last year's dried twigs and leaves. It's this shade of the soil which leaves me standing here, that provides a bed for everything to grow in. The yin nature that links with wombs, cool and shadowed layers which enwrap and encourage (so much courage!) the seeds and roots which turn into our own bodies.

This muddy reserve, this overlooked substrate, covered up by pavements and tarmac, deprecated in favour of fields of glass and manicured fountains and the uniformity of lawns. How now, Brown? Where wood and anthills collide.

Meanwhile, the rough pavement outside the house is scarred with the lines of time. Cracks and valleys run parallel with the wooden fence, and all along the edges, weeds are growing. Tiny things in places, yet elsewhere the growth has matured into mini forests, outbreaks of plants where civilisation has tried to repress them but continues to fail. Rebellious saplings.

And there, underneath them - a thin carpet of brown. Neither the grey of the concrete, nor the green of our dreams. A dark, subtle, but definitively-present earth, topped with the shavings of discarded weed leaves. Nobody could have placed it there, no guerilla hand would think in such small quantities.

It hits me. The weeds are creating their own soil. These tiny shoots pounce upwards from the smallest gap, then naturally they wither and droop and die, and they fall down like snowflakes, and there beneath where they once stood proudly, they rot and compost. Enough of them do it, and the ground around them becomes carpeted with a new layer of soil, a fresh and imported set of bedding for future generations to build on. Within those tiny seeds strewn around the local airspace is the matter and intent to Make New Ground. The will and the means to rejuvenate, carried by the wind. More determined to survive than us.

[image of an abandoned Chinese village reclaimed by greenery via return to now]

Links

Here's a bumber crop of links. I'm short on narratives though - have you seen or read any good, hopeful short stories about the future recently? Let me know if so.

Visuals

• The Highest Resolution Photos of Snowflakes ever - each photo usually amalgamates 100 pictures, and only 1 snowflake in a thousand is worth taking a photo of.

• Every time I watch this video showing a single egg growing into a salamander I'm truly just in awe.

• London's South Bank Centre held an exhibition called "Among the Trees" last year, which is still worth a look. Here's the virtual tour.

Natures

• Seagrass acting as a plastic filter: "the swaying plants ... may collect nearly 900m plastic items in the Mediterranean alone every year". Although it is "unclear if collecting the plastic damages the seagrass itself".

• In Northern Ireland, efforts are in place to save "Old Homer", a 200-year old oak tree that leans precariously. Legend has it that "the giant Finn McCool" may have leaned against it" - a beautiful narrative that turns a landmark into an icon. It's a slight shame they've propped it up with a metal gantry, rather than take inspiration from Japan's wooden supports, such as these:

[image by Rich Edwards]

• The rare plant "grass-poly" has reappeared after work on a pond disturbed the ancient seeds. "the seeds of the plant remained buried in the mud, like a 'time capsule'. When willows were pulled out to restore the pond, this disturbed the soil and let in light, allowing the seeds to germinate." Amazing to lay dormant for so long, ready for the right moment.

Tech

• Low-tech magazine up to its usual quality as it looks comprehensively into how and why to stop buying new laptops. It is truly amazing what you can run on fairly-old hardware these days, even if it's not always the convenience that supermarkets love to sell you.

• Alternative solar modules using Perovskite have had a size increase, while others are using quantum dots at the right wavelength and distance to increase energy tranmsmission. (OK, I don't understand that one too much, but it sounds cool.)

• Faster EV battery charging may be coming, as in charging in 5 minutes. Switching away from graphite and to higher voltages might start to mimic the progress seen in phones and devices the last few years. While it may help the uptake and usability of EVs, we should always ask if "faster" is what we actually want from life, of course.

• On the other hand, The Register take a good luck at the tough challenges facing battery innovation.

• Hawaii is installing 6,000 batteries in homes, which will also act as a reserve for the main grid when solar power isn't directly available. I'd highly expect this 'boundary' between the grid and endpoint to become more diffuse quite quickly, especially if distributed battery networks can be paid for by residents and businesses (for better or for worse).

• Quite incredible video looking at how they make giant wind turbine blades these days, along with some good, simple analysis on what limits turbine scale.

• And Return To Now highlights the Warka Water Tower, a 30-foot tall, $1000, passive structure made from bamboo which aims to harvest moisture from the air. Here's the Warka webpage.

Approaches

• Good article picking "solarpunk" up on still not really being diverse and searching for greater integration with afrofuturism. (Do all these nouns need capitals or what?) I, for one, would love to see more collective storytelling that fuses backgrounds, perspectives, and cultures into something that lies outside of traditional notions of 'better'. Better for whom?

• A framework for understanding what "rewilding" is - what ties rewilding projects together?

• Generally encouraging to see Europe introducing better measures for tech repairability.

• ... It also links to iFixit's Repairability guide for different devices - be sure to check this out before buying!

• Paul Wood (@TheStreetTree) has released a map of the great trees of London, an A2 guide to 46 amazing trees in England's capital city.

Reading

• James Burt covers Katherine May's book, "Wintering" in a review which intrigues me. A quote from May: "Here is another truth about wintering: you’ll find wisdom in your winter, and once it’s over, it’s your responsibility to pass it on. And in return, it’s our responsibility to listen to those who have wintered before us."

• The thoughts and material of Rosemary Morrow are described by Russ Grayson, looking particularly at "A Good Home Forever", her guide to assessing and improving any suburban home. Looking through this article on Rosemary's permaculture teaching, I'm reminded of my own subtle fear of teaching, but the idea that teaching is actually so tied up with learning and listening encourages me a lot. There's also a 20 minute video, and it looks like you can sign-up for updates for when the book is re-published.

• Finally, So Below, a comic about land - and bodies and borders and exploitation. (via solarpunks)

Get in touch

If you enjoyed this, then please spread the word and tell someone else that you think might be interested - https://beamspun.exmosis.net/ is the address to spread.

For any feedback, suggestions, broken links, comments, or general 'hi there' type stuff, leave a comment, or you can find me hanging out in any of these places:

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• Twitter: @6loss
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• Email: beamspun (at) exmosis.net - until the spambots find me

I'm also documenting my own 'everyday solarpunk adventures' over at the 6suns blog.