I’ve long been fascinated by how humans choose where to place their communities and how that evolves over time as experience tells them the pros and cons of specific home sites and their interactions with wind, rains, snow, streams and rivers, wildlife, and human movement ie traffic. For a while we thought technology made us immune to such concerns but we are learning slowly that it isn’t true.
I think this is a superb point, that of those who believe technology makes us immune to such concerns. I see it still, a lot, people talking about how we should do away with wood-fired stoves, because we have electric heating, for example. Here, in our village, if the electricity goes out in winter, we'd rapidly freeze without our stove. We as a species need to learn how to move and interact with nature at her pace, rather than our own, artificial one. It is not an easy thing to do in our modern era, but I think it is the only way we can safely progress further.
As a once-archaeologist, it is endlessly fascinating to look at a place and try and work out why, precisely, it was situated there, especially when there seems no good reason for it today.
Many thanks for this, I really appreciate you taking the time to comment.
Since summer life has been busy and, at times, just a little weird so I've had little time for Substack. I'll have a look at your Notes as the accountability notion sounds interesting. I'm finding if I'm just accountable to myself little gets accomplished!
Love the glass bottles. If it weren't for rubbish, there is so much we wouldn't know about our ancestors.
Looking forward to reading your new work. Do you listen to podcasts? If you do, and don't already listen to it, I can recommend The Creative Penn Podcast For Writers hosted by Joanna Penn, who is a successful indie author. Despite not being a writer, I find her show and guests really interesting. You get some ideas for your own publishing path that you may not have already thought of.
Yes! I find if I don’t actually share that I’m doing/going to do a thing, it rarely gets done!
You are very right about rubbish, and I really love finding these little reminders. Not so happy when I find plastic or modern rubbish, of course, but that is incredibly rare here. Did you ever read Penelope Lively’s children’s book, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe? There’s an important plot point in there, with the main character digging down through a rubbish pile from those who had lived in the house years and years earlier. I always wanted that as a child, finding old glassware, ancient tobacco pipes, etc, and it probably underpinned why I chose to study Archaeology!
I love Joanna Penn’s work. Years ago, I did one of her courses, thanks to some funding from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (I think), and I’ve been following her books and career ever since. In fact, I’ve just started looking through her book about business plans for authors, as it’s about time I got one finished. I’ve listened to her podcast sometimes, but not as regularly as I’d like, mostly because of time constraints.
I hope life is perhaps a little less busy and weird for you for a wee while—this year seems to have disappeared somewhat alarmingly rapidly.
I don't know Penelope Lively's book - I shall have a look at it.
Confession - I haven't actually read any of Joanna's fiction, although I have read Pilgrimage; I'll have to remedy that. Maybe I'll try her latest short story Seahenge.
The book is technically a children’s book, but I think it speaks a lot to a certain demographic too, those of us who grew up in an analogue childhood!
I have to confess, I’ve never read any of Joanna’s fiction, either—her non-fiction, yes, lots of it! But not the stories. I should probably remedy this, too.
I’ve long been fascinated by how humans choose where to place their communities and how that evolves over time as experience tells them the pros and cons of specific home sites and their interactions with wind, rains, snow, streams and rivers, wildlife, and human movement ie traffic. For a while we thought technology made us immune to such concerns but we are learning slowly that it isn’t true.
I think this is a superb point, that of those who believe technology makes us immune to such concerns. I see it still, a lot, people talking about how we should do away with wood-fired stoves, because we have electric heating, for example. Here, in our village, if the electricity goes out in winter, we'd rapidly freeze without our stove. We as a species need to learn how to move and interact with nature at her pace, rather than our own, artificial one. It is not an easy thing to do in our modern era, but I think it is the only way we can safely progress further.
As a once-archaeologist, it is endlessly fascinating to look at a place and try and work out why, precisely, it was situated there, especially when there seems no good reason for it today.
Many thanks for this, I really appreciate you taking the time to comment.
Since summer life has been busy and, at times, just a little weird so I've had little time for Substack. I'll have a look at your Notes as the accountability notion sounds interesting. I'm finding if I'm just accountable to myself little gets accomplished!
Love the glass bottles. If it weren't for rubbish, there is so much we wouldn't know about our ancestors.
Looking forward to reading your new work. Do you listen to podcasts? If you do, and don't already listen to it, I can recommend The Creative Penn Podcast For Writers hosted by Joanna Penn, who is a successful indie author. Despite not being a writer, I find her show and guests really interesting. You get some ideas for your own publishing path that you may not have already thought of.
Yes! I find if I don’t actually share that I’m doing/going to do a thing, it rarely gets done!
You are very right about rubbish, and I really love finding these little reminders. Not so happy when I find plastic or modern rubbish, of course, but that is incredibly rare here. Did you ever read Penelope Lively’s children’s book, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe? There’s an important plot point in there, with the main character digging down through a rubbish pile from those who had lived in the house years and years earlier. I always wanted that as a child, finding old glassware, ancient tobacco pipes, etc, and it probably underpinned why I chose to study Archaeology!
I love Joanna Penn’s work. Years ago, I did one of her courses, thanks to some funding from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (I think), and I’ve been following her books and career ever since. In fact, I’ve just started looking through her book about business plans for authors, as it’s about time I got one finished. I’ve listened to her podcast sometimes, but not as regularly as I’d like, mostly because of time constraints.
I hope life is perhaps a little less busy and weird for you for a wee while—this year seems to have disappeared somewhat alarmingly rapidly.
I don't know Penelope Lively's book - I shall have a look at it.
Confession - I haven't actually read any of Joanna's fiction, although I have read Pilgrimage; I'll have to remedy that. Maybe I'll try her latest short story Seahenge.
The book is technically a children’s book, but I think it speaks a lot to a certain demographic too, those of us who grew up in an analogue childhood!
I have to confess, I’ve never read any of Joanna’s fiction, either—her non-fiction, yes, lots of it! But not the stories. I should probably remedy this, too.