A student started working at a commercial landscaping company. He was surprised that his co workers were not all excited about plants the way we are at school. He mentioned this difference, and I dwelled on it a bit because it is true. So the thoughts convened and words tumbled out the spillway.
The following pictures start at one end of the spectrum, and work their way to the other side. Its not a straight shot, there is a wee twist & wiggle back and forth. Nevertheless, there is a big head and a serpentine tail; it is a rainbow arc going from red outer edge to violet inner.
We begin with a well maintained, crisp and clean, somewhat idealized landscape. As we traipse along, we pause where land is cared for sporadically – its not quite tight and put together, but not altogether a mess either. And finally, we find ourselves meandering in some kinda wild country older than most of our memories.
For me the main distinctions between the zones are density, diversity, and form. I like and appreciate all of them, all the places. I am happiest in magic wonderlands where my head explodes from sheer visual excitement, scat on the trails, and the smell of eucalyptus Yerba Santa and sage brush. I am a fan of structure, machines, order, and labor. Most of the time I inhabit a realm somewhere in between. Okay lets go!
It all started with a student named Brent – an adventurous and savvy indoor grower of basil and other crops. He spoke of pupping cream and sent me a link. I went down the hole. The timing was fortuitous because we had all just read an essay by orchid master Tom Perlite about the various plant hormones and the role they play in development. We were about to make cuttings and use auxins in products like rootone, dip & grow, and clonex. The topic of discussion was the synthetic versions we apply to plants in cultivation. Most folks do not recognize or understand the overall importance of hormones in plants, animals, humans. So here then is a quick primer of pictures for an overview that brings it closer to home.
We talk about the old time sources of hormones and why we sought after them. Perhaps a male eager for that boost to be the alpha, or a female in menopause hoping for the return of coolness, skin and lubrication. We touch upon triiodothyronine, thyroxine, estrogen, adrenaline, cortisol, growth hormone, insulin, testosterone, and erythropoietin. Then we circle back to plants and cytokinins, the ingredient in the pupping cream. More another day about the other plant hormones like gibberellins, ethylene, and abscisic acid.
Went on a walkabout in the turkey filled hills with a friend nicknamed ‘French Boat’ Yes I know that is a kinda weird name, and does not come off the tongue easy Nevertheless it fits, anyhow He asked me Why do you write so many native American stories? How about a Chinese tale? Well okay, here it is I’ve entitled it an ‘Explanation’ etc . . . But some folks might end up more confused than clarified at the end of it So for those who cannot do without their logic and rational thinking Have a difficult time with negative space, washed out blurs of gray ink, And loosey goosey gobble gobble mindsets There is another explanation that follows the set of drawings Written in plain straightforward English, more like a set of notes and annotations So that you might venture further, and not be left with wtf?!
1 So the classic old timer phrase is In the dark there is light, and in the light there is dark And the spheres are constantly moving and shifting dynamic equilibrium some would say
2-3 There you have it, the yin and the yang opposite principles derived from the observation of nature
5- 14 We launch here into the mahjong tiles, For those of you not familiar with the game It is kinda like this card game called gin rummy You play by making sets of three tiles Either three of a kind like 777, or three in a row like 123 456 And to win, you also need a pair of two identical tiles So sets of 3, and a 2, more or less Theres a lot of variations too
Instead of spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs, and a couple of jokers The mahjong set has winds, numbers, coins, bamboos, and fundamentals Instead of jokers, theres these ‘extra’ optional tiles that are seasons and plants
4-5 The winds align with the four cardinal directions of play Here we usually say north east south west In Chinese it goes east south west and north Probably because it starts with the rising of the sun The north wind is shown as it evolved from bone script times to present day The winds were coming from the arctic recently, really cold and on my mind
6-8 The fundamentals are kinda odd They have to be used in the game as triplets of three identical tiles Since they are each their own thing And cannot be used in a sequence or linked with one another Each character speaks for itself They exemplify the qualities or values considered good and noble In order to be grounded in society, nature and ritual They play off of one another
9-14 These pages show examples of the three linear ‘suits’ Numbers, coins, and bamboos After a while of playing this game, you start to see sets of three everywhere Whether that be 234 456 or 222 and 999 Anyhow, when you want to make that pair, the set of two of the same tile The pair you have to have in order to win Oftentimes you want to try and make that a 22 or a 55 or an 88 2’s, 5’s and 8’s Not 1’s, 4’s, 7’s, nor 3’s, 6’s, 9’s The simple reason is that you get more points for a pair of 2, 5, or 8’s The more complicated reason is that You want to be in the middle, not at the ends 123 – the middle is 2 456 – the middle is 5 789 – the middle is 8
Thus 147 258 369, the sequence in the middle is… In farming times its probably a practical thing like the ends of cordage being weak Or the bottom of the barrel being gunky and such In imperial times you would want to be fair and hence in the middle, and so on So a pair of twos, or a pair of fives, or eights
12 Think the drawings 9 -14 are pretty clear in and of themselves But this one needs just a little touch The particular ‘suit’ is coins The coins in the old times had a square hole in the middle The word for coin is similar to a cylinder or a ‘sleeve’ Colloquially we will also call this suit pancakes because of the round shape Cookies are pretty close too Yummy starchy dough products that are baked or fried savory or sweet
15 -18 Mahjong has a couple of different names in the north and the south In the south it is the game of sparrows Something to do with all the chit chat sounds of the tiles being washed and jettisoned And the fluttering of small birds Chinese used to loved to hunt or keep in cages In the north, the second character sounds more like the jong of Mahjong How the character came to be linked with the game May be lost to history But if you play Chinese chess, the general or the ‘king’ for one side of the game Has the same character In the old times, it is doubtful that the ‘king’ ( emperor) would be on the battle field at all For sure the all powerful queen is not roaming around the trenches Launching rockets and crossing rivers Western chess is similar to, but different from, eastern chess Anyhow, this is yin and yang embodied as play A social game loved by kids and addicted gamblers alike
19 This is the silly page before the more peaceful and contemplative ending Followers of the tao who adopted the yin yang symbol Love to quote old man Laozi Going on about ‘if you know the way, you don’t know the way’ On the one hand, its kinda true In the sense that any ol kinda dogma or institution or binding (Materialized as ropes, words, boxes, data sheets and the like) That tries to strap down and stop the movement of the dynamic state-changing equilibrium Is gonna fail On the other hand, you also get these folks that just make stuff up Turn night into day and day into night, like none of it matters Don’t know which direction the sun comes up Operate in a magic bubble not grounded in nature at all I kinda prefer what my uncle Tito Grabiel says The way or the path is forward, tira adelante Yes linear Or is that circular? Ugghhhh
20 So there you have it Ancient Chinese philosophy based on a lunar calendar Farming in riverine valleys and fishing by a still pond Cutting firewood in the forest, and harvesting medicinal herbs on a sunlit ridge
Mission Azul 