What you say about "end(ing) up with something that looks like the surrounding countryside that you didn't do anything to . . .pretty futile" is an interesting comment. I visited a show on the history of land use at the Museum of New Hampshire History on Wed. One of the points made was that the white settlers felt they were within their rights in taking much of the land the Indians (Native Americans)claimed because the Indians had not changed the land enough to make it theirs. Had not cut down the forests, farmed the land, made roads, and so on. Their European ethic was that to "own" the land, you must change it appreciably. Not so different, on a deep level, from what we do today. Planting all natives may feel like we are not changing the land appreciably; it doesn't look enough like we have "done" enough to make it ours.. I remember seeing a slide show several years ago that accompanied a lecture by a developer who had designed suburban cluster homes leaving nearly all of the trees, dividing up the lots and laying out the driveways to maximize privacy and minimize damage to the land. I agreed with the design principles, but the outcome was unsettling; the road through the development looked like a lonely road thru the woods; the houses were dark and in deep shadows as they were surrounded by tall trees, small holes having been cut out of the forest to put the houses down on. It seemed rather gloomy and isolated. I think a great many of us need to see evidence that the land has been changed by our hands in order to feel comfortable aesthetically. I plant natives and encourage others to do so to for many reasons. Also plant and love introduced plants. G.

Our 70 pound 6 y/o chocolate lab/husky mix is fed raw. Mostly chicken parts and beef meaty bones, like soup bones with some other bones like marrow for gnawing. We'll give him a breast, or a couple of thighs or about 4 drumsticks or wings if it's chicken. We just kind of eyeball it and go with what feels right. He also helps with table scraps and I'll give him a spoon of coconut oil a couple times a week... LOVES that. His teeth are gorgeous, no tartar at all. Beautiful choppers on that boy! One thing we read that seemed to make sense was that wild dogs don't get to eat everyday, they feast when they have a kill and then may go for days without eating again. Anyway, the thought was that a fast one day a week was good for them. Gotta say that Rummy (dog) is not a big fan of this idea, lol. Here he is fwiw:

Maxwell Anderson Quotes American - Playwright December 15, 1888 - February 28, 1959 The essence of a tragedy, or even of a serious play, is the spiritual awakening, or regeneration, of the hero. Maxwell Anderson If you practice an art, be proud of it and make it proud of you It may break your heart, but it will fill your heart before it breaks it; it will make you a person in your own right. Maxwell Anderson This liberty will look easy by and by when nobody dies to get it. Maxwell Anderson There are some men who lift the age they inhabit, till all men walk on higher ground in that lifetime. Maxwell Anderson He was a god, such as men might be, if men were gods. Maxwell Anderson J. Paul Getty Quotes American - Businessman December 15, 1892 - June 6, 1976 Formula for success: rise early, work hard, strike oil. J. Paul Getty If you can actually count your money, then you're not a rich man. J. Paul Getty The Roaring Twenties were the period of that Great American Prosperity which was built on shaky foundations. J. Paul Getty Money is like manure. You have to spread it around or it smells. J. Paul Getty Nostalgia often leads to idle speculation. J. Paul Getty The meek shall inherit the Earth, but not its mineral rights. J. Paul Getty I hate to be a failure. I hate and regret the failure of my marriages. I would gladly give all my millions for just one lasting marital success. J. Paul Getty The man who comes up with a means for doing or producing almost anything better, faster or more economically has his future and his fortune at his fingertips. J. Paul Getty In Japan, I was immensely impressed by the politeness, industrious nature and conscientiousness of the Japanese people. J. Paul Getty The employer generally gets the employees he deserves. J. Paul Getty In times of rapid change, experience could be your worst enemy. J. Paul Getty Going to work for a large company is like getting on a train. Are you going sixty miles an hour or is the train going sixty miles an hour and you're just sitting still? J. Paul Getty I've never been one to bet on the weather. J. Paul Getty You cannot further the Brotherhood of Man by encouraging class hatred. J. Paul Getty Without the element of uncertainty, the bringing off of even, the greatest business triumph would be dull, routine, and eminently unsatisfying. J. Paul Getty My love of fine art increased - the more of it I saw, the more of it I wanted to see. J. Paul Getty There are one hundred men seeking security to one able man who is willing to risk his fortune. J. Paul Getty If you can count your money, you don't have a billion dollars. J. Paul Getty The beauty one can find in art is one of the pitifully few real and lasting products of human endeavor. J. Paul Getty Oil is like a wild animal. Whoever captures it has it. J. Paul Getty If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 million, that's the bank's problem. J. Paul Getty Before marriage, many couples are very much like people rushing to catch an airplane; once aboard, they turn into passengers. They just sit there. J. Paul Getty The rich are not born sceptical or cynical. They are made that way by events, circumstances. J. Paul Getty You cannot bring about prosperity without discouraging thrift. J. Paul Getty I have never been given to envy - save for the envy I feel toward those people who have the ability to make a marriage work and endure happily. J. Paul Getty Five wives can't all be wrong. J. Paul Getty I buy when other people are selling. J. Paul Getty To succeed in business, to reach the top, an individual must know all it is possible to know about that business. J. Paul Getty My formula for success is rise early, work late, and strike oil. J. Paul Getty My wealth is not a subject I relish discussing. J. Paul Getty Governments, of course, can - and do - soak the rich. J. Paul Getty My yachts were, I suppose, outstanding status symbols. J. Paul Getty I was brought up in an era when thrift was still considered a virtue. J. Paul Getty Whether we like it or not, men and women are not the same in nature, temperament, emotions and emotional responses. J. Paul Getty I am neither a homosexual nor a eunuch, nor have I ever taken any vows of chastity. J. Paul Getty What I learned at Oxford has been used to great advantage throughout my business career. J. Paul Getty I was 37 when my father died-and I no longer had any freedom of choice over what I would do with the rest of my life. J. Paul Getty There are heads of royal families who control hereditary fortunes that defy comprehension. J. Paul Getty I take pride in the creation of my wealth, in its existence and in the uses to which it has been and is being put. J. Paul Getty How does one measure the success of a museum? J. Paul Getty No one can possibly achieve any real and lasting success or 'get rich' in business by being a conformist. J. Paul Getty Books, like proverbs, receive their chief value from the stamp and esteem of the ages through which they have passed. J. Paul Getty Control of a company does not carry with it the ability to control the price of its stock. J. Paul Getty I can afford to say what I wish. J. Paul Getty I vehemently deny that I was born a cynic and a pessimist. J. Paul Getty There are at least 50 cities in the world that would have liked to obtain the Getty Collection. J. Paul Getty Rhetoric and dialectics can't change what I have learned from observation and experience. J. Paul Getty I have always enjoyed the company of women and have formed deep and long-lasting friendships with many of them. J. Paul Getty A marriage contract to me is as binding as any in business, and I have always believed in sticking to an agreement. J. Paul Getty A hatred of failure has always been part of my nature. J. Paul Getty During the 1950s, Aristotle Onassis and I formed what grew to be a close friendship and association in several business ventures. J. Paul Getty The overwhelming majority of my rated wealth consists of investments in companies that produce goods and services. J. Paul Getty Nationalized industries are notorious for their inability to operate at a profit. J. Paul Getty I am - and have always been - a Methodist. J. Paul Getty Jack Dempsey and I became friends in the very early 1920s. J. Paul Getty I have absolutely no intention of marrying Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. J. Paul Getty Oscar Niemeyer Quotes Brazilian - Architect December 15, 1907 - December 5, 2012 Curves are the essence of my work because they are the essence of Brazil, pure and simple. Oscar Niemeyer The artistic capability of reinforced concrete is so fantastic - that is the way to go. Oscar Niemeyer Right angles don't attract me. Nor straight, hard and inflexible lines created by man. Oscar Niemeyer I search for surprise in my architecture. A work of art should cause the emotion of newness. Oscar Niemeyer Surprise is key in all art. Oscar Niemeyer It is not with architecture that one can disseminate any political ideology. Oscar Niemeyer There is no reason to design buildings that are more basic and rectilinear, because with concrete you can cover almost any space. Oscar Niemeyer The challenge of a cathedral is very good for architectural inventiveness. Oscar Niemeyer Form follows beauty. Oscar Niemeyer Architecture will always express the technical and social progress of the country in which it is carried out. If we wish to give it the human content that it lacks, we must participate in the political struggle. Oscar Niemeyer Humanity needs dreams to be able to survive the miseries of daily existence, even if only for an instant. Oscar Niemeyer Architecture is invention. Oscar Niemeyer Architecture is my work, and I've spent my whole life at a drawing board, but life is more important than architecture. What matters is to improve human beings. Oscar Niemeyer I pick up my pen. It flows. A building appears. There it is. There is nothing more to say. Oscar Niemeyer For me beauty is valued more than anything - the beauty that is manifest in a curved line or in an act of creativity. Oscar Niemeyer I am a Brazilian before I am an architect. I cannot separate the two. Oscar Niemeyer My work is not about 'form follows function,' but 'form follows beauty' or, even better, 'form follows feminine.' Oscar Niemeyer Sometimes I lose a whole morning waiting on journalists and other people who look for me. But I always find some time for reading, talking to my friends and feeling what is happening in this world. Oscar Niemeyer I enter my studio at 9 a.m. I have lunch here, I return right away to my work and I go out to dinner at 8 p.m. My daily tasks vary very much. Oscar Niemeyer It was the drawing that led me to architecture, the search for light and astonishing forms. Oscar Niemeyer I think of myself as no more than 60. What I could do at 60, I can still do now. Oscar Niemeyer When I was very little my mother said I used to draw in the air with my fingers. I needed a pencil. Once I could hold one, I have drawn every day since. Oscar Niemeyer Of course, I have given my engineers some headaches over the years, but they go with me. I have always wanted my buildings to be as light as possible, to touch the ground gently, to swoop and soar, and to surprise. Oscar Niemeyer When students leave college, they are like children who know nothing about the problems of life, and don't have a political stance. Oscar Niemeyer I like talking to priests, to Catholics. Everyone has their beliefs. Oscar Niemeyer Muriel Rukeyser Quotes American - Poet December 15, 1913 - February 12, 1980 Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings. Not all things are blest, but the seeds of all things are blest. The blessing is in the seed. Muriel Rukeyser The universe is made of stories, not of atoms. Muriel Rukeyser Breathe-in experience, breathe-out poetry. Muriel Rukeyser The sources of poetry are in the spirit seeking completeness. Muriel Rukeyser The journey is my home. Muriel Rukeyser I think there is choice possible to us at any moment, as long as we live. But there is no sacrifice. There is a choice, and the rest falls away. Second choice does not exist. Beware of those who talk about sacrifice. Muriel Rukeyser In our period, they say there is free speech. They say there is no penalty for poets, There is no penalty for writing poems. They say this. This is the penalty. Muriel Rukeyser However confused the scene of our life appears, however torn we may be who now do face that scene, it can be faced, and we can go on to be whole. Muriel Rukeyser I hear the singing of the lives of women. They clear mystery, the offering, and pride. Muriel Rukeyser Our poems will have failed if our readers are not brought by them beyond the poems. Muriel Rukeyser Exchange is creation. Muriel Rukeyser If there were no poetry on any day in the world, poetry would be invented that day. For there would be an intolerable hunger. Muriel Rukeyser Those who speak of our culture as dead or dying have a quarrel with life, and I think they cannot understand its terms, but must endlessly repeat the projection of their own desires. Muriel Rukeyser A work of art is one through which the consciousness of the artist is able to give its emotions to anyone who is prepared to receive them. There is no such thing as bad art. Muriel Rukeyser I learned that I had been brought up as a protected, blindfolded daughter. Muriel Rukeyser The actual world, not some fantastic structure that has nothing to do with reality, must provide the material for modern poetry. Muriel Rukeyser The town of Gauley Bridge stands as a pattern for all those places where people are linked even in the middle of their suffering, where people fight against an evil condition so that other people need not go through the same fight. Muriel Rukeyser I hope for quick, fluent copy and memorable pictures. The words would not 'describe' the pictures; the pictures would not 'illustrate' the words. Together, they would carry a stamp and tell a story. Muriel Rukeyser I should like to use another word: 'audience' or 'reader' or 'listener' seems inadequate. I suggest the old word 'witness,' which includes the act of seeing and knowing by personal experience, as well as the act of giving evidence. Muriel Rukeyser It is the single image, as used in a photograph or a painting - or the frame of a film - to which words have been added to enlarge the context. The method is not the same as that by which most paintings are named. It is closer in its performance to what dialogue does to a movie, to what the caption does to a good poster. Muriel Rukeyser Editors have grown timid... a brave advance is almost inevitably followed by quick back-tracking, generally by dilution and debasement of the original intention. Muriel Rukeyser One characteristic of modern poetry is that arrangement of parts which strikes many people as being violent or obscure. Muriel Rukeyser The advertising men made it clear that there were two ways of looking at ideas in a war against fascism. Those of us who were working on the project believed ideas were to be fought for; the advertising men believed they were to be sold. The audience, those at home in wartime, were not 'citizens' or 'people.' They were 'customers.' Muriel Rukeyser Local images have one kind of reality. 'U.S. 1' will, I hope, have that kind and another, too. Poetry can extend the document. Muriel Rukeyser

The day before I got sick, I ran three miles, walked 10 more, then raced up the stairs to my fifth-floor apartment as always, slinging laundry with me as I went. The next day, April 17, I became one of the thousands of New Yorkers to fall ill with Covid-19. I haven’t felt the same since. I am one of the lucky ones. I never needed a ventilator. I survived. But 27 days later, I still have lingering pneumonia. I use two inhalers, twice a day. I can’t walk more than a few blocks without stopping... The second day I was sick, I woke up to what felt like hot tar buried deep in my chest. I could not get a deep breath unless I was on all fours. I’m healthy. I’m a runner. I’m 33 years old... I want Americans to understand that this virus is making otherwise young, healthy people very, very sick. I want them to know, this is no flu... Maybe you don’t live in a big city. Maybe you don’t know anybody who is sick. Maybe you think we are crazy for living in New York. That’s fine. You don’t have to live like us or vote like us. But please learn from us. Please take this virus seriously. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/opinion/coronavirus-young-people.html