MacBook Air

The MacBook Air turned four years old on January 15th. Light, fast, durable. Dazzingly beautiful. Extremely portable. Best all-round computer I've ever had. This site is produced - from whevever I happen to be at the moment - on an amazingly dependable, 11-inch, MacBook Air with 4 GB of RAM. Happy Birthday, little computer. [NOTE: My MacBook Air travels to the field nestled in an Air 11 Cache sleeve inside a Large Cafe Bag by Tom Bihn. Bags do justice to the the computer].

Martin Luther King

Hope everyone will take a moment today and reflect on the incredible faith, courage, and leadership of this iconic human being. He gave so much. Accomplished so much. We owe him so much. Happy Birthday, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And thank you. [NOTE: Photo by Marion S. Trikoskoform, 1964; in public domain, Library of Congress].

More Good News From Myanmar

Myanmar government releases 651 prisoners, including many prominent political activists from the 1988 protests, signs a cease-fire with Karen rebels, and, in response, the U.S. restores full diplomatic relations with the country. These are all substantial steps in the right direction. Let's hope these developments ultimately translate into a renewal of community forestry in Kachin State (see Naw Aung and His Sagawa and Crossing Mawning Stream).  [NOTE: Image shows Loi Mai (in front) and Aung Bu moving up the Ledo Road in northern Kachin (see A Bridge Too Far)].

Procession

Close-up of a large piece by South African artist Clinton De Menezes at the Metropolitam Museum of Art.  Entitled "Procession (Exodus)", the work fills an entire wall with hundreds of little figures on a background of oil paint, ash, and mud. Creative lighting accentuates the figures with dramatic shadows.  Spent a long time gazing at this. [NOTE: Go here for a nice slide show of the installation].

Phou Pha Mane

View from Phou Pha Mane mountain, the highest peak in the Phou Hin Boun Biodiversity Conservation Area in Khammouane Province of Lao, PDR. Gorgeous limestone forest with thousands of karst pinnacles. [NOTE: Lot of cool flora and fauna live here. In  particular, the Laotian rock rat or kya nyou (Laonastes aenigmamus), belonging to the ancient fossil family, Diatomyidae, thought to be extinct for 11 million years].

Mouse Traps

Walking back to the village of Sobphouan after finishing the rattan inventory training (see Thin Red Line), I met up with this gentleman who was heading out to his field carrying a bundle of long sticks topped with bamboo tubes. I asked Bansa Thammavong, who I was walking with, what these were and he replied, somewhat incredulous that I had never seen such things, that they were mouse traps. [NOTE: Beautiful, handcrafted tools for pest control, but I don't really understand how they work. Anybody?]

Rosemary Focaccia

Spent a lovely afternoon in the kitchen yesterday making rosemary focaccia. Both the bread - and the presentation of the bread - were pretty fantastic. Image above shows the flatbread (already half gone) on an OTC (see Oficinas Caboclas do Tapajós (B&W)) cutting board made by communities in the Tapajos-Arapiuns Extractive Reserve in Brazil (see Tapajós-Arapiuns). Hot bread and warm tropical memories. [NOTE: Cutting board was produced in the village of Nuquini from jacarandá (Dalbergia spruceana Benth.) wood]. 

Pause To Reflect

Thirty-nine months. 760 images. thus i have seen.

The deepest of image's meaning is its recognition of our continuity with the rest of existence: within a good image, outer and subjective worlds illumine one another, break bread together, converse. In this way, image increases both vision and what is seen. Keeping one foot braced in the physical and the other in the realm of inner experience, image enlivens both.

Jane Hirshfield
Nine Gates: Entering the Mind of Poetry

A place, a picture, and a comment. And so it goes...

Jizo and Amaryllis

Jizo (see Jizo Bodhisattva) and Amaryllis flower - well, technically it looks like Hippeastrum, but that's another story -  watching over the front door at the Empty Hand Zen Center in New Rochelle, NY. Two lovely sentinels. [NOTE: Photo was taken last year. Bloom is long gone. Strong teaching on impermanence].

Peat Logging

Can't remember why I was in a small plane flying over a peat swamp, but I know this image is from West Kalimantan, maybe Sambas district, and that it shows a very active logging operation in local peat swamp forests. Main comercial timber species is ramin (Gonystylus bancanus Miq. Kurs.). They load the timber on the barge and float it down to Pontianak where it is milled. [NOTE: Over-exploitation has threatened many populations of Gonystylus in West Kalimantan, and the species is currently listed as endangered. Go here for a nice article about ramin silviculture in the peat swamp forests of Malyasia].