Beginnings can be hard.
A brief introduction for new readers ...
A blinking cursor on a fresh blank page can be intimidating for even seasoned writers.
Why this, why now?
I have been website building and blogging for years, mostly on wildlife and gardening themes. Earlier this year I collapsed all my older websites into one simple and slimmed down version (see: https://richardgregson.ca). There are usually more photographs than text -it focusses on wildlife and our own wildlife garden. Gratifyingly, it has a stable audience of followers - thanks everyone. Sometimes though I want to post a slightly longer bit of writing which may or may not have illustrations and I have realised that dropping that into the blog linked above may not necessarily be to everyone’s taste. Yesterday, I wanted to get a message out to local friends about a local issue and having been curious about Substack for some time I decided nothing ventured, nothing gained … which is to say that yesterday’s first post came into the world without any introduction, so I will try to remedy that here.
What kind of community might this attract?
Wildlife people, wildlife gardening, birding and especially ‘green birding’, occasionally short polemics on environmental and conservation themes, perhaps condensed trip reports. If that sort of thing appeals to you then please consider following this blog.
More specifically
Most of what I will share is described above and posts will not appear more than, say, weekly. I don’t want to overload anyone. You will notice in the navigation bar at the top of the page a link entitled “The Book” - that page is self explanatory but one theme I plan to follow in selecting topics is to regularly take information covered in the book and enlarge upon it in occasional informational mini-essays. I am a biologist (PhD. FRSB) and I generally write about the stuff that I know about. Interesting stuff. I save polemic for social media.
And so …
When I post new article in this Substack I will usually share a link to it on Facebook and probably on Mastodon too (on Mastodon I am @greenbirder@beekeeping.ninja) I may or may not link from the original blog but the best way for you to know what I am doing and thinking and sharing is to subscribe. You can do that by leaving an email address at the button below, nothing more - I promise you nobody will track you or try to sell you stuff or file your soul in a database; this is not Facebook or one of its dubious friends and you can opt out any time you feel you have seen enough. Subscribers get a gentle email notification when new stuff appears and that’s all. I hope that some of you at least might subscribe - I will buy you a beer when we meet.
Future thoughts
This blog is free to use and it will remain free to use.
Thanks, Richard. I like "From the Window". I'm interested in what your longer thoughts might be.
FYI, about my particular interests:
I'd like to see rights of nature built into Canadian law and thinking. My starting framework: We have various worldviews; they usually include unprovable assumptions about a human person's relation to other creatures in the world; we have to make the assumptions in order to get on with things. Each human culture works out ways of cooperating and of resolving conflicts within its worldview. In a culture, laws are made to enable the culture, and to enforce it when needed.
As 'western' cultures evolve, when we learn and empathize with what other people and creatures require in order to be fully themselves, these requirements become respected in the culture. To persuade agreement, we call these requirements "rights". With social and governmental agreement, such rights may be embodied in law.
A related thought: as people in Canada put energy into reconciling Indigenous cultures and Crown cultures, it's good to note that Indigenous spokespersons sometimes say their cultures put primacy on relationships of "obligations to others", rather than relationships of "rights vis à vis others' rights". They're different and complementary mindsets. Reconciliation may involve accommodating both kinds of relationship simultaneously, in ongoing conversations.