Porcupines in trees

A new addition to my series of gripping, action-packed films of porcupines in trees chewing and moving slowly about. This one’s kind of shaky (I forgot the tripod), but the view is novel — almost straight up.

Link roundup: Advice for writers, Planned Parenthood, public radio poetry, treeblogging and the King of the Porcupines

Austin Kleon: “How to Steal Like an Artist (And 9 Other Things Nobody Told Me)” I usually hate advice posts, but this one is gold. For example: There was a video going around the internet last year of Rainn Wilson, the guy who plays Dwight on The Office. He was talking about creative block, and …

Questions for the Porcupine

[audio:https://www.vianegativa.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/questions-for-the-porcupine.mp3] Porcupine, do the sapless twigs of winter taste any different on the tree you’ve just girdled, this waste of a pine? Its whited branches light the grove like candles, like candelsticks. But you with your poor eyesight must favor the dark: hollows & cavities, the undersides of things, unchewed bark. This pine was unwise …

Porcupine

Despite what this porcupine seems to think, there are plenty of trees for everyone at the 13th edition of the Festival of the Trees. __________ Thanks to my friends Chris and Seung for the use of their laptop and high-speed internet to upload the above video, which I shot in Plummer’s Hollow last week. (I …

Zero Sums

Driving back from the gym, I listen to a radio program where two mathematicians are talking about zero. I’m parked in front of my house, but their conversation keeps me glued to the seat. One of them says in math, whatever operation you do, you need to also be able to undo—just like with multiplication …

Way Back

and then i’m on my knees 
among baby porcupines

american chestnut husks 
spiny and golden