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.jpg) School of Living News April 2019 |
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Welcome to our School of Living electronic newsletter where you can catch up on what is happening in our land trust communities and SOL committee work.
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Be there: SOL April membership meeting! Our membership meeting will be at Heathcote Community in Freeland, MD from April 26-28. Some of the highlights:
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Land use: Maple sugaring
 Image courtesy of Ahimsa Community
At the end of each winter; Bob and Kelle from Ahimsa Community tap into mature maple trees on the land to make sweet delicious syrup. They've been processing maple syrup on their vegan homestead in Julian, PA for 11 years. Bob Flatley describes their interest and experience here.
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Centre Gives .png) The Turtle Way project at Julian Woods is excited to be a part of Centre Gives again this May 7 & 8. Centre Gives is an online giving event for Nonprofit organizations in Centre County, sponsored by Centre Foundation whose mission is “To Inspire and facilitate a culture of giving which creates a vibrant community.” What makes this giving event special is that your donations go further thanks to a $200,000 stretch pool given by the Hamer Foundation. In addition, to those donating $25 or more through this campaign, School of Living will give one year free membership. Turtle Way’s mission is to inspire creativity, healing, community and heart-centered experiences in arts and nature through workshops, retreats, performances, exhibits, and other programs and events. The inspiration for Turtle Way is in honor of the late John Mangan, artist, teacher, and devoted School of Living member. |
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News from Common Ground Community, Lexington VA 4/15/19
submitted by Peggy Leasure, Common Ground Yesterday we had an intense rain and wind storm roll through and it left our creeks and ponds very full. The sun now shines and we are enjoying that new green color of Spring. The abundant Dogwoods on the property, which are now close to full bloom, complimented by the Redbud trees and daffodils along our road, are all signs that Spring has arrived. Garden plots are also being planted with anticipation of abundant and healthy crops. Grow on!!! Our Associate Member Leah Naomi Green, who lives at Common Ground with her husband and young daughters, was recently awarded the Walt Whitman Award for a debut poet. This is a great honor and includes the publication of her book, The More Extravagant Feast by Greywolf Press Leah has lived at CG since January 2009 and her poems are inspired by her life here and her relationship to this land. She is also the author of the chapbook The Ones We Have. Her other honors include the Flying Trout Press Award and the St. Lucia Poetry Award. She is presently employed by Washington and Lee University. We are ever so delighted for her. According to poets.org: New York, NY (March 25, 2019)—The Academy of American Poets is pleased to announce that Li-Young Lee has selected Leah Naomi Green as the recipient of the 2019 Walt Whitman Award, the nation’s most valuable first-book prize for a poet, for her manuscript, The More Extravagant Feast, which will be published by Graywolf Press in April 2020. In addition to publication Green will receive a six-week all-expenses-paid residency at the Civitella Ranieri Center in Umbria, Italy, as well as $5,000. The Academy of American Poets will also purchase and send thousands of copies of the book to its members, making it one of the most widely distributed poetry books of the year. In addition, she will be featured on Poets.org and in American Poets magazine. |
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Nature Notes from StellaLou Farm: Honeybees  March and April get real bzzzz-zy at StellaLou Farm. This year, we were fortunate to have all of our 26 bee hives make it through the winter successfully. As the sun strengthens and days warm above 50 degrees, honeybees begin flying to find and visit the earliest flower blossoms that provide pollen and nectar. You can see them hauling protein-rich pollen on their back legs to the hive. There they will store and feed it to the brood that will replace the tired winter workers. Below you can see a sample of the rainbow of color that comes from the pollen of Purple Dead Nettle, Crocus, Snowdrops, Maple, Witch Hazel, Dandelion, and more. We recommend letting your "weeds" and flowers flourish without the input of pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides to make for healthy bees!  Images courtesy of StellaLou Farm |
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SOL Recommends:
The Center for Community Progress is proud to announce that Grounded Solutions Network will be a featured Partner for the 2019 Reclaiming Vacant Properties (RVP) Conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The theme is: Equity First: Revitalizing Communities Together. School of Living recommends this conference for developing knowledge and partnerships that can help in building inclusive and equitable communities.
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 The Green Revolution archive project is moving along slowly but surely. Bill Sharp recently provided all the necessary metadata (description, scope, brief history) needed to complete the template for the archive site. The archive site has officially been launched. You can view it here although no actual issues have been uploaded yet but all the scanning has been completed. Bob is scheduled to complete the batch upload and journal management training in April. Once this is complete we hope to have almost the complete run of the GR available online this summer. Thank you to Bob Flatley and Bill Sharp from SOL Publications Committee for their excellent leadership in this important project! Become a Member We welcome your involvement in and support of our work. Follow this link to become a member of School of Living or to renew your membership.
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