Author: Diane
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Films about Honeybees
‘Sun’ Dance: Beekeeper and healer Sara Mapelli performs with 12,000 bees in a scene from Queen of the Sun. The film is a hymn to nature’s underappreciated pollinators — whose existence has come under threat. Log into the U of Guelph Library, find the database called Kanopy – and stream free films!
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Acoustic Ecology
GORDON HEMPTON: Silence and the Presence of Everything
Silence is an endangered species, says Gordon Hempton. He defines real quiet as presence — not an absence of sound, but an absence of noise. The Earth, as he knows it, is a “solar-powered jukebox.” Quiet is a “think tank of the soul.” We take in the world through his ears.
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2017 Arboretum Mycological Foray
DATE: Tuesday October 17, 2017.
LOCATION: 2: 45 – 5:15 pm Nature Reserve, Arboretum – University of Guelph.
Foray will be led by Diane Borsato (Studio Arts/FYS) and Alan Gan (Senior member of the Mycogical Society of Toronto).
We will be meeting at 2:40 at the entrance to the Nature Reserve, which is just west of Victoria Rd. on the south side of Stone Rd. Look for my white Honda CRV parked at the side of the road. Avoid bringing a car if possible. Use bikes/walk – there is not a lot of space to park. Bring a basket!!
IMPORTANT NOTE: Never eat wild mushrooms unless you are certain of their identity as a safe species, and have a great deal of experience collecting and identifying mushrooms. There are no easy ways to determine the edibility of a specimen, except by knowing its identity. There are many toxic and deadly look-a-likes to edible species. Our foray will be for research purposes only, we will not be collecting “for the pot.”
Adapted from the Mycological Society of Toronto website:
PREPARATION FOR FORAYS
We recommend that you prepare for a foray with the following items.
- Basket (plastic bags cause fungi to sweat and deteriorate)
- Sharp Knife (by breaking the stem you may lose important identification features below ground)
- Paper Bags or Wax Paper (this will keep your fungi separated and preserved until you are able to identify them later)
- Whistle (in case you get separated from your group or need assistance, as a safeguard walk in groups of three and not alone)
- Compass (another safeguard, learn to use one)
- Hand Magnifying Glass (for better identification in the field)
- Insect Repellent (There are unlikely to be insects during our foray in October)
- Clothing (appropriate for the weather, with good coverage to avoid scratches and insect bites)
- Hiking Boots (as opposed to running shoes, these will protect you from insects, poison ivy, sharp protuberances and other injuries; i.e., twisting your ankle)
- Rubber Boots and Rain Wear (particularly if it is wet)
- Field Guide (to help identify your fungi; if you do not have one, leaders can usually recommend one)
And for examples of mushrooms in contemporary art see:http://www.dariore.com/mushroomresource.html
A little about John Cage and mushrooms too: https://hyperallergic.com/118615/john-cage-mushroom-hunter/
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ALL THE NAMES FOR EVERYTHING, 2017 Diane Borsato
ALL THE NAMES FOR EVERYTHING was a walk on Mount Nemo with diverse outdoor education leaders bringing various scientific and cultural perspectives on naming flora and fauna along the trail.
The popular nature educator Richard Aaron spoke of scientific botanical and common English naming, while Melanie Gray of wolf clan from Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory discussed spiritual and medicinal connections to plants in addition to some of their names in Mohawk, and Jon Jonson, a community-based Indigenous scholar discussed place names and the history and ongoing presence of Indigenous peoples in the Toronto region.
Together we considered the origins and meanings of botanical names, numerous common names, and names in different languages of many of the places, plants and animals encountered along our walk.
We discussed names that give evocative descriptions, that tell of our many relationships to plants and other creatures, to languages and names that were absent and lost to Indigenous peoples, and to racist names – that speak to our often difficult relationships with each other.
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Podcast: On Language, Invasion and Colonization
Bioinvasion: Attack of the Alien Species
BONUS:
CBC Quirks and Quarks Podcast: Why Invasive Species Aren’t All BadVICE video: The Worst Fish in America: Asian Carpocalypse
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