casting off

Farming, travel, photographs, literature, links, boats, Wonder Woman, art, feminism, corporate greed, Bob Dylan, climate change, and vocabulary. Also writing at casting-off.blogspot.com.

[thebigelectron]

[04-16-2007-deactivated20221118]

[dj-laoshi-arts]

Sketching challenge 279: a large animal riding a tiny bicycle. #hippo #lol #bicycle #bicyclette #cute #mignon #hippopotamus #dessin #drawing #sketch #ink

[casting-off]

Someday I will get this tattoo.

[dailydccomics]

Absolute Wonder Woman by Hayden Sherman

[jadingo-blog]

Us sending it in the 420. Credit Paul Wyeth from RYA Youth nationals 2012

[boatporn]

How to do Le Big Send.

[casting-off]

The End of the World as We Know It - This American Life

What happens when one family goes all in on fighting climate change.

Climate change through the microphone of This American Life. I am going to beat this dead horse, especially as this episode is a must-listen--addressing how our national conversation about climate change has become stuck and what we can do to change it.

[stoicremnants]

You know that feeling at the end of the day, when the anxiety of that-which-I-must-do falls away and, for maybe the first time that day, you see, with some clarity, the people you love and the ways you have, during that day, slightly ignored them, turned away from them to get back to what you were doing, blurted out some mildly hurtful thing, projected, instead of the deep love you really feel, a surge of defensiveness or self-protection or suspicion? That moment when you think, Oh God, what have I done with this day? And what am I doing with my life? And how must I change to avoid catastrophic end-of-life regrets? I feel like that now: tired of the Me I’ve always been, tired of making the same mistakes, repetitively stumbling after the same small ego strokes, being caught in the same loops of anxiety and defensiveness. At the end of my life, I know I won’t be wishing I’d held more back, been less effusive, more often stood on ceremony, forgiven less, spent more days oblivious to the secret wishes and fears of the people around me…

George Saunders, The Braindead Megaphone (via seanpoubear)

[tobiasforms]

[expressions-of-nature]

Kawakami Village, Japan by t-koniyan

[vintage-sweden]

Gathering hay, Sweden.

[jimmymcgools]

Bob Odenkirk at Alexandra Palace, 18 March 2022

[forestgreenlesbian]

The Pillow Fort, Bunnie Reiss

I’m always trying to figure out ways to be an adult and a child at the same time. I wanted to make a super-sized pillow fort and was given a beautiful space to execute it. This fort was 40ft tall and made out of quilts that I had created from all my close friends old clothing. I wanted everything to feel extra personal, so I used every bit of the love and adoration I have for my community in this piece. I hung a couch upside down, lit everything from the inside, and made a soft, cuddly place for secret pacts and plans for the future.

[senoritacorinnasclassroom-blog]

How can we speak of Democracy or Freedom when from the very beginning of life we mould the child to undergo tyranny, to obey a dictator? How can we expect democracy when we have reared slaves? Real freedom begins at the beginning of life, not at the adult stage. These people who have been diminished in their powers, made short-sighted, devitalized by mental fatigue, whose bodies have become distorted, whose wills have been broken by elders who say: “your will must disappear and mine prevail!”—how can we expect them, when school-life is finished, to accept and use the rights of freedom?

Maria Montessori, Education for a New World (via senoritacorinnasclassroom-blog)

[babypeapod]

you've got to laugh, right?

I remember reading on the janet lansbury site that if you use alternative techniques and they work, people won’t see the happy healthy baby as proof of the result of parenting techniques, but instead they will think that you have an usually ‘easy’ baby and that you some how “lucked out.’

This is so true.

Everyone here is meeting Ari for the first time and they all say things like how chill he is, how independent, how well he sleeps, how well he eats, how placid, but then they think it’s just because of his 'personality.’

Thank you, but no! if you had seen him a few months ago, there is NO WAY you would call him placid or think that we somehow won the baby lotto. He was called "his lordship” for a reason. 

People often shrug off some of the 'weird’ things I do because they are abnormal but they would be wise to pay attention because they freaking work. I mean, props! Every compliment I get I can usually trace back to something weird/alternative we have been committed to practising. 

for example:

great sleeper? happy baby, placid? Honey please, that was my hours of research and implementation of gentle sleep training and being super protective of his sleep times and the NEED babies have for sleep in terms of development and emotional happiness in the day. thank you dr marc weissbluth for teaching me this. I kiss you on the lips. That is why ari sleeps so well and is a happy baby, not by luck. (and after 2 days of him being watched by grandmother and not having his sleep schedule and going to bed late, he was back to fighting naps, and getting really upset over everything. proof in the pudding.)

naturally great eater? NOPE, hello baby led weaning! he eats loads of stuff, even if some of that is dirt and banana peels, and has great hand eye coordination. I think that is so BLW, and principles of respect and never forcing him to eat if he didn’t want to, so don’t shrug BLW off just because it’s messy!

Independent, strong, fast and moves well? that is because of RIE techniques and montessori stuff like giving him heaps of free time and letting him have freedom of movement, not using walkers, not walking him with my hands, and letting him try things and take risks. 

and how he is friendly and interested in people. I would like to think that is because we have tried to be sensitive to his feelings, and respected his emotions, and treated him like a whole person. Just like montessori, RIE, and any other good early childhood development expert would suggest. RESPECT the child and the emotions and you get a more socially and emotionally competent child. 

 Ari is still a little monster and I am still a non perfect and lazy parent, but I *am* doing some good with him. The reason I am patting my own back a bit is because I want to encourage anyone else who is also going against the flow. Keep going! People don’t like to recognise working alternative methods because it makes them examine and question the status quo and what they did with their children, and that’s kind of threatening. so we pat our own backs and keep going. 

[leylinelesbian]

We cannot know the consequences of suppressing a child’s spontaneity when he is just beginning to be active. We may even suffocate life itself. That humanity which is revealed in all its intellectual splendor during the sweet and tender age of childhood should be respected with a kind of religious veneration. It is like the sun which appears at dawn or a flower just beginning to bloom. Education cannot be effective unless it helps a child to open up himself to life.

Maria Montessori (via leylinelesbian)

[yoursannefrank]

Anne Frank 1940 - Montessori School , Amsterdam Lovely colorized version

[my-drawing-self-blog]

An (imaginary) fluxus exhibition (concept). Chose a word

https://www.instagram.com/my.drawing.self/