I got a reminder yesterday from my original blog site wishing me happy thirteenth. If nothing else, a daily blog does force one to pay attention.

Trouble is, remembering that far back is sometimes difficult. If what follows has been posted previously, my apologies.

Where kin are relations of kind, kith is relationship based on knowledge of place—the close landscape, "one's square mile,"as Griffiths writes, where each tree and neighbor and crow and fox andstone are known, not by map or guide but by heart. Kithship, then, is intimacy with the landscape in which one dwells and is entangled, a knowing of its waymarks, its fragrance, the habits of its wildlings.

Kithship crosses dimensions of knowing that bring us to intimate specificity: book learning, alert wandering, knowledge of species close to home and recognition of individuals within theses species, knowing who lives there and why, knowing who is flourishing and who is failing. Kithship enlivens and complexities kinship, and it is essential if the fullness of kinships’s wisdom is to be lived.

“Starlings, Infinity, and the Kith of Kinship”
Lyanda Fern Lynn Haupt
Kinship, Center for Humans and Nature

FURTHERMORE, I have now begun to convert my other website (the commercial one) into a repository or compendium of my stuff plus other stuff—other stuff I find valuable and interesting. It’s also supposed to be a harbor of refuge (or a secluded bower in a welcoming wood) during this odd and disturbing time. To get there, go here: Compendium