Part 3 of a series on land ownership and use In part 1, we looked at the Highland Clearances and the Highland Potato Famine though the lens of my Scottish ancestors. We came to understand the resulting dispossession and displacement of the population as acts of colonization. You can read part one here. In part 2, we learned that the resulting emigration was a driver of the colonization of the western United States, including my home of Whidbey Island, with the predominant resulting land use being the family farm. We learned too that many of those family farms are struggling … Continue reading "That’s not my people’s way"

Part 2 of a series on land ownership and use In part 1, we looked at changes in land ownership and use and their consequences though the lens of my Scottish ancestors. You can read part one here. For part two, we’re traveling over 4,000 miles west to my current home of Whidbey Island in Washington State. Yesterday was Indigenous People’s Day in the United States, a renaming of what was formerly called Columbus Day to mark the date in 1492 when Columbus first set foot in the Americas. 300 years later, in the spring of 1792, my ancestors were … Continue reading Possession and Succession

Part 1 of a series on land ownership In this series, I’m going to take us from 17th century Scotland to present day Whidbey Island, Washington, to look at the past, present, and future of land ownership and its impact on farming, community, and, of course, water. In this first part, I’m going to look at some major historical events in Scotland through the lens of my own ancestors. Like many others, I was drawn to research my ancestry during the downtime of COVID. Pitsligo Our story starts in Wester Cardno, a farming township in the parish of Pitsligo, Aberdeenshire. … Continue reading Wester Cardno

and more travel drama! Here’s the third and final post about our summer travels. The last part of the trip was to Devon, England – the country, but not the county, of my birth – to visit family and also to see Dartmoor and the South West Coast Path. We left Finland on a Wednesday, changing planes in Stockholm, arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport and were dealt an instant dose of culture shock. Heathrow airport essentially barely functions. There were three lifts down to the rental car shuttle bus stand, and a huge queue in front of just one of … Continue reading Bars and cars, moors and tors, coast paths and wild swimming

Rain, plumbing, swimming dogs, and saunas Drinking water, fog, and lakes In the last couple of posts, I talked about Vierumäki, Lahti, and the Ironman, covering drinking water, fog, and lakes. But there’s more! Here’s an update from Helsinki and the Turku archipelago. Helsinki and Suomenlinna – plumbing and rain The day after Brenda’s race we drove down to Helsinki for a few days. The big city. We arrived a couple of hours too early to check in to the apartment, so were walking around in the rain for a while until we found refuge at a French Café. A … Continue reading Finland by water

It seems that drinking water stories find me, even on vacation. I’m in Lahti, Finland, where my wife is competing in Ironman 70.3 Worlds. It seems that drinking water stories follow me everywhere. This was in her gear bag, and I couldn’t resist sharing it. It’s great that instead of selling bottled water, they have the local municipally owned water company promote refilling bottles with tap water. The QR code leads to a great video explaining everything from how the aquifer was formed to waste water treatment. It’s impressive! I believe we might have one subscriber who will be able … Continue reading Spring of life

This week’s post is a buffet. A bunch of things are going on, but none of them are quite rising to the level of a full post, at least not just yet. This is a general news round up. I chose this Swedish title for the post, because next week we’re headed off to – well, Finland actually. The title’s OK though because they speak Swedish in part of Finland, and we’re changing planes in Sweden on the way back. We’re going there because my wife is competing in Ironman 70.3 Worlds. You can look forward to a post about … Continue reading Smörgåsbord