Sun @sunflower_avenue@sunbeam.city

Felt like doing another intro style post

I'm #asexual and #aromantic and i care about it so much. I have soft spots for building irl community (although thats on hold), uncovering history and aro politics (trust me, everything is connected to amatonormativity)
I'm interested in #needlefelting and #naturaldyeing
I've been learning about #invasivespecies and how to remove them. I'm in the pnw so the main culprits are Himalayan blackberry, english ivy and morning glory. Clearing those to help restore the environment a d create public space has been my biggest pandemic project.
I also care a lot about #mutalaid and #mutualism. I'm still learning tons but i find myself generally having an #anarchist perspective.
I'm working to learn more about white supremacy, colonialism, decolonization and anti racism

I worked with another lovely person to put together a presentation on aromantic competent care.
It's targeted at people working in the mental health field who want to be better equipped to work with aromantic clients. It doesn't presume any knowledge of aromanticism and starts with some aro 101.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVKYsrwzbpI
#aromantic

I don't know if any of these tensions have solutions or if there are answers to these questions. I don't believe I'll find any soon. So I'll continue to work in the tension, explore it, and accept the discomfort it brings as a central part of the work.

At the moment I'm trying to map out those tensions. To see and understand what they are and how they pull me. To decide where in them I want to sit.

(3/3)

There's the continuous uncertainty that the work I do is a useful good. Perhaps I am causing more harm. In removing ivy and blackberries, I have undoubtably dug up and chopped native plants and destroyed home and food sources for native birds. But yet I continue to do it out of the hope it does more good than harm.

I live and work in an affluent neighborhood. To what extent am I just making more comfortable the lives of those who already benefit from the systems I want my work to actively oppose; colonialism, land ownership, capitalism, white supremacy...?

The way the pandemic patch both is and isn't mine. I hold no ownership of it. There's no gate, no barrier to restrict access to only those I choose. But yet it is mine in that it's my responsibility. Can I individually make choices over common space?

(2/3)

There's a series of tensions in the land work I do. Questions I want to ask but don't have answers for. Ideas that seem and often even are contradictory.

My gardening and invasive removal work is rejection of the authority of 'official' channels. It's a rejection of the colonial authority of the city over land. But, at the same time it's an assertment of my own white settler authority to shape the land.

My exploration of the uses for invasive plants is a way of seeing the gifts they can offer. While my removal work is about the harm they do and represent.

My land work is continuously wrestling with the line between authority and responsibility. Who am I to make changes to the land? Who am I not to?

(1/3)

Looking for software recommendations

I'd love to track the ivy and other invasive removal work I've been doing. But i havent found a good tool to do it with yet

What i'd like
- ability to mark both points and polygons
- a way to associate some notes with the different polygons and points (things like current status, interesting observations, surrounding plants...)
- a way to attach photos to the different areas so i can easily look at how things have changed
- ideally free, although thats not a deal breaker