Notes from the Forest - poetry and writings on gardening, nature and permaculture

Greetings!

My name is Jana McLaughlin. I'm a writer and gardener living in the forests of WSÁNEĆ territory (Victoria, BC). I started a WordPress page to share my writing a few months ago, but like the community building & cryptocurrency aspects of Steemit so decided to jump in.

I have a wide range of interests, skills and experience but mostly I want to use this platform to share my writing, mostly poetry, which I've been applying more effort to in the last while, with my first "real" publication credit last fall. I'll also share my knowledge of gardening and nature, especially food growing, food forestry and permaculture. I operated a small certified organic market garden for a few years, and now work as a professional gardener/landscaper. I love plants! They are good friends, good medicine, and often the subject of my creative writing. I hope that sharing my knowledge and writing about humanity-as-nature helps heal this connection.

Inevitably I'll end up also blogging about some of my other loves. I'm a motorcyclist, which is a hobby that was rekindled a couple of years ago and I'm trying to devote more time to these days (unfortunately moto & gardening seasons collide!). Between my husband and I we have a few hundred records, with my collection focusing on classic rock n roll, punk, garage and ska. I also play guitar and banjo. I practice Mahayana Buddhism, and am a member of the local Kadampa centre. Meditation has helped me in many ways, and I lead a weekly intro meditation class at the centre. I also have many, many philosophical eco-anarchist-futurist wonderings. Oh, and I have a cat!

I'll keep it at that for now. I'm looking forward to connecting within this community!

Here's my pic... tried to get Kitty in the shot but just got a little fur.