Articles Written By Ted

Saturday morning I went out for my normal Ultimate engagement with my many friends who like to chase flying plastic, but had to sign a couple releases before I could play. Rae and Aaron, who play Ultimate with us now and again, as well as serving on our Outreach committee and running a private business engaged in the production and good use of video and audio content related to community, had arrived with gear. Rae with a digital camera took video from the sidelines as we played. A drone flown by Aaron took aerial footage at the same time, which…read more >

I found myself awake at dawn one morning this past week (our cat Gromit gets wired at about 4 am and we don't have a cat door), and seeing the blooming pink of the sky, I decided to go out for a short walk around the village at a time I don't usually do so. Mist hovered a few feet above the ground, giving all the land a hazy obscurity as though it had not quite taken shape. It might just be my longing to know the world as it was before humans occupied and influenced most of the earth,…read more >

Hello all, and happy flowering season to you! Ted here to bring you the news from Dancing Rabbit. Everything seems to be in bloom this week, all-in on spring's arrival. Green is the new gray/brown, and our honey bees are often a good clue for me, as I roam about our gardens and orchards and out on the land. Where the buzz is, I find pollen sources and nectaries... until nightfall. In recent years we've realized that right around sundown, the bees go home to the hive and the moths come out. As busy as our courtyard peach tree is…read more >

The cat lockdown began this week, initiating four months (through mid-July) of our annual attempt to shelter ground-nesting birds in the village area from the depredations of our vicious feline friends in the most sensitive period of raising young. Ted here—a little weary from multiple nighttime wake-ups by my cat Gromit to let him in or out of the three not-quite-outdoors destinations now available to him—to bring you the news from our fair village. I got the lowdown this morning on the Scotland County Community Theater play in Memphis, MO, from Danielle, Hassan, and Graham, who was heading out after…read more >

Despite what the calendar says, large V-formations of geese have been doing their annual fly-over westward this week, and the wind and temperature variations have suggested early March. We tapped a few maples early in the week, and I've managed to get in some outdoor work most days. Just another consecutive year of the hottest global weather on record, and again I'm stuck between welcoming the convivial weather in the moment and worrying about what the unseasonable trend portends. Ted here with Dancing Rabbit's latest. Unquestionably the most dramatic few hours of the week came about when the brave folk…read more >

We're in a bit of a brief thaw here this week in northeast Missouri, between a polar vortex episode and the return of colder temperatures. Ted here to bring you the latest from our fair village. I read this week a couple articles online about theories being advanced as to why the Arctic keeps experiencing temperatures significantly above normal, even as we in temperate latitudes experience significant cold events that belie the bigger trend. Overall, the global norm continues to ride increasingly above normal, but the lack of sea ice formation in the far north this time of year is…read more >

Top news of the week: bobbing for turnips is just about as fun as bobbing for apples. Ted here with this week's update from Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage. If you're thinking I just wrote the other week, well, it's true: we're on a short rotation at the moment, working on recruiting new contributors to our weekly update, so you can get the full spectrum of viewpoints from the village. There were also hedge balls floating in the tub, as I approached it during the party out at Critter kitchen, but I've seen those when they're bruised— milky sap. It would take…read more >

Forty-two degrees as a low the other night brought me clearly to awareness, and even an embrace of, autumn. I must admit I'm not ready for a frost yet, but we have had them as early as Sept. 15 in my years here, so all of this time—still-ripening tomatoes and peppers and having our paths lined with flowers and jumping in the pond after ultimate—all of this is bonus. And maybe a little compensation for the brutal June weather that delayed things in our garden. Ted here, writing for the first time since I lost my Dad. I was there…read more >