life lessons part 1

Today we were reminded that sometimes good practice has a lot to do with who you have working on a site. We met a man whose work includes tending to the final resting places of 150 years of Plymouth's citizenry, bringing back a bluebell population and fighting/propigating valerian the diameter of his arm. We met a marine turned forester turned site manager who rattles off botanical latin with ease and whose handshake can crush rocks. We met an architect volunteer who talked about how to honestly ackowledge the presence of new materials in an historic structure. It was all so unexpected and wonderfully surprising.

And even better than all of that, and this is going to sound sentimental, but this place is so green. We got to talk about carbon footprints and biodiversity and wood-chip heat. So now, hear this. We want to be buried in wicker coffins with willow trees above us. We want cemetaries that remind us of meadows. We want specimin plants. We want barn owls as pets.