CURRENT MISSION

A long and happy marriage to the love of my life while changing the world for the better. ;-)

ABOUT ME

I'm a deep-thinking sort of black sheep kind of person. My main interests are Nature, music, gardening, sustainable living, and science. I have a background in Biology, Chemistry, and German, and I'm studying for a masters degree in Natural Resources Management. I sing and play guitar, bodhran and fiddle. I'd like to be in a working band someday. I'd love to roam about as a sort of vagabond minstrel, "singing for my supper" as it were, and just experiencing the world, but real world responsibilities keep me nailed down right now. I've just immigrated to Scotland to marry the love of my life. How freaking romantic is that?

PHILOSOPHY

"You can fix all the world's problems in a garden. You can solve them all in a garden. You can solve all your pollution problems and all your supply line needs in a garden. And most people actually today don't actually know that and that makes most people insecure." -- Geoff Lawton -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk&feature=channel

"Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the universe." -- Kurt Vonnegut

"A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends to do otherwise." -- Aldo Leopold

"If a thing is right, it can be done; and if it is wrong, it can be done without." -- Jerry Barker, Black Beauty

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I've lurked in the discussions and have made it to a couple of gatherings so far, hope to meet more CSers soon at more local meetings, and also if I ever get the chance to travel to parts beyond.

Couchsurfing photos: http://s821.photobucket.com/albums/zz138/Jenevastorme/CouchSurfing%20Glasgow/

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

None yet, but now that I'm in the UK I hope to perhaps find some farms and small villages in the Isles and mainland Europe to visit.

Interests

Music has been my dearest love for the longest time. I thrive on learning and perfecting new tunes and performing them with friends, whether publicly or privately. I need some training though, as I'm self-taught on the fiddle and have ended up with a bunch of bad habits that need breaking.

I also read incessantly, though I go through fewer books now that I've discovered the internet. I'm keen on fantasy and science fiction, old-fashioned and historical type stories such as Anne of Green Gables and the Little House series, graphic fiction authors such as Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore, and non-fiction in the areas of sustainability, ecological ethics, and science or nature-based topics.

I'm a long time gardener and love all manner of green growing things. As Frank Lloyd Wright said, "I believe in God, but I spell it 'Nature'."

• writing
• books
• singing
• beauty
• ethics
• crafts
• gardening
• traveling
• homesteading
• survival
• music
• guitar
• biology
• chemistry
• mathematics
• science
• road trips

Music, Movies, and Books

I like old or old-seeming music, movies and books. I don't like rap, metal or country. Ron Hawkins and the Avett Brothers are two of the most soul-piercing, gut-wrenching songcrafters out there IMO. I want to marry the Doctor and spend the rest of my life whizzing about in the TARDIS. I'm obsessed, absolutely obsessed, with Laura Ingalls Wilder. I think Steven Brust is possibly the best fantasy fiction writer in the world. Babette's Feast and Run Lola Run are two of my most favourite movies of all time.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I don't know about amazing, but one of the most significant things I've done is to move to Canada to be with someone I met on the internet. It taught me the value of taking chances and seizing opportunities -- it also, in retrospect, taught me the value of thinking things through a bit better first. ;-) But I certainly don't regret it in the long term. It changed my life in so many ways, and I made some of the best friends of my life there.

Well, since writing that an even more amazing things has happened. After 11 years in Canada, I have immigrated to Scotland to marry the dearest love of my life (over 7 years in love as of this writing), and am looking forward to seeing a lot more of Europe now that it's so much closer.

I also took an amazing road trip with my mother in autumn 2009 when I left Canada. We drove through North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, Northern California, Oregon and back home to her farm in Washington, all in a week and a half including three days spent in the San Francisco area. o_0

I got to see the South Dakota home town of Laura Ingalls Wilder, one of my obsessions, as well as several other places of historical or natural significance such as Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, the Badlands, the Great Salt Desert, San Francisco, the Drive-Through Redwood, the Pacific Ocean, and some dear friends who were part of the point of the whole trip. It was spectacular, and I would love to do more such road trips in new and exciting places.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'm keen on Permaculture ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT_2VVXA7SY&feature=related ), wilderness survival skills, and general practical knowledge, such as how to live off the land and how to make what I need and make do with what I have. Always interested in sharing knowledge or thoughts about sustainability, survivalism, homesteading, practial crafts, science, nature, ethics and similar subjects.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, Germany

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, United Kingdom, United States

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