Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from June, 2015

About Trees, edited by Katie Holten

I am so excited about Katie Holten's new book, About Trees. I pre-ordered a copy. You too can pre-order a copy of About Trees at Broken Dimanche Press (BDP) . If you pre-order by Wednesday, July 1st, your name will be included in the book as an early supporter. Also, to celebrate Katie's residency, BDP is offering pre-sale copies of About Trees with free world-wide shipping and a set of bookmarks. They also have some new drawings and prints available. All proceeds go towards production costs. The book will be released in the USA September 18-20, 2015. More about the book: About Trees is an artist book by Katie Holten. It will be the first book in BDP's new series: Parapoetics - a Literature beyond the Human. Holten has created an alphabet from her tree drawings and made a new typeface called Trees. Registering a crisis of representation, About Trees considers our relationship with language, nature, information, drawing, ecology, memory, systems, and time in the

Tree Story Game

I am pleased to share with you this interview with Darcy Troy Pollack of Zig Zag Zoom . I reached out to Darcy after reading about the release of Tree Story , a mobile game that combines virtual tree care and on-the-ground tree planting. We've played the game; it's fun! Download Tree Story from iTunes . It will be available for Droids next month. Can you provide a brief bio? What was your experience with the app/game space - if any - before engaging with the Tree Story game? Believe it or not, I had no experience with apps or games prior to joining Zig Zag Zoom!  I started my career in investment banking, then spent some years in the film and location-based entertainment businesses, finally ending up as a consultant to early stage start ups.  I was a consultant when Z3 found me, but I fell in love with the idea of planting trees through its fun mobile game Tree Story… and then with the broader idea of "changing the world one game at a time”… For anyone who would lik

Mapping Street Trees with the Washington Square Tree Counters

One training and one mapping event down , one mapping event to go. At the end of last Saturday's training event, Washington Square Tree Counters had mapped 14.9% of our census area. By the end of Monday's mapping event, we had mapped 42.5% of our census area and counted 570 trees! Thank you to TreesCount! Team and the volunteers who are made this happen! During Monday's mapping event, NYC Parks staff Justin and Keenan mapped the street trees surrounding the park. We have high hopes for tomorrow night's mapping event. We would be pleasantly surprised to reach 100% of goal so we are talking about hosting another mapping event. Stay tuned.

Short Stack: Picture Books about Dogs

Besides pigeons and squirrels, one of the most common animals in our city is the dog, at least in our neighborhood. Lately, we have been hanging outside the dog run for small dogs in Washington Square Park, a lot. One of us is intrigued by dogs, big and small, but dog watching is easier at the dog run for small dogs. Here are some picture books we have been reading to complement our happenstance dog sightings and purposeful dog-watching. The National Geographic Kids Everything series is encyclopedic; a great resource. The Dog volume does not disappoint. The photographs and graphics are appealing to young children (and adults, too). Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion with pictures by Margaret Bloy Graham is a classic picture book though it's taken us more than five years to finally read it! The story is funny and Harry is not quite unlike a young child. I am a big fan of the Ladybug Girl books by David Soman and Jacky Davis. Ladybug Girl is curious and adventuresom

Trees in Bloom in Washington Square Park

Most of the showy flowering trees such as cherries and crabapples have already spent their blossoms, but there are still several species blooming now. You can find the Northern catalpa, hawthorn (not pictured), and tree lilac in Washington Square Park. The other Northern catalpa is blooming. #washingtonsquarepark #washsqparknyc #treesinbloom A photo posted by Wash Sq Park Eco Projects (@wspecoprojects) on Jun 10, 2015 at 2:01pm PDT The catalpa isn't the only tree blooming now in the park. Check out these tree lilacs at the northeast gate. #washingtonsquarepark #washsqparknyc #treesinbloom A photo posted by Wash Sq Park Eco Projects (@wspecoprojects) on Jun 10, 2015 at 2:03pm PDT

TreesCount! 2015 in Washington Square

Image: TreesCount! 2015 homepage (screen capture) One of the most popular posts on this blog is the  10 Most Common Street Trees in NYC . The data on which the post is based was taken from the 2005 Street Tree Census. Ten years ago I did not live in New York so I could not participate in the tree inventory. Did you? Luckily for me, the census is being held again this year. Join me and co-trainer Annie in mapping the street trees in a 50-block area around Washington Square Park! We will host three events with NYC Parks this month. The first is a Training on Saturday, June 20 , 10 am -1 pm. The second and third events are Mappings on Monday, June 22 and Wednesday, June 24 , 5:30 - 8:30 pm. The meeting spot for all three events is the southeast corner of LaGuardia Place and West Third Street. Join the Counter Culture and register for events at https://treescount.nycgovparks.org .