Written by guest blogger Denise Deby, who generally tries to do the right thing if she can figure out what that is.
Some upcoming events worth checking out, all in conjunction with the Ottawa International Writers Festival:
Monday, May 31, 7 pm: Why Everything Costs So Much More Than We Think, an evening with Raj Patel, author of The Value of Nothing, at Southminster United Church, 15 Aylmer Ave. off Bank. Patel examines our use of prices as a flawed way of ascribing value to things, one that doesn’t acknowledge the ecological and social costs. The book trailer is up on YouTube. Co-presented by the Writers Festival and USC Canada. Tickets $30 ($25 students and seniors, free for Festival members) online, by phone 613-562-1243 or from Nicholas Hoare, Collected Works, or Octopus Books.
Thursday, June 3, 7 pm: The Global Forest, with Diana Beresford-Kroeger at Nicholas Hoare, 419 Sussex Dr. Free. Beresford-Kroeger is a botanist, medical biochemist and expert on the chemical, medicinal, environmental, and nutritional properties of trees. According to Amazon, her book The Global Forest “skillfully weaves together ecology, ethnobotany, horticulture, spirituality, science, and alternative medicine to capture the magic spell that trees cast over us, from their untapped ecological and pharmaceutical potential to the roles they have played in our cultural heritage…. Presented in short interconnected essays, The Global Forest draws from ancient storytelling traditions to present an unforgettable work of natural history. Beresford-Kroeger is an imaginative thinker who writes with the precision of a scientist and the lyricism of a poet.”
Finally, stay tuned for September 27, when David Suzuki will be in Ottawa to give The Legacy Lecture, a look at his own life’s journey over the last seventy years of history. Check for updates at the Writers Festival website.
Green Living Ottawa 