Large Fierce Mammal

“Hunters in the Snow” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, oil on wood, 1565.

“Normally I would have asked a policeman or a minister of the Church, but finding no one available, I thought it better to consult a man with some professional qualifications, rather than rely on the possibly confused testimony of a passer-by.” ~ In the wake of a bicycle accident due his tire pump having got stuck in his sock, resulting in his fruit cake being damaged on one side and now having grit all over it, a completely uninjured Mr. Pither explains to a doctor why he has nonetheless consulted him in his office for no other reason than to ask for directions to Iddesleigh — Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Episode Thirty-four: The Cycling Tour

I wish to greet you all upon this second day of the calendar year 2026 of the Common Era with a thought exercise.

1. Are you the Foremost Living Authority on yourself?
2. Do you think and act in certitude of your natural endowments and talents, predispositions both positive and negative, acquired knowledge, skills, and habits for better or worse?
3. Do you have a grasp of how those factors play into your past mistakes, successes, accomplishments, and failures (also known as successful discovery of more ways that don’t work)?
4. What would be the outcome were you faced, knowing what you know at this moment, with a sudden revisiting of past misadventure right now, without warning? How about a year from now?
5. Do you understand the meaning of, and bend every fibre of your being to, bringing the Best of Yourself to any endeavour, of any size, under any conditions and at any time in any place, in any company?
6. Do you accept the Best of Yourself to be a fluid and transitional state measurable only against YOU as a baseline?
7. Are you prone to letting your thoughts and actions be boggled, even fettered, or burdened with hesitancy born of overthinking in the face of real or feared dissenting opinion(s)?
8. Do you accept, think, and act in recognition of the Value of Risk?

Loaded questions all, to be sure, and far from a complete list, but offered as a framework for directing thoughts, efforts, and resources for anyone desiring to less resemble the aforementioned Mr. Pither. No harm done in earnest pursuit of advice, guidance, mentorship, or an observed example (good or bad). The evil lies in naive outsourcing of vital personal executive functions that may easily lead down a path selected for you to a destination unassailably named to be, “For the Greater Good.” (more…)

“Bivouac” by the Incomparable Sieskja.

My Esteemed Friend Jim Keating recently made a profound utterance in the matter of prevailing flaccid, and annually recurring, expressions of what’s branded to be in the “Spirit” of the “Season”, saying in part …

“… How about songs, words, images which convey strength, power, confidence and faith in this time of Yule? Why not a STRONG CHRISTMAS? … To hell with family clusterfuks (sic), to hell with depression. Stand tall – train, eat with your fingers as a sword rests in your lap. Have animals about you if possible. Go somewhere, light a small fire, sit before it, feel the environment. Be Fearless no matter what … Gather power, store power, use power.

If after reading that, you find yourself wondering how Jim really feels, you might be in the wrong place, or at least in need of a Guide.

If you have a Social Insurance Number and a heartbeat you are viewed as grist for someone’s mill. Life for the average bloke is made more complicated than it needs to be by living it tuned into what someone else you barely know, never met, or isn’t actually biological at all, would have you thinking, talking, and worried about. Those same interests would have you believe there is something intrinsically wrong with people who are showing signs of having lost interest in the game, in what “experts” and “influencers” have to say, and what’s “trending” right now. Doing that requires being comfortable keeping you own counsel. Learning and trying on for size the Arts of Critical Thought and Intelligent Discourse. (more…)

A day you can hold in your hand … (At What Cost, RockfrenzyArt)

The Wild Hunt rode early this year, as its constituents bear full title to do, shredding the tops of the Hemlocks in my range throughout Friday night into Saturday afternoon, and joyously reintroducing a significant part of the local population to what “rural” living really means.

The Solstice occurred at 11:03 Atlantic time today, from which point, “… the nights get shorter, the days longer, and you should curb your enthusiasm because most of the parts of Winter that will kill you haven’t happened yet.”

In this season’s iteration of making hay while the sun shines, otherwise known as doing the things that pay the bills around here, the inevitability of Darkness is something never to be lost sight of. Yet we observe people and their ways of being in the world continuing to “prepare” for meeting up with those vagaries in a range between too inconvenient to be contemplated — perpetuated by having always gotten away with it — and expending all efforts and resources in the spirit of misleading vividness. where travails ahead are graded in their likelihood in shades of most awful.

“We live in an age in which fear of what is unlikely to happen has supplanted any willingness to understand, or even acknowledge the existence of, the more risky probabilities. Where proudly self-identified “victims” believe in a fantasy world where signs proclaiming a “gun free” zone are equivalent to unquestionable safety, and prophylactic surveillance of the innocent is justified by the acts of the guilty whose minds and hands were, and forever will be, unaffected by the laws of nations.” ~ Dark Sentiments 2015 – Day 12: Tooth and Claw

Winter comes every year, and I would strongly advise against behaving as though Nature cares for your opinion.

“As I’ve previously written, all of Life is integrally bound to cycles. In many cases, one might also refer to them, and quite correctly, as rhythms, but not in all.

“For centuries up to industrialization, society was built on an understanding that it was governed as much by rhythms as the inevitable cycles. Technological developments came at the behest of getting the most out of available energies. Those of thought, muscle, and the avails of Nature.

“Cycles are inevitable and to be ignored at your peril. I would posit that rhythms mimic cycles, and again, for centuries up to the very recent past, could be regarded as smaller components thereof.

“Post industrialization, and as with many other terms, the words ‘cycle’ and ‘rhythm’ have been rebranded, and harnessed to the purpose of manufacturing wealth out of vapid nothingness. So today we have cycles of commerce that take retailers from one Christmas shopping season to the next.” ~ Dark Sentiments Season 8 — Day 23: Of Cycles and Rhythms

In a Universe built of time and space where elimination of the former ensures that nothing happens, and the latter that everything happens at once, no mechanism is afforded the denizen to declare an abstention.

Music depends as much upon the space between notes as it does the notes themselves. Learn to enjoy the performance.

“In this age of divided loyalties and unending crisis, some cower. Some assert themselves from the perceived safety of throngs screaming a common slogan understood differently by each throat and hearing ear. Some look to a saviour. Still others understand that if there is a saviour, in the hour of need it’s going to have to be them because the “first responder” in that moment is already there well before any finger dials 911.” ~ Dark Sentiments Season 15 — Day 14: Be As The Bay Leaf

This is the second in my meandering series, A Thin Veneer, being a coherent though loosely assembled and non-sequential offering up of experiences, observations, and insights relevant to, as aforesaid, Life outside the veil that is the reality of that term.

In the world of fundamentals through which I move, I carry nothing that is of no use as I routinely ignore, circumvent, pass through, and/or step over a careworn legion laden with useless encumbrance, most particularly those of their number that would have me “step up and share the load, there’s a good chap!”

My Life is not a public resource. I am far too steadfastly selfish for that … (more…)

Father and Sons in a Teachable Moment. (Mrs. LFM photo)

“Everything in Nature is about efficiency and balance, which is why life is, first and foremost, an exercise in energy management. For example, the Way of the Wild demands of each parent that their offspring be made self-sufficient as quickly and efficiently as possible. A tool need not be a physical artifact – rest assured that skilled parenting is a Tool – but to be True it must help, not hinder, such processes, and must never represent a brilliant answer to a question that was never asked.” ~ Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – Tools

I have previously written on the subject of garniture in which I explained the term as it applies to the topic both then and now:

There’s a very old word that sees little use today, but that I still persist in using – garniture. While it can refer to any item used to embellish or “garnish” something, I exclusively employ it in its other meaning – an assemblage of useful and related equipments, usually connected through common features of design, and representing key elements in accomplishment of goals considered important to the bearer. For example, there was a time when a well heeled gentleman might commission a serviceable gathering of accoutrements bearing designs, colours, and/or embellishments that made it obvious to the beholder that each item was part of a set, and in no doubt as to who owned it. In those days this might include arms and armour for the battlefield, items specific to hunting pursuits, clothing, and equestrian equipage. In my own small way, I adhere to these principles today, as do some of the people I know, whether they have a word for it or not.

It should come as no surprise, however, that because a Tool need not be an object you can hold in your hand, likewise a garniture need not be an assemblage of physical artifacts. In fact, the very best and most important garniture one can assemble isn’t made of matter at all. It exists purely in the mind in the form of knowledge, skills, wits, and personality. Properly crafted, honed, and maintained, they will comprise, just as described above, a serviceable gathering of accoutrements bearing designs, colours, and/or embellishments that make it obvious to the beholder that each item is part of a set, and in no doubt as to who owns it. I would posit then that the Way of the Wild demands acquisition and diligent maintenance of the Tools that will form your Garniture, Tools that can never be broken, worn out, stolen or legislated away. That are always with you even when standing naked as the day you were born.

Aspects and attributes both supplemental and symbiotic are where the Truth lies. (more…)

Doing nothing which is of no use. (Mrs. LFM photo)

“Musashi quite wisely said, ‘Do nothing which is of no use,’ and with that in mind, I prefer a return to first principles — the safety of an enterprise MUST have no bearing on the worthiness of its pursuit. Only upon the manner of its execution. Even then, this will be governed on a sliding scale running between proceed with caution and damn the torpedoes, depending on the urgency placed upon achieving the objective.

“Any other mindset will see people peeing their pants in front of the door to the washroom labelled as most accommodating their genitalia while the one oppositely labeled stands vacant. Killed in a cross walk because the sign said ‘WALK’, so they did.

“The mantra of ‘safety first’ is the kind of bullshit that, blindly accepted, puts someone else in charge of your safety so you don’t have to own it. So you can be the ‘victim’ who must never be blamed but always believed.

“We teach our children to look both ways before crossing the street, not to avoid crossing streets altogether. Risk management is an industry term that, by its definition, represents a mindset recognizing that even though there are risks to life and limb inherent in an enterprise, they can be identified and if not circumvented, at least limited in scope or effect.” ~ Risk: Nothing of Value Happens Without It

Previously in this series were:

• De Woodz iz Cloze published 10 August 2025; and
• Now is the Summer of Our Discontent published 1 September 2025.

If you haven’t already read those, I encourage you to do so now to infuse more clarity into what follows. (more…)

Header graphic from Travel, Activities in Woods Restricted to Prevent Wildfires, issued 5 August 2025 by the Premier’s Office and Department of Natural Resources

Further to our last gathering,  I will today revisit some realities that I have trotted out before but will again today on the grounds that I, at least, want to hear them again.

The closing of the Nova Scotia woods to all travel of any kind, and the official reasons for doing so, were spoken to last time. Since then I have observed the rightness and wrongness of this being argued as though it represents something unprecedented, another overreach of government powers, and none of that will factor one jot into the points I will be making today and in subsequent related utterances.

No, rather than being drawn into the clamour of argument between the inevitably polarized factions, drawn up behind their predictable battle lines over the Grievance du Jour, I wish to identify some points of overarching commonality that have become common practice in “hoople” management.

“Hoople
1. A noun; A derogatory term describing or referring to an unsophisticated person from a rural background or community ….” ~ Urban Dictionary

For clarity, the aforesaid is one of several definitions offered by the Urban Dictionary, captured here as most applicable to my topic, most particularly in its employment of the word “unsophisticated”. A highly subjective term, often more felt by than spoken to those upon whose hoople heads it comes to be applied. (more…)

The wildfire near Barrington Lake was the largest on record in Nova Scotia. The final size was 23,525 hectares. (Source CBC)

On 5 August 2025, the Government of Nova Scotia proclaimed:

“… a restricted travel zone in any area of the woods upon which no person shall enter for the purpose of travelling, camping, fishing or picnicking, or any other purpose, without a valid travel permit issued by the Minister, a conservation officer or other person authorized by the Minister during the period specified in the Proclamation ….”

You can read the full text in all its glory here. and watch Nova Scotia Premiere Tim Houston explain it badly here.

The day before this was announced, Mrs. LFM and I had all three No Longer All That Small Fierce Mammals and Ripley the Hunting Dog (currently getting schooled in finding Monotropa Uniflora by scent) on a day trip to harvest a share of the abundance of Huckleberries I knew from my own regular pass throughs to be ready and awaiting appreciative admirers like ourselves. Our presence caused no fires as our standards of conduct will not allow it, right down to the clothes we wear, for not a single bum was clad in corduroy trousers lest the friction of a brisk walk homeward at the end ignite the cordur upon the oy.

Seriously though … (more…)

“The ‘real world’, as it turns out, is not where most people live, nor are they required to as it is just as possible to live an entire apparently fulfilled life absent any attempts at objectivity or even half-hearted use of critical thinking as it is to work for years with someone whose name you can’t remember without ever once giving the game away.

“Your own ‘real world’ may be a self-made, and workable within your own context, version of an agreed upon statement of facts. Right now, most of what has come to be called ‘content’ offered up to be eagerly gobbled down by the masses comes from sources tailored to validate this propensity which is innately human with genesis far before the current century, and well before Phineas Taylor Barnum is credited with audibly observing, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

“To indulge in it doesn’t make you a sucker although it can render the unwary vulnerable to being one. Even repeatedly.

“And from this comes the combined promise and threat of Artificial Intelligence which will be the topic of our next gathering.” ~ An Agreed Upon Statement of Facts

This, it would seem, is the next gathering as aforesaid.

On 26 September 2012, as part of my Worldly Wisdom Wednesday series, I published an article here on the subject of Tools in which I set forth a list of fundamental defining characteristics. Read this and keep it in mind as we delve into the forging of this new “tool”:

“A real Tool then must be a True force multiplier – thus a True Tool, and to be that it must fit into one or more vital categories including, but not limited to, making a heretofore impossible job possible, a hard job easier, a risky job safer. In addition, it must conform to the following absolutes, each of which is so important that the order of their presentation is of no consequence –

• It must be maintainable.
• Its durability and longevity must not constitute a built-in guarantee of waste.
• Life with it must be superior to life without it.
• Neither its use, nor the job it was devised to perform, shall represent the creation of an equal or greater problem while solving another.
• It must not represent the lesser of two or more evils.
• For any given task, it must provide a dividend in the form of time expended, materials used, and/or energy required.
• It must exist to do a job that is necessary within the context of sound ecological and ergonomic practice.

“In short, it must serve within the balanced Economy of Nature, and not the wasteful ‘economy’ of dollars and cents in which the soothing buzzword ‘sustainable’ really describes business practices that will permit continued rates of growth and consumption – business as usual – with a smaller discernible impact. For any organism, getting through a day requires expenditure of energy and resources for the purpose of acquiring more energy and resources. Simply living in place requires at least a ‘break even’ on that balance, but a higher return is required if the organism must hunt and catch its prey, for reproduction, the rearing of young, migration, overwintering, or hibernation. Everything in Nature is about efficiency and balance, which is why life is, first and foremost, an exercise in energy management. For example, the Way of the Wild demands of each parent that their offspring be made self-sufficient as quickly and efficiently as possible. A tool need not be a physical artifact – rest assured that skilled parenting is a Tool – but to be True it must help, not hinder, such processes, and must never represent a brilliant answer to a question that was never asked. Let’s look at a few modern examples that have gone that way, but didn’t have to.” ~ Worldly Wisdom Wednesday — Tools

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the 21st Century understanding of the term is a suite of technologies harmonized to collect and curate information so that the output may present an amazingly credible simulacrum of human creativity, sexuality, and mendacity. Contrary to the way it has been presented, the reality of AI is neither new nor mature, so most of what is seen, or unseen but implied, in the wild today falls into four primary classifications:

1. AI — Threat or menace?
2. AI the saviour — We’re saved!
3. AI — Can’t live with it, can’t live without it.
4. AI in the shadows — Child of secret research, both private and public sector, outcomes cloaked behind a mixture of laws falling under national security, intellectual property, and a host of others designed to keep the cards close to the vest, if not up a sleeve.

The Truth is more nuanced than that but in general those are the high points one sees expressed in headlines, many of which may have been created, at least in part, employing AI technology. (more…)

Image © Amy Baker 2020 (instagram.com/amy_louisebaker)

“It’s a beautiful thing to refuse to forget…” ~ Arturo Pérez-Reverte, The Fencing Master

What ho oh Weary Pilgrim, and welcome to this watch fire hard by the Yawning Rabbit Hole of Confusion. First, something to clarify at least the legal definition of today’s headline:

“More than 90 per cent of criminal convictions in Canada are not the result of a trial, but of a guilty plea. As I wrote a couple of years ago, people plead guilty for many reasons, only one of which is that they are actually guilty. But that’s another matter.

“Every guilty plea involves the creation of something called an ‘agreed statement of facts.’ The Crown and the defence agree that the set of facts in this statement are true, and those facts are then read in court as justifying both the charge and the plea of guilty …

“The thing I learned from my experience is that the key word in the phrase ‘agreed statement of facts’ is not ‘facts,’ but ‘agreed.’ The key to the statement is that the two sides agree to it and that it contains enough information to justify the charges and the guilty plea. It may contain statements that one side would not regard as factual, and it certainly will omit facts that most outside observers would see as highly relevant to the charge. In many cases the ‘statement of facts’ will not provide an adequate understanding about what happened and why. It was quite unnerving to me that the only official account of what happened in relation to my charges was so limited, if not misleading …” ~ What ‘agreed statement of facts’ really means by David Dorson, LAW360 Canada

A shortcut then, whereby the “official” record of events is built up from a framework of mutually palatable fictions wherein “agreement” may be more inferred than real, and “palatable” for some participants may be more of the order of, “It’ll fill you up if you can choke it down.” (more…)