Journal

Flying fish goes underground in DC

A flying fish (the emblem of Volans) winged its way through the ether this morning, in the form of an email from (Zheng) Jieying in Washington, D.C., where she had spotted this ad in the Metro. Uplifting.

Uncorking – with fire extinguishers (Samphoto) Lubricating the lily 1 (Samphoto) Lubricating the lily 2 (Samphoto)

A memorable day, in all sorts of ways – but primarily because the birthdays of Sam and Volans coincided, as they will do, hopefully, in perpetuity. The office was soon awash with seried ranks of flowers and the air vibrated with incoming calls, mainly for Sam. Outside, the magnolia tree is bursting into bloom, although there is still a serious nip in the air and April is characteristically showery. A lovely grilled haloumi lunch just along from the British Museum. Ale(jandro) and I finished off the text of our new report, The Biosphere Economy, and between times I continue to work on another, The Transparent Economy, for the Global Reporting Initiative.

Streaked Trunks 1 Reflections Sawn 1 Sawn 2 Trunks 2 Skunk cabbage Beauty Skunk cabbage 2 Willow Seeking pollinators Gate

After finishing the first full draft of the GRI report, and completing the latest round of five media columns, Elaine and I drove – though the Volvo needed a jump-start, having been left undriven for many moons – to the Isabella Plantation. Faint scent of skunk cabbage and occasional buzz of pollinators as we walked around. Some spawn visible, bit not much. Wondered whether the ducks eat it? This evening, I worked on the slides for the Lisbon conference on Tuesday.

Last few days have been spent intensively writing the report for the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which is now beginning to go out for comment.  Too much time spent at the keyboard, tapping away. Tired – and my cough of the past 5-6 weeks isn’t going away.  But weird form of good news yesterday when the Financial Times Weekend Magazine carried a story about the Somali pirates.  Their depredations have been so great that the outside world – including fishing vessels – now shy away from regional waters. Since it is said that foreign overfishing was one factor creating the piracy problem in the first place, it’s interesting to read that fear has created effective ‘no-take’ areas. In the areas affected, fish catches have doubled.

Mark (Lee), Valerie (Lee), Seb (Beloe), Geoff (Lye), Sam (Lakha), Yasmin (Crowther) Seb, Geoff, Sam, Yasmin, Alex (Hammer) Valerie, Seb, Geoff, Sam, Yasmin, Alex, Frances (Buckingham), Amy (Birchall) Nadine (Mendelbaum) shows Geoff a book on her childhood After the downturn, SustainAbility gets its mojo back – Gary Kendall’s thumb

Wonderful evening at SustainAbility, with mix of SA and Volans team members, to mark Mark and Valerie’s move back to San Francisco. Emotional, but overall very upbeat. Afterwards, Elaine and I went off for supper with Alois Flatz, ex-Sam and now with zouk ventures, and for many years a member of SustainAbility’s Faculty.