Ac Baker

I'm Autistic & ADHD, late in being officially recognised.  

We have many good reasons to call for Autism acceptance, and reject the concept of "treating Autism" itself.

My peer group started to suspect a lot of us were Neurodivergent in science college, and decades later, increasingly we're being recognised as such!

Dr Grunya Efimovna Sukhavera was the Jewish Ukrainian woman scientist who in the 1920s was the first in the modern era to work with us, give us the identity of Autistic, and publish helpful studies.

Dr Grunya Efimovna Sukhavera's work was the violently misappropriated & turned against us by the man I won't mention during the Third Reich: https://avivaseigler.com/2022/05/01/autistic-history-grunya-efimovna-sukhavera/ .

It's likely there are virtually no Autistic people in the current world who are free of ongoing trauma & complex post-trauma syndrome (cPTS).

This is, fundamentally, due to Neuroableism.

"NeuroAbleism: the specific type of ableism experienced by Neurodivergent people due to systemic oppression in a supremacist-based society that values neurotypicalness as the “right” way to be, think, and act.

"The term “Neuroableism” was coined in 2019 by Julia Feliz."
http://www.neuroableism.com/

This is why so many Autistic people, and Autistic-led community, fiercely reject the concept of (medically) "treating" our Autism.  

We instead call for Autism acceptance.

We need funded, Autistic-led support & treatment to reduce the harms of Neuroableism.  

These include the complications of cPTS, and the medical challenges we do disproportionately face from systematic underdiagnosis of e.g. our hypermobile syndromes complications.

Right now, I've just been diagnosed with IBS-D, which seems more prevalent in hypermobile people as working gut collagen is vital for healthy digestion.

Aviva Seigler (FierceAutie), Autistic & Disabled parent of Autistic & Disabled children writes a lot on the actual needs of Autistic people, and debunking the people who want to erase our Autistic Neurotype e.g.

Intersection of Autism, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
https://avivaseigler.com/2023/12/06/intersection-of-autism-ehlers-danlos-syndrome-and-polycystic-ovarian-syndrome/

Firstly, empathy with the medical trauma, you are not alone (sadly). This immediately flashed me back to reading the gruelling book, Medical Apartheid by medical historian & ethicist, Harriet A. Washington in my racial justice group: https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/2558/medical-apartheid

My own situation is that I have hypermobility (chronic kneecap dislocations), a tendancy that seems to run in my family, yet none of us are diagnosed EDS.

I have chronic pain and fatigue, currently diagnosed as fibromyalgia/ME.

My understanding is that only hypermobile-trained physiotherapists are safe for hypermobile people: we can quickly, seriously harmed by being told to 'push through', even more than non-hypermobile people would be.

I'm currently dealing with a diagnosis of "extremely lax pelvic floor", and getting advice from the EDS community to see a specialist for it.

I'm told standard physio can make pelvic floor problems worse for hypermobile people!

So glad to hear you are finding therapists who can work compassionately with you to ease your challenges!

I also give 10 (or more) acorns out of ten for Braiding Sweetgrass, which I have read twice so far.

My grandparents taught me to love foraging, gardening, being in nature nearly six decades ago.

Robin Wall Kimmerer is helping me to fall back in love with the good green world, after five decades of cynical capitalism tried to make me despair.

For all of us inspired by "Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants" by Robin Wall Kimmerer ..

.. and everyone else who loves the living world ..

Robin Wall Kimmerer is inviting us to widen the circle to people new to planting, grow with one another as we reimagine our shared future through acts of care for the living world, life conspiring with life, through their "new Plant, Baby, Plant" Network to Raise Gardens and Raise Ruckuses too ..

Here: https://PlantBabyPlant.com/

I was wondering, was anyone reading, part of this Plant Circle in synchronus time?  I am watching the recording on YouTube, having only caught the end of the live stream.

They start by inviting in anyone who wants to be involved in a grassroots network to take meaningful action to heal land, build community and grow empowerment in support of our living planet. Also people who have been moved by Robin Wall Kimmerer's work can find support to put those values into a living practice, too.

In other words, they are growing a community of like-minded people.

They chose the Northern Winter Solstice to mirror the returning of the light, although people from the Southern Summer Solstice also joined!

Storytelling is at the heart of their work, too, as a vital tool to bring strategy to life.  They hold up stories to invite people into the emotional space where we feel the beauty, urgency and hope of this community-building and life-bringing work.

A communication mode they will continue to embrace are these online Plant Circles, which grew as nourishing companionship during COVID-19 lockdown.

So they are now widening these Circles for the benefit of all, uniting around a shared love of plant life.

"gathered in the spirit of friends sitting around a bonfire. .. we marked the winter solstice together. Listen to our lively conversation and hear us share a bit about the future of Plant Baby Plant. Robin even gives a botany lesson…"

Robin Wall Kimmerer hosted the first new Plant Circle of the "Plant, Baby, Plant" movement for the Solstice at the end of 2025.

Key contributers were Dr. Gary Paul Nabhan, author and restoration ecologist, and Sabestine Hernandez, educator and enrolled member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe.

You can watch again, with subtitles and transcript, here:



"Plant Baby Plant is a new grassroots movement led by Robin Wall Kimmerer that invites people to reimagine our shared future through acts of care for the living world."

https://plantbabyplant.com/

Have a Cool Yule!

M Ljin wrote:Most wintergreen flavorings were supposedly made from black birch (another plant native to here), or are synthetic, which is mostly the case nowadays. It would be difficult to harvest enough wintergreen for commercial purposes because they are a slow-growing evergreen ground cover growing in acidic soils. The berries are quite lovely, minty and sweet tasting, something between mint and a dry blueberry perhaps?

Interesting! Turns out I was thinking of the toothpaste my older relatives used to use when I was young.  The ingredients include methyl salicylate, which is probably not extracted from actual wintergreen, no.

M Ljin wrote: Partridgeberries are dryish and slightly sweet, and they have a similar ecology but prefer more alkaline or neutral soils and can tolerate more shade. They are more rambling than wintergreen as well. The berries of both persist well into winter beneath the snow and sometimes spring.

Apparently, "binemiin" in Ojibwe, and an important nutritious and medicinal berry, fresh & stored, for many Indigenous cultures.  I had not heard of them before.

M Ljin wrote:Alder tea is nourishing-tasting. I haven’t had any in a while but have some that I brought in and dried. I specifically pick older, more lateral twigs that are gnarly because they have the better flavor. New shoots tend to be more bitter and astringent.

I might have expected the new shoots to be sweeter, I wonder if that's to deter browsers?  Have you got a particular kind of alder where you live? I'm wondering what quality tea I might get from local alders gnarly lateral twigs.

Many thanks!  I think sloes are the latest fruit I've picked, best after frost if the birds haven't already got them!

M Ljin wrote:Wintergreen berries and leaf tea! And partridgeberries!!!

Making a pot of alder twig tea.

These sound exciting.  I've heard of wintergreen as a flavour herb before, might I have come across that in commercial products?

What do these taste like? What especially do you enjoy about them?

Thank you. As many are saying, we need to recharge during this "annual ecological disaster" (as one highly experienced agroecologist I know wryly dubbed winter), and plan, and catch up on maintainance,  and also celebrate with loved ones in whatever traditions and ways are meaningful to us.

I use rolled oats, no further processing, roughly double the volume of tap water to float them, a small spoon of live yoghurt stirred in, and cover with a cloth for about five days.

Not very precise at all!

Last weekend has just gone, or was before the week that just ended.

This weekend is just coming - the end of this week - or happening current ly.

Next weekend is the end of next week or the week about to start.   Of course, you have to agree on what days of the week are the weekend days too!

But yes, days of the weekend and dates of the month plus year to really avoid ambiguity. Little endian with three letter day name abbreviation to help with real-life planning, because the day of the week is highly significant to most people.

Hence, Gregorian style ..

Sun 7 Dec 2025