Austin had never seen a two-wheeler like this before.
The frame was three bikes, really: the front half of a Schwinn that had hung for twenty years in the rafters of the Yellow Bike Project, the back half of a cargo trike somebody had abandoned on the hike-and-bike trail, and a long steel spine between them welded by a woman named Dot who had learned welding at seventy and charged for it in tomatoes. The crate on the front was built from the floorboards of a house on Holly Street that had been taken down board by board and given away. Someone at ReLeaf had painted flowers on it, badly and with great enthusiasm. People called it the Greenspeed. Remy called it the bike.
On a Thursday in April he loaded it with two dozen Strawbactus starts in quart pots, each one wrapped in wet newspaper against the heat, and set out from the nursery behind Central for a new wall garden on East Twelfth.
It was a slow ride. The bike weighed what a small car weighed and steered like an argument. People stopped him at every light. A man outside the Driskill asked what the plants were and then asked if they bit. A girl on a scooter rode alongside for six blocks just to look. At the bottom of the hill on Congress a retired mail carrier flagged him down to tell him that the crank on the left side was going to fail by June and here was how to fix it, and stood in the sun drawing it on the back of an envelope until Remy understood.
He arrived at noon with sweat in his eyes and every pot intact. The wall was four stories of cedar slats on the side of a laundromat, half planted, with a ladder leaning on it and two kids sitting at the top eating paletas. The woman who ran the laundromat came out wiping her hands and counted the starts twice and said there were supposed to be twenty-five.
There were twenty-four. Remy had counted them that morning. He looked in the crate. There, in the corner, in a pot he hadn't packed, sat a twenty-fifth Strawbactus, a little bigger than the others, its pads furred bright green, its newspaper wrapping dry as if it had never been wet at all.
He didn't say anything. He handed it up to the kids on the ladder with the rest. It was only later, riding home empty in the long light, the bike suddenly light and quick under him, that he realized the newspaper around it had been dated next week.
⁂ A thread in the Thin Season.
Greenspeed · 1 of 3 · Greenspeed Requiem: A Lynchian Odyssey through the Veins of Austin →
🚮 W.A.S.T.E.: Words Assisting Sustainable Transformation & Ecology
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Bryce | A wandering steward of stories and seedlings, moving between libraries and creeks with pockets full of cuttings and unfinished sentences, leaving behind fragments that root themselves into community. |
| Cane of Blossoms | An elder’s staff that grows as both root and record, carrying wisdom in living wood. |
| Creekback | The soft push at your ankles when Shoal Creek sends ripples both upstream and downstream. People feel it as a quiet yes from the past. |
| Creekside Testament | The whispered truth of moving water, reminding wanderers that time itself delivers quiet justice. |
| Education | Our Education section focuses on exploring the transformative role of sustainable practices and creativity in learning environments. We showcase initiatives like ReLeaf Cooperative that are pioneering ways to integrate environmental education into the everyday curriculum of Austin's schools. Through SolarPunk Fiction and articles, we highlight how innovative concepts like vertical garden fairs are changing the traditional norms of schools and sparking a creative revolution among students. We delve into how these ideas can turn waste into wonder, providing practical, hands-on learning experiences for students, while cultivating their appreciation for sustainability and community. Additionally, we explore revolutionary ideas like evolving copyright into "copy that," demonstrating how education can break from conventional paradigms and encourage a culture of shared learning and innovation. Join us in envisioning a future where education and sustainability go hand in hand, inspiring the next generation of eco-conscious innovators. |
| Eli | Practice of local repair, reuse, mutual care, and shared access. People use scrap, skills, and trust to keep each other safe and resourced when official systems fail. |
| Ephemeral Art | Practice of local repair, reuse, mutual care, and shared access. People use scrap, skills, and trust to keep each other safe and resourced when official systems fail. |
| Green Technology | Innovations and systems designed to minimize environmental harm while promoting regeneration, weaving sustainability into energy, materials, and everyday life. |
| Greenspeed | Practice of local repair, reuse, mutual care, and shared access. People use scrap, skills, and trust to keep each other safe and resourced when official systems fail. |
| Organic Media and Fiction | The rapid pace of urbanization and its environmental impact has inspired various speculative genres in literature and media. Organic Media and Fiction, a recent addition, offers a refreshing counter-narrative to dystopian futures, focusing on optimistic, sustainable societies powered by renewable energies. ReLeaf, an Organic Media and Fiction-inspired platform, epitomizes this genre by blending reality with narratives that envision a world where humans coexist harmoniously with nature and technology. ReLeaf's ethos is rooted in the belief that a hopeful future of sustainable living is not just an ideal but a reality. It combines engaging storytelling, visual arts, and direct action to showcase the possibilities of an Organic Media and Fiction future. By merging immersive narratives with tangible solutions, ReLeaf serves as both a creative outlet and a catalyst for change. The narratives in ReLeaf are set in cities that integrate renewable energy and green technology into their architecture, infrastructure, and daily life. From urban gardens atop skyscrapers to solar-powered public transport, these stories offer a glimpse of future urban landscapes grounded in existing technologies and practices. They provide an encouraging perspective on how our cities could evolve by amplifying sustainable practices we are already exploring. ReLeaf's stories feature diverse, inclusive, and community-oriented societies, emphasizing social justice, community empowerment, and equitable resource distribution. These narratives reflect societal structures that could foster a balanced coexistence, highlighting the importance of these values in creating a sustainable future. Beyond storytelling, ReLeaf engages in direct action, promoting real-world initiatives that echo Organic Media and Fiction principles. By supporting community-led renewable energy projects and sustainable urban farming, ReLeaf bridges the gap between the Organic Media and Fiction vision and our present reality, making the dream of a sustainable future feel achievable. ReLeaf broadens the understanding of the Organic Media and Fiction genre by presenting a balanced blend of reality and narrative. It underscores that Organic Media and Fiction is not just a literary genre or aesthetic movement, but a lens through which we can view and shape our future. The Organic Media and Fiction vision put forth by ReLeaf invites us to imagine, innovate, and create a future where sustainability is the norm. By intertwining fiction with reality, it presents Organic Media and Fiction as a plausible future, offering a hopeful counterpoint to narratives of environmental doom. ReLeaf helps us believe in—and strive for—a future where humans live in harmony with nature and technology. |
| Public Art | Practice of local repair, reuse, mutual care, and shared access. People use scrap, skills, and trust to keep each other safe and resourced when official systems fail. |
| Railbloom | A light-rail line that flowers into more than transport, carrying passengers and plants alike toward a greener future. |
| ReLeaf | Welcome to the ReLeaf Cooperative, where we dive deep into an innovative and revolutionary model of sustainability and community building. ReLeaf is a pioneer in developing scalable engagement strategies that foster community participation and work towards addressing pressing social issues such as homelessness. In this category, you'll find articles and Organic Media detailing ReLeaf's groundbreaking initiatives and visions. From creating sustainable gardens in Austin elementary schools to providing transparency in a world often shrouded in deception, ReLeaf serves as a beacon of hope and innovation. ReLeaf's approach of intertwining real and fictional elements in their work—such as characters, materials, techniques, and labor—sets a new standard for cooperatives worldwide. Its business model, which compensates for labor and knowledge contributions, creates a lasting benefit and helps people who have historically been marginalized. By meeting people with compassion, as resources in need of support instead of liabilities, ReLeaf has shown that everyone has the potential to contribute to society meaningfully. Explore this section to discover how ReLeaf is redefining the way we approach social issues and sustainability, with stories of inspiration, innovation, and hope. |
| Ruellia simplex | Ruellia simplex, the Mexican petunia, Mexican bluebell or Britton's wild petunia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Acanthaceae. It is a native of Mexico, the Caribbean, and South America. It has become a widespread invasive plant in Florida, where it was likely introduced as an ornamental before 1933, as well as in the eastern Mediterranean, South Asia and other parts of the eastern hemisphere. Ruellia simplex is an evergreen perennial growing 3 ft (0.91 m) tall, forming colonies of stalks with lance-shaped leaves that are 6 to 12 in (15 to 30 cm) and .5 to .75 in (1.3 to 1.9 cm) wide. Trumpet shaped flowers are metallic blue to purple, with five petals, and 3 in (7.6 cm) wide. There is a dwarf variety that is only 1 ft (0.30 m) tall. Ruellia simplex is native to Mexico, the West Indies, western Bolivia, southwestern Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and northeastern Argentina. It has been widely used as an ornamental plant and has escaped from cultivation in the United States, Australia and parts of Asia, as well as several Pacific Islands. It has become invasive in some of these areas, forming dense, single-species stands of vegetation which threaten native plants. It is mainly a plant of wet places such as ditches, pond verges, lakesides and marshes, but can survive in drier conditions. |
| Strawbactus | A hybrid cactus that bears strawberry-like fruit, blending desert resilience with unexpected sweetness. |
| Sunspine | The radiant ridges of the Strawbactus paddies, holding the memory of desert heat. |
| Urban Delivery | Practice of local repair, reuse, mutual care, and shared access. People use scrap, skills, and trust to keep each other safe and resourced when official systems fail. |
| Vintage Memoryfield | A place where time bends into itself, collecting human moments into a living archive of memory. |
| Waste Integration | In a world grappling with waste management crises, Waste Integration offers a novel solution. This philosophy looks beyond mere recycling or upcycling; instead, it weaves waste into the very fabric of our everyday lives in a meaningful and beautiful manner. Explore a wealth of creative methods to turn your home and community into sustainable ecosystems, where every item has a purpose, and nothing goes to waste. From transforming scrap metal into functional art, to building modular planters out of discarded plastic, Waste Integration is a testament to human creativity and resilience in the face of environmental challenges. With a combination of theoretical discussions, practical guides, and inspiring stories, our Waste Integration content shines a spotlight on this game-changing movement, demonstrating how each one of us can contribute to a more sustainable and circular economy. |