Linda Watson
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lindapwatson.bsky.social
Linda Watson
@lindapwatson.bsky.social
51 followers 100 following 23 posts
Wildlife gardener and nature photographer by day, cartoonist by night. Sequential Artists Workshop student. Completed its Year-Long Program 24-25. If you don't know what else to do, create a wildlife habitat.
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lindapwatson.bsky.social
I'm working on a hopepunk / solarpunk strip about a group who become friends while responding to the polycrisis. Various nonhumans chime in, like the cat Mr. Smiggs. Follow it @ourturning or www.ourturning.com Maybe next year this will be a weekly strip. Here are two of my favorites:
Cartoon strip. Panel 1: A tabby cat balancing on a windowsill talks about Joanna Macy's vision of The Great Turning, away from the jaws of industrial growth and into the arms of life-supporting sustainability. Panel 2: The cat is on tall cabinet and says "Step One: Stop letting bad things get worse." He knocks a ball of hot-pink yarn off the cabinet and thinks "whoops." Panel three: The cat is on the floor in the sun, playing with the yarn. He says "Two: figure out the structural problems and come up with better solutions. Make those systems real however you can, from art to practice." Panel four: Cat sleeping by a bookcase, with Joanna Macy's book Active Hope on top of the stack. The cat says "Three: shift your consciousness for this new way of being. Remember rest and recovery are part of the Great Turning. So sayeth Joanna Macy." The mood is cheerful. An Our Turning comic with four panels. Mood: funny and colorful. Panel 1: Two friends are in a wooded backyard. One says, "Alma, we can border this oak with Neville's rescued branches. As the leaves fall, we'll leave about six inches here as mulch. Caterpillars will shelter here, then turn into butterflies and birds." Panel 2: off panel, she continues "Less raking for you. No piles of slippery leaves in the street. Less work for yard-waste crews." We see a line of yard-waste trucks carrying leaves to a Mountain of Leaves. A man with a cap that says Solid Waste Manager says "We might finally have room to compost food scraps!" Panel 3: closeup of log. Willow says "Fungi start the party. Insects move in, such as roly-polies, fireflies, and emerald sweat bees." We see all those on the log, with the roly-polies singing "Rollin', rollin', rollin' down the old log." Panel 4: The closeup of the log continues, but it looks older. Willow says "Lizards and toads will live in the branches as they soften." A skink lizard says to a toad "Hey, that mosquito was mine!" The toad says "You snooze, you lose Skinky!"
December 1, 2025 at 1:11 AM
lindapwatson.bsky.social
Check out Alma's bookshelf from my strip Our Turning: Joanna Macy of course and @elizkolbert.bsky.social @edyong209.bsky.social @lloydalter.bsky.social @thanissara.bsky.social @sanders.senate.gov @kimberlynicholas.bsky.social @projectdrawdown.bsky.social @dan-nott.bsky.social @rutgerbregman.com
Panel 4: The cat purrs in the sun next to a bookcase with these books: Active Hope and Thinking Like a Mountain by Joanna Macy, plus The Sixth Extinction, A Plea for Animals, An Immense World, The Story of Upfront Carbon, Time to Stand Up, Fight Oligarchy, Under the Sky We Make, Walkaway, Peace in Every Step, The Overstory, Hidden Systems, Thinking in Systems, and Utopia for Realists. The cat says "Three: shift your consciousness for this new way of being. Remember rest and recovery are part of the Great Turning. So sayeth Joanna Macy."
November 14, 2025 at 1:19 AM
lindapwatson.bsky.social
Speaking about my comic strip Our Turning at the Global Environmental Health LAB's 8th Int. Symposium for Sustainable Development Nov 14 9:15 pm EST. Then Maja Milkowska-Shibata will discuss "Comics for Global Goals: Visual Storytelling as a Tool for Awareness and Change." gehlab.org/symposium-2025
Comic: Mr Smiggs, a tabby cat, balances on a window ledge. He says "The big adventure of our time is the Great Turning, away from the jaws of industrial growth and into the arms of sustainability." Panel 2: The cat says "Step one: stop letting bad things get worse." He knocks a pink ball of yarn to the floor and thinks "whoops." Panel 3: The cat plays with yarn on the floor in the sun and says "Two: Figure out the structural problems and come up with better systems. May those systems real however you can, from art to practice." Panel 4: The cat purrs next to a bookcase with books by Joanna Macy and others, including her "Active Hope." Mr. Smiggs says "Three: shift your consciousness for this new way of being. Remember rest and recovery are part of the Great Turning. So sayeth Joanna Macy."
November 14, 2025 at 12:55 AM
lindapwatson.bsky.social
These are two American Bullfrogs sunning on the edge of my pond. We call them Binkette and Binkie. Notice the green "hubba hubba" faces. It's nearly time for the frogs to start singing and mating! #frogs #wildlifegardening
Female bullfrog in sun on stone pond edge. Her ear is the same size as her eye. Male bullfrog also on stone pond edge, looking out into the water. His "ear" is bigger than his eye.
April 20, 2025 at 4:22 PM
lindapwatson.bsky.social
Relocation blues. Oh, the ripple effects we are about to see!
Comic showing a couple explaining to their mother/mother-in-law, "We're sorry, but our bosses just demanded that we come back to the office in Seattle / DC even though they don't have enough desks or parking ... or hearts." The grandmother looks distressed. In the next panel, the grandmother says, "But you moved here to take care of me! And so little Freddy could have a yard and good schools!" Little Freddy says "What about my friends? And the team? And our basketball tickets?" The mom and dad say, "We're sorry." There is a dog and cat under the kitchen table, and a Home Sweet Home embroidery framed and askew on the wall behind them. Original cartoon by Linda Watson (me).
January 23, 2025 at 10:55 PM
lindapwatson.bsky.social
When the sun came up, the kids and dogs came out! I'm lucky to be able to see the neighborhood sledding street from my window.
Snow covers my wildlife garden, making the branches of the coastal redwood and the limbs of the dogwood stand out. In the foreground, a water feature with snow-covered rocks and carnivorous plants. Mood: early morning peace. Sunny snow scene with a black dog racing down a sledding hill and several kids with snow saucers and sleds. Looks fun!
January 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
lindapwatson.bsky.social
Mood, January 2025.
Composed photo of a person (me) in a puffy magenta sleeping bag sleeping in a bright yellow closet. All you can see of the person is her hand on a white teddy bear on the closet shelf next to her. The closet is otherwise empty except for a set of keys on the shelf above and embroidered shoes below. Mood: mysterious and either bleak or cozy.
January 22, 2025 at 1:45 AM
lindapwatson.bsky.social
Here's the true story of how I made Thanksgiving dinner.
Cartoon of a lattice-work pie, with the stages of making a vegan Thanksgiving dinner on each square of crust, from thinking about the menu to making a seitan roast to being thankful with my husband after dinner.
January 22, 2025 at 1:37 AM
lindapwatson.bsky.social
I've never seen a red-bellied woodpecker visit a birdbath like this before. What a beautiful world.
Medium-sized woodpecker hanging on the the rim of a glass birdbath, looking up. The bird has a bright-red patch on the back of the head and beautiful black wings with white spots.
January 22, 2025 at 1:28 AM