What links these two topics? Both are about Ukraine and both appeared in the Guardian. Although seeds and libraries have a closer connection than they used to. In Albuquerque, the public libraries do have a free seed program. When I first went to one, several years ago, the seeds were in old card catalog cabinets (repurposing at its finest) and you were allowed to “check out” several packets, with the request that you save some seed and “return” at the end of the growing season. Things are different now, but the idea of getting local seeds from your local library seems to have remained.

This morning I read an amazing article in The Guardian about the librarians of Ukraine. In the very early days of the war and the few days before Putin offered his version of history. Suffice it to say that it’s not the version of history Ukrainians are familiar with. The Guardian article states, “Most wars are fought over who will define the future. The Ukrainian war is a struggle over who will define the past.”

According to the article, the Russians have been targeting the destruction of libraries and documents that speak to anything but the Russian view of history.

Librarians in Ukraine have been tireless in their efforts to keep their libraries open, not just as a source for reading material but also as a community space offering whatever help they can to their patrons. Librarians around the world have been helping as well – physical supplies and equipment (think bomb-proof cabinets for rare historical documents and state of the art scanning and photographic equipment are listed in the article.

Although I tend to focus on books, it is clear that books need libraries as much as libraries need books.

And, on the more botanically based themes I usually write about, one of the potential links from that story was to one from earlier this summer – A special delivery of seeds from Ukraine. The article is here and the link to the seed company is here. The seed company, OrganicSeeds, has 21 language choices and can accept euros, pounds, and dollars. Just saying….