So let's talk about another PFSense package to help keep your network free from people banging away at it from overseas, which is actually a problem we have. So I have several servers I host and I don't only care about the people that I want getting into my server, mostly that's me and some of the other things we host that are for remote access for some clients that is in my server stack. So we use PF Blocker NG. And what PF Blocker NG does, the standard package, you go through the package manager, find it, install it. It's really a easy way to create lists of overseas or just IP address lists that you don't want to have accessing your system. So it has a firewall rule where it drops them. Now it installs not under a service because the PF Blocker is not a service. It is a firewall rule that actually by default trumps all the other rules. So the rule order goes, and this is the default install, PF Blocker, reject all other rules. And you can change that too. You can actually let your rules go through and then let them decide, leave it at the default unless you have some special use case to set it up otherwise. So it installs. I've got it enabled to update it. You just run the update. It'll do this automatically afterwards. They'll tell you when the next scheduled one is running. And this grabs all the different files. Now let me show you the files that it's grabbing. This is it's really just a series of lists. So here's the list of files that it downloads. Let me just dump one real quick. And you can see it's just a list of IP addresses and site or notation and the blocks of addresses that they're blocked. Now what this does is updates every so often. Let me slide it out of the way. This updates every so often to create these lists and keep them up to date. That way you always have the latest groups of IP addresses. Now this is important because one of the things that happened with Microsoft was as they spun up their Azure service because they're kind of late in the game, they didn't have enough IP addresses for everything. So they started buying back IP addresses from other countries. Well by doing that, those were assigned to other countries. Now they're assigned to local use for Microsoft. So you got to make sure that these lists get updated because the internet is ever evolving and ever changing with its limited number of IPv4 addresses. Now this does block IPv6 as well if you're running that. So both are available. We're only running right here in my area just IPv4. That's all that I'm going to really talk about. But it's the same thing for both. There's not much more you have to do other than make sure your system is running on that. Now I do not have the reputation part. You can have it create block lists. And those block lists from there are because it will look at IPs and ranges that keep hammering away at something and say, I'm just going to block that list. That can be problematic because they can end up accidentally blocking something that's coming from Comcast. And I have someone from Comcast coming out of that same area trying to log in remotely to a server. So I just kind of skip those ones. They can lead to a lot of false positives. All right. So to build the list, we're going to start with GOIP. And they have a top 20 list, Africa, Antarctica. Got to make sure we block them penguins. And you can decide what you want to do. So I just hit control A, but you could be real selective in case you go, okay, I know I have something that I want in here. Now none of these like the top list here have the US in there. So it makes it easy for me. And you do the same for the IPv6. Now then you choose a list action and you want deny inbound, deny outbound, deny both. I only really want deny inbound connections coming from there. You can set it up to also create blocking rules on your land for denying some of the outbound connections. If you so do so, but you will possibly create lots of problems every time you try to connect to a server that's in another country. And even when I was playing with some of the other things, there's a lot of connections going everywhere with all the different content delivery networks. So it's probably best that you just work on the inbound. And I do have a logging turned on then you click save. Now for each one of these, you can specifically go in each category. And like I said, even Antarctica has one. And you set this on there for North America. I have everything but these pieces here installed that way. It's not going and blocking any of the US people because I want them to come in here. So deny inbound and enable. That's the basics for getting it set up. And now let's talk about how it works. So by default, firewall rules are dropped anyways when they come in unless you have a rule to permit traffic. So your firewall automatically denies the rules unless there's a pass rule. But this is where PF Blocker gets in. And let's go to the logs. And we're going to go to firewall. And right now I'm on my test unit and I'll have to obscure some information. I'll show you the live one in a second here. But you want to add some information here so you understand what blocks are happening.  It doesn't do a description as to why it blocks something. So it would just say drop. So now we're adding the information. So it's just default deny rule or block all IPv6 and other settings I have in here. So let me jump over to my live one. And now you can see the rules here. And what it's doing is it's telling me that this is blocked and what I did is I filtered for port 22. So I have a rule actually open on port 22 for this destination. But because the PF Block says no, this is part of the Europe you blocked, Asia you blocked. And you can see that these are all what just, I don't know, sometimes seconds apart. That's how much they are just hammering away on my SSH port that I have open. I mean, I've got it secured. I've got it hardened. I only have it accepting keyed authentication, but this is yet one more thing. So they're not doing as much traffic on it because most of these are just foreign sites, scan it away for things and looking, you know, to see if there's an open and creating a lot of noise and traffic on your rules. But the nice thing is they see nothing and they move on. You don't get listed as a potential to attack later. So it's really just decreasing your threat surface is what a lot of the PF Block does. And if you're not, if you don't need to have people SSH seen in from overseas or from Asia or Antarctica, then you can use this and on there. And if you want to make exceptions, there's ways you can make exceptions. You just unblock that specific country. Definitely, if you want to have less potential traffic or less potential sources for problems, do go ahead and install a PF Block or NG. Thanks.


The next item of business is a statement by Mary McCallan on Scottish Greenhouse Gas emissions 2021. The cabinet secretary will take questions at the end of her statement and so there should be no interventions or interruptions. I call on Mary McCallan, cabinet secretary, up to 10 minutes please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Last month, the UN's World Meteorological Organization issued a stark warning, projecting for the first time ever that global temperatures are likely to temporarily breach 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming during the next five years. The Paris agreement calls on every nation to pursue all efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. Those projections indicate that we likely have, for the first time in human history, a very unwelcome glimpse of what crossing that longer-term threshold would be like. For Scotland and, indeed across the world, this is uncharted territory. It is therefore more important than ever that Scotland is stepping up and playing our part in realising the benefits of a net zero climate resilient future. It is right that this Parliament therefore passed some of the world's most ambitious climate legislation by a significant cross-party majority and I stress cross-party. It is true that those targets are driving transformational change, with Scottish emissions already cut in half. We can be, under no illusion, the hardest part of this journey is ahead of us. We need to have our emissions again by 2030 to meet this Parliament's rightly very stretching target. It is against this backdrop that I want to update Parliament on progress towards Scotland's statutory climate targets. Officials statistics published this morning show that Scotland has narrowly missed its annual target for 2021, achieving a 49.9 per cent emissions reduction against a target of 51.1 per cent from the 1990 baseline. To miss our target so narrowly by just 1.2 per cent is, of course, disappointing, but it also demonstrates that we are not far behind where those world-leading targets dictate we need to be. While the 2021 results show a rebound from 2020, this was not entirely unexpected given how much the 2020 position was affected by pandemic lockdowns. Scotland is not unique in experiencing this. UK emissions rebounded by 4.4 per cent over the period compared to 2.4 in Scotland. We knew to inspect an increase in transport emissions as a result of Covid restrictions easing, and we also expected that one of the coldest winters in 10 years would see an increase in domestic heating emissions. Any target missed is a concern, and it is not something that I will ever shy away from. However, we should take heart from data that shows continued underlying progress in many sectors, such as energy, supply and industry. We must also remember that those figures do not yet reflect the 100 new and boosted policies that were included in the Government's climate change plan update that was published in March 2021. On that note, we are delivering progress right across our economy. Under this Government, Scotland is becoming a renewables powerhouse. We have launched the world's largest floating offshore wind leasing round through Scotland, which will initially deliver over £750 million in revenue. Developers have also committed to investing an average of £1.4 billion in Scotland per project, which equates to around £28 billion across the 20 projects. We are investing £100 million in renewable hydrogen over this Parliament and have awarded an additional £15 million through our energy transition fund to support the development of a hydrogen hub in Aberdeen. Since launching the young persons free bus pass in January last year, we have seen a new card holder every minute. Alongside similar schemes for older and disabled people, we are supporting more than a third of the population. With over three million journeys every week, we are helping people all across Scotland to cut costs and to make sustainable travel more attractive. On rail services, we continue to develop the decarbonisation programme, building on the pre-pandemic position, where more than 75 per cent of all rail passenger journeys in Scotland were electric. We are encouraging people to change from petrol or diesel cars with the most comprehensive public charging network in the UK outside of London. That is nearly 4,000 public charge points. In our natural environment, over 75 per cent of all the trees planted across the UK in recent years have happened in Scotland. Those policies, among many others, demonstrate the breadth and depth of this Government's ambition and our delivery. The statistics published today demonstrate that there is clearly a great deal more to do. Really that is the nature of the global climate emergency, which demands a quite unique scale and pace of change. It is in this context that I am grateful for the Committee on Climate Change for their December 2022 report. I have responded today and have accepted or partially accepted 98 of their 99 recommendations, the remaining recommendation being entirely reserved and not in our gift. While the Government commits and recommits itself to deep and urgent emissions reduction, it is also essential that we do so in a way that is fair, with the voices of those most impacted driving our actions. I am committed to ensuring that we listen and act on what we hear from our communities, workers and their trade union representatives and our businesses. That is why today I have published a suite of discussion papers to inform our just transition plans for the built environment and construction, for land use in agriculture and for transport. Those discussion papers set out a vision for a fair transition with broad questions, which we are aiming to identify the key priorities as policies develop. In developing those papers, I want to put on record my gratitude to the Just Transition Commission for their advice so far, and I look forward to meeting the stakeholders across the summer. Let me be clear that this Government is absolutely committed to a fair transition. We are taking workers with us on our journey to net zero. We will never do to our oil and gas workers what Thatcher did to mining and steel communities, and we will always strive to understand the needs of those impacted by change. As this year's draft energy strategy and Just Transition plan set out, we have a clear vision on how we can direct Scotland's enviable skills, talent and natural resources to deliver an energy system that provides affordable, resilient and clean energy supplies. Of course, a Just Transition is for all of Scotland, not just the north-east. When I visited Grangemouth recently, I saw the work that is contributing to continued progress in that mission critical project of reducing industrial emissions. Alongside major investment in the site, we are supporting change at Grangemouth through the Grangemouth Future Industry Board and a site-specific and with a site-specific Just Transition plan. Before covering the Government's next step, a word of warning. We know that the race to net zero is one that we must all win, yet it is obvious that we are constrained by the current limits of devolution. I wish dearly that this Government had all the powers of a normal independent nation, not least to control our own vast energy resources, not having that naturally hinders our ability to institute the transformational change across our economy and society that this emergency demands. The UK Government must urgently act on reserved matters, including CCUS, hydrogen, electricity grid infrastructure and decarbonisation of the gas network. Similarly, I cannot stress enough how against the world-leading targets that the Parliament has set, we can ill afford a UK Government willing to trash devolution and sabotage policies such as DRS, which have been years in the making, have been backed by this Parliament and were an important part of our emissions reduction plan. It is clear that Scotland's contribution to global climate action will be significantly enhanced when we become an independent nation. As I look forward to that day, I also want to look forward on our immediate climate plans, because today is a moment to take stock. This is not just about the next year, it is about well-informed ambitious decision-making that will shape a generation and generations to come. We may be halfway to net zero, but, as I have said, the hardest part is ahead. We know, for example, that in transport we must find ways to put people in not cars first. That is why we are working with COSLA to finalise our 20 per cent reduction in car kilometre route back and have commissioned research on equitable options for demand management, which we will publish in the coming months. Of course, the most direct levers on the cost of buying or running a petrol or diesel car, namely fuel duty and vehicle excise duty, are currently reserved. Recent rises in motoring costs underline the unfairness of the current regressive tax regime. We will continue to press the UK Government for a fair and progressive system that better incentivise the transition to net zero emissions. Along with transport, heating Scotland's homes and buildings is another of the biggest contributors to our carbon emissions. That is why we will consult this year on a proposed heat and buildings bill inviting views on options for regulating energy efficiency and zero emissions heat across Scotland's homes and buildings. Those are just some of the matters that we will address as we prepare to set out the draft of our next climate change plan at the end of the year. In the meantime, let us all, as a Government and as a Parliament, lean ever further into a bold and ambitious approach because, Presiding Officer, nothing less shall suffice. Thank you, Cabinet Secretary. The Cabinet Secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in his statement, and I intend to allow around 20 minutes for that, after which we will move on to the next item of business. I would ask those members who would wish to ask a question to please press the request to speak buttons. Thank you, Presiding Officer. This is a sobering report into emissions for the Scottish Government no matter how much they try to distract attention away from their many failures. At the top level, they have missed their reduction target for Scottish source emissions from seven greenhouse gases, 2.4 per cent higher than 2020, but drilling into that makes for even worse reading. Residential emissions up over 7 per cent, domestic transport emissions up over 10 per cent, agricultural emissions up almost 2 per cent. What analysis has been done as to how other countries are meeting their targets and, thus, where the Scottish Government is failing? Is the reason that the Scottish Government has not reported on Scotland's per capita emissions since 2019 simply because the rest of the UK has significantly lower per capita emissions? Liam Kerr wants to discuss comparators between countries. I am quite happy to do so. He is quite perfectly correct to point out that there has been a rebound in transport activity and, therefore, emissions between 2020 and 2021. That has created a 2.4 per cent emissions increase, but if we want to compare that, that compares with a 4.4 per cent rebound across the UK. If I can tell him that I am less concerned about how Scotland compares with our UK and with other nations throughout the world, what I am interested in is making sure that the Scottish Government and this Parliament are setting the right suite of policies to deliver a just transition to net zero against the targets that we have set here. To be honest, it is extraordinary to be being lectured by Liam Kerr on climate change. He would be forgiven, Presiding Officer, for forgetting that the Tories voted for Scotland's 2045 net zero target, because they have systematically stood in the way of virtually every game-changing policy that this Government has tried to pursue in advancing those targets, whether it is opposing low emission zones, not just good for emissions reduction but good for public health, whether it is U turning on DRS, whether it is opposing regulation of heat in buildings. That is why their colleagues down south are doing everything that they can to continue opening coal mining in the rest of the UK. The people of Scotland will not forgive the Tories for their apparent denial of climate change and nor, more importantly, will future generations. We urgently need our Governments to work together nationally and locally, so the Scottish Government needs to stop using net zero as a constitutional battle and use their powers that they have to the max to tackle our climate emergency. Cabinet Secretary, we are retrofitting our homes, tackling fuel poverty, delivering the community and co-operative heat and power projects that we need right across the country, affordable buses and trains, and fixing the broken EV chargers. Yesterday, Cabinet Secretary, we launched our clean energy labour's mission, and the SNP criticised that it is too little, too late. They, not us, are the Government, and our plans go way beyond today's statement. So will the Cabinet Secretary admit that she does not have the plans currently in place to meet our Parliament's net zero targets? Isn't she embarrassed that 35 per cent of our households live in fuel poverty? Will she commit to replacing the thousands of bus services our communities have lost so that we can actually deliver the just transition all of our constituents urgently need? I have been quite clear that I am disappointed to have so narrowly missed the 2021 emissions target. 1.2 per cent is 1.2 per cent too much, and I recommit this Government to doing everything that we can to continue to narrow the gap between our reality and our targets. Not least, as I set out in my statement, will we do that by consulting this year on a heat and buildings consultation to regulate efficiency and heating systems, and I look forward to her support on that. She talked about working jointly. We are currently working with COSLA to finalise our route map to decarbonise 20 per cent or to reduce the car kilometres driven by 20 per cent. But notwithstanding that I agree with the fact that we have to have a rapid and fair transition away from fossil fuels and that the unlimited extraction of fossil fuels is incompatible with climate change, forgive me for not having any faith in what Keir Starmer set out yesterday. First, are we supposed to believe that the net zero pledges will not just become the next thing that he flip-flops on? Having abandoned a £28 billion green prosperity funding, that one has been shredded. Just regarding GB energy, are we supposed to be grateful that a UK Government will potentially open part of its department to oversee our renewable resources, when successive UK Governments of every kind have squandered hundreds of billions of pounds from the North Sea, with very little of that reinvested into Scotland? We need to have succinct questions and answers. Forgive me, I do not have faith in what Keir Starmer set out. Glasgow's low emissions zone is a great step forward and a real boost to the health of glass regions that have struggled with poor air quality. Can the cabinet secretary say if there will be any more such initiatives? Does she share my disappointment that some politicians say that they support the overall targets, but when it comes to practical steps they oppose them? John Mason is absolutely right. The low emissions zones in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Dundee are an exemplar of very close working between Scottish Government and our local authorities. I am very proud of the very close joint working that we did to have them set up. They are an example of progress being made on emissions reduction for our climate and for our environment. They are an example of a strong intervention in support of public health, where we know that young people and older people in particular are susceptible to damage from emissions. I am very proud that they are up and running, not least because of the way that they were brought in, but also because of what they deliver for the people of Scotland. I would say that the opposition that we have had on low emissions zones from the Tories, and perhaps more surprisingly from Labour, appears like political posturing in the face of something really positive. I call Edward Mountain to be followed by Alice Rallan. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Reducing energy used to heat houses is critical if we are to reduce our emissions, as the Cabinet Secretary has just suggested. We will no doubt promote the heat in buildings bill that is going to be bought forward later. The EPC system is not fit for purpose and not supported by industry. In order to help Scotland achieve its submission targets, will the cabinet secretary commit to introducing a new system to replace the discredited EPC system? Thank you, Edward Mountain, for the question, which is very relevant to a lot of the work that we need to do this year. 150,000 households in Scotland are already benefiting from investment that the Scottish Government has put forward to support energy efficiency and zero emissions heating systems, but that needs to be scaled up very rapidly indeed. There are two things that we have done. The new build heat standard, which has just been introduced—I think that that is an excellent initiative. People say constituency to me, Mary, why on earth are we rebuilding new houses with fossil fuel heating systems, so that will see to that. On the direct point that Edward Mountain raises about EPC, I would expect that all of that can be looked at as we consult on a heat in buildings bill, looking at efficiency and looking at heating systems. I encourage him and any others with views about the system to feed into that consultation. Given that Westminster is evidently intent on undermining the right of this Parliament to pass legislation in devolved areas, how can we rely on our current devolved powers to pass legislation that impacts on the climate crisis? Does the cabinet secretary agree with me that the only way to resolve the situation is not for UK Government departments to have Scottish addresses, but for this Parliament to have the normal powers of a normal Parliament? Presiding Officer, I quite agree that there are a litany, sadly, of actions that are critical to responding with the pace and the scale that the climate emergency demands of us, that do not sit in Scotland, do not sit with this Parliament. They rest, unfortunately, in London with Governments that we do not elect. Whether that is carbon capture utilisation and storage is absolutely critical to decarbonising industry. It is inexplicable that the UK Government did not support the ACORN project in its track 1, and we still await confirmation of the timing for track 2, whether it is the gas network, whether it is transmission charging. I dearly wish that we had all of those powers in this Parliament, not least over Scotland's own resources. As I said in my statement, I will very much look forward to the day when Scotland is an independent nation and we have those powers. Once again, the largest source of Scottish greenhouse gas emissions is domestic transport, so it is welcome that, last summer, the Scottish Government finally released new powers in the 2019 Transport Act, which enabled new publicly-owned bus companies to be established for the first time since Tory bus deregulation in 1986, because transport emissions will not change unless we change who owns our public transport. However, as highlighted by friends of the earth, Scotland's new powers without funding are essentially worthless. In Greater Manchester, it is estimated that the total cost of franchising is £135 million. The Scottish Government's community bus fund is just £1 million, so will the cabinet secretary be honest about her intentions? Does she want to see our buses brought back into public ownership, and if so, what additional funding will she add to the community bus fund? I am afraid that I did not catch all of the question, although I was trying to listen quite intently, but I quite agree that it was a very positive step when legislation saw the devolution of those powers to local authorities. I quite understand that, when powers as important as that are transferred, we need to continue to work with one another as central government and local government on the implementation of that. Certainly, my door is always open to local authorities to COSLA, if they want to raise with me about the implementation of that. She is absolutely right that transport is one of the highest-emitting sectors. Encouraging people to use public transport and, preferably, public transport that is decarbonised is one of the most important things. That is why I am very proud that more than 2.3 million people in Scotland can use our bus network for free and that we have invested to allow companies to purchase 548 new net zero emissions buses. I call Stuart McMillan to be followed by Liam McArthur. The cabinet secretary outlined what opportunities there are for the opposition parties to propose alternative ideas to help them to form the next climate change plan, which she agreed with me that, when it comes to doing more to tackle the climate emergency and from DRS to the workplace, parking, levy or low emissions zones, it is simply not good enough for the opposition parties to play politics and oppose for the opposition's sake. I absolutely agree just on the latter point. The climate emergency, the twin-nector emergency and the threat that that poses not just to us here in Scotland but across the world and in particular to communities in the global south who are currently on the front line of its worst aspects, that ought to focus the minds of members of this chamber to move away, I hope, from political positioning and into a position where we can agree across party boundaries that progress does need to be made. On that note, I mentioned that we are developing our next climate change plan. I have set up a climate change plan advisory group on which members of every party was invited and a number of them attend, and I would ask them to bring their ideas to that forum. Nobody has a monopoly on the ideas for this great challenge that we face, and I welcome ideas from every side of the chamber. I thank the cabinet secretary for early sight of her statement but expressed disappointment at the use again of constitutional grievance to deflect blame for the failure of the Government to meet its targets. Of course, that has been a repeated failure with the Committee of Climate Change criticising the lack of detailed plans for getting us back on track, and that includes the revised plan in 2021. In the areas of transport and domestic heating, we are going backwards. Can the cabinet secretary outline for the benefit of Stuart McMillan and the rest of the chamber what plans the Government has to use the powers at its own disposal to take forward the scale of national insulation programme needed to improve energy efficiency, reduce emissions and cut bills? I have already said a number of times in my statement and in response to a number of other members that we have made two significant steps forward as regards heating buildings, because I recognise their contribution to emissions. First, the new bill's heating standard, and secondly, the very wide-ranging and ambitious heat and buildings bill consultation that we will launch very shortly. It will speak to both energy efficiency and to regulation of heating systems. On the point of constitutional grievance, I take my role and my colleagues in Government take our role to deliver that for Scotland and as a contribution to the world very, very seriously. That is not constitutional positioning. How does Liam McArthur expect us to deliver carbon capture utilisation and storage, which is so critical to the decarbonisation of industry when the powers to do so do not sit in this Parliament and when the UK Government down the road are sitting on their hands? The £500 million Just Transition Fund for the North East and Murray is vital to ensuring our energy transition does not replicate what Thatcher did to our mining and steel communities. Can the cabinet secretary provide any information as to whether the UK Government have agreed to work cooperatively and match the fund? Our Just Transition Fund and through it, we have so far allocated £75 million in funding in support of projects and communities across the North East and Murray to create new jobs, to support innovation and to secure the highly skilled workforce that we would all accept is critical to a Just Transition. That work is happening right now. The Just Transition in Scotland is not just words with this Government, it is action that we are delivering it right now. Sadly, despite repeated calls for UK Government to match our £500 million Just Transition Fund, I have yet to have a positive response on that front. One of the Scottish Government's key environmental targets is to reduce food waste by one third by 2025. To stay on track, we should be reducing food waste by an average of 33,000 tonnes per year. Can the cabinet secretary tell the chamber what the average yearly reduction has been since the target was set in 2016? I do not have that figure in front of me. I think that the member probably expected that that would be the case, but I would be more than happy to furnish him with that after my statement. I have to point again to the extreme irony of the Tories lecturing me on recycling when their own party has just not only in the Scottish Parliament refused to respond. Members, we need to hear the response from the cabinet secretary. Not only are members of the Scottish Parliament standing in the way of the development of the DRS, but their colleagues in Westminster are actually undermining the devolution settlement in a quite extraordinary way. Members, we will not make any progress if we are all speaking at the same time as the cabinet secretary. The hypocrisy no is no bounds. The cabinet secretary is right to highlight the record investment in active travel, the free buses for over 2 million people and with the removal of peak time railfares coming in the autumn, the dial is certainly starting to shift towards a greener and fairer transport future. What more action does the Government need to take to reduce transport demand? What is the role of the UK Government in securing that reduction in transport demand? What is the role for other parties in this chamber who are very quick to sign up to targets and then very weak when it comes to taking the necessary action that is needed to tackle the growth in transport demand? Today's emissions statistics show that car emissions continue to be the largest share of transport emissions, and that is why, as I set out, we are working with COSLA to finalise that 20 per cent reduction in car kilometres route map. Simultaneously, we have commissioned research exploring equitable options for demand management in order to discourage car use. The member asked about UK Government actions. The UK Government has acknowledged in its own net zero review that revenues from existing motoring taxes will decline sharply this decade as we transition away from fossil fuels and the taxes based on them. However, the UK Government has so far consistently not set out how it will address that. Reforms to transport taxes will be critical to meeting net zero targets, and I would not just encourage, but for the sake of emissions reduction, for the sake of Scotland's moral obligation and fulfilling our obligations to climate change, I would ask them to very quickly get on with that. Tree planting forms are part of the reduction of greenhouse emissions and carbon capture in Scotland. While Scotland outperforms the rest of the UK in the creation of New Woodland, I understand that industry is facing significant challenges in securing contractors to carry out replanting. Can I ask the Scottish Government what steps they are taking to rectify those issues? I am a significant proponent of forestation. Trees are not only good for biodiversity, but of course they absorb emissions from our atmosphere sequestering at way and storing it. Evelyn Tweed is quite right to point out both that 75 per cent of planting in the UK is happening in Scotland, but equally as we ramp up the contribution of the forestry industry that has been hampered of late in matters including employment. My colleague, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, has been pressing UK counterparts on the matter for some time, and I am sure that she will be happy to update the member on her progress in that regard. That concludes the statement. There will be a short pause before we move on to the next item of business to allow front bench teams to change positions should they wish. Thank you.


Hi everyone, I am joining you here from the iconic and beautiful and stunning and historic Guild in Derry, London Derry after the access to finance conference this morning So I was delighted to emcee this for the third year in the row with inter trade Ireland Invest Northern Ireland and the British Business Bank, and I wanted to share a couple of things with you Of course, I will share the key insights that came out of the day But I also would like to tell you about their format One of the things I really like about this conference is this At the end of the day, so today's conference started at 9 and it finished promptly at half 1 But at the end of it what they invited everybody to do was to fill out this card So you can see it here and on this card on the back of it is my action plan for funding growth My key takeaways my actions my introductions So you can see here the way that they give this to everybody and on the front of the card is a QR code And on that QR code There is a link then to the speaker bios to a gallery of resources to the feedback form to all sorts of things But what I really like is that they actually ask people to take the time to think about what they've got out of the event What they're going to do as a result of the event and who they want to meet after the event And the reason I really like that is a lot of us leave Conferences and we're full of excitement and we're going to do all sorts of things and we're inspired and we're going to go home Now we're going to think about a B and C we're going to take time out and think about it over coffee and all sorts And then you go back out and you see your emails and your slack messages and so on like that So I really like the way they do this But the other thing is that I had the opportunity as the emcee to walk around and to talk to every table as well Talk to everybody at every table and ask them well, what are your key takeaways? And what are you going to do and from there then I shared that summary back with everybody from the stage So then everybody else could see what the key takeaways were the reason I really like that as a format is because it Helps everybody to take the time to distill what they're going to do and what impact it's going to have and It also definitely helps with the networking It definitely helps with helping people really think about the impact of the event and also of course It gives feedback to everybody about everybody now throughout the day There was the folk first of all the folks was in debt was specifically alternative debt And then the second one was equity there was a case study in both cases I really like that as well they bring on people to talk about what it was like to walk the walk And then the other thing was that we had a panel discussion then with alternative debt providers Including a broker and everybody that has tagged up there in this post And then we also had another panel discussion about good governance neds as in non executive directors and networks so this gave the Building blocks of what leads to successful equity investment or at least what can partly set yourself up for that anyway Now the insights that I would like to share with you is number one is that it's important when engaging well in business I suppose in general, but particularly in in debt borrowing is to come up with your personal survival plan if The business venture doesn't work out and if you are in a state where you need to consider how you're going to handle your own stress Test it's just it's a very good thing to do. It gives you confidence. It gives the lender provider confidence, etc Second thing this came up again and again and again and again and again today is knowing your figures now Whilst it came up many times I sometimes wonder whether people know well what figures am I supposed to know so think about what are your profit margins per product? Per segment if your market is segmented and per target market look at it per year So knowing your profit margins and there's two in particular to know one is your gross profit And the second one is your net profit now certain or entities as well We'll look for your EBITDA and EBITDA is earnings before interest tax Depreciation and amortization and that isn't a figure that's directly on your account. It needs to be worked backwards Your accountant will help you find it no problem But that's often the language that they're talking about knowing your projections and also a range of other things that I'm going to mention here But just being comfortable with your numbers I'll tell you one thing that I do is that when I'm watching something like shark tank or dragons den is that I Listen to the questions being asked in the pitches and I answer them myself So I use that as a dress rehearsal for me to just critique how well I know the numbers in the business So that's free for any of you check it out the player now another thing is Know where you're going and bring people in to help you this came up a lot as well as the role of business mentors the role of Mentoring from the agencies from professional advisors from people who've done it before from your network is you don't have to go this journey on your own at all and Understanding where you want to go and looking at the journey in which you're taking it can help when you people on the from an external Uninvested perspective to help you make that just make a difference with that. Also, don't wait to look for money Don't wait until you need it to look for money Whether that's debt or equity starts that conversation much earlier than you need so that then you have the run-in and As in the runway in I should say and also you have the relationships built for then when you need to Activate them. It's very important to know your time particularly if you're looking at equity time is total addressable market And it's also even more important to know what realistically you can achieve within that or what you want to go after Now also, there was a conversation around the softer side of equity. You know what I mean by that is I asked the first person a question Ryan Williams, I asked him that question I asked Mary McKenna that question a few few people I asked today that question and that is What benefit is finance apart from money? And the answer of course is the network. It can be the when you have people who are investing in your business access to their network Their direct maybe access to labor markets access to customers and if you're engaging with a debt provider Their critique of your business can also help you refine and direct where you're going and all sorts of things like that but there is a soft side of Engaging with finance providers Relationships are everything and that's why events like today are so important is to enable people to get out and meet Meet people when it comes to bringing in a non-executive director Larissa Feeney had a super answer for this because a lot of people said like what were you looking for when you look for a Ned and she said I identify the skills gaps in the business and from there I then thought about what do what skills do I need to bring on the board and then she made her decisions from there But she didn't start off thinking well, what Ned could I get her who might be out there? It is she identified the skills gap first the a lot of people talked about back yourself and being confident Now that's easier said than done But what I will say is backing yourself comes from being clear about your own numbers your own narrative knowing the business You're as an entrepreneur or somebody directly involved in the business You're going to know it better than anybody else and just being sure of that I think confidence comes from a couple of different places like having been there already before knowing that whatever you've done before you Can do it again? It comes from having successful meetings with finance providers It comes from learning from these types of events It comes from sharing your experience with other people and them gaining insights from you All of that can help you build your confidence The point also was that the conference is called Access to Finance But what particularly was reinforced here is that number one there is money to be got Whether it's debt and equity and number two there are a range of options to get there The challenge is actually refining them down so you know exactly which ones you want to pursue And also what came up in the summary afterwards from people is that sense of not everybody has it figured out And you don't have to do it all in the one day but do work on it consistently over time Now in addition other points that came up here is that your network can be very helpful in helping you to sift around to where to start And some people spoke about the power of a network is when it comes to who could I talk to about this particular initiative Like an innovation voucher or any of the supports that Interstate Ireland invests in our British Business Bank offer But also the benefit of a broker is that sometimes it can be better to go to a broker Particularly for the larger amounts of money or where you need to arrange a combination of finances Going to a broker who can then do the research on your behalf and bring you back an array of options and help you choose In addition as well there was a conversation today had that Access to Finance shouldn't just be about the business owner Or the the the CFO or the financial director in a business But also those conversations are often had then back with the professional services like the accountant and their solicitors And that is because people trust them of course and just having the same Continuity of that conversation around I'm thinking of raising money What do you think what do you think of going down the route of alternative finance instead of traditional finance? But it was also raised that of course professional services people need to keep up to date with What those options are and to be aware of their own biases among them also There was a big focus naturally enough as you can imagine on mentoring reaching out for that objective voice And there's a lot of mentoring available by the business agencies and by the councils and and of course you can always go privately as well and some people spoke about the role of a Ned could really have professionalized the business and Of course a lot of people can be working on the business and in the business at the same time And a Ned can can bring some clarity to that Some people also spoke about it's important that funders know the impact of the money So that they can really go the distance with the business and understand what to do and also loads of people today commented on the female representation that was on the Panels on the fact that Awaken Angels is now up and running But all saw that the people from White Rock and from Clarendon Brilliant women who were able to bring a lot of insights to the conversation We had lots of people who brought a variety of perspectives to it And I have to say again too I want to say a massive thank you to Susan McCain from British Business Bank To Patrick Dure from Invest and I and also to Shane O'Hanlon at Intertrade Ireland for giving me the opportunity to be here. You're just brilliant people and thank you so much indeed


Hi, welcome to the All Things LGBTQ Interview Show where we interview LGBTQ guests who are making important contributions to our communities. All Things LGBTQ is taped at Orca Media in Montpelier, Vermont, which we recognize as being unceded indigenous land. Thanks for joining us and enjoy the show. Hi, everybody out there in Vermont and All Things LGBTQ welcomes you and Stam Sam Stockwell, who is running for mayor of Barrie. Hi Sam. Hi Linda, thanks for having me. Well, this is very exciting. You are the third woman I think to run, two others lost. Is that correct? And the first queer or lesbian candidate to run in Barrie ever. Yeah, the first, certainly the first openly queer candidate to ever run in Barrie. Yeah, that's great. Congratulations. Thank you. And you got some reading reviews from the former mayor, Jake Hammerick, who says he couldn't be happier that you're running and that he can't think of a better person to run and he's in total support of your running. So that's a great endorsement from the outgoing mayor. It is a great endorsement and I really appreciate what Jake has done, what he's tried to do. And he's just been such a great tutor for me and a great support. And so people, there's a little confusion, I think, about when people are actually voting. So in March, they're not voting, right? But they could vote for you in April or? No. No. You're kind of close. There is, tomorrow is town meeting date number one. Right. And that will elect the school board members and it will vote on the school budget. And then on May 14, there'll be a second town meeting and that will be to elect a mayor, council members and pass the city, the very city budget. So the reason this happened is because the flood was so devastating, the town, the city could not be sure of, you know, what was going to be lost for revenue, what was going to be help we receive from the legislature. So putting it off a little until we knew where the legislature was going to maybe pump in some money to help flood damage cities. That was the reason we delayed. That's the reason we have two town meetings. Because you didn't previously to this, correct? Have two towns? Oh, no, never. I mean, it's confusing for people. It's confusing. Yeah. So okay, great. So people can vote for you on May 14. So if they wanted to contact you or volunteer or help, where would they do that? I have a Facebook page, which is still titled Sam Stockwell for Ward 3. And that would be the best way to contact me. I'm working on a website to get that up and running. I hope to have that up within the next week. But messaging me on Facebook is probably the quickest, fastest way. Okay, great. Or you can text me or call me because my cell phone is on the city website. That's great. And you'll need people for phone calling and walking door to door and whatever it is that people can volunteer for. And money, of course. All would be welcomed. I would take any and all volunteers, yes. So tell us a little, I know you so I know that you're a fabulous poet and have numerous amounts of books out there. And you know, in other countries, I think people are poets and writers are revered as public politicians or speakers for the culture and, you know, are really respected in, you know, I think that's less than the United States, but, you know, unfortunately. But I think that puts you in a kind of unique group of people who make changes, you know, whether they're artists or whatever. So why did you decide to run? I decided to run because I'd had a vision of the city when I was first on council. And a lot of the my vision of the city is based upon my experience as a home visitor and working in human service programs and seeing how hard it was for people to make a living. For people who are doing what we, you know, we used to consider working class jobs or entry level jobs, they simply cannot get ahead. It's not like it was 20 or 30 years ago, because the disparity between what minimum wage should be and what it is, it just makes it impossible. So I had this vision that we could do low-end condos in the city, we could do low-end condos in tiny houses and we have a variety of housing options. So that people who have low incomes or fixed incomes could still have a capital investment. So my vision was that someone who's an LNA, right, and they're working at buried gardens or they're working at any of the nursing homes, they could have a low-end condo and we could have great and excellent and affordable childcare available to everyone. So their child is in a good childcare program. The mom's got a capital investment that's going to work out for her and we have public transportation that works so she doesn't need to own a car to get three miles up the hill. So that was my idea was that then we stabilize sort of a generation of folks who work so they can have better lives and at this point that's really virtually impossible. That's one of the reasons I'm running. There's 121 children who are homeless in the various city schools. That just breaks my heart. And so housing continues to be at the top of my list. We have to do all kinds of housing. Whatever people want to do for housing, short of creating another housing development, you know, another subsidized housing project, I think is good. I know that I was reading some way that there was a project, I think it was Colorado or somewhere where people were selling a portion of their land for people to build on a small house or a trailer or, you know, whatever it was.  And I think yours are fabulous. Are you going to have a hard time trying to push this agenda? Do you think or? I think I was having a hard time pushing this agenda when I first started and so was Jake, who's very knowledgeable about housing possibilities. And what you're talking about, the accessory dwelling unit. That is, that is now in the state of Vermont, anyone can do an accessory dwelling unit in their backyard if they wish to. Thank you. And that's great news, right? But I think now it's become such an issue for everybody, but the hospital can't hire people because there isn't a place for them to live. And the school has difficulty hiring people because there isn't enough places for them to live. And the motel program is not. It's just not a good option for people. It tends to move people around from motel to motel. It's not very stable. And I convinced that stability of housing security, knowing you have enough food, knowing that you have some stability in your life, is necessary to have some sort of intellectual emotional life that's not focused on your immediate survival. There's a Ted talk by Louise Fresco, and she was talking about how people idealize when we were all farmers, you know, when everyone raised their own crops.  If you were farming, you worked from sunlight to sundown, and you could never tell what was going to happen to your crops. And it's somewhat the same, and therefore the intellectual life of people or their potential to contribute to their community was limited by the fact that they were physically exhausted. We have a similar situation, I think, now with people working two or three service jobs to try to make enough money to pay the rent.  And, you know, if you have family members out of the house all of the time, it's really hard.  And I can't believe a hundred and something homeless children in very schools. In very schools alone. That's an amazing statistic and very sad. Yeah. And when I, when I started living in the very about eight years ago, the, the poverty rate was about 22%, which is really high for a lot. But now it's heading up towards 24%. So this isn't the trend that I think I don't want to see it. I don't think anybody else wants to see that trend. And how do you differ from, you know, maybe you may have a Republican opponent, do you find there's a split in Barry the way there is in the rest of the country in terms of politicians and how they view the future? Things are certainly polarized on the council and in the city. And it does reflect the nation as a whole. I don't yet have an opponent. So it's hard for me to say, I would say that my experience in home visiting has made me able to understand how difficult it is to make a living if you don't have some sort of family support or family help or a little bit of money somewhere or a break somewhere. And I think for the people who are more conservative Republicans, they just don't see that either because their experience, they haven't experienced it personally, or they don't know people personally who have that, would have those challenges or they can't imagine it. I think sometimes people think it's just like it was, you know, it's just like it was many years ago and they want to turn back to an earlier Barry city, but that time is gone. And Barry city has to face the real challenges of now, which the flood I think has brought home to everybody. The flood has made clear that the future direction of Barry city has got to be quite different. We can't just develop anywhere we feel like it. And Barry, you know, has. I always had like real potential to be a vibrant city. I know there's been a lot of projects like Rainbow Bridge and restaurants that are going to bring some vitality to downtown. So are there other things you envision for downtown that will make it a more vibrant city? Well, I do think childcare would be an enormous help, or at least nearby childcare that that everyone in the in the city could use. I think converting some office space to housing would be really would help bring some vibrancy. Fox Market is coming and I don't know what their timeline is, but I think that will be really exciting. A couple of new places have opened. Tally has opened recently, and that's a sort of analog old fashioned games place with pool tables. I think all these things where people have different reasons to come to Barry City for different activities that helps.  Your streets are safer. They have different things to go to your streets are better. City planning means you try to create these vibrant places where, you know, there's a sports field nearby and there's a there's the Barry Opera House and there are three or four restaurants and there's a movie theater. So I think the more different kinds of activities you have for people. The greater cross section of people you draw, which is what you really need. I think of White River and White River Junction has transformed itself. In part, that's been due to the arts. The theater there is really important. Some of the visual arts there are really important, but it's drawn a ton of different people to White River. And of course, I think they must have at least doubled their housing in the downtown. Yeah, the housing is is well, it's a struggle for the whole state well, for the whole country, really, is there just is not enough housing for people to live in and to afford.  So they just buy them and that really locks out people who are working hard, saving their money and trying to buy a house. It just locks them out of the market entirely, which is which seems really unfair. Yes, it's unfair. And that's part of what happened. You know, the flood is the flood affected people who got homes on the lower end of the scale because they were in the flood zone and it was affordable. And for many years, it worked pretty well. And maybe it would have continued working well if there was more of a. If there was more of a river buffer or, you know, the city invested more in raising breaches and increasing the size of the culverts. But it didn't. So the people who are affected by the flood mostly were people of low to middle income. You put them up on stilts. That's part of the plan, although I know a river scientist who says no, no. Well. So on day one, you're going to get in there and get going, right? Like hopefully before day one.  And the good thing about me running at this point in time is that I know a lot of people in the city and I know their level of expertise. So I had people I can go to with my ideas and say, is this possible? Is it doable? And the city, the city manager has just been just been terrific. And so the city staff throughout this, the crisis of the flood. So there's a lot of people to draw on for figuring out the next steps for the for the path ahead. So when you get into office, what are you going to what are you going to start with? Do you think? When I start with, well, I'd want to make sure that I mean, I pretty much continue the direction that the mayor is already pointing things in and the council is pointing things in because you can't just say, OK. I am not queen. But I want to make sure we're doing everything we can. And not losing sight of people with low incomes. It's so it's so complex. Like when you think about housing, it's such a complex issue, right? Because you want to make it available for people. But you but I think part of the problem in most of our cities is that we have these huge separations so that people don't know each other. People who are upper middle class in in Ward one don't necessarily know anybody in Ward three who is working at Cumberland Farms. So at the housing in the city design supports integration of all kinds that I think would break down some of those barriers. But it's not easy to do. So when when we're talking about planning for new development to replace some of the some of the properties that have been destroyed, we're thinking about like, how can we do that in an inclusionary way? How can we make it so that there's in any one apartment building there's some market rate and there's some affordable apartments so people aren't like saying those people over there. Yeah, we don't not not not in our backyard. Right, not in our backyard. And what about like, I know, Montpelier has a very active senior center and Barry has a senior center. And I think, you know, that's really important for people to to be you know, they have those kind of resources in a center. And you know, how is Barry doing with that? You know, I'm I don't know much about the senior center in Barry City. I've been there and we got a spaghetti dinner there once. But I don't know. I think, you know, like all of the nonprofits, it could certainly benefit from more funding. And that's dependent upon having more people in town. So all those things relate to each other. I'm sorry, I don't know more about this in your center. I should. Hey, I just was, you know, it's just like another group of people that are sometimes overlooked, as we know. Yeah. And I think the city's walkability is, you know, that's something that makes a huge difference for people who still need to be out and be active. And but if you have any sort of, you know, visual impairment or physical impairment, if your cities are not easily walkable, it makes it much harder. And then you have people who cannot easily join activities and you really want them, right? You want everybody. Yeah. And I know you. So I know from your background and also mine that, you know, there were some hardships growing up and some, you know, reasons for why we ended up where we did. And I think, you know, how did that? Did that growing up make you much more sensitive? It would seem to me that you are two class issues and fighting for the underdog and making sure that people have what they need. And I really respect that in you. And I think it's a really, really important place to be coming from. So do you want to speak to that at all? All right. Or sure. I think class differences are huge and becoming huge. You're up when my parents moved around because my father couldn't always make a living. And they would, yeah. So they would I grew up most of what I remember is growing up in rural Maine. And then we moved to a really wealthy suburb in Connecticut. And we were not. We were living in this old farmhouse that sometimes had running water and sometimes didn't. And there was no refrigerator and it had a wood stove, which my mother was so depressing. It was like going back to her childhood anyway. So we were living this incredibly, incredibly wealthy town where the houses like across from us would have maids and maids rooms.  It was it was like a different world because it was a different world. Like the kids went to France for their summer vacations. You know, we went to see my grandparents. They were half an hour away, really pretty different. And we at that point, sometimes my parents are really poor. As I got older, they got more solid working class, really. My father got solid working factories. But at one point, these. Wealthy people invited us over for dinner. And they really did. They had a maids room. They had three floors. The kids had their own floor. Their own each child had their own bathroom. It was very nice. And we were fed, you know, we weren't starving at that point. We weren't we weren't really hungry. But I was we were playing a game. And I was running through the house with the child who was my age. And I went through the kitchen and there in their kitchen was the leftovers of their dinner, which was this huge roast. Right. It was like the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen in my life. And I just stopped.  And and the mom was there and my mother was there. It was really sort of awkward. You know, we weren't starving. I just want to stress that, but we weren't eating anything like that. And probably had never eaten anything like that. And she said, are you hungry? And I said, oh, no, I wasn't hungry. And my mother said, no, no, we have we have plenty of food. So it was this awkward moment. But it was also a moment of such depth, you know, of like the divide that. You know, we we would not dream of having that kind of meal ever. That was not going to happen for us. So that whole year for me was an astonishing revelation of how other people lived. And it wasn't just on TV that people really could have these lives while the people next door to them could be hoping that they would get a refrigerator. At that point, my mother had a I have a sister who's 10 years younger and she was she was a little baby then. So I'm not having a refrigerator meant that the milk had to be kept in a cooler. And my father had to lug home ice. You know, it wasn't terrible hardship, but it was a little difficult. And especially when there was no running water, because, you know, whatever the water, the well was dry or got clogged up, it was a hard way to live and isolating. We stuck out a bit. We were not like the others. So that brought you to where you are now. Yeah, it really did make a lasting impression that that there are huge divides and that people who looked on the other side of the divide weren't necessarily cognizant of how great a divide it was, right? Because they're not. They can't see the lives of people who are invisible to them. Just like people can't see the lives of the work that serves them at Christchopper. Yeah, yeah, just invisible lives. Well, I for one am really glad that you are here and champion champion. The cause of working class. People, I mean, I know you're working for the whole city, and that's really important. But, you know, that you have an eye on the equalities that sometimes come in a city and a culture and that you're there to fight for people, their rights, their ability to speak and be heard. And I think you're going to be a dynamic, wonderful mayor of Barry. Do you have do you have any last party words for our audience?  That'd be great. Yeah, I would just like to say the experience of being queer is another experience of being invisible in many ways. Yeah. And. And it brings to mind how do you know you're welcomed, you know, in a city and a building and anything that that those experiences of being poor and those experiences of being queer and especially in the time. I'm really helpful for developing a lasting empathy for. For everyone who doesn't feel like this is about them. This election, this city, this country, it is, it's deeply about everyone. Well, thank you, Sam, and good luck. And and I will certainly be there with the phone banks and whatever else you need. So take care and good luck. We'll see you later. Thanks. Bye. Hi, everybody. I'm here with Kim Ward, who is a local Renaissance person. I'm sure the audience has seen her in many incarnations. She is an occasional sub on our show, but also she's very renowned in the theater world and now has a new collection of poetry that we're here to talk about and celebrate. Welcome, Kim. Thank you. Nice to be here. It's great to have you. Let me start, if I may, by reading your bio just for in case just to remind the audience of your many roles that and perhaps that you wear. Kim Ward is a poet, playwright, visual and theater artist. She is the founder of the Vermont Playwright Circle and received her MFA in performance poetry from Godford College in 1998. Her poem, Angel in the Fire, which is included in this collection, received the 1999 Playwrights Showcase Award by the Vermont Actors and Theater Artists Association and was also accepted into the New Frontiers Conference in 2000. And now it appears in this collection. She has lived in Montpelier for over 20 years and teaches English at Norwich University. Very impressive. I first met you, I think. Maybe I was introduced by one of your colleagues who is an actor and playwright, Devorah Zipkin. I think maybe. But maybe because I know you've been following poetry for many years and I might have met you at a poetry reading. Let's switch immediately to this wonderful collection that is due to appear on April 23rd. It's called Fire on a Circle. And let me read you a short prescription of that.  Fire on a Circle is an exploration of the fires we traverse to become our true selves. Written in free verse, verse, monologue and ancient Nordic formats that's so cool. We'll talk about that. These poems date for the roots of the spirit through exploration of survival, self-discovery and a passion for connection to the author's ancestors and landscape. Landscape plays a little bit of a part in this collection and it's not the pastoral landscape often associated with Vermont. That's one feature I love about the poems. Grounded in years of poetic and runic studies Ward weaves the mothers of her family, the struggles against addiction and pagan practice throughout this debut poetry collection. And we'll put a picture of the cover of the collection up right now so that viewers can look for it and purchase it. I assume as it comes out. And let's start out. You're going to do a couple of readings in the near future of what we want to announce. You're going to appear at the Kellogg Public Library on April 8th in a Queer Poets Read Panel involving a couple of other queer poets and they're going to read in honor of poem city. And that should be great. And you've done group readings before in those kinds of contexts. And then a launch really is going to occur on April 13th. Also at the Kellogg Public Library. Can you tell us a little about that? Yeah, three of us have books coming out from Rootstock in April. And so we will all three be reading as a bit of a book launch that day. And people can always with my book isn't technically up to the 23rd, but you can pre-order it on the Bear Pond Books website right now. And then I can sign it if people want. But there's three of us and I don't have everyone's names in front of me. But I think it'll be a nice collection of readers. It sounds great. And the Queer Poetry reading sounds great, too. I'm going to facilitate. I'm going to moderate. And I think it's a great lineup, including you. Let's start by, if you wouldn't mind just reading a poem for us, just get us off on the right to set the tone. OK, this is the first poem in the book. It's called Movement in D Minor.  It's only a twisting body, knives of light. Slice out and away from her small frame. It is only one short step out of the safety where she sways to the chanting of the crowd.  That's a short one. And that brings me to my first question. The title of your collection is so intriguing. It's called Fire on a Circle. And I looked it up and I saw images of fires on circles. It's very numinous and strange and almost pagan and otherworldly. So tell us a little bit about how you happen to tell the collection that. Yeah, so it's interesting. Angel in the Fire was the name of my master's poetic play. And then I when I started writing the Rune poems, there is a line in one of the poems that says the pursuit is fire on a circle. And so it talks about this pagan. It is absolutely pagan. It's this pagan practice of casting a circle. Fire is very cleansing. It's, you know, sort of appropriate for this time of year, because it's about the south and spring and, you know, energy. So that's why I decided to use that phrase from there. And because each section, I oftentimes use fire imagery in my poetry. Yes. And the third section is called Fire, if I'm not mistaken. Yes. Let's go back a little bit. How did you happen to start writing poetry? I've been writing poetry since I was very little. I very much got influenced by Shakespeare on PBS, you know, watching that and then we'd get these little printings of Shakespeare plays and love them. And I've always like, you know, some people say, oh, I remember when I learned how to read, but I don't remember learning how to read. I joked that I learned in the womb because my mother was very into reading and I just loved it. It captured my attention.  I don't know, because I like science fiction, too. So it's a little weird, but you know, I like that. Yeah, that's how I and I was very much focused on that a lot when I was younger. Where's the women's voices? Right? That was important. Yeah. How did you happen to put together this collection? Because, you know, a lot of the time I knew you. I knew you went to poetry readings, but I didn't realize that you wrote poetry. I knew you were a prominent playwright and active in theatrical circles. But how did you happen to put together this collection?  And then I got through those two hard years of working full time and creating sixty five pages. You had to do sixty five pages of poetry to get your manuscript. It was so intensive that and it was I was very focused on doing plays with poetry that I decided to set the poetry aside for a while and do playwriting and thus Vermont Playwright Circle was founded. And that's how we met. DeVora had you guys come to a workshop, you and Linda. And I was writing poetry, you know, place, place, place. So people didn't know I was a poet and it was good. I needed that sort of reset to do something else. You can't. I felt like I couldn't write poetry and get dialogue out of the page. It was, you know, poetry so dense and images that it was like, what are you writing? So, yeah. And then what happened was I finally started turning back to poetry during the pandemic and after, you know. So it was it was returning to my roots, really, and going to these readings.  And she said, well, you should talk to Kim Ward. And she said, Kim writes poetry. So it was a thing where people just didn't know and think, God, she said something and I began going to readings. And I was at the last year's poetry, Montpelier poetry, poem alive, whatever the heck they call it. And people were like, well, Kim, where's your book? Where's your book? I've got a book. You need to have a book. And Linda said, Kim, you need to have a book. And sure enough, that sort of proceeded from there. And I've known Sam at Rootstock for a long time. And poof, a year later, I've got a book. So it's a good book. It's a great book in fact. So it's a great addition to the literary community here in Vermont. And it's great that you're writing poetry again.  Yes, absolutely. Theatre is one of my first loves as well. They're neck and neck with each other. So. So we've talked about the title a little bit. Is there anything more you want to say about the collection? I mean, the collection is broken into three sections. That first poem that I just read, I literally read, I wrote that as a student in undergraduate school in the 80s. And so there's this whole section of poems, which are in the beginning, sort of these, their love poems and these impressions of artists' moments. And then they move into different sections for different types of poetry that I write. So the first is pursuit. The second is Green Mountain Roads. And the third is fire. How do you happen to sort of come up on that structure? Yeah, so I I kept looking. What what seems to be thematically connected? Where can I put these poems? Because I have different, so many different types. The room poems are so very different. The the fire poems are more like monologue, you know. And the front poems are shorter and more sort of short and sweet. And they're about that younger energy and pursuit of whatever it be, maybe art, maybe love, you know. So that's why I separated in these three sections.  So there was this kind of a tying it all together now. That's great. Well, a very unusual feature is the second section. It's Norse Runes with explanatory footnotes. Could you talk a little about this section? Maybe read a couple of them if you wouldn't mind. Sure. The other thing that started happening for me as I got into middle age was I became a practicing pagan and I took a year off from doing all the work I had done for decades. I worked as a proofreader and I hated it. But I it was good money.  Some people studied, you know, Anglo-Saxon history and some this and some that. I said, you know what, I really tarot cards. You know, what am I going to do for divinatory work? And I said the runes because the runes are about these secrets, these words, these, you know, it's a magic that's writing. And to me, writing is magic. So I started diving really deeply into it. And the German Futhark, which is kind of like you say, alphabet is alpha and beta, right? They're the two Greek words. The Futhark stands for the first few runes. It's sort of an an acronym for the first few runes in that in that 24 number set of runes. And I just started learning them. And then I said, you know, the Germans use these these runes for very terrible reasons. And they really mutated them. They I mean, the swastika was based on the the rune for harvest. Terrible, I didn't know that. And so as I was learning, I thought, oh, my God, do I keep using these runes? But they also most of them are in the Norse tradition and it's the Norse gods that I followed. So Freya, you know, of course, Freya is a very strong character in the Norse. And so I liked the structure that they used within those Norse poems. And I decided I would try to internalize the meanings of each poem by making them. Making a poem that connected them to who I was living in Vermont in modern days. So that's where all these poems come from. That's a long explanation, but that's that's where they come from. And that's that's where I ended up with most of them. For the longest time, I I didn't do there's. So there's 24, there's three sets of et, but they're eight each. So each section has eight runes. And one is for the physical one is for the intellectual and one is for the spiritual. And I haven't quite got through the spiritual. And I keep saying that's because you have to you have to go through the journey of your whole life to really study these. So oh, that's a lot. Yeah, this is and it was a passion of mine for a very long time. So yeah. And so I don't know if you what you might like me to read. But I tried to create a poem in this collection that is not connected to a specific rune but talks about runes in general. So I could start with that one. Yes, please. OK, it's it's called dried ghost.  An empty longboat once filled with settlers. The rune secrets itself inside her chest. The men gather trumpeting for war. Hunting dogs sniff the carving knife. A dried ghost curls under her tongue. It's leaf of death dislodging teeth. Waiting to spring into fruition on the end of the spear.  Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And so the word rune in Scottish literally met secret meeting or secret. So that's why I say the rune is a secret. Yeah. And yeah. And in trying to connect him to me, I felt like they had to be green mountain runes, right? They had to be about Vermont. Of course. And so within the book, because people don't know the words, each each each rune has a definition. So the next poem is the first in the section. It's called Fahoo. And that's F is in Frank, E-H-U. And Fahoo literally met cattle or prosperity. So Fahoo, fussy calf, short pink tongue questing, Fahoo, prosperity. Your cattle are huddled in the field. Fahoo, that fuzzy at the horn root calf. You know, if you come close to the fence, I will offer my hand as a sloppy sacrifice just to feel your slick tongue seeking.  The fields are still wet with dew and my head is full of dreams. Oh, nice.  You couldn't throw a rock without hitting a dairy farm. And that's what baby calves will do, right?  They're like, oh, can I get some food? Right. So it's kind of this give and take. Like Fahoo cattle can give you prosperity, but you also have to feed them and feed farms to keep them going. So that's great. Thank you. What we still have some time on. Tell us a little, if you would, about Rootstock Publishing. Rootstock Publishing is a great group. They work in a hybrid capacity.  And then you have what used to be called vanity printing or what a lot of people know of as online printing or on demand now. And they do a little of both. So you have an editor who walks through the manuscript and helps you hone it and they help you do tons of the publication work and the press. And then you put together, you give them the book if they think it's worthy to work with you on it. And then we print it together. So for the first, you know, people can preorder the book and it comes right through, like, you know, once the main publishing houses, you can just order it online. I was kind of giggling one day because I showed up on Barnes and Noble, you know. I showed it. I giggled this whole thing. Yeah, you're really well worth it. I'm there, right?  I got a little certificate in the mail that said my book was copyrighted. Yeah, so it's a nice combination. And so it's a small press and it cares about the work and it's doing a lot of local people, but that, you know, they're doing folks from far field as well. And Samantha Kober, who owns it, she worked there. And then she bought it out from the other owners.  And just God bless. So they're doing a print run like 500 copies. They don't do it that way. No, so I could have if I wanted. But I pay for the way I'm doing it right now as I'm paying for the print run. And then there's a certain percentage, each of us, the printer. And I mean, the root stock and I get back as we sell books. So it works very well. And there's, you know, they have a couple of different models that people can look at. But a lot of local writers have used them. Ava Zimmett, she had her book, The Lost Grip, which was one of the reasons I get interested in root stock. She didn't really. Yeah, I have it on my shelf. I have all my Vermont poets right here. I have a good poet. I like her work and I love her. Yeah, so this is her book and I got it. I said, beautiful. And she does haiku work, which I love, you know. Yeah, they did good stuff. So, you know, they're really good, good group. And they have a big local presence and you say they're national as well. They're they're printing stuff all over and they're doing it in that same way that a larger company will do. You will you will be out there on all the places you need to be in, where if I self published, I'd be on the corner selling them, you know. I don't have time for that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let me ask you for some concluding commentary. And then I'd like to go out with some poems. OK, OK. So what are your final words to our audience? Oh, well, let me ask you one more question. What would you say to poets who are just starting out or want to get public? What's your advice? Yeah, when I was young and, you know, when I was an undergraduate, I was, you know, 18 and I'd gone to college and I'd finally started working on my work. I said, that's it. I'm going to have a book of poetry when I'm 20 and I'm going to be 58 in May. So I would say the biggest thing is not only be patient, but be persistent. Just put your work out there. Make sure people know you do the work. Right. You know, that's the way to do it. And, you know, just be involved wherever you can. There's a lot of amazing things happening in central Vermont with poetry between the LGBTQ readings and Rabbit and Wolf, who are doing tons of readings around central Vermont. And just get out there and enjoy yourself, but also just push to do it. I mean, it is an incredible poetry scene here in central Vermont. You're absolutely right. It's really an opportune place to be a poet. And, you know, yeah, it's really growing. And I think that's really important to have people around you that you can just commune with, you know, because it's a writer's group or as you know, the one writer's group I meet with the most is the Vermont Playwright Circle. We meet monthly and although we're a playwrights group, I have brought, you know, I brought poems to them before. And there's also a local place called it's the Montpelier Moot, M-O-O-T. And they do all different genres and they do have a website if you look them up. And they do a lot. They actually came off of the Burlington Writers Group. There was a Burlington Writers Group. Then I got very small and the Moot sort of reinvigorated themselves. So they do everything from sci-fi to poetry to other fiction and memoir. Isn't there a Green Mountain Writers Group, too? I think there is. And there's also the Vermont Poetry Society. That's right. That's right. Which, yeah, Joy is now who runs the Robin and Wolf is now the president of the Montpeliers of the Poetry Society. So that's great. That's great. Yeah. Are you joined? I have not. And I told her I'm going to now because I went many years ago and I felt I was very shy and I just felt I don't know any of these people. And I laughed and I never joined it. So I'm definitely intrigued to join it now. She's bringing a lot of young energy to the group. That's great. That's great. I know friends who are members. Linda, for example. Yeah. Yeah. Good. So let me ask you for last words and then we'll go out with some wonderful poetry. Nice. Thank you. I will say, I think I should read Angel in the Fire because Angel in the Fire is a play that I wrote about my grandmother, my mother and my sister and I, these generations of women in Vermont. And, you know, the dedication of my book goes to my mother first because of the love of reading. So an angel, it has more fire in it. So why not? Right? Absolutely. All righty. So Angel in the Fire. I am the girl you brought through the fire. I am the singing angel in the furnace. The voice of the hunting owl as she kills her prey. In the beginning, I was the silent face, all questing eyes and limbs. My early body ready to fling this world off. You are mother of mothers, voice of the ages, soothsayer to the aged. Your life stretches to the top place of crones become infants and daughter become keeper in the stone of your hearth, beat the hearts of tree frogs and the wings of youth while I return to the girl in the tree. The one who lost her voice winter after winter so that I would start up in bed fever, shaking the voice out of me while out in the hall was warm light and the sound of your deep song drifting. Yeah, I got a lot of vocal, like upper respiratory infections as a child. And I would always hear my mother's voice in the hallway. And I would know that everything was OK. And go ahead. It's interesting because there's long poems like that. And then I mentioned haiku earlier and I got very interested in haiku when I was in graduate school and how it began with Renga, which was this party game where you would create a stanza and someone else would do the next stanza. Right. And so some of my poems are very, very tiny as well. We have time for that more. All right. So this is called Harvest Time. And I will tell you the explanation will take longer than the poem. But it's about my grandmother. She grew up on a 250 acre farm in Richmond, where speaking of floods, which you can see my flood painting behind me. When that 19 whatever flood happened way back in the 27th, everyone came up to their farm when it flooded, because it was the only place that was above the water line. But she was like harvesting stuff at eight years old, driving the team. So this poem is called Harvest Time. Red Moon this morning, I am walking barefoot in puddles and find the hogs have been killed uphill. So there you go with that one. So, yeah. And then, you know, what else? So you mentioned, should I read Still Life with Foam? You could or my favorite is Vermont Calendar. Vermont Calendar. Oh, here it is. Yeah, this is one of my newest poems. And I've always said I'd make my own Vermont calendar that doesn't look anything like National Life's. I love it. Vermont Calendar. I wanted to write a poem about Vermont, but no one wants to know about my Vermont. The streets of the trailer park, flooding and freezing in winter. The boys tripping me mercilessly as I crawled my way across that rippled expanse of ice in a dress I've been forced to wear to school. The man whose trailer was the first one at the third entrance, who chopped his wife to pieces as if he could fling her up and make ruby stars by which to navigate his broken heart. Our neighbor, Billy, who decided not to come to the bus stop on Monday because he had a date with a tree and a rope he could not break. I vowed at 16 one day I would make my own foliage counter and send it to Vermont Life for publication with a January full of rusted trailers instead of collapsing, bucolic barns or tractors in an October full of tortured souls falling in the bright air in reds and blacks and blues and a December filled with the panoramic picture of my neighbor running from his father's rusted truck at midnight, cast in a green, sickly night vision. And buyers would get a special greeting card with a microchip playing the song of his adolescent voice calling out, Dad, no, don't stop, please. While the growl of the engine can be heard rising and falling like a roaring fire truck. The byline would say no rural poor were killed in the making of these memorabilia. David only broke his leg that night. Thank you for joining us and thank you for your poems. Thank you for having me. Thank you for joining us. And until next time, remember, resist.