Author Archive
Monday, May 14th, 2007
A Poem on White Oak
Testimony
I work white oak,
I testify
To simple living,
Which is why
My life revolves
around this tree,
The source of my
prosperity.
In any season
I know bark:
Rough, shaggy, smooth,
from pale to dark.
Of quality I’m
well aware.
I choose my timber
with great care.
Each tree has its
own tale to tell.
It’s my privilege
to listen well
And pass the […]
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Monday, May 14th, 2007
Purple Iris
Our purple iris blossomed on Saturday, May 12.
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Sunday, May 13th, 2007
from ?Economy?
   “In any weather, at any hour of the day or night, I have been anxious to improve the nick of time, and notch it on my stick, too; to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future, which is precisely the present moment; to toe that line. . . .
To anticipate, […]
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Sunday, May 13th, 2007
Hawthorn
   “The May or hawthorn hedges of England were once thought to be the meeting place of fairies . . . So powerful is folk belief that even today it is difficult to walk along a hedgerow with friends and not be stopped . . . from picking May blossom, with the warning that […]
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Saturday, May 12th, 2007
A Contemplation Upon Flowers
“Brave flowers–that I could gallant it like you,
And be as little vain . . .
You are not proud, you know your birth,
For your embroider’d garments are from earth . . .”
—-Henry King, Bishop of Chichester
(from bartleby.com)
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Saturday, May 12th, 2007
Star-of-bethlehem
I picked a specimen of Ornithogalum umbellatum yesterday. There are good online wildflower sites where one can research plants by color.
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Friday, May 11th, 2007
Black Cherry
The native black cherry tree (Prunus serotina) is in blossom. This reddish wood is prized by furniture makers. According to my Audubon Society Field Guide to Trees (Eastern Region), it was “one of the first New World trees introduced into English gardens . . . recorded as early as 1629″ (p. 507).
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Friday, May 11th, 2007
Bird Sighting
a red-tailed hawk (being harassed by two smaller birds)
Hawks
Hawks upon the thermals fly
Upward spirals in the sky,
Canvassing the fields below,
Circling endlessly, and slow.
Far beneath them winds the creek
Through expectant woods to seek
Union with the Ohio,
And forever southward flow.
Here […]
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Friday, May 11th, 2007
To Spring
“To spring belongs the violet”
—-Thos. Aldrich, Petition
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Thursday, May 10th, 2007
The Fox
   Yesterday I finished reading On the Trail of the Fox, a biography of Rommel, by David Irving. Coincidentally, I heard the fox calling in the woods last night from 10:40-11p.m. I hadn’t seen or heard him since March 21st. I wonder if this is a route of travel for him.
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Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Thoughts on Spring
” ‘I have seen foreign flowers in hot houses of the most beautiful nature, but I do not care a straw for them. The simple flowers of our spring are what I want to see again.
—-John Keats . . .’
People around the world long for the flowers, plants, and colours of a landscape intimate to […]
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Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
Sightings
lightning bug
mosquito
shiny green fly
(winged) beetles
two small moths–one white, one mottled tan
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Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
from Tao Te Ching #23
“Be like the forces of nature:
when it blows, there is only wind;
when it rains, there is only rain;
when the clouds pass, the sun shines through.”
—-trans. by Stephen Mitchell
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Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
David Sobel on Nature Education
   “The formative years of bonding with the earth include three stages of development that should be of primary concern to parents and teachers: early childhood from ages four to seven, the elementary years from eight to eleven, and early adolescence from twelve to fifteen . . . my belief is that environmental education should […]
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Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
Birds Sighted
house finch
red-headed woodpecker
a pair of Baltimore orioles