Thistle: Waiting for the Train
The Beacon train station. Waiting around for the train to New York City on a chilly damp day. It’s a long wait, and the train is running late, and the commuters are starting to grumble. Nothing to do but scout around for some interesting plant life. Over here in the rocks (which were carefully placed to keep weeds from growing) is a nice healthy cluster of thistle leaves. Not unlike commuters, thistles are aggressive and prickly. You have to be a bit prickly, to survive in a train station. Thistles have survival down to a science. They’re dandelion relatives, members of the Asteraceae,...
Read MoreMoss: True North
I took a picture of this tree at high noon. Twelve o’clock. Why? To test an old piece of wilderness lore: the belief that moss grows on the north side of trees. Does it? Or not? If you’re lost in the woods, should you look for moss on a tree trunk and set your path accordingly? Is this truth, or an old wives’ tale? Every time I walk in the woods, I conduct a highly scientific survey on this topic–I glance at tree trunks from time to time. And I have conclusively proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that moss grows on trees. But. Does it grow on one side more than on...
Read MoreDecember: The Greenest Month
Welcome to December. It’s a month of irony, I find–the month dedicated to the celebration of light, in which we have the least amount of light. Days so short they seem to end before lunch. Cloudy skies, elusive sun. It’s the month in which winter starts, and ironically the one which is devoted to greenery. I mean, when else do people actually lug entire trees into their living rooms? Behavior that would seem eccentric in May makes complete sense in December. One of the best things about December, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, is that almost everywhere you go,...
Read MoreGuest Photographer Wells Horton
“These dark days of autumn rain are beautiful as days can be. I love the bare, the withered tree, I walk the sodden pasture lane.” –Robert Frost Thanks to Well Horton for another amazing photograph. http://wells-horton.smugmug.com/
Read MoreWitch Hazel: Frozen Sweetness
A little cabin in the woods. Very, very Thoreau. A nice place to hide out and write. Last week I revelled in a writers’ retreat at the Highlights Foundation in Boyds Mills, PA. Anyway, outside my cabin was a gorgeous bush in full bloom. Covered with flowers. What, you don’t see it? Right here. A witch hazel bush. A native species–the best kind for landscaping. In full bloom. Now if witch hazel bloomed in May, it would be totally overlooked by every person walking past, and more to the point, overlooked by any and all pollinators. But the fact that it blooms so ridiculously late in the...
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