whimsy ([info]lord_whimsy) wrote,
2008-09-22 11:29:00
  • Previous
  • Memorize
  • Share
  • Next

GILDED FOREST



In the pine uplands it's the forest floor, not the canopy, that turns with the seasons. Bracken fern can cover miles of pine forest floor. Turns a lovely gold during indian summer. I avoid walking in the stuff--too many damn ticks. Ticks and chiggers like dry underbrush: staggerbush, grass, fern, and leatherleaf. They tend to avoid more wet, swampy terrain like cedar bogs, swales and such. If you have to tromp through dry underbrush in an upland pine forest, go in cool, rainy weather.

Perhaps I should take my own advice one day.
Tags: pine barrens

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    switch

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

     
    Help
  • 11 comments

[info]_stranger_here

September 22 2008, 15:43:01 UTC 3 years ago

I love your pictures, but it's the words that set them within the world of Whimsy. You have such a clear and engaging way of writing about nature.

[info]lord_whimsy

September 22 2008, 15:48:13 UTC 3 years ago

Think so? I thought I'm often a bit clipped and curt. I suppose after waxing purplish for so long it might feel that way. In any case, thank you.

(Still can't shake this fever and cold, but I've also been hunting for pine barrens gentian all week, so it shouldn't be a surprise that I'm recovering slowly. You get a little kooky alone out in the woods while breaking a fever--you start hearing and seeing things.)

[info]_stranger_here

September 22 2008, 15:55:06 UTC 3 years ago

There's no shortage of flowery writing about flowers, so a bit of brusqueness in that area is refreshing. What comes through in your nature writing is clear, un-gilded prose with an essential flair running underneath it all. Really a pleasure to read.

[info]cargoweasel

September 22 2008, 16:19:39 UTC 3 years ago

Your writing style is more Thoreau than Baudelaire and I enjoy it. I've been reading Thoreau's Journals as part of my LJ friends list and your entries and his seem to go together nicely. He also had a matter-of-fact tone that said more than florid writings could.




[info]lord_whimsy

September 22 2008, 16:35:01 UTC 3 years ago

Well, I really enjoy all kinds of writing styles. It's a pleasure to write with playful abandon and to indulge flourish--it's a challenge to write so "poorly". It might not seem like it, but there's a perverse rigor that must be observed--I probably edit my florid tracts more severely than many writers who adopt a "terse" style.

But a declarative, elegant form of writing allows gaps for the reader's imagination. I just read Sharon White's "Vanished Gardens". She does a beautiful job with fostering a clipped, elliptical, oblique texture. Evocative, but never goopy. Although I think goopy writing is a complete hoot, too.

[info]lokis_raven

September 22 2008, 18:05:49 UTC 3 years ago

Here's a phrase I never before uttered: Gorgeous foliage!

[info]kementari2

September 22 2008, 19:03:35 UTC 3 years ago

Have you ever come across an understory of spicebush on the side of a mountain? Turns solid yellow in the fall. Like many things in the woods, they look best en masse.

[info]amberwoodrose

September 22 2008, 21:14:35 UTC 3 years ago

Fern forests are so magical and lush.

[info]kaufie

September 22 2008, 21:20:30 UTC 3 years ago

This is a beautiful photograph. Good composition, good color.

I am anxiously awaiting your book's arrival.

[info]francesca_tessa

September 23 2008, 04:04:13 UTC 3 years ago

Absolutely gorgeous pic. What a luminous forest floor!

[info]stanleylieber

September 23 2008, 04:51:28 UTC 3 years ago

speaking of style cues...
Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Facebook Twitter More login options
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…