The Affected Provincial’s Almanack

BOG SAVANNAH

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:07:50 GMT

The Pine Barrens bogs can differ in amount of water, light and vegetation. Here are shots of a more sunny bog savannah, found along the Mullica River. Lots more birds, flowering plants and sundews in this lower elevation environment (in the micro-environments of the Pine Barrens, a few inches can change everything). The types of orchids and carnivorous plants you find are different from shadier, drier cedar bogs, too: grass pinks, rose pogonias, and bladderworts.

Now back to a cedar bog...The following is a shot of a stretch of trail in the deepest part of the Pine Barrens, near a place called Penn Swamp. Not all vehicles can get in this far--lots of sugar sand, which requires a bit of experience to negotiate so as to avoid getting stuck. Note how incredibly dense the vegetation is on either side--nearly impenetrable, even by foot. You can step only fifteen feet from the road, and find yourself lost.

CEDAR BOG

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:55:42 GMT

My latest visit to the riverside bog I mentioned a week ago went more smoothly this time. Here are some images of the cedar bog that hugs the river.

A VERTICALLY INCLINED CICADA

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:47:56 GMT

Found in St. Andrew's Cemetery, near his spent husk.

COMMELINA COMMUNIS

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:42:46 GMT

Blue Dayflower.

A FRIGGING MUSHROOM

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:39:54 GMT

LOBELIA NUTTALII

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:38:06 GMT

Nuttall's Lobelia. Bog flower. I sometimes confuse this with Spiranthes from a distance.

SOLANUM CAROLINENSE

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 03:33:34 GMT

Horsenettle.

THE GATES OF (INSERT OTHERWORLDLY PLACE HERE)

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:35:03 GMT

Where do you think these gates lead to?

INTERVIEW

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 16:38:27 GMT

For those of you who might be interested: I appear in the September "relaunch" issue of Interview.

Thank you for having me, Glenn!

~W

FERGIE

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:41:19 GMT

Our man in print Joe Regal writes:

"...in other news, I had the pleasure of giving a copy of your book to The Duchess of York a couple days ago. If I could have filmed Sarah Ferguson intoning 'The Affected Provincial's Com-pan-ion' for your delectation, I would have!"

Hah hah! Thank you, Joe--that made our day.

Kindly ask Fergie if she would be a dear and please pick up some milk on the way home. We're a bit low. Oh--and some eggs, too.

WHITE RUSSIANS (AND BUDDHISTS) IN THE PINES

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:02:35 GMT

Encountering St. Vladimir Memorial Russian Orthodox Church on a remote stretch of road in the middle of the Pine Barrens is one of the last things you'd expect, but it has been here since 1940, when exiles of the Russian Civil War (history calls them White Russians) started visiting this area in summer.

Vespers are still performed, and the priests still wear the ornate vestments and long beards. By all accounts, it's quite a thing to experience.

Nearby is the chapel and well-kept cemetery. To the church's credit, it's a somber but charming place: lots of flowering trees and lovingly tended graves.

(The turkey vulture perched on the spire is a nice touch. I wonder how much they pay him to brood like that.)

Below are some photos of the cemetery. In an effort to avoid seeming ghoulish or disrespectful, I've tried not to show anyone's full name--but the vast majority of the headstones are in Cyrillic.

The cemetery, however beautiful, holds a mystery: a sizable section of the cemetery hosts the graves of what appear to be Tibetan Buddhists. The headstones tend to be in an admixture of English, Cyrillic, and what we think is Tibetan. Some laid to rest here were US WWII soldiers, some were monks. As is common among Asian Buddhists, many family members have left for their loved ones impromptu shrines with lit candles and cigarettes, as well as things like bottles of Coca Cola.

Anyone who would care to shed light on this, please do. As for me, I intend to attend vespers soon. Perhaps the rector might be kind enough to educate us on the matter.

May all their souls rest in peace.

DIRTY BUTTONS: PINE BARRENS BREAKDOWN

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:19:46 GMT

Here.

NAUTICAL OVERLOAD

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:48:26 GMT

A visit to the NJ Boating Museum.

Before moving on to visit the site of an old but still functioning iceboat house, we paid a brief visit to the Boating Museum of New Jersey. Having grown up by the sea and thus immersed in bay culture and nautical kitch, I usually find anything to do with the ocean cheerful and reassuring. The place isn't really a museum--it lacks the depth and rigor for that. It's more like a maritime attic. Man's relationship with the sea has given rise to many forms and symbols. Despite the often silly veneer, the ancient emblems still fly at you.

PLACOPECTEN MAGELLANICUS

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:32:07 GMT

Found a large pile of Atlantic deep-sea scallop shells while scouting deep in the pygmy pine plains. No idea how they got there.

The pygmy pine forest is a desert in all but name; the early colonists--John Bartram included--referred to it as such. Today such a grand term seems ridiculous to people who blow through it on the way to the shore, but those who have walked through it know the term is an apt one.

The author, laid low by the dry heat, pondering an ever-encroaching eternity.

XYRIS TORTA

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:22:48 GMT

Slender Yellow-eyed Grass. Late summer bloomer. Very common along rivers and in bogs.

LOBELIA CARDINALIS

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:14:45 GMT

Cardinal Flower. All over the bogs and savannahs right now. Impossible to miss: very tall, bright, and dramatic.

POLYGALA BREVIFOLIA

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:08:04 GMT

Short-leaved Milkwort. Likes low, open, wet, sandy spots, like roadsides near cranberry farms. Often found with sphagnum moss and carnivorous plants, especially sundews.

THEY GOT BERT

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:06:25 GMT

RHEXIA VIRGINICA

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 01:31:57 GMT

Bog Beauty. Also known as Handsome Harry.

OPILIO SAXATILIS

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:26:33 GMT

The lovely Daddy Long Legs, or Harvestman. They are an ancient arachnid--they have barely changed over 400 million years--but they are not spiders. No real division between the abdomen and cephalothorax, and no silk glands. They have two eyes, set sideways.

My Venus Flytraps love eating them.

GRAMMIA ARGE

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:44:09 GMT

Arge Tiger Moth. Found at the recently mentioned archaeological site.

HYPERICUM HYPERICOIDES

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:35:27 GMT

St. Andrew's Cross, a small roadside weed, but with a lovely bloom perched atop attractive foliage.

PICKING UP THE PAST

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 03:31:14 GMT

Our friend Bill is investigating a nearby site of archaeological significance that in the Nineteenth Century was a small settlement of free Africans. Many of the men who lived in this settlement served and fought in the Union's black infantry units during the Civil War, some of whom are buried here. According to Bill, it was also a stop on the Underground Railroad.

The site is a lush, grassy hill surrounded by woods. No structures remain intact, but at the base of the hill is a large debris field of old masonry, glass bottles, bones, and ceramics. There will be an exploratory dig performed, and the missus and I may be lending a hand.

(Wish I could divulge the name of the old settlement and its location, but since excavation is still in its planning stage, it's best to remain mum.)

~W

VERNONIA ALTISSIMA

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:52:52 GMT

Ironweed.

A DECOY WORKSHOP

Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:11:00 GMT

Friends David and Bill are lovers and collectors of hand-carved decoys, which have been made in Southern New Jersey by baymen for generations. Bill and David not only love the subject (waterfowl), but they love the history and culture that surrounds the craft of decoy making, which is now practiced by only a remaining handful of craftsmen. Angus "Art" Birdsall, descendent of the eminent 19C decoy maker Jesse Birdsall, is one of them.

David filmed a documentary on decoy carvers beck in the 70's, and wanted to check in on Art, who he had filmed and interviewed.

Art Birdsall's workshop in Point Pleasant, NJ is something of a local's holdout in a neighborhood that is now full of antiseptic resort homes. Once you get past the dog (which I later befriended), you're in for a visual feast of shapes and textures. I was never a big fan of decoy art--I've always found it a dull and dowdy subject pondered over by burly townies or reactionary landscape painters in flannel shirts. But Angus' shop gave me the means to appreciate them: there are subtleties in style among carvers that are to be appreciated, and that have a story behind them. I can like anything that has this dimension.

Many of the newer decorative decoys now being made are beautifully wrought, but are too resolved for my taste. Personally, I prefer the more crude wabi-sabi of the older decoys, which are weighted, hollow (a South Jersey trademark, apparently), and painted simply: you can see the brush strokes. The decoy maker Dipper Ortley was an exemplar of this style.

Lovely man, Art: I asked for a card, but instead I received a bumper sticker with his phone number on it. So I now have documentation stating that anyone interested in commissioning a decoy from Art can find him at 732.892.6872.

~W