Humidity on the Brain

Post 47

My mind is lazy as blue mud.

Inspiration minimal, camera woes continue and humidity is taking the humanity out of me. Want ocean. Want cool pellucid waters.  Want this--

 Got this instead, which granted, looks pretty good, even if it is an old pic from a few summers ago.
 

It shows a then small Pee Gee hydrangea on the left. If I had a camera you could see that he Pee Gee is now a tree a story high, 8 feet in breadth, and covered in long white blossoms that overhang upright red bistort (Persicaria amplexicaulis 'Firetail,) a stand of which is pictured below.

Its a good combination. Add in, to the right and behind, a now two story tall, red crepe myrtle blooming like all heck, some white bistort (not sure of the variety) around the bowling ball bird bath,

And the orangy-chartruse red maple in front. It all works. ... as a recent pic would show.

I am researching a new camera, and I hope that in a few weeks I will be able to offer fresh pics. Till then I cannot decide whether I should try my best to keep things going or take an August hiatus.


Part of the fun of a blog is its immediacy. Using old, second-rate pics does not feel immediate.



Plus I have fallen in love with taking pictures. And am in withdrawal. Being able to make images gives me words. My childhood love of picture books is returned, made even better by added adult capabilities. 

 

So, I would rather be playing with goats on an Northern isle with a camera tucked in my pocket than here, but here I am and must remind myself not to be blinded to the beauty I am lucky enough to enjoy.

Above is one of the last shots I took with my dime store camera before it broke down. 

Till less humid times...

 

Post 44 

Happy 4th. This blog has a local emphasis but since all goodness is not concentrated in the Wissahickon Valley, some posts, like their author, may wander. In this case to Maine.

From where I have just returned from a vacation that featured two great, very different types of gardens: Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens , and Monhegan Island.

I do not know how, but in just 5 years  the first of these has managed to create a large, excellent public garden.

And perhaps best of all its its recently added children's garden, which is a delight.

And even includes a library with a storyteller, where, if you look up into the gable, you see--

 In short, so worth a visit.
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Monhegan, of course, is not a garden in the traditional sense. It is rather a small island of bleak but often breathtaking beauty. And just as it is set off from our ordinary world by the sea, much of it has been set off even farther, as an undevelopable preserve.

So there is a small village with a big, old-fashioned inn (the spire on the left)

around a harbour

of fishermen, artists, nature-lovers, workers and summer people. Then there is a large reserve of wild spaces

 Criss-crossed by trails

Through woods with fairy houses,

 And blooming meadows,

To blooming seasides,

And onward to the highest cliffs on the Eastern Seaboard,

And then back,

To the village,

To the Inn,

To sit out on its front lawn with a drink, 

 Before dinner and nightfall.

Monhegan has all the magic of island light--light reflected up from the sea, down from the sky, and so diffused all around.

So while it is an ordinary island in an ordinary world, 

It is also sometimes a hint at that extra something that is often found in works of art, in great gardens, in spiritual and peak experiences,

--an island of light in an extraordinary world.

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Since this is the United States of America's Bday, and the U.S. is a nation of immigrants, it seems fitting to celebrate one particular immigrant who has made this post possible.

This is Mito from Bulgaria. He is a waiter at the Inn in summer, and works at a dude ranch in winter. When he first came to America he worked in New York but hated it, and so explored till he found a more peaceful place. He likes to hike around the island and during one hike, found a beat-up, point and shoot, digital camera on the trail. He picked it up and instead of keeping it or selling it, he brought it back to the Inn. There, he showed it to other staff to see if anyone recognized the man with a pack who showed up in some of the pictures. Which is how my lost camera made it back to my husband, and then me. 

Honest, adventurous, cooperative and energetic, eager to believe in, and exemplify what is best in our country, Mito reminds us to live up to the dreams our immigrant forefathers and mothers had for us. Whenever they came here, however they came here, I hope we can make them proud of what we have made of the country they have given us.

Furture like a Tree

Post 12


Cultivating The Cosmic Tree Hildegard of Bingen



Pastorius Park

"AS AN OLD MAN was planting a tree, three young men came along and began to make sport of him, saying: "It shows your foolishness to be planting a tree at your age. The tree cannot bear fruit for many years, while you must very soon die. What is the use of your wasting your time in providing pleasure to others to share long after you are dead?" The old man stopped in his labor and replied: Others before me provided for my happiness, and it is my duty to provide for those who shall come after me. As for life, who is sure of it for a day? " Aesop's Fables Copyright 1881 Translator: unknown

Laurel Ridge Foundation, Conn.

Since moving to our property my husband and I have planted 8 small trees: 2 Cherries on the hellstrip, a Crepe Myrtle and Pee-Gee Hydrangea (more a big shrub I'm pruning into a tree,) in front, a Southern Magnolia and a Smokebush( also pruned into a tree,) on the side and 2 Japanese Maples, one on the side and one in back. Because we are on a budget, all these trees have been bought small, one of the maples is only a foot high. These trees will be at their best long after we have sold the house.

But the best trees on the property are the two native Dogwoods that were there when we moved in.  In Dogwood season parts of Northwest Philly transform into a continuous Dogwood forest as property lines fade beneath an aboveground sea of pink and white.

Many people I know are uncomfortable with institutional religion. But if asked, they will mention that they know there is "something" there, something they can feel that runs through all creation. They are mistrustful of closed mindsets, power structures and claims to authority by, well, people who do not seem to make the best case for such authority. Many try out Eastern paths to enlightenment or turn to ecology, gardening, wilderness, food, art or intellectual and political inquiry and action as nurturing and sustaining goods.  Which they are in perspective. But beyond them is a common longing for something hinted at, something like the force that through the green fuse drives the flower (apologies Dylan Thomas.)  For that, I think of an unusual woman in a world where woman were close to nonentities, a Medieval nun, author, composer, healer , and, oh yeah, mystic: Hildegard of Bingen and a word she coined --Viriditas

" Viriditas-- Greeness, derived from the Latin...One of the key terms in Hildegard's writings and her view of the world. It signifies the life-force, freshness of life, constant vitality, or fecundity, and is also a metaphor for virtuous living and a spiritual existence." from The World of Hildegard of Bingen: her life, times, and visions By Heinrich Schipperges, John Cumming

No dry authoritarian, closed-system here. Hildegard is writing about the Life behind life.



Monhegan Island



The Deep Life which we instinctively feel is home.

Pastorius Park

It is not odd that almost every spiritual path features a tree: the Tree of Life, the Bohdi Tree, Yggdrasil, and more. There is something about a tree, its age, its size, its open-armed call and embrace, its greeness, its beauty, its fruitfulness, that makes us feel a sense of a Tree behind the tree: The Tree, Viriditas.

Tree Of Jesse, Chagall



"What is the use of living if not to strive for noble causes and to make this muddled world a better place for those who will live in it after we are gone?"- Winston Churchill

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How-to Tree: Mid-Late Fall, up through Thanksgiving, is the best time to plant a tree.

A good link on tree planting is here.  A list of recommended trees for our area  is posted by Fairmont Park. The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society has a lot of information on trees here.

Look around. What do you see that is thriving and looks good to you? Ask around to find out what it is. Young trees are not that expensive, especially if bought on sale. And they are a fine shout-out for the future, our sense of the life that is both within us and beyond us.

Monhegan Island