Author Archives: eflaherty

Secrets of Rejuvenation

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Rejuvenation in the Northern hemisphere autumn–why not?

Looking for landscape journeys…

…a distant view that promises journeys of discovery…future opportunities…

…a distant view that promises journeys of discovery…future opportunities…

Like certain batteries, I need to recharge–I need rejuvenation from time to time.

Plants, gardens and landscapes, from time to time, in any season, have that magic combination, that secret of rejuvenation.

…that distant view that promises journeys of discovery…

…that distant view that promises journeys of discovery…

…that close inspection that promises journeys of discovery…

…that close inspection that promises journeys of discovery…

…that close inspection that promises journeys of discovery…

…that promise of a short walk, a journey of discovery…

…that promise of a short walk, a journey of discovery…

…that beauty of past, present and promise of future…

When I find all of these in a one hour walk, I have been rejuvenated.

Ahem–but, excuse me, Mr. Writer–do you have any skin in this game?  Do you grow plants?  Do you farm?  Or are you just one of those nouveau naturalists?

Myths…and…fairy tales…

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Amanita muscaria pushing up from the forest floor.

On the northern hemisphere forest floors, this is the season to discover and examine mushrooms and toadstools.

Mushrooms are edible fungal growths taking the form of domed cap on a stalk, while toadstools are similar but traditionally poisonous.  This world of the forest floor is a dangerous place for casual and naive human visitors.  Beware.

Amanita muscaria from underneath…now where is that dwarf?

With its bright red, white-spotted cap the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) has delighted people since time immemorial.  It is inedible (with a psychoactive asterisk, a risk) and yet considered one of the most attractive and most familiar species of fungi–a subject of many myths and fairy tales–valued also as a good luck charm.

Its white-spotted, red cap covers the head of a dwarf who carries out all sorts of mysterious activities in the forest.

Correct me if I am wrong but anyone who has silently walked through a rich, multi-layered forest knows that there are movements that strangely occur…movements on the edge or just beyond the capacity of our senses.  Algernon Blackwood’s short stories examine those areas.

I’ll say no more.  But I would appreciate the comments from readers who themselves have experienced, in the forest, that which cannot be explained.

Lessons from Plant Life

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Health…Beauty…

Every year over the past four years, this local school has had these window boxes bursting with geranium lierre, ivy geranium. This village school was built 100 years ago and includes primary and middle school students.

These joyful flowers mark the school as the prideful focal point of the village center–signs of good health, beauty, good maintenance–everything the students and the parents would want out of a school.

Why don’t all schools look this joyful and welcoming?

Maintenance…Timeliness

LandArt2014 Gletscherschlucht

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French LandArt2014 Entry captures from where our roots come and to where our roots go…

 

On my way to the Gletscherschlucht, between the Eiger and the Shreckhorn, I found in the forest the existing remnants of Grindelwald’s LandArt 2014.

LandArt2014 asks the artists to find their raw materials in the adjacent forest itself.  Then the art goes through the transitional cycles of time and decomposition.  Some of the 14 entries had already merged with the forest.  Others were still visible.  I liked the one above by a team from France.

Pascal Imhof has produced an HD Virtual Reality of the French entry–and from this link you can see VRs of all LandArt2014 entries.

These are the people responsible for the French LandArt 2014 Entry.

The Promise?

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…in the spring…evergreen or deciduous?

How often have you hoped a promise would be fulfilled?

And, just what are all those connotations surrounding the word–promise–all the aura–all the magic?

Today as I looked at the above image, in real life, I was convinced that the promise of spring had been fulfilled–entrancingly fulfilled.

I looked and looked–the greens dark, the greens alive–then I remembered the questions about plants and design–evergreen or deciduous?

Lawns or Meadows…

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Mini-meadow in the lawn–heart pounding variety–spring promise in early April.

Or, both and…

All my life I have seen cool weather grasses from Chicago to Detroit to Boston to the UK to Belgium; but I have never seen like I see in these photos– the Thun and Brienz lakes area of Switzerland.

Everyone’s house has a very small yard which usually includes a vegetable garden, fruit tree or two, flower garden and a flat trimmed lawn area.

In the spring the usually flat trimmed lawn area reveals this just opening array of wild flowers–kind of mini-meadow like.

People cut around these bouquets of wild flowers until the flowering is finished, then the lawns are fully cut.

Next year the wild flowers return.  Both lawns and meadows, as I see it.

Anybody seen something similar?

Cool season grass, early April in northern hemisphere following a steadily mild winter.

…the promise of sexual pleasure?

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This morning a red hibiscus distracted me from Yellow Dreams writing.

No, no, no…first it is beauty–something drunk in only by the eyes.  Then it is filtered and processed by the mind, by each person’s mind, each person’s experiences…

…enter stage right…the promise of sexual pleasure.  Then intelligence says depth of field is not the best, so re-shoot the photos.  Then, intelligence asks which hibiscus, species, variety?

Then the curves, the light, the reds, the veins…

Then sustainability–what?  Sustainability–now, it has become a charade.  Has the beauty been nullified?

What I like about these perceptions of flowers is the broad breadth of interpretation–the seemingly endless options of perception through which anyone can easily drift, easily navigate.  That amazes me!

Keeps me returning to the plants, to the gardens, to the landscapes.