Friday, March 27, 2009

Transcendent Light in the Redwoods


A hundred years ago, a group of people fought to save this old-growth forest. What splendid foresight! This is another of the photos from my grandson's visit.
My two great loves are the natural world and the world of books. These loves intersect at many points such as in the beautiful books of photographs of nature. But, as any sensible person can see the one is indoors and the other outdoors. I'm a fan of the work of Danny Gregory, who makes his attempt at integration through drawing and observation. Through his books and web presence, he encourages other people to take up regular sketching. Right now he is redoing his website and finding great old stuff he put up earlier. Today he found this and mentioned it on Twitter, so I went there; it's one of the most delightful and funky collections of two-page spreads you can imagine of 25 books from his personal library. Take a look--something will surprise or delight you. Some of them are old journals and diaries he has bought in used bookstores. It's a treat! I've done a lot of photography work on the natural world, but now I see I have missed the wonderful world of books, including old ones, worthless or worn-out ones, children's books and handmade or handwritten ones.
My brother sent me an invitation to Facebook, because I asked him if he understood it--I accepted and invited a lot of what Rabbit called 'friends and relations" as well as acquaintances to join me. It was SO EASY, just copied them from my email address book! Most of them did and I got several nice messages. But I fear it could become so time-intensive I won't be able to keep up with it. And I had to apologize to my aunt. . . she hates floods of email.
Keep a journal, and draw in it! And play on the internet if you have time. You will learn things about what you think by expressing yourself.

3 comments:

  1. Thank goodness there are people around who put in the effort to save forests and other important areas. An old forest can be a magical place to wander. There is history in those trees.

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  2. I'm commenting here only because it is the last post I get to read before making breakfast for Amy and me this beautiful Sunday morning. I'm so happy to have found your blog! The photographs are wonderful and I thought "I might have taken these if I'd seen that". You're opening me up to poetry again after a long dry spell, thank you. My library, the Cutchogue - New Suffolk Free Library is one of our favorite spots. I'm looking forward to more of your posts!

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  3. I'm commenting here only because it is the last post I get to read before making breakfast for Amy and me this beautiful Sunday morning. I'm so happy to have found your blog! The photographs are wonderful and I thought "I might have taken these if I'd seen that". You're opening me up to poetry again after a long dry spell, thank you. My library, the Cutchogue - New Suffolk Free Library is one of our favorite spots. I'm looking forward to more of your posts!

    ReplyDelete