The Stuff We Do
Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;Continue reading “Fall Comes to the Forest (October 2019)”
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.
Emily Brontë
Earlier this year, Kevin Mittge, the Adult Services Librarian at the Siuslaw Public Library in Florence, Oregon contacted us about doing a library program on our visits to all of Oregon’s wilderness areas. We were already planning some hikes on the Oregon Coast, so we said we’d love to do a talk. We agreed on a date in May and the coastal weather cooperated by not raining on our hikes or on our talk. We dedicated the talk to Judge John B. Waldo, the first Oregon Supreme Court chief justice born in the state and a vigorous proponent of forest conservation in the Cascade Range. But then, between the invitation and the talk, Congress designated another wilderness area in Oregon: Devil’s Staircase. We managed a drive-by of this truly wild wilderness in 2020. 🙂
Continue reading “Oregon Wilderness at the Library 11-May-2019”
More of the abstract artistry of the Pacific Madrone (Arbutus menziesii), Southern Oregon’s signature tree. Natural processes create a seemingly infinite variety of abstract images in and on their bark. Hence one more set of images from the bark of these endlessly fascinating trees.
Continue reading “Madrones in the Abstract II (November 2018)”
Not every day is a sunny day. Some days are cloudy. Cloudy days are not bad, just different. They give a hike a moody, yet cozy, feel. Again, not bad, just different. Little forest details you might miss on a sunny day come to the fore. Today was a cloudy day. I went to the forest while The LovedOne went to the library (moody and cozy can happen way back in the stacks too, I guess). Out in the forest, there was still some Fall color. I did a short loop (4.2 miles; 1,200 feet of elevation gain) on the Ridgeview, Siskiyou, Halls of Manzanita, Grotto, Canyon Vista, and Jackson Creek Nature Trails. The sun tantalized but never appeared. So it remained a cloudy day, but a good one nonetheless. 🙂
Continue reading “Jacksonville Forest Trails (Oregon) 03-Nov-2018”
There are probably few trees (with the possible exception of the Douglas fir) that are more strongly identified with Southern Oregon than the Pacific Madrone (Arbutus menziesii). This tree is native to the western coast of North America between British Columbia and California, but is mainly found around Puget Sound and in the Oregon and California Coast Ranges. They are also scattered on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and Cascades.
Continue reading “Madrones in the Abstract I (November 2018)”
BOOTS on the TRAIL 