Ray Zimmerman's Blog - Posts Tagged "geography"
Wandering Through Winter
Reading is inhaling; writing is exhaling. This is why I speak about reading in this blog.
Some comments on Wandering Through Winter by Edwin Way Teale:
On March 20, the Vernal Equinox, I set aside Edwin Way Teale’s book Wondering Through Winter, which I had been rereading and took up his now seasonally appropriate North with the Spring. I have now finished my first reading of that book and returned to finish Wandering Through Winter. These books are now out of print, but available from used book dealers, and I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my copy of Journey into Summer. I plan to read all four books in the series, The American Seasons this year.
The whale descriptions are indeed fabulous. I have never seen Gray Whales, having never traveled to the west coast, but they evoked a time when I saw three Right Whales off the coast of Cape Cod. Only 300 Right Whales remain, so that was 1% of the world-wide population. I also enjoyed several sightings of Humpbacks. I saw a stranding of a pod of Pilot Whales. Not so enjoyable.
More info on the Right Whale:
http://ocean.si.edu/north-atlantic-ri...
The Nuttall's Poor Will to which he refers in the chapter "Desert Wind" has apparently been renamed Common Poorwill: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/C...
I thoroughly enjoyed the chapter about Audubon's Salamander, set in Mill Grove Pennsylvania. What a delight to find such a creature in such a historical location.
The previous few chapters were great fun because they spoke of places I have visited. When my parents were still alive, I frequently drove to visit them near Cincinnati. I passed the Big Bone Lick State Park enough times that I finally visited it on my way. I returned more than once. One complete skeleton had been bronzed for some unknown reason. It is nevertheless, historically and prehistorically interesting.
I worked and lived in Peebles, Ohio for a short time years ago and visited the Serpent Mound effigy described in another chapter. The agency in charge had constructed a high steel tower which provided the only vantage point from which I could view the entire structure. The only place from which I could tell that the mound was indeed a serpent shaped.
I found myself wishing that they could have seen southern Ohio in spring when the Trillium grandiflorum covered the hillsides. I hope they have not all vanished with construction and development. It was as though dogwoods bloomed along the ground in a field of white flowers.
The trip east from Portsmouth on US highways 50 and 52 is a delightful drive through hills and valleys in a part of Ohio that is considered Appalachian. Spring floods continue to menace that land today.
The final chapters parallel the final chapters of North with the Spring. The trip which resulted in Wandering Through Winter began in Baja California and ended in New Brunswick, geographically close to the end of the trip which resulted in North with the Spring, beginning in Everglades and ending at Mount Washington.
Some comments on Wandering Through Winter by Edwin Way Teale:
On March 20, the Vernal Equinox, I set aside Edwin Way Teale’s book Wondering Through Winter, which I had been rereading and took up his now seasonally appropriate North with the Spring. I have now finished my first reading of that book and returned to finish Wandering Through Winter. These books are now out of print, but available from used book dealers, and I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of my copy of Journey into Summer. I plan to read all four books in the series, The American Seasons this year.
The whale descriptions are indeed fabulous. I have never seen Gray Whales, having never traveled to the west coast, but they evoked a time when I saw three Right Whales off the coast of Cape Cod. Only 300 Right Whales remain, so that was 1% of the world-wide population. I also enjoyed several sightings of Humpbacks. I saw a stranding of a pod of Pilot Whales. Not so enjoyable.
More info on the Right Whale:
http://ocean.si.edu/north-atlantic-ri...
The Nuttall's Poor Will to which he refers in the chapter "Desert Wind" has apparently been renamed Common Poorwill: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/C...
I thoroughly enjoyed the chapter about Audubon's Salamander, set in Mill Grove Pennsylvania. What a delight to find such a creature in such a historical location.
The previous few chapters were great fun because they spoke of places I have visited. When my parents were still alive, I frequently drove to visit them near Cincinnati. I passed the Big Bone Lick State Park enough times that I finally visited it on my way. I returned more than once. One complete skeleton had been bronzed for some unknown reason. It is nevertheless, historically and prehistorically interesting.
I worked and lived in Peebles, Ohio for a short time years ago and visited the Serpent Mound effigy described in another chapter. The agency in charge had constructed a high steel tower which provided the only vantage point from which I could view the entire structure. The only place from which I could tell that the mound was indeed a serpent shaped.
I found myself wishing that they could have seen southern Ohio in spring when the Trillium grandiflorum covered the hillsides. I hope they have not all vanished with construction and development. It was as though dogwoods bloomed along the ground in a field of white flowers.
The trip east from Portsmouth on US highways 50 and 52 is a delightful drive through hills and valleys in a part of Ohio that is considered Appalachian. Spring floods continue to menace that land today.
The final chapters parallel the final chapters of North with the Spring. The trip which resulted in Wandering Through Winter began in Baja California and ended in New Brunswick, geographically close to the end of the trip which resulted in North with the Spring, beginning in Everglades and ending at Mount Washington.
