Ray Zimmerman's Blog - Posts Tagged "travel"
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.
A Visit to Cloudland Canyon
Rayz Reviewz Volume 1 Number 17
Welcome to Rayz Reviewz. Past editions are archived on my web page.
Opportunities
Cloudland Canyon State Park, near Trenton, Georgia provides excellent opportunities for nature appreciation, photography, and writing. I visited on Sunday, July 26 and again on Tuesday, August 4. The park was crowded on Sunday, and about half were wearing masks. I kept my distance from the crowds. On Tuesday, I encountered very few people, although the campground was full. There is a modest parking fee of $5.00 per vehicle, but I bought a season pass, discounted for senior citizens.
I encountered the fence lizard, the diminutive dragon which I have adopted as my mascot for now, as I returned from Overlook Number One, I stepped off the trail to let an oncoming group pass. The rocky ground was bare and provided an opening within the surrounding forest. When I looked to my left, there he was, perched on a fallen log.
I say he, but I don’t know the lizard’s gender. Males have a blue belly which they flash as part of their courtship display. They also do pushups, lifting and lowering their bodies on the forelegs, as a courtship signal to females and a territorial announcement to other males. Presumably, a female lizard somehow assesses his suitability from this display, just as a female bird can assess a singing male’s genetic fitness, hunting ability, and overall desirability from the song.
Female fence lizards have white bellies, but I did not see this lizard’s belly. The lizard did not move. By instinct, the lizard remained frozen with camouflage as the main protection from me, perhaps a potential predator.
I slipped my cameral into action, taking a “grab shot” with the lens at 89 millimeters. Then I zoomed the lens out to its 300 mm maximum length and snapped several shots.
I don/t know if anyone passed on the trail behind me or if any other animals happened by at the time. There was only the camera, the lizard and me. The lizard may have slipped into the brush as I turned and left.
Resources for Nature Writing
“The Greatest Nature Essay Ever,” published in Orion magazine, is Brian Doyle’s contribution to the art of essay writing. During his lifetime, Doyle published at least one collection of essays, as well as nonfiction nature books and fictional works with nature settings.
Barry Lopez, also the author of nature works in several genres and winner of the National Book Award, is an excellent source of exemplary nature writing. Read his essay “The Naturalist,” in Orion magazine.
I believe Orion is currently the best exemplary journal for prose nature writing, but the Tennessee Conservationist is an excellent place to read exemplary nature journalism.
Mary Oliver’s book Upstream includes exemplary nature essays. Her nature poetry is also well worth a read. Her poem “Wild Geese” is an exemplary nature poem.
Review
The Outermost House
Henry Beston, 1928
Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
The through the seasons approach is popular among nature writers from Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac) to David George Haskell (The Forest Unseen). Although Beston starts with this approach, he adds a few twists. The bulk of the material is devoted to the fall and winter seasons, and on Cape Cod at that.
He devotes a substantial portion of his descriptions to bird life. My favorites appear in Chapter IX, "The Year at High Tide," the summer chapter. Though one of the shortest chapters, it includes a vivid description of the Common Terns nesting on the beach and attacking interlopers. These include a female Marsh Hawk, likely rearing young of her own. A description of the Least Tern, now endangered, rounds out descriptions of bird life. He opens chapter IX with a description on the olfactory delights of the beach. His words rival descriptions of the benefits of aromatherapy.
Beston also devotes portions of the book to the "Surfmen," Coast Guard personnel assigned to the shore stations and dedicated to finding shipwrecks and rescuing the victims. These hardy men were heirs to those in the United States Lifesaving Service, an agency merged with the Revenue Cutter Service to create the modern Coast Guard. The surfman no longer walk the beach, having been replaced by helicopters and technology, and receive scant notice in history.
Beston concludes his book with the rising of Orion on the morning dunes; the reappearance of his old friends Rigel and Betelgeuse. This is a fitting end to a great book from an all but forgotten literary naturalist
Excerpt from the Book
So runs, as far as it is possible to reconstruct it in general terms, the geological history of Cape Cod. The east and west arm of the peninsula is a buried area of the ancient plain, the forearm, the glaciated fragment of a coast. The peninsula stands farther out to sea than any other portion of the Atlantic coast of the United States; it is the outermost of outer shores. Thundering in against the cliff, the ocean here encounters the last defiant bulwark of two worlds.
Shameless Self Promotion
Several months ago, my article about Chattanooga poetry opportunities appeared in The Chattanooga Pulse.
http://www.chattanoogapulse.com/featu...
Welcome to Rayz Reviewz. Past editions are archived on my web page.
Opportunities
Cloudland Canyon State Park, near Trenton, Georgia provides excellent opportunities for nature appreciation, photography, and writing. I visited on Sunday, July 26 and again on Tuesday, August 4. The park was crowded on Sunday, and about half were wearing masks. I kept my distance from the crowds. On Tuesday, I encountered very few people, although the campground was full. There is a modest parking fee of $5.00 per vehicle, but I bought a season pass, discounted for senior citizens.
I encountered the fence lizard, the diminutive dragon which I have adopted as my mascot for now, as I returned from Overlook Number One, I stepped off the trail to let an oncoming group pass. The rocky ground was bare and provided an opening within the surrounding forest. When I looked to my left, there he was, perched on a fallen log.
I say he, but I don’t know the lizard’s gender. Males have a blue belly which they flash as part of their courtship display. They also do pushups, lifting and lowering their bodies on the forelegs, as a courtship signal to females and a territorial announcement to other males. Presumably, a female lizard somehow assesses his suitability from this display, just as a female bird can assess a singing male’s genetic fitness, hunting ability, and overall desirability from the song.
Female fence lizards have white bellies, but I did not see this lizard’s belly. The lizard did not move. By instinct, the lizard remained frozen with camouflage as the main protection from me, perhaps a potential predator.
I slipped my cameral into action, taking a “grab shot” with the lens at 89 millimeters. Then I zoomed the lens out to its 300 mm maximum length and snapped several shots.
I don/t know if anyone passed on the trail behind me or if any other animals happened by at the time. There was only the camera, the lizard and me. The lizard may have slipped into the brush as I turned and left.
Resources for Nature Writing
“The Greatest Nature Essay Ever,” published in Orion magazine, is Brian Doyle’s contribution to the art of essay writing. During his lifetime, Doyle published at least one collection of essays, as well as nonfiction nature books and fictional works with nature settings.
Barry Lopez, also the author of nature works in several genres and winner of the National Book Award, is an excellent source of exemplary nature writing. Read his essay “The Naturalist,” in Orion magazine.
I believe Orion is currently the best exemplary journal for prose nature writing, but the Tennessee Conservationist is an excellent place to read exemplary nature journalism.
Mary Oliver’s book Upstream includes exemplary nature essays. Her nature poetry is also well worth a read. Her poem “Wild Geese” is an exemplary nature poem.
Review
The Outermost House
Henry Beston, 1928
Reviewed by Ray Zimmerman
The through the seasons approach is popular among nature writers from Aldo Leopold (A Sand County Almanac) to David George Haskell (The Forest Unseen). Although Beston starts with this approach, he adds a few twists. The bulk of the material is devoted to the fall and winter seasons, and on Cape Cod at that.
He devotes a substantial portion of his descriptions to bird life. My favorites appear in Chapter IX, "The Year at High Tide," the summer chapter. Though one of the shortest chapters, it includes a vivid description of the Common Terns nesting on the beach and attacking interlopers. These include a female Marsh Hawk, likely rearing young of her own. A description of the Least Tern, now endangered, rounds out descriptions of bird life. He opens chapter IX with a description on the olfactory delights of the beach. His words rival descriptions of the benefits of aromatherapy.
Beston also devotes portions of the book to the "Surfmen," Coast Guard personnel assigned to the shore stations and dedicated to finding shipwrecks and rescuing the victims. These hardy men were heirs to those in the United States Lifesaving Service, an agency merged with the Revenue Cutter Service to create the modern Coast Guard. The surfman no longer walk the beach, having been replaced by helicopters and technology, and receive scant notice in history.
Beston concludes his book with the rising of Orion on the morning dunes; the reappearance of his old friends Rigel and Betelgeuse. This is a fitting end to a great book from an all but forgotten literary naturalist
Excerpt from the Book
So runs, as far as it is possible to reconstruct it in general terms, the geological history of Cape Cod. The east and west arm of the peninsula is a buried area of the ancient plain, the forearm, the glaciated fragment of a coast. The peninsula stands farther out to sea than any other portion of the Atlantic coast of the United States; it is the outermost of outer shores. Thundering in against the cliff, the ocean here encounters the last defiant bulwark of two worlds.
Shameless Self Promotion
Several months ago, my article about Chattanooga poetry opportunities appeared in The Chattanooga Pulse.
http://www.chattanoogapulse.com/featu...
