An hour before the first light of day we put the guns in the truck and set out from Lynchburg, Virginia, for Amherst County. We drove into the Blue Ridge Mountains on a cold November morning. Doug, the expert deer hunter, and I, the rookie, silently sipped our coffee as the truck bounded up the […]
Until I left for college, I had lived in one town in South Central Pennsylvania. I hadn’t even travelled, except to visit my parents’ hometowns. When you grow up in one place, one landscape, whatever you’ve experienced is your normal. When something occurs that doesn’t fit with your understanding of the place, it sticks out […]
This is a story about how one small flower can create a landscape. Apple blossoms come to Adams County in Pennsylvania at the end of April. At first the bud has a magenta patina, but as it unfurls, it expands into subtle hues. Pale pink streaks across five creamy teardrop petals. At its heart, fuzzy yellow […]
It rained on my birthday this year. The weather delayed my annual trek up to White Rocks. Climbing over wet trails and slippery scrambles seemed imprudent. I look forward to my ritual climb to the ridgetop on South Mountain where white sandstone pokes out like the bones of the mountain. It is coming back to […]
Since returning to the landscape of my childhood, I have adopted the ritual of hiking the White Rocks Trail every year for my birthday. I reconnect with the woods and the mountain. It is not just connecting to nature but also a connection to a particular place. White Rocks is embedded in South Mountain. The […]
I am enchanted by water trickling out of the earth. Perhaps it is primordial, this deep evolutionary connection terrestrial animals have to water, a calling back to the first element. Or perhaps it is simple poetry — these two disparate elements, earth and water, one all solid and form, the other shapeless and incorporeal, mingling […]
Lay of the Landscape 