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MARCH 1, 2010

Festival of the Trees #45: Voice

"...proud and hopeful by the side of the road, unaware of the strange shape it will take when branches

interfere with wires…"

-Jennifer Schlick of A Passion for Nature, "Branches"

"The air smells sweet – sharp clean snow marked with the fragrance of cold pine, fir, hemlock oils, and

morning chimney smoke. Trees hold fluffy handfuls of snow. On the days of deepest snow drifts, the

youngest trees are bent completely to the ground and hidden under heavy white blankets which reach up

the trunks of larger trees and fold the whole winter world in around you."

-Jade Blackwater of Aboreality, "In Praise of Winter: Snowy Evergreen Sunrises Introduction" (Parts 1, 2,

3, 4)

The Voltage Gate is a blog about ecology

and the creative process, a look at two

disciplines both in isolation and through the

lens of the other. Here you will find reviews

of current and foundational ecological

research, original illustrations as well as

commentary on environmentalism,

aesthetics and culture.

Heather is the artist on TVG. She is a painter

and illustrator whose work centers around

patterns, animals, color and science.

Jeremy writes about ecology, biogeography

and environmentalism. Occasionally he

posts flash fiction and commentary on

writing.

Jennifer writes about ecology, water issues,

caves, conservation, and pretty much

anything about that natural world that

catches her eye.

All original illustrations are © 2010 by

Heather Ravenscroft. Please ask permission

before use.

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Page 1 of 8The Voltage Gate: Festival of the Trees #45: Voice

1/25/2011http://thevoltagegate.blogspot.com/2010/03/festival-of-trees-45-voice.html

"The bird's nest, ferns and various orchid species are the most common of the epiphytes seen in the city

of singapore."

-Arati of Trees, Plants and More, "Epiphytes"

"It was a wet spring: record-setting wet. The place had been abandoned for several months, and the

resulting wall of trees and vines and weeds that surrounded the house made the leaves a real in-your-face

presence. Leathery oak leaves. Sandpapery elms. Frilly chinaberry. Cedar elms with foliage that reminds

me of cornflakes. All different, and all keys to identifying the tree."

Joy K. of The Little House in the Not-So-Big Woods, "When the Leaves Are Gone"

"[Sweetgum pods] remind me of mysterious southern nuts and seedpods encountered while out walking

the dog in Texas. In a stiff wind, heavy pods showered down around us like hail, while others scuttled after

us along the sidewalk like misshapen bugs."

Melissa of Out walking the dog, "Seed Pods and Eyeballs"

"Sometimes there is a theme underneath the broader canopy of trees, but mostly,

anything tree like is accepted."

-Jasmine of Natures Whispers, "Bluebell Woods"

"The Fig tree has enormous aboveground roots. It must be due to its age & I have

never seen roots so high. The height of the roots gives me a strange, but wonderful feeling of entering the

tree when I walk up close. It is like being embraced."

-Saving Our Trees, "St Stephen’s Fig"

"Pawpaw is the common name for plants in the genus Asimina, with several species native to eastern

North America. A. triloba has the most northern range by far of the genus, reaching into New York, and

even southern Ontario, and west to Nebraska. This wide range is attributed to cultivation and distribution

by Native American people, including the Cherokee and Iroquois."

-Xris of Flatbush Gardener, "Asimina triloba, PawPaw"

"Maple sugaring is simple. You wait until winter is beginning to slope off like a guest who stayed a bit

overtime."

-Diane Tucker of Hill-Stead's Nature Blog, "You Can’t Always Get What You Want"

If you were living just across and if I were a tree

In that yard,

I’d delight you with fruit,

I’ll be watered with your glimpse,

just look at me in ardor,

I’d bear the sweetest fruit for you.

-Tatjana Debeljački, "A HOUSE MADE OF GLASS"

"A cluster of parchment fungi survive on a fallen tree trunk."

-JSK of Anybody Seen My Focus?, "Campground – Dam Loop:

Revisited" (Fort Yargo State Park)

"I am kind of at a loss to explain how this happened… or why it took me so

many years to notice it. I don’t know how many more years we’ll have canopy-height beeches in the

hollow — not too far north of here, all the big beeches are dead — so I figure I’d better start paying more

attention to them now."

-Dave Bonta of Via Negativa, "Beech Grotesquerie"

"I can’t imagine what it must be like to be tree-bereft, or tree-oblivious. I’m sure I’ve not been as open-

hearted as I could be with trees, but I’m learning, and they are great teachers."

-Beth Patterson of Virtual Tea House, "tree love: out of the closet"

"If only it were true. But the day will come, my t-shirt will read, when all the trees around us are

computers."

-Geoff Manaugh of BLDGBLOG, "Three Trees"

"I thought that if the bomb shelter fell through, a tree house would look reasonable in exchange. And how

groovy to have a tree house for sleep overs. There was one small problem with the backyard tree house.

No tree."

-Rambling Woods, "All children Should be able to visit a special place in the woods..."

"Snow on a rowan (Sorbus aucuparia) branch."

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ARCHIVE



-Ash of Treeblog, "Finding a way"

"Large mammals like the giant panda are particularly sensitive to fragmentation due to their need for

space within a preferred habitat, the dense forest. It’s not just territorial; it has a lot to do with biodiversity.

The size of these patches determines the diversity of the forest, which creates these smaller habitats like

core or dense forest."

-The Voltage Gate, "Forest fragmentation and the isolation of the giant panda (a goodbye to Tai Shan and

Mei Lan)

"Lying beneath a large eastern white pine is sheer bliss. Because it sheds half its needles every fall, they

provide a soft covering over the hard ground. It is there I listen to the wind soughing in the pines and am

perfectly content."

-Marcia Bonta, "The Tree of Great Peace"

Since I came to the United States in 1903, I saw, faced, and heard many struggles among

our Japanese Issei. The sudden burst of Pearl Harbor was as if the mother earth on which

we stood was swept by the terrific force of a big wave of resentment of the American people.

Our dignity and our hopes were crushed. In such times I heard the gentle but strong whisper

of the the Sequoia gigantea: "Hear me you poor man. I've stood here for more than three

thousand and seven hundred years in rain, snow, storm, and even mountain fire still keeping

my thankful attitude strongly with nature - do not cry, do not spend your time and energy

worrying. You have children following. Keep up your unity; come with me." So, in the past,

all such troubles moved like a cool fog.

Chiura Obata, Topaz Moon

Festival of the Trees #46 will be at Vanessa's Trees and Shrubs Blog

Deadline: March 29

Email: treesandshrubs.guide [at] about.com

Optional theme: Humorous trees (in honor of April Fools) Share

► April (13)

▼ March (22)

Lorelol: Character specificity and the building bl...

Lorelol: World of Warcraft as societal

escapism, n...

Reconstructing full-glacial Europe

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Protecting our waters, sustainable wolf

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TweetVG 3/13/10: National Wildlife

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indefinite ar...

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Twittering TVG

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The Mysteries of Cave Ecology

How do taxonomic preferences shape

conservation an...

Another ecology blogger joins the

ranks at TVG

Festival of the Trees #45: Voice

► February (15)

► January (21)

► 2007 (120)

► 2006 (234)

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by Jeremy at 11:00 AM

Tags: Art, Carnivals, Ecology, Environment, Philosophy, Trees

Friday Roundup: March 5, 2010

Loose Feathers #228

Today's carnivals

Trees and More Trees

Festival 45: Voice

Thoughtful thoughts

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5 comments:

Georgia said...

Very creative format. Really enjoyed the illustrations.

12:01 PM

outwalkingthedog said...

Nice, Jeremy. Thank you.

12:16 PM

Jasmine said...

Thank you :)

2:46 PM

Joy K. said...

Thank you for hosting the Festival. I've had a wonderful time browsing through all of the entries.

7:50 AM

Arati said...

a delightful presentation.. i'm still working my way through the links.. enjoying each one of them!

thanks for putting it all together.

11:02 AM

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