North Of Everywhere

Our 2020 Lake Tahoe Trip

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ed Reif (@edreif)

 

A tree is a little bit of the future

Trees dominate the world’s oldest living organisms. Since the dawn of our species, they have been our silent companions, permeating our most enduring tales and never ceasing to inspire fantastical cosmogonies. Hermann Hesse called them “the most penetrating of preachers.” A forgotten seventeenth-century English gardener wrote of how they “speak to the mind, and tell us many things, and teach us many good lessons.-The Scret Lives Of Trees

There are no trees on Fair Isle

FADE IN: Beneath the canopy of trees, with  roots in the earth and arms stretching toward the sky, I come back to that place I have never been before - and this imense wonder comes over us as  if the trees are there to seek and to know the greater mysteries. I find this comforting, but on Fair Isle, and Shetland in general, there are no trees to speak of. So why do we still manage to have an imense sense of wonder. I wrote of the elegant moss that adorns the land-scientifically impressive beyond measure — the amphibians of vegetation, they were among the first plants to emerge from the ocean and conquer the land. 

The slient companions are the mountains here on Fair Isle, replacing what Hesse calls our most penetraing preechers-- but then I remeber Norway ,Pulpet Rock and all those majestic fjords of Geirange and Stavenger.  This place is like Norway, sans trees.

 Back to trees:

I always found  these great constellations of Cathedral  and Ponderosa Pines, at Lake Tahoe for instance, to be immense objects of wonder. Alaska, and British Columbia, with ribbons of Christmas trees. are also impressive testimonials to the secret life of wood- a kind of Christianity of birth, death rebirth regeneration and resurection on full display on the Alaska Wildlife highway as well

 Every day in their forests was a day of discovery. I get religion. This consecration, and baptism. This is where Mother Nature lives.

The lungs of the earth-trees give off a hint of gladness, and  the way they stand guard over the night, tall in all kinds of weather ===trees remaina lushish metaphor for carrying on, and  the perfect role model and solace for the occasional existential dilemma of being human. They even gave each other space-- slim contour of room around each other. They seem to get along well with each other as valued members of the çommunity'. The average tree grows its branches out until it encounters the branch tips of a neighboring tree of the same height. It doesn’t grow any wider because the air and better light in this space are already taken.

I, the land

Now on Fair Isle, because of salt water, and clearings for sheep, there are no such trees on Fair Isle. The Life of wood, and how it shows growth death and  rebirth, is just a soveneir. There is another kind of ecosystem here, and it works, a solitude but not lonlieness, and a general unwinding of the worlds we have known.

The only thing to stand guard between the solitude of me is two defient rocky mountains in the distance, as I look out of our kitchen window. Yet these rocks rock! Love it here. In all its stark spledor. I have had this saying: I haven't been everywhere, but it is on my list. Well, Fair Isle is North Of Everywhere.

 

Lake Tahoe

 

”Trees dominate the world’s the oldest living organisms. Since the dawn of our species, they have been oursilent companions, permeating our most enduring tales and never ceasing to inspire fantastical cosmogonies. Hermann Hesse called them “the most penetrating of preachers.” A forgotten seventeenth-century English gardener wrote of how they “speak to the mind, and tell us many things, and teach us many good lessons.”"The Scret Lives Of Trees

There are no trees on Fair Isle

FADE IN: Beneath the canopy of trees, with  roots in the earth and its arms stretching toward the sky as if to seek and to know the great mystery. I find this comforting, but on Fair Isle, and SHetland in general, there are no trees to speak of.

I always found  these great constellations of Cathedral  and Ponderosa Pines, at Lake Tahoe for instance, to be immense objects of wonder. Alaska, and British Columbia, with ribbons of Christmas trees.. on the Alaska Wildlife highway as well is stunning! Every day in their forests was a day of discovery. I got religion. This is where Mother Nature lives.

The lungs of the earth-trees give off a hint of gladness, and  the way they stand guard over the night, tall in all kinds of weather ===trees remaina lushish metaphor for carrying on, and  the perfect role model and solace for the occasional existential dilemma of being human. They even gave each other space-- slim contour of room around each other. They seem to get along well with each other as valued members of the çommunity'. The average tree grows its branches out until it encounters the branch tips of a neighboring tree of the same height. It doesn’t grow any wider because the air and better light in this space are already taken.

I, the land

Now on Fair Isle, because of salt water, and clearings for sheep, there are no such trees on Fair Isle. The Life of wood, and how it shows growth death and  rebirth, is just a soveneir. There is another kind of ecosystem here, and it works, a solitude but not lonlieness, and a general unwinding of the worlds we have known.

The only thing to stand guard between the solitude of me is two defient rocky mountains in the distance, as I look out of our kitchen window. Yet these rocks rock! Love it here. In all its stark spledor. I have had this saying: I haven't been everywhere, but it is on my list. Well, Fair Isle is North Of Everywhere.