Category: Nature

Leaves

Rarely have I enjoyed the first frost as must as this year.

DSC 8133

It’s time to look back, and the theme leaves suggests that I list the books that I found memorable this year.

DSC 7876

In the English language, there were several books I really liked. Zero K by Don DeLillo, and The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. DeLillo’s book is atypical for him, the humor of his earlier books has disappeared, and the discussion of the acceptability of death reminded me of classic greek theater. Ishiguro has been writing against being compartmentalized for a while, and his Buried Giant is no exception. I must admit that he has tricked me with this book: I thought it was an easy read, but only later realized that I have forgotten crucial parts, very much akin to the forgetting that is happening in the book itself. It’s a daunting book.

DSC 8107

I haven’t read as many French books from this year as I would have wished, mainly because I will probably forever play catch up with previous years. The one outstanding book though is the completely devastating Chanson douce by Leïla Slimani. The book begins with the death of two children, killed by their trusted baby sitter. While we learn more about it, we have to reconsider what makes a life worth living. This book has won the Prix Goncourt this year. While I don’t trust book prizes blindly, they sometimes get it right.

DSC 8114

Then there are the books in German. For me, the clear winner is Am Rand, by the Austrian writer Hans Platzgumer. Once more this year we hear about a life, and its end. This appears to be this year’s theme in literature: Ways of dealing with death. This sounds morbid, but the point is that while the protagonists approach death one way or the other, we learn about how they deal with life, and in all the books above there is a lot to learn.

DSC 7873

Incidentally, by favorite book this year is not about death at all but rather about a desperate attempt to grasp life. J.M Coetzee’s The Schooldays of Jesus is the sequel to his The Childhood of Jesus, and it is pretty clear that there is more to come. We follow two immigrants (a man and a boy) in a nameless, kafkaesque country. The man is willing to accept his new life, while the young boy questions everything, creating meaning in a senseless world.

Treescapes (Red River Gorge State Park III)

DSC 7669 HDR

Even more than the curious Natural Bridge and the Rock Garden, a highlight of Red River Gorge State Park is the view of distant treescapes.

DSC 7647

Compared to Indiana, the vegetation of Kentucky has deeper reds and more pronounced greens in late Fall.

DSC 7658

Living with daily views like these would be paradise for me. Admittedly, I like complicated things.

DSC 7671 HDR

Rock Garden Trail (Red River Gorge State Park II)

I am a big fan of rock/tree formations, and thus the Rock Garden Trail in Red River Gorge State Park was a must for me.

DSC 7564

The rock garden is, expectedly, very different from designer Japanese landscapes. Because everything is here by chance, all depends on the viewer.

DSC 7565

It is hard to say what I like about these landscapes. They are clearly not everybody’s taste.

DSC 7567

Maybe they vaguely suggest archaic temples to me — either unfinished, or in utter destruction. The trees serve as columns, while the rocks are material for more permanent structures, to be used or in slower decay.

DSC 7639

The Nihilist’s Bridge (Red River Gorge State Park I)

DSC 7692 HDR

The Natural Bridge in Red River Gorge State Park (Kentucky!) doesn’t bridge anything, like most natural bridges.

DSC 7774

One can walk under and across and thus use both functions of a bridge, contemplating the pointlessness of the act in this case. It helps that the bridge is more or less on top of a mountain.

DSC 7792

That there are trees on top is giving hope, though.

DSC 7810

Dendrochronology

Rest079

When helplessly confronted with historic events, we can be little more than a witness. But we should not underestimate this task: Being a fair witness is both difficult and necessary. This is a skill that should be taught in school.

Bonn010

I have always admired the trees as such witnesses, and maybe the tree can become the name of a pattern that describes the functions of a witness.

The tree images of this are also a personal memory, because they were taken near the event horizon when my own personal history becomes imageless because I don’t have photos from earlier years.

Bn9

So all these images are from the early 80s, taken near Bonn. I had moved there from (West) Berlin and was beginning to learn that one can spend one’s free time exploring the surroundings.

The shivering tree below is not out of focus. It is a double exposure, with the second image being a long time exposure to motion blur the leaves in the wind.

Rest222

Points of Support

Three points make a triangle.

DSC 7244

After witnessing the remnants of the American democracy in free fall during this year’s election, I found some peace in contemplating the stability that is achieved by three points
on a long walk through Turkey Run State Park’s maze of canyons.

DSC 7126

Fall is almost over here, and the dead leaves and trees are awaiting the mercy of frost and snow.

DSC 7217

There is beauty still in all of this, maybe because it cannot be made a target of hatred.

DSC 7221

Let’s call this a prayer, if such thing still exists.

DSC 7213

Yellow

When Giacinto Scelsi went through a personal crisis, he spent hours listening to the sound of a single key on his piano. The haunting music he composed afterwards is my favorite music for the Fall.

DSC 7054

Appropriately once in a while the leaves make a concerted effort to display just one color.

DSC 7079

The yellow fall color is particularly difficult to catch, because the leaves fade too quickly when on the ground. This fragility makes yellow ideal to increase tension in an image.

I have difficulties pinpointing what I like about the image below. I keep returning to the pale yellow tree in the center that seems hover over the slanted lines of nearby rocks and trees,
ready to exert more pressure downwards, but not quite doing it yet.

DSC 7040

Fragility is also part of Scelsi’s music. The first time I heard his music was at a concert in Cologne, and one piece was for solo guitar. Half way through the piece a string broke. The player just sat there for a minute, seemingly uncomprehending. When he recovered, he looked into the audience, went up to get a new string, and recommenced playing. This one minute of silence could very well have been part of the music.

DSC 7101

Asleep and Awake

DSC 6781

After visiting Brown County State Park on a very foggy earl Fall day, revisiting the same location two days later on a very sunny day shows a different landscape.

DSC 6680

Just before sunrise, the lake is still partially covered with morning fog, but within an hour, the appearance changes completely.

DSC 6723

That one hour of snoozing gives plenty of time to walk around Strahl Lake,

DSC 6699

slowly separating dream and reality.

DSC 6708

Landscape in the Mist

Fall has arrived.

DSC 6524

As you can see, the Indiana landscape does have opportunities for outlooks, at least in theory.

DSC 6546

I used the first rainy fall day to revisit Brown County State Park with its two lakes.

DSC 6549

My favorite lake front at Strahl Lake has changed only little since my first post about this place, even though some trees are dying.

DSC 6553

There is also Ogle Lake below, which is larger and not as intense.

DSC 6587

The far side of it is more interesting, with groups of trees guarding the secrets of the place.

DSC 6608

Walking through a landscape in the mist has become a ritual since I first watched the film by Theo Angelopoulos with the same title. Fog, light, and borders will never mean the same again.

DSC 6664

The Loop

Once again I am returning to the fascinating Pine Hills Nature Preserve in Shades State Park, walking the loop trail there.

DSC 5765

I have done this several times, at different seasons, and both the fact that I keep repeating this hike and that it itself is a loop (returning to its beginning) makes be wonder about the purpose of this.

DSC 5769

Return and repeat: Aren’t these early signs of failure? Wouldn’t it be better to give up and move on?
After being exposed to Iceland’s permeating Black, Green, and White last summer, I was surprised to find the same monochromaticity here, in late summer.

DSC 5779

Green is a difficult color, and doesn’t pair well with a single other color I think, but it does exceedingly well in combination with black and white.

DSC 5801

When we return, we are different, and view things differently, and possibly even the completion of a loop teaches us something new. That what makes us repeat is maybe the feeling that there is unfinished business, that the circle has been left open, in the way the ensō brush stroke is often left open.

DSC 5811

So the loop, as a pattern, is nothing but a sophisticated mechanism to move on.

DSC 5857