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Sunday, September 11

Nature is winning

Here on the East Coast things are very wet. I wish we could send some of our moisture down to the Southwest. It doesn't seem fair to have all this flooding when other places are having drought and fire this time of year. At the supermarket today there was a sign apologizing for the lack of fresh green beans due to weather and crop problems. ..
So anyway here are some recent photos that I'm finding inspiring:
 Amazing mushrooms are sprouting everywhere. These are at the John James Audubon Center- an amazing place to visit if you've never been.
 I love ivy-covered buildings. I used to live in an apartment with ivy covering all the windows.... but that also brought tons of ants all over the house. Ah well, I'll admire this wall on Frankford and Susquehanna and keep the ivy off of my walls. Actually at my house now it's the morning glories I have to contend with.
 The Schuylkill river is raging. There's a small waterfall behind the Philadelphia Art Museum and just south of boathouse row. This week, standing at the pavilion overlooking the waterfall felt like standing at the edge of Niagara Falls with the incredible quantity of water rushing by.
 The pathways along the river and near the Waterworks are encrusted with bracken. I went looking for glass and metal bits for a new project I'm doing, but the debris was mostly natural, with only floating objects like foam, plastic bottles, and a surprising number of balls (tennis, beach, soccer, etc) among the sticks and seeds. The number of seeds was amazing- a reminder that disasters like floods and fires are sometimes a necessary part of the cycle of life which spark new growth.
This beautifully patterned wrought iron staircase normally leads to a short path with various sculptures depicting river life along it- but the bank, the walk, and the sculptures were all completely submerged. Huge tree trunks and more bracken were caught up along the bank, looking like beaver dams. It's awe-some and scary- a dangerous kind of beauty. I think it's what "sublime" means.
In the whole man vs. nature dichotomy, nature is definitely winning this week.

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