Fragments From Floyd

Joe Pye, as I remember it, was an Indian medicine man. This plant that bears his name is from a genus with swollen nodes along the stem (where the leaves come out) and looks (to some imaginative minds) like a healing bone. The genus thus carries the common name "bone-set". To me, it's healing effect comes from the fact that when it blooms in August, hot weather is mostly past. It's mauve flowers, remarkably similar to that of our barn roof, was a sight for sore eyes this morning as the sun was first filling the foggy valley with soft light. (Larger image here.)

I have several things I wanted to share with you, and will dump them on you en mass, forgive me, because we are leaving town again today. This time, I'll have ready access to DSL connection and will be checking email from South Dakota. So let me hear from you.

If you are a reader or writer of nature-related topics, this article is a must read. "Sick of Nature" contains the following paragraph: (but start from the beginning)

If nature writing is to prove worthy of a new, more noble name, it must become less genteel and it must expand considerably. It's time to take down the "No Trespassing" signs. Time for a radical cross-pollination of genres. Why not let farce occasionally bully its way into the nature essay? Or tragedy? Or sex? How about more writing that spills and splashes over the seawall between fiction and nonfiction? How about some retrograde essayist who suddenly breaks into verse like the old timers? How about some African-American nature writers? (There are currently more black players in the NHL than in the Nature Writing League.) How about somebody other than Abbey who will admit to having a drink in nature? (As if most of us don't tote booze as well as binoculars into the back-country.) And how about a nature writer who actually seems to have a job?

And if you'd care (and I hope you do) to read a nature writer who has stepped up to the bully pulpit, Rick Bass, writing in Orion, says we must do "Everything it Takes" to take back our country in November. I couldn't agree more.

And lastly, fellow radio essayist, Janice Jacquith, from upstate, has a helpful primer on writing essays (or "commentaries") for the radio. You can read it at Amazon, here. She's certainly done her share in the medium, and turned them into a book. Hmmmm.

Okay. You're on your own. But I'll be checking up on every one of you, so no squabbling. Don't make me stop this blog and get out and switch the bunch of ya. You know I'll do it.