When my husband controls the steering wheel he heads toward his destination and notices little else. I, on the other hand, slow and stop along the way to satisfy my curiosity. My most exciting discoveries have happened while out gallivanting, wandering the countryside with my feet in brogans and no destination in mind. During such [...]
I’m up to my knees in blooming weeds beside a paved road in the country. A battered truck slows to a mere crawl and the driver calls out, “Everything okay?” “Yessir! I’m taking pictures!” He breaks into a smile that spreads across his dark face like an invasive blooming plant. His voice holding laughter, he [...]
Earlier this week, after exploring an abandoned cemetery, my husband took me to a bog to show me a magnificent display of yellow pitcher plants under pines. The carnivorous plant, native to this area, is protected in Georgia. The leaves of pitcher plants are tall and shaped like a pitcher. Ants, bees, and all manner [...]
It’s impossible to capture the language of the woods in a picture, to fill a photo with the chatter of birds, the crunch of feet on old leaves and on fallen, rotten limbs, the whisper of wind lifting hair.
I drove down ochre dirt roads, sometimes tinged with Indian red, the roads sandwiched between deep ditches, and turned off one country road onto another, again and again, intending to travel as deep in the countryside as possible. Tired of being shut in the house, tired of writing and staring at a computer screen, I [...]
There is a connection between the soul and nature. I grew up planting, harvesting, digging my hands in the soil. Now, as a middle-aged woman, I spend a lot of time walking so deep in the woods that I can’t hear the noise of the city. Nature fills me and heals me and inspires me. [...]
Brenda Sutton Rose 