Rewriting our childhood

Following Hannah Hinchman's advice, I have begun to re-remember my childhood, recording my memories of the fields, streams, woods, and prairie land that surrounded my childhood home in rural southern Wisconsin. In between my nature memories from my Midwestern childhood, I am adding descriptions and reflections from my walks through the woods, fields, and marshes of the suburban New England town that is now my home.

I invite you to share your memories of nature from your childhood or your responses to nature as an adult in the comments.

Katy Z. Allen
January 21, 2012

Note: Unless otherwise credited, photos were taken by me.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Bottle Gentians

Bottle gentian growing
in Massachusetts
Photo by
Rachel Gould and Karen Lutsky 
Crossing the valley in late summer, carefully stepping on the hummocks so as not to get my feet wet in the marsh, just at the edge of the marsh, suddenly a burst of blue, a clump of bottle gentians - so special, so unusual, such a color, such a gift. How could there be such a blue not of the sky? How could there be such an intricate exceptional shape? Blue - deep, true blue, a closed bottle. And overhead, the sun is shining. The red-wing blackbirds are chirruping. The sun is hot on my back. The insects are buzzing. Just ahead is the shade of a large willow, and then the prairie hillside, and beyond, the woods. But here, before me, the blue bottle gentian. Thank you, G!d.



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