[Shinrin Yoku: for Endsley]

Today I performed a modified practice of forest prayer that was part Shinrin Yoku--the Japanese practice of forest bathing, part walking meditation borrowed from the Montreat Conference Center in North Carolina, and part creative expression. I dedicate this piece to Endsley Barrett, a beautiful woman who embodied joy and kindness and who left this world too soon.

Thanks to McNair and Patricia Evans for sharing Prayer Path from the Walk Jones Wildlife Sanctuary at Montreat with me and to Jon Brown who wrote it for his thoughtful walk and words. Thanks also to Christopher Kautz at CQK Studio for the "DonkeyPad" that accompanies me everywhere, holding the pens and paper that allow me to catch my moments of inspiration. 

[notes: cool plants]

Recent spottings at the San Francisco Botanical Garden, CA

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Gunnera tinctoria, Chilean Gunnera:

Image credit: Stan Shebs

Gunnera tinctoria, Chilean Gunnera

Perennial, aquatic plant

Evergreen

Spacing: 6' - 8'

Height: 6' - 8'

Texture: tough, rough, thick knobby leaves with significant translucency

Hardiness: Zones 7a-10b

Sun: Full sun

Water: Lots! Obligate wetland plant, requires consistently wet soil

Danger: Spiny, spiky, can cut

Stand-out plant!

Image credit: Spencer Alley Blog

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Puya alpestris, Sapphire Tower:

 Image credits above: San Francisco Bromeliad Society, Lana Fisher

Puya alpestris, Sapphire Tower

Succulent, cactus, tropical

Evergreen

Spacing: 36"

Height: 24"

Texture: spiky, arcing and straight needle-like leaves

Hardiness: Zones 9b-11

Sun: Full sun

Water: Minimal, drought tolerant

Danger: Very pointy tips

Great needly texture against any groundcover and mixed in with other dry shrubs, perennials, and succulents.

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Protea obtusifolia, Limestone Sugarbush:

Image credit: Bluehillescape Blog

Protea obtusifolia, Limestone Sugarbush

Perennial, shrub

Evergreen

Spacing: 6' - 0"

Height: 8' - 0"

Texture: Long, smooth obovate leaves

Bloom: red from fall-spring

Hardiness: Zones 9b-10b

Sun: Full sun

Water: Minimal, drought tolerant

Danger: N/A

Great overall form in a wild, dry garden

Excellent pollinator plant

[quick note on a performative line]

Jetty at Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina

[notes on performative lines]

Contrast is the primary way we perceive the world. Without seeing something's opposite, the thing being observed is imperceptible. From studies in color theory to research in how people physically sense the world, contrast is critical to our experience of the world. For example, our body only becomes aware of ambient temperature by a marked change in temperature. It is the change itself that triggers our proprieceptors. Or take the eye which registers objects either by a change in the quality of light on the surface of one thing or by the comparison of light hitting two adjacent objects differently.

A line in landscape is the point of contrast to natural forms and to the elements. And so a stagnant line is performative. Meaning aside, it is a datum, a marker, a point of contrast, a perceptual cue. It allows us to register form, depth, age, color, texture. A line is perhaps one the of the greatest quantifiers of all time, yet its ability to measure quality is profound. Is this perhaps why humans have been so intent on making lines in the natural landscape for our entire existence? They create a sharp register not only of what exists, but of our existence. 

Beach Line by the author, Point Reyes seashore, California

River Lines follow contour lines, American River, California, by the author 

Mountain Lines in progress also follow contour lines, reducing erosion, American River, California by the author

Images from human lines in landscape from past civilizations to present. Below are the remarkable Nazca Lines in Peru whose purpose is still debated: lines to be noticed by the gods, celestial navigation markers, constellation renderings, UFO runways, and on...

Nazca Lines, Representational
source: Martin St-Amant, Wikipedia, CC-BY-SA-3.0

Nazca Lines, Peru c. 400-650AD
source: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImages/images.php3?img_id=5103

Earth artists of the mid-20th century used line at geologic scale. Here, Michael Heizer's Double Negative at Mormon Mesa, Nevada, about which the artist said, "There is nothing there, yet it is still a sculpture." We continue to be obsessed with this work and other great landforming line works of human civilization.

Double Negative
source link

Aerial view of Double Negative
source: Michael Heizer, World Art Web Kiosk

Double Negative from the ground

Or Agnes Denes' Tree Mountain - A Living Time Capsule, a reconstructed and reforested mountain at the Pinziö gravel pits near Ylöjärvi, Finland:

Source: Agnes Denes

Here, images not of ancient settlements, but of the ephemeral Black Rock City that is created and destroyed annually at the Burningman event in Nevada:

From art to quotidienne, we draw lines in everyday landscapes for purpose and efficiency. Here maple syrup tap lines criss cross the woods of the American Northeast:

Maple Syrup Tap Lines, Vermont
Source: Ron Hay Photoraphy 2010, flickr