Follow Me...
I have a place I like to go. It is deep in the forest. You can follow me. I have something to show you. Something very special.
Across this bridge...
Down the hill and across this small stream. Watch your step! It is quite slippery. But feel how cool it is here...
Past the embrace of giants...
And into the ancient hemlock forest...
This is a wintering place for deer. As the snows become deep, the deer gather here from all around. Here it remains warmer and more sheltered. But there is something else. Something much more rare. Can you see it? There. Among the ferns below us.
Let's take a closer look...
Ne pas déranger, s’il vous plaît ! These tiny, plump ballerina shoes are a very rare type of wild orchid. Fragile and fleeting, they are known as Showy Pink Lady Slippers, or Moccasin-Flowers. Take pictures, but do not pick them, or attempt to transplant them. Tell no one where they are.
Promise me! It will be our secret...
"I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."
William Butler Yeats
Across this bridge...
Down the hill and across this small stream. Watch your step! It is quite slippery. But feel how cool it is here...
Past the embrace of giants...
And into the ancient hemlock forest...
This is a wintering place for deer. As the snows become deep, the deer gather here from all around. Here it remains warmer and more sheltered. But there is something else. Something much more rare. Can you see it? There. Among the ferns below us.
Let's take a closer look...
Ne pas déranger, s’il vous plaît ! These tiny, plump ballerina shoes are a very rare type of wild orchid. Fragile and fleeting, they are known as Showy Pink Lady Slippers, or Moccasin-Flowers. Take pictures, but do not pick them, or attempt to transplant them. Tell no one where they are.
Promise me! It will be our secret...
"I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly because you tread on my dreams."
William Butler Yeats
posted by V at 6:25 AM
7 Comments:
Hi V,
Thank you for the wonderful jaunt through the forest!
It's an amazing image of the lady slipper that you have captured.
I have a confession to make... I have led you a merry dance down the garden path, to a place where the orchids are not. They are endangered, you know and are frequent victims to horticultural collectors. Even photographers sometimes crush them after snapping their pictures, just so their photos are exclusive.
They take up to 16 years to their first flower, live up to 50 years, but there are fewer and fewer places where they can dwell.
So, I lied. For their sake. But I think you enjoyed it, all the same. Maybe more.
Ha!Ha!An interesting stroll through the woods just the same:)
I used to see much smaller ones deep in the woods in this area,but I haven't seen one for a few years now.
I can't imagine anyone intentionally destroying them or picking them as a collectible.
Speaking of confessions I have my own to make...I have been reading the blogs for over a year know and for some reason I've always assumed that the persona of V was a male...that is until
I noticed your new blog on the weekend with a new frame of reference.:)
I almost missed your new comment this morning. It seems one must refresh the page occasionally to see the new comments.
I have never actually witnessed such a callous act as I described, but I have heard the experience of one person who was in a group of hikers when they came across a rare wild orchid (which type escapes my memory.) The man who reported the incident said the photographer noticed the flower, snapped his pictures, then, to everyone's open-mouth horror, crushed the flower with his heel, because that would give him exclusivity of the image.
I do believe that, were I a part of that group, the next sound you would hear would be the snapping of handcuffs on my wrists, since I would be thoroughly guilty of assault and battery.
I have witnessed someone quite deliberately and casually, as if it were entirely the proper thing to do, take motor oil from a boat engine and pour it directly into the lake. Sorry to say he did not follow the path of the filth he had just deposited, as I was a guest on his vessel, but suffice to say that was the end of that relationship.
V as a man... yes, well, that came about somewhat accidentally and I did not bother to correct the impression. In fact, I rather enjoyed being scolded by other women with my "sexist" remarks, wearing river waders by LLBean and "cross-dressing" in feminine attire. The truth is that behind "V" is a woman with a well-developed sense of mischief.
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Well, Stephen, our ideas have changed a lot over the years. It is difficult to place ourselves into the mentality of those who lived, say, a hundred years ago. We try to impose our current ideas on everything from slavery to history and technology and so on. This probably won't work terribly well. The best we can do is to understand the dynamics of a given situation which existed long ago and analyze it from a variety of perspectives.
Currently I am reading a great book called, "Indian Women and French Men" by Susan Sleeper-Smith, which deals with topic of Native women and the fur trade. Her contention is that alliances with white French men and with Catholicism actually empowered Native women, giving them further opportunites for negotiation and increasing their social value and personal wealth and enhanced the Indian communities involved in such trade. She makes a pretty strong case that such alliances did not, in fact, lead to the demise of Native culture, but enriched it in a variety of ways. Obviously, this plays against the stereotype that all contact with Europeans was destructive. But there it is. A really good argument against currently entrenched ideas.
Private collections and museums are filled with objects collected when we were either unaware of the damage caused by taking them, or the cultural and environmental impact. Does this mean we should not enjoy those things which have been taken long ago? Or give back everything taken from other countries? Would we make the Smithsonian give up their collection of rare animals taken over the years? Certainly not. And we all get a chance to enjoy and examine them.
Before the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 I myself purchased a sealskin belt in Canada on a school trip. Now it is still illegal and today I would not be allowed to bring it into the US, but they are no longer endangered - according to the Seal Council, they were never endangered, but the appeal was an emotional one - and the seals themselves are in part responsible for the reduced cod populations. The Native populations, however, can go sealing, but increasingly they are being prohibited from selling their crafts outside of Canada. Can't sell the products, not allowed to fish cod... This is what can cause the demise of a people and their culture really quickly.
To get back to your original question, I think that as long as an object is old and it was not removed recently, (since the law) then one might as well enjoy it as long as it lasts. I don't think there is any law on the books about old pieces already in the country, or am I mistaken?
But I'm still not telling you where the Lady Slippers are!
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