Tag: nature

Shifting Sands

Photographer Unknown, (Shifting Sands of Time)

“The desert could not be claimed or owned–it was a piece of cloth carried by winds, never held down by stones, and given a hundred shifting names… Its caravans, those strange rambling feasts and cultures, left nothing behind, not an ember. All of us, even those with European homes and children in the distance, wished to remove the clothing of our countries. It was a place of faith. We disappeared into landscape.”
― Michael Ondaatje, The English Patient

Reblogged with many thanks to https://oznagni.tumblr.com

Alexander Van Driessche

Alexander Van Driessche, “The Naica Mine”, Mexico

In 2000, stunned geologists discovered some of the largest crystals ever found in the then-working Naica Silver Mine in Chihuahua, Mexico. Nearly 1,000 feet underground, selenite crystals as large as 4 feet in diameter and 50 feet long grow in an atmosphere of 136 degrees Fahrenheit and 90-99 percent humidity. Only a handful of people has ever entered one of the five crystal growing caves. In 2015, the mine ceased operation and was closed to the public after a worker suffocated in the inhospitable environment while trying to steal some of the selenite.

Bill Bryson: “The Woods is One Boundless Singularity”

Photographer Unknown, The Trailer in the Pines

“There is no point in hurrying because you are not actually going anywhere. However far or long you plod, you are always in the same place: in the woods. It’s where you were yesterday, where you will be tomorrow. The woods is one boundless singularity. Every bend in the path presents a prospect indistinguishable from every other, every glimpse into the trees the same tangled mass. For all you know, your route could describe a very large, pointless circle. In a way, it would hardly matter.”

― Bill Bryson,  A Walk in the Woods

David Nash

David Nash, “Ash Dome”, 1977, Circle of Ash Trees, Wales

In 1977, sculptor David Nash cleared an area of land near his home in Wales where he trained a circle of 22 ash trees to grow in a vortex-like shape for an artwork titled “Ash Dome”. Over 40 years later, the trees still grow today. The artist has long worked with wood and natural elements in his art practice, often incorporating live trees or even animals into pieces. The exact site of “Ash Dome” in the Snowdonia region of northwest Wales is a closely guarded secret,

“When I first planted the ring of trees for Ash Dome, the Cold War was still a threat. There was serious economic gloom, very high unemployment in our country, and nuclear war was a real possibility… To make a gesture by planting something for the 21st century, which was what Ash Dome was about, was a long-term commitment, an act of faith.“ – David Nash, 2001