I don't know about you, but I have a rather compulsive tendency to collection. Bones, stones, sticks, leaves, dead insects, sticks that LOOK like dead insects, seed pods, shells, carapaces.... if it fits in my pocket, it often comes home to join my shelves of found treasures.
From time to time this habit has come back to bite me... as in the time I filled my pockets with Florida shells, only to discover one still carried remnants of a dead-but-not-forgotten former occupant. Discovery came, of course, AFTER my jacket took over ownership and proliferation of the accompanying odor.
Doesn't stop me, mind you.
For a while now I've had an idea to record this bounty, with a thought towards what might be an interesting exhibition of the collection. Guess what made it to the list of Articulated - And - Therefore - Obligatory-2008-Goals? Yup. The "Pocket Treasures" project. Now you all know about it, too... so I am quadruply obligated.
But it's an obligation I feel quite happy to fulfill. (I think of it more as an excuse to actually DO this little project, which here at its inception has no purpose except as an exercise in making little studies.)
As a testament to my project commitment (and as proof that I am not just goofing off here in Ohio), I submit to you Pocket Treasure #1: A perforated leaf from the trail along the Rocky River. I'm going to have to look it up, unless someone out there knows from which tree it comes. I have a theory, but not much along this river is familiar to me, particularly at this time of year.*
Next up? Who knows! I have to wander around to find out. And how good is THAT?
* Verdict: Northern red oak, Quercus rubra.
New Year morning --
ReplyDeletein the picture of an oak leaf
a scent from my youth
I'm guessing a pin oak, but it's been a while. Lovely leaf. Lovely drawing of a leaf.
And dead insects that look like sticks, of course. As for the shells, you can never go wrong with a pocket full of ziplock bags. (Well, hardly ever.)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that you put a name to the leaf because my first question was "What's that?". I will have to drag my ever-widening posterior down to the botanical gardens to check out the range of trees in the oak lawn. (The lawn is around the trees, you understand. It's not made up of exquisitely bonsaied oaks.)
Lovely haiku of lovely drawing of lovely leaf, thank you, Not-so-Anon-as-you-think.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Snail, for the clarification of "oak lawn." My immediate thought was that Australia must be the land of giants (or at least Ents) if a proliferation of oaks qualified as garden substrate. Caused a brief stumble in my loosely-formed plans to come and visit you in 2009. (Surprise!) But I'm back on track now. :)
2009? You'd be most welcome!
ReplyDelete:-) Great. I was hoping you'd say so. I've friends in Fremantle (I think), folks to look up in Taz, and a long-suppressed desire to visit OZ/NZ. Won't be able to pull it off this year, but already chucking coins in the jar for the next!
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