Kentucky - Clermont

Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest

The Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest was provided to the people of Kentucky by Isaac W. Bernheim.  The Olmsted firm provided the landscape plan for the Arboretum.  Isaac Bernheim paid for the stature of Lincoln at the Louisville Public Library.  The graves of Isaac Bernheim and many family members are at the Arboretum. During his life Issac Bernheim moved to Colorado.  He was attracted to Kentucky and he was attracted to Colorado.

Louisville’s Olmsted Parks - Iroquois

Eastern Redbud adds to the color in the Iroquois Park woods

 

Olmsted stated his vision for Iroquois Park in his 1891 report to the Park Commission. Olmsted said Iroquois provided “the grandeur of forest depths.”Iroquois Park was to provide the visitor with the experience of being surrounded by the forest. The central hill was to provide overlooks to view the surrounding land. Iroquois was and is unique in the park system.

Sounds of life on earth

Cicada Summer 2017

Keeping pace in our harried lives we lose our sense of hearing.  We don't hear the sounds of nature.  The sounds are there to be heard.  They can be encouraging or frightening.  Maybe part  of the difference is within you.

A treat, the paw paw

Jefferson Memorial Forest - Paul Yost Section

It is not too hard to see Paw Paw trees in Kentucky.  There is one in the Jefferson Memorial Forest that is easily seen.  It is a rebellious paw paw because the tree usually prefers moist locations.  This individual is living on a not so moist hillside.  A son’s father would go into the woods and find the fruits for a breakfast.  The paw paws easily seen in the outdoors have been too little to get for consuming.  But this September a friend made a bowl of paw paws.  The paw paws were very tasty.  These fruits must be allowed to ripen on the tree.  Once picked they must be eaten within three to five days.  Albany, Ohio and York, Pennsylvania have festivals celebrating the fruit.  So respect and appreciate the forest by you and its paw paw trees.

The forest

Christmas Fern - Jenny Wiley State Park

The Christmas fern, Polystichum acrostichoides, with fronds 1-2 feet high is probably the most common fern in Kentucky. The developing fronds are called fiddleheads. The newly developed fronds resemble the neck of a fiddle. It has been said that fiddleheads are edible and can be prepared like asparagus. The Christmas Fern is also a food crop for the ruffed grouse.  This plant also belies the idea that winter scenes are gray.  The plant is deep green and it is around throughout the winter.

What I Saw - Cornwallis, WV

North Bend Rail Trail - WV - Cornwallis to Ellenboro

What we need.  Wilderness is for us.

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul. 
--John Muir

The smell of wood

Wooden Bourbon warehouse Jim Beam property, Kentucky

Warehouse for aging in oak barrels

All wood construction warehouse

Wood construction and wood barrels in Kentucky

The barrels used in bourbon making are built from white oak, Quercus Alba.  The wood that is used in Europe may be from one of two other Quercus species.  The construction of the barrel storage buildings is all wood.  The smell inside the warehouse is the full sense smell of wood.   The storage buildings pictured here are at Clermont, Kentucky.   The operator does not use horse drawn transport to move the barrels around the facility but many of the methods employed here are from at least one hundred years ago. The wood barrels are put into and removed from all wood buildings.  It is very much a place of forest products.

Hammer's Cave Spring

 

Many people speak of Indiana as the Crossroads of America. The  days of life in the nineteenth century in Indiana are the subject of the historic area at Spring Mill near Mitchel, Indiana.  Samuel Jackson, Jr. had served in the Navy in the War of 1812.  He moved to the area now preserved at Spring Mill in 1814.  In 1817 the Bullitt brothers of Louisville bought the land and began to add structures to the community.  It was the Bullitt brothers that built the three story stone mill.  In 1824 another set of brothers purchased the property.  This time it was the Montgomery brothers of  Philadelphia.  They built a distillery at the site.  In 1833 the Hammer brothers purchased the mill.  The source of the water for the mill is called Hammer's cave.  The tall cedar trees on the lawn have been dated to be older than the time of the Hammer era.  One can touch the same trees that the Hammer children played under in their lives at this beautiful place.

This is a colorful place; those who come may take a wonderful memory with them.

The Forests of the Sierra Nevada

Blackened tree Yosemite NP Between Big Oak Flat Info Center and Entrance to Yosemite Valley, Big Oak Flat Road

One sees the evidence of recent fires all around.  The forest composition changes with elevation.  Incense cedars are seen in much of the Sierra Nevada forest.

What I Saw - trees

Vista - Lake Cumberland State Park - Winter Season

After the fall colors the deciduous trees lose most of their leaves.  Some would characterize the look as barren. Others would say that the evergreens are more noble growing amongst their surrounding deciduous trees.

Walking in

Woodland - Big South Fork of the Cumberland River

As John Muir wrote that going out was in fact going in there are special places in the East worth appreciating and preserving for this experience of going in.  The Cumberland Plateau in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama is a very special place.  Most of Kentucky east of I-75 is Cumberland Plateau woodland.  Is it a mystical place?  It be can be.

Near to the heart of the world

Towering Tree Growing in Mammoth Cave National Park

As long as I live, I'll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I'll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I'll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can. - John Muir

The land of Kentucky was once under the sea as evidenced by fossils present in Kentucky.  Natural Kentucky is filled with the sounds of winds and birds and water.

Beauty in West Kentucky

    



The Rustic National Park Sign

 

My journey took me to Middle Tennessee and West Kentucky. The Welcome Center on the Southbound side of I-65 in Portland, Tennessee is an inviting building. The windows look like a fort from a bygone era.  There was much rain and dark clouds and I was enjoying my time anyway.

In Franklin, Kentucky there is a store with various old household items. The collection of the previously owned items collected from estates and similar sources is an interesting collection. If anyone wants a group of buttons in a Mason jar they have the jars. No two buttons are the same so if you are looking for five buttons of the same design you are stymied.

One of the largest features in Mammoth Cave National Park is the Green River. If you are exploring the surface you will eventually see the Green River. If you have seen the Cumberland River or the Rockcastle River the Green River will be a disappointment. The Green River looks thick with silt in the water. The look is not an appealing look.

Turn a corner on one of the trails in Mammoth Cave National Park and you will see a tree that is so tall you can scarcely tilt your head up enough to see the crown. Some of Kentucky's tallest trees are found in this beautiful park.

Though the Mammoth Cave area is hilly there is nothing that could be thought of as mountains. Though going there is not going to the mountains going there is going to a wild profusion of living plants.

When John Muir was 13 he lived in rural Wisconsin. He went from an obscure farm life to become an explorer, an essayist and one of America's best read writers. The following passage from John Muir fits this special Kentucky place.

"Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life."