Paris, Kentucky

Nyssa silvatica -  Black Gum - Paris, Kentucky







This is a Black Gum tree at the arboretum on Seventh Street in Paris, Kentucky.  Because its wood is difficult to split Black Gum is often passed by for harvesting for use as wood.
It is one of the Appalachian highland trees seen by Lucy Braun in her mountain travels.
It is destroyed along with the other trees when surface mining clears the Appalachian land of all plants.

The wild sounds

Cicada, Jefferson County, Kentucky

The biophony includes the sounds that cicadas make.  There is something to be learned in absorbing the many parts to their sounds.  There are cicadas that emerge after a thirteen year time and cicadas that emerge after a seventeen year time.  The adult cicadas commonly heard on summer nights are not these long time silent cicadas but are cicadas that emerge almost every year.  These cicadas are called annual cicadas.  These cicadas have a life of two to five years.  Their sounds can be very intense.

The destruction of the wild

Toppled giant, Spring Mill, Indiana

The great wilds of our country once held to be boundless and inexhaustible are being rapidly invaded and overrun in every direction, and everything destructible in them is
being destroyed. How far destruction may go is not easy to guess. Every
landscape low and high seems doomed to be trampled and harried.

John Muir

The cause of the fall of the giant tree at Spring Mill is unknown.  The great clearing of wild places without regard to the cost is plain to see in the Midwest.  If you see much of the Midwest or the Southeast in this country you see the great loss
of habitat in this country.

Ohio River Bridge - Big Four Bridge

The Big Four Railroad Bridge at night

The former Big Four railroad bridge has been renovated so that people may ascend to the bridge and walk over the Ohio River.  Lighting has been added to the bridge so that a rainbow of colors may be seen at night.  A controller can command the lights on the sides of the bridge to display a purple color or most any color.  The people in  community use the bridge to walk up to the bridge level and view the river from the bridge.  Ohio River bridges must meet a eighty foot height standard so that boats may pass under the bridge decks.  People sometimes walk down the ramps and buy ice cream from the neighborhood sellers in Jeffersonville.   All this walking and moving is good exercise.  Since the air quality in the area has improved doing strenuous outside activities is not as dangerous as it once was.

Chicago, Illinois

SBD Dauntless at Chicago Midway Airport

If you are going to be a traveler you are going to go though a Chicago airport from time to time.  Sometimes it may be O Hare and sometimes it may be Midway.  Once the Douglas Dauntless was the subject of models, toy airplanes, and drawings in books.   Looking at the shape of this Dauntless you can see why it was symbolic of American design and invention.  The Dauntless hangs inside one of the concourses in the Midway airport where it will be preserved for a long time.

The Dauntless and many other aircraft of the time were designed to perform a function and were appealing in their appearance. They looked like racing airplanes with their curves made to reduce drag for maximum performance.  The sound of their engines was another part of their operation that people of their time have talked about with pleasant recollection.

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 and Spring Mill Inn

The water from Hammer's Cave Spring at Spring Mill

The restaurant at Spring Mill Inn near Mitchel, Indiana is a popular place for good food.  I had heard that a desert made from the fruit of the persimmon tree was available for patrons.  I looked for it but I did not find it.  I asked if the persimmon tree dessert was available for me.  Yes! I had it and the only drawback is I think the preparer is adding sugar to the fruit.  Nonetheless it is a treat to enjoy.

The forest area around the inn is very healthy.  It is possible and I hope it is true that the persimmon fruit desserts at Spring Mill Inn are local food.