Tonacacihuatl: Lady of Our Flesh

Fragrance of the rain in her breath. The dampness at the back of her knees smells like rain also. She apprears with a shining crow the color of cinnabar, and a mark at her shoulders blades displays the same crow.
Poison had made her throat lovely. For that poison,praise is chanted in hear meters making triple digit noise. Part of her has the form of a tule stem, and that form she can absorb, if she wants it hidden. And it is hidden!

I fell in love with the first two phrases of this poem. Im not very poetic and i dont quite understand most poems, so i cant really analyize it in detail. But her choice of words and descriptions sound really nice. The fact that she refers a SHE instead of a HE just makes it sound more lovely. One of my most favorite smells in the world is the smell of rain right before it hits and her description in the first phrase sounds just lovely. The whole peom itself was nice but the first two little paragraphs caught my attention. Beautilful work from a brilliant lady.

Sand County Almanac

"Our ability to perceive quality in nature begins, as in art, with the pretty. It expands through successive stages of the beautiful to values as yet uncaptured by language."

Not really much to say about this quote, it pretty much sums it all up. Im sure mostly everyone feels this way. Its a beautiful quote and it is like art. You first see it and look at it and its just pretty. The older you get and the more appreciative you become only then can you see the true beauty of the beholder.

My First Summer in the Sierra

July 15-"After a mile or so of this memorable cliff work I approached Yosemite Creek, admiring its easy, graceful, confident gestures as it comes bravely forward in its narrow channel, singing the last of its mountain songs on its way to its fate-a few rods move over the shining granite, then down half a mile in showy foam to another world, to be lost in the Merced, where climate, vegetation, inhabitants, all are different. Emerging from its last gorge, it glides in wide lace-like rapids down a smooth incline into a pool where it seems to rest and compose its gray, agitated waters before taking the grand plunge, then slowly slipping over the lip of the pool basin, it desends another glossy slope with rapidly accelerated speed to the brink of the tremendous cliff, and with sublime, fateful confidence springs out free in teh air."

My friends and I have been camping at the Frio River for the last five years mostly during the summer time. One of the perks of spending time there is the tubing part, we drive about 10 miles up the river from our campsite and float the river till we enter out campsite which is our last stop of the ride. Along the ride not only are your spending great time with friends and relaxing...nature is all around you. Its green everywhere with so many different types of trees and birds, at times we all just stay quiet and enjoy the sounds all around us. At some places along the ride you come up to beautiful little creek waterfalls in some locations and it really quite mesmerizing, this passage reminds me of my summer trips and I look forward to them every year.

Beyond The Hundredth Meridian

"Agriculture was effortless: no forests needed clearing, manual tillage was not required, even the use of the plow was not essential, so eager were seeds to germinate in this paradise. As the plains were amply irrigated by underground and artesian waters, the plateau was watered by mountain streams of purest melted snow, and to arrange fields for irrigation was no more trouble than fencing, which the ditches heres superseded."

After reading this paragraph I instantly had flashbacks of how life would of been had I been born in an earlier era. How natures wonders were all that you could see for miles and beyond and everything was so peaceful. No loud machinery or other contraptions were needed to fix or makes things better, nature had its own way of doing things and it worked out just fine. Yet, only a handful of people back then were able to fully appreciate the full forests, streams, and fields...that was truly paradise. I dont think id would of minded at all being born in a era where nature consumed every singel aspect of my life. It would of been a peaceful and carefree life. :)

The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons

June 6 - "At daybreak I am awakened by a chorus of birds. It seems as if all the feathered songsters of the region have come to the old tree. Several species of warblers, woodpeckers, and flickers above, meadow larks in the grass, and wild geese in the river. I recline on my elbow and watch a lark nearby, and then awaken my bedfellow, to listen to my Jenny Lind. A real morning concert for me; none of your "matinees"!"

This experience he has with natures choir reminds me an experience I had when camping out at Big Bend National Park. It was a trip taken with family and friends, I woke up extra early one morning cuase I couldnt sleep (prob cuase it was a little to cold) and was just sitting outside watching the sunrise when the tree next to me just came to life with all these sounds. It happened out of now where and I wasnt expecting it but it was truly mesmerizing on its own. Many sounds coming from more than one type of bird and different as they all were, togehter it sounded so beautiful and a sense of peacefulness really came over me along with the sunrise. It was an experience I would never forget and glad that those chills woke me up that early.

The Journal-Henry David Thoreau

July 19- "The rich crimson under sides (with their regularly branching veins) of some white lily pads surpasses the color of most flowers. No wonder the spiders are red that swim beneath; and think of the fishes that swim beneath this crimson canopy,beneath a crimson sky. I can frequently trace the passage of a boat,a pickerel fisher, perhaps, by the crimson under sides of the pads unturned.
The pads crowd and overlap each other in the most amicable fashion. Sometimes one lobe of a yellow lily pad is above its neighbor, while the other is beneath. The pads are rapidly consumed, but fresh ones are all the while pushing up and unrolling. They push up and spread out in the least crevice that offers."

This particular passage caught my interest right away from the usage of his color discriptions. Being a biology major I have a great deal of respect for nature and what she has to offer with the many species of animals and plants. Hes very detailed in his observatons throughout the book itself but hes used the color crimson in this particular passage and i simply love how he choose to use it. The lily pads house such unique and beautiful flowers on them and i could only imagine how stunning that setting must have been.