White oak (Quercus alba), a growing population of American beech (Fagus grandiflora), Sweetgum (Liquidambar Styraciflua) are the most notable trees, though the woods are full of vines and undergrowth, and many seedlings, especially beech. This is a forest in transition.
I spent my formative years here and this landscape speaks to me. This is William Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, and the myths he created still linger in these hills and in my memory.
"Memory believes before knowing remembers, believes longer than recollects,
longer than knowing even wonders."
- William Faulkner, Light in August
I really enjoy the darker, woodsier, and more contemplative nature of easterly, wooded areas...transitional, included.
ReplyDeleteI wish I were better able to read the story of this landscape. But the emotional aspect you refer to is more readily accessible.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful shots! How has the weather been in MS?
ReplyDeleteI felt this surge of happiness and excitement on arrival, same feelings I remember on arriving in Rome or Buenos Aires. Then I realized it was the sunny, warm weather making my subconscious think it was spring. Now rain has come and it's getting colder. But a nice reprieve.
ReplyDeleteYou actually make me miss (a little bit) east coast U.S. winter. I do miss seeing the beautiful blond beech leaves among the other bare trees. I think blond is an underappreciated shade in fall and winter. Are these woods as eaten down by deer as many of the mid-Atlantic ones are?
ReplyDeleteI think all of the colors of winter are underappreciated. Also the forms and shapes of winter. Yesterday, I parked in an area in Oxford with a grove of tall trees so closely spaced that there were few lower branches, only the vertical shapes of the trees. Quite beautiful. The forest here appears to be regenerating. There are many seedling trees. My guess is that, because this is largely a rural, heavily forested state, the deer pressure here is much lower than what we experience in the highly populated Northeast US.
ReplyDeleteTo me there are few joys in winter, but one that I do love is watching the colorful end of day through the silhouette of bare trees.
ReplyDeleteAnd you're expert at capturing them.
ReplyDelete