Eagle Nest: Marine on St. Croix
Old nest. From up there, they can probably see the river!
Millpond, Marine on St. Croix
Water in the historic millpond is very low, and the millpond is greatly silted-in (it was once channeled down into Marine’s sawmill operations). Now, a sort of “big-bang” recreation is taking place here, with various algae playing the role of early elements in the universe….
Morning Fog
The river wears many outfits — a cloak of heavy fog with the sun burning through is one of my favorites!
Riparian Zone
I am completely smitten with this green mini-delta, created where two tiny brooks merge before joining the St. Croix. I’ve been sketching it from my perch on the rocky ledge (near the cabin).
Late Cambrian
The St. Croix River has cut a stone window into the ancient past:
“Downstream beyond the dalles, the rocky bluffs that flank the valley are composed of marine sedimentary rocks of Cambrian and Ordovician age. At Taylors Falls… rounded boulders of lava rock of the old shore line of the Cambrian sea are cemented into a massive conglomerate by means of sands and silts that were deposited in the spaces between the boulders. Fossils of Cambrian marine creatures occur in the sandy matrix of the conglomerate. (…) At the village of Marine the river is flowing in the Franconia formation, and more than 100 feet of its sandstone and siltstone beds are exposed above river level. The rocks exposed at the ferry and in a small quarry near the ferry are gray to red-brown, thin-bedded, with gray shale partings. Fossils of trilobites are quite numerous in these rocks.”
-Minnesota’s Rocks and Waters: A geological story (University of Minnesota Geological Survey, U of MN Press, Minneapolis, 1954).
My guess is that these squiggles were once marine worms.
Anthology reviewed in New Scientist!
New Scientist reviews poetry: wow! Checking my email, I found a note from Sean Miller, editor of the anthology Riffing on Strings: Creative Writing Inspired by String Theory (Scriblerus Press). Turns out that New Scientist has reviewed our anthology — and their review was very positive! The review was posted on the New Scientist website: http://www.newscientist.com/
Unfortunately, access require a subscription. If you *really* want to read the whole review, let me know, as I have a copy. For the rest of you, here is an excerpt:
Books to travel with: Riffing on Strings edited by Sean Miller and Shveta Verma
Reviewed by Amanda Gefter
From issue 2665 of New Scientist magazine, 16 July 2008, page 48
WHAT first drew me to physics were the words. Cosmos. Entanglement. Spiralling galaxies and stars gone supernova, dark matter and charmed quarks. Physics brims with linguistic magic. And once you peer beneath the words, you find ideas can possess a poetry more poignant than any turn of phrase. String theory may turn out to be wrong. It might not be testable and it might not describe the real world. But it does describe a world that’s undeniably poetic. Still, I’ll admit, when I picked up Riffing on Strings I was sceptical. Sure, the poetic building blocks are there, but creative writing and string theory? It’s got the potential to go horribly awry. So I was pleased to find such an eclectic, thought-provoking and entertaining collection of writing – perfect for toting along on travels in other dimensions. The book opens with Sean Miller’s introduction to string theory and its place in the arts, followed by a series of essays by acclaimed physicists. Michio Kaku’s piece on duality is especially informative. Then come short stories, poems and plays that show the myriad ways in which physics seeps into public consciousness, is absorbed by the artist and re-emitted as something entirely new.
The anthology Riffing on Strings includes my poem A Mapped Route to the Island of _________ which was inspired by the M.I.N.O.S. neutrino project taking place in northern Minnesota’s Soudan Mine. Here’s how the poem begins:
Was there fog? Can I blame my navigation errors
on an ordinary layer of interference — say the moon
was luminous at first, large as the eye of a lighthouse,
only clouds came later? Well, then, yes.
It is possible to paddle purposefully for hours
and still miss the shore…..
Another recipe for Isle Royale suggested
I’m not certain if the blueberries will be ripe. I sure hope to find a few handfuls! This recipe was submitted by my Aunt Twila, who must have heard through the grapevine that I’m heading to Isle Royale soon. I will probably use wheat-flour, as I like the healthy, nutty flavor of whole grain muffins.
2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar (or maybe honey?)
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
l cup milk
1/2 Tbsp. vanilla
1/2 Tbsp. almond extract (I won’t have this, but I am bringing almonds!)
1 1/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
Preheat oven to 350* F. In medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. until well blended. In another bowl combine oil, egg, milk, vanilla until well blended. Pour liquid mixture into middle of flour mixture and stir until NOT QUITE ALL BLENDED. Add BLUEBERRIES and GENTLY finish combining. Be careful not to over-mix. Just until blended. Spoon batter into Muffin cups, filling each about 2/3 full. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. About 20 min.
Offer muffins to kayakers and researchers who pass by!
Pond outside NPS headquarters in St. Croix Falls
Pond outside NPS headquarters in St. Croix Falls
Is it too soon for such a bloom? My memory from childhood was that ponds went green later…. In this tiny pond, the algae mat has partially collapsed, forming weird tubes and lovely green curtains.
