In the Woods

I really enjoy going for a walk in the woods .... but I always have found that it is a bit ominous and dark in the woods, especially in the Victorian bush in Australia which I have always found heavy and grey (which brings to my mind the work of artist Frederick McCubbin).

The word 'witch' crosses my mind when I forage for dye materials, and I am regularly teased by my family about some Macbeth characters i..e. the 3 witches, wringing their hands .... hubble, bubble toil and trouble ....(Macbeth Act 4, scene 1, 10–11 ish)

This week I read a quote from Aldous Huxley's work about the forest "There is .... something in the character of a great forest which is foreign, appalling and utterly inimical to intruding life" -

I know what he means. However, I love the beauty too .... Another quote I saw at the exhibition at McMichaels Art Gallery, called Once Upon a Time in the Deep, Dark Forest, is, "It is where beauty, mystery, fantasy and darkness collide".

The above photo is all part of the conservation area behind the place where Hugh lives and it is easy to go there for a walk. I would imagine there would be more fungi and lichen if there wasn't a drought on here in Ontario - 'the driest summer ever.....'

Above and below is some white birch bark from a fallen tree in the woods in the conservation park. It was used by the First Nation peoples and has has many uses - birch bark canoes were light but sturdy and were sewn with spruce roots; the bark itself can be separated from each layer resulting in a paper thin material which can be used for easily lighting fires, used for a printmaking ground and can be used as an infusion as a source of Vitamin C.

Some lichen on a rock and I am not sure if it is dolomite or granite rock, as this area is part of the Niagara Escarpment, a geological formation running through northern US and Ontario. The escarpment is most famous for containing the cliff over which the Niagara River plunges at Niagara Falls, for which it is named.

I have been unable to positively identify this fungus below, but I think it is the Medicinal Birch Polypore which has miraculous properties which can help the immune system, and therefore is used in cancer, HIV, and other disease treatments as well as for parasitic illnesses.... it sounds an amazing plant. this was in the woods behind this place.

Solidago canadensis or Goldenrod is everywhere - I have read that, way back, it was used as a diuretic, and for sore throat. The flowers were used in salad dishes, Southern Indians used the blooming of the late Goldenrods as a cue to return from the buffalo hunt to harvest their corn.