A new year -- and a resolution to blog!

An extraordinarily beautiful day, sunny, cool, breezy -- perfect for the inaugural Morgan Arboretum walk of the season. I've stayed away all summer, not able to cope with biting insects. But the inside scoop promised that they were gone and the glory of the day insisted I make the trip.

It does feel like a new year, with my birthday on August 31; classes starting this past Tuesday, September 3;  Rosh Hoshanah beginning on Wednesday, September 4; and a new moon on Thursday, September 5. Already the creative and academic commitments and deadlines are stacking up. And so the woods seemed a necessary complement.

Baloo and I so love the Arbo, which at this time of year and day (early!) is green, leafy, quiet -- and with just enough seasonal burrs to cling into the velcro poodle to remind us that the equinox approaches and with it the riot of fall. Enticed by that late summer smell of sweet, rotting windfall apples, I pulled a ripe fruit from a tree out by Pullin's Pasture (that is to say, what was once pasture land and is now filled in by trees and brush and part of the research facility). Light yellow and red, tiny, worm-free, the apple was an exquisite balance of tart and sweet and a wonderful energy and joy boost along the walk. I hope to be back next weekend to pick another juicy find.

Further along the trail (alongside the Orange trail, for those familiar with the pathways), I came across another stand of amply fleshed trees. These small yellow apples looked a little crabbier than the one I'd just enjoyed, so I passed these by -- after taking some pictures.

The yellow reminds me of the colour of the embroidery floss that I'm using to stitch Baloo's and my walking routes into my textile map of the Arbo. I have more stitched routes and more patchwork renderings of landforms to add into this piece, which is close to finished and so far includes digital embroidery created through Hexagram Concordia and some hand piecing. I've already completed the first map of the series, Nel mezzo del camin: Bois Summit/Summit Woods, and am currently working on pieces related to Beaconsfield's Angell Woods and the postindustrial urban forest and greenspace along the Lachine Canal. I expect to create additional maps of urban forests outside Montreal during my sabbatical year, 2014-2015.

My Nel mezzo pieces are an aspect of my ongoing inquiry into place and belonging, with a political ecology and relational ethics orientation, and a particular bent in this work to urban forestry. Working at the interdisciplinary intersection of studio practice, environmentalism, and pedagogy, I was particular happy to see some new-to-me signage on trees out at the Arbo, delicate and subtle naturalist's descriptions of various species of trees.

The only thing I'd add is some of the cultural lore of the tree species in question. After all, so many of us grow up with fables of 'the woods' as a magical and transformative place. Dante's Inferno, which opens with the lines "Nel mezzo del camin..." ["In the middle of the way"...] is set as a walk in the woods. Hmm, maybe an environmental intervention is called for ...? Perhaps once the first blush of the term's academic deadlines are done.