|
|
|
|
May 1 - 8
The Flammarion Engraving. Although altered and colorized many times over, this well-known image is based on an engraving by an unknown artist. The engraving’s first documented appearance was in a 1888 book by the French astronomer, Camille Flammarion, with the caption “A missionary of the Middle Ages tells that he had found the point where the sky and the Earth touch.”
The traditional Gaelic festival known as Beltane marks the midpoint between two more prominent seasonal changes: the spring equinox and the summer solstice. Our modern Hallmark calendar might mark that festival's progeny as a much diluted May Day, one that invokes a certain emotional and sensual liberty, summoning waves of Spring Fever and the happy feeling that this most stirring season still lies largely before us. This year, all joy is tempered by the waves of another kind of fever that threaten our families, friends and neighbors.
April showers bring the May flowers that, with their colors, forms and fragrances, allure certain insects to visit them in order to gather nectar. The insects collect and redeposit the ephemeral gifts of plant pollen, each speck of which encloses the vast mystery of the plant’s genetic identity and memory and thus “cross-pollinates” and increases the fertility and health of the plant itself. Usually by the time of the summer solstice, the stupendous gift of Sun’s energy to Earth has coaxed out of the flower the emergence of the plant’s fruit. Rituals and festivals like Beltane emerged throughout the world to celebrate the universal harmony expressed in the ever-dependable planetary calendar.
This year, Earth’s planetary timing may be so disrupted that the opening of flowers may not coincide with the emergence of the pollinating insects. It is clear that some very vital element has been distressed and this disturbance is more important than often acknowledged.
Perhaps the painful divisions stirred by the recently released YouTube film, Planet of the Humans, will awaken all of us to the folly that life can go on as usual if we can only find more "green" sources of energy to allow us to buy a little more time to modify our insatiable lifestyles.
Or perhaps it has taken this horrific pandemic to shock us into facing the inequities embedded in our economic ethics and institutions, even as we yearn to sing and dance around the Maypole.
Leg StretchersParks have reopened, so with prudence and caution, venture forth!
The Hill and Dale Preserve in Tewksbury is a recent purchase of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation (NJCF), an organization dedicated to saving and protecting New Jersey's important lands and natural resources for all to enjoy.
Its particular geography makes Pyramid Mountain, in Boonton Township, home to an especially wide range of wildlife. The rugged terrain harbors an estimated four-hundred types of native plants and is crisscrossed by thirty types of mammals and one-hundred varieties of birds and myriad butterflies. Take a walk on the Pyramid!
On the southeast side of the park, a broad and colorless swamp is eerily populated by a host of beaver cut and half fallen, decaying trees. (C. J. Kern)
Rising beyond the eastern shore of the Rockaway River, in Boonton Township, stands
the Tourne, a modest mountain known for its rocky terrain and spectacular New York skyline views. Add a wildflower trail, a big-time bog, and miles of historic river valley, and you've got a prime spring adventure. More...
Photo by Dan Balogh
Drive up Route 23 North, and after passing countless big box stores, fast food chains and traffic lights, the
landscape suddenly turns all green. And steep. This is wild West Milford, home
to over 100 miles of marked hiking trails and more 1,000-foot summits than
anyplace else in the Jersey Highlands. Bag some peaks!
Cinco de Mayo to go!
Stock up, fresh from the farm!
Subscribe!
If you're a subscriber to our magazine, our spring issue is now available. If you're not on the list, you can sign up
to receive your copy. Meanwhile, you can read it here.
Tap our calendar for the best events for you and your family, or check our current stories. Stay tuned to our Day Trip Map for good ideas for a scenic drive! For the more aerobically inclined, the
Outdoor Map
shows the way to go, or
choose among dozens of natural attractions or outdoor activities suggested on our website. Northwest New Jersey and destinations just beyond those borders, in Pennsylvania and New York, offer brilliant ways to get out and enjoy the pleasures of the season.
Share this email
*|MC:TOPSHARE|*
Skylands Visitor Magazine, PO Box 329, Columbia, NJ • Privacy Statement |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
