Wild Strawberries
28th June 2017
Wild Strawberries
28th June 2017
“Are wild strawberries really wild? Will they scratch an adult, will they snap at a child? Should you pet them, or let them run free where they roam? Could they ever relax in a steam-heated home? Can they be trained to not growl at the guests? Will a litterbox work or would they make a mess? Can we make them a Cowberry, herding the cows, or maybe a Muleberry pulling the plows, or maybe a Huntberry chasing the grouse, or maybe a Watchberry guarding the house, and though they may curl up at your feet oh so sweetly can you ever feel that you trust them completely? Or should we make a pet out of something less scary, like the Domestic Prune or the Imported Cherry, Anyhow, you've been warned and I will not be blamed if your Wild Strawberries cannot be tamed.”
― Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends
Wild Strawberries have now come into their own and fill the foothills and lower slopes of the mountains. These intense red berries, filled with both a sweetness and sharp tartness, have not been cultivated, not idealised, but exist in their own humble, overlooked way.
Their understated, delicate but unrestrained nature mirrors the wild, beautiful land in which they exist. A place with its own purpose, full of special, very rare ecosystems, in an environment where the hand of man is light (or, at least more considered).
And it is here, where the wild strawberries cling onto the hillsides, between scree and steepsided mountain, a dividing line, a terminator is discerned. It is here, standing on the fringe, between the arts of man and the wild landscape, the contrast between the wild and cultivated is most clearly detected! It is here we see how precious and vulnerable this landscape truly is.
It is at this point, between the self willed and the refined, that we start to understand the need to better appreciate these places for simply what they are and not for how they might contribute to our commercial or aesthetic needs. On this margin there is an opportunity to see the whole picture and understand the consequences of our activities on the landscape. Poised on the boundary where the contrast between our short term desires and values are set against the unbounded nature of a wild, uncultivated world sits in distinct, sharp contrast.
Yes gain joy from the aesthetic beauty from these grand landscapes, find inner peace in the stillness, marvel at the diversity of life that survives beyond the tarmac and concrete of our ecosystem. Yes, be excited and gain energy from the adventure of exploring, be empowered from the sheer joy of movement crossing or climbing these places, but also find a deeper understanding of the place beyond your own direct experience.
Become harmonious to the environment you inhabit and make your behaviour be in accord with the fragile, precious and infinitesimal complexity of your landscape.
Make what you do, climbing, riding, walking, running, camping not be a hard, unbending ‘shape’ superimposed onto this soft, sensitive place. Don't make it conform and submit to the will of ‘you’, but let the land and all it contains, be free..............don't cultivate it , keep it rare and like the strawberries that are now revealing themselves across the hillsides, make it remain wild.
28th June 2017
“Are wild strawberries really wild? Will they scratch an adult, will they snap at a child? Should you pet them, or let them run free where they roam? Could they ever relax in a steam-heated home? Can they be trained to not growl at the guests? Will a litterbox work or would they make a mess? Can we make them a Cowberry, herding the cows, or maybe a Muleberry pulling the plows, or maybe a Huntberry chasing the grouse, or maybe a Watchberry guarding the house, and though they may curl up at your feet oh so sweetly can you ever feel that you trust them completely? Or should we make a pet out of something less scary, like the Domestic Prune or the Imported Cherry, Anyhow, you've been warned and I will not be blamed if your Wild Strawberries cannot be tamed.”
― Shel Silverstein, Where the Sidewalk Ends
Wild Strawberries have now come into their own and fill the foothills and lower slopes of the mountains. These intense red berries, filled with both a sweetness and sharp tartness, have not been cultivated, not idealised, but exist in their own humble, overlooked way.
Their understated, delicate but unrestrained nature mirrors the wild, beautiful land in which they exist. A place with its own purpose, full of special, very rare ecosystems, in an environment where the hand of man is light (or, at least more considered).
And it is here, where the wild strawberries cling onto the hillsides, between scree and steepsided mountain, a dividing line, a terminator is discerned. It is here, standing on the fringe, between the arts of man and the wild landscape, the contrast between the wild and cultivated is most clearly detected! It is here we see how precious and vulnerable this landscape truly is.
It is at this point, between the self willed and the refined, that we start to understand the need to better appreciate these places for simply what they are and not for how they might contribute to our commercial or aesthetic needs. On this margin there is an opportunity to see the whole picture and understand the consequences of our activities on the landscape. Poised on the boundary where the contrast between our short term desires and values are set against the unbounded nature of a wild, uncultivated world sits in distinct, sharp contrast.
Yes gain joy from the aesthetic beauty from these grand landscapes, find inner peace in the stillness, marvel at the diversity of life that survives beyond the tarmac and concrete of our ecosystem. Yes, be excited and gain energy from the adventure of exploring, be empowered from the sheer joy of movement crossing or climbing these places, but also find a deeper understanding of the place beyond your own direct experience.
Become harmonious to the environment you inhabit and make your behaviour be in accord with the fragile, precious and infinitesimal complexity of your landscape.
Make what you do, climbing, riding, walking, running, camping not be a hard, unbending ‘shape’ superimposed onto this soft, sensitive place. Don't make it conform and submit to the will of ‘you’, but let the land and all it contains, be free..............don't cultivate it , keep it rare and like the strawberries that are now revealing themselves across the hillsides, make it remain wild.