The Vermont Everglades

If your life has become too fast or distracted, get the to a bog or marsh.

—John Eastman
The Book of Swamp and Bog

EvergladesIt’s good advice. No better natural habitat exists for the study of minutiae. Swamps are slow, secret places, quiet and maybe a bit ominous. They catch and hone your attention. They demand concentration. No balling brooks or splendid vistas, no roaring, high=peaks winds to distract you. You have to watch your step in a swamp—the bottom can fall out from under at any moment, sucking you down into the primordial ooze. There might be a snake sunbathing in disguise on the snag you hand is reaching for. That knobby log just ahead might prove to be the nostrils of an alligator. The mossy rock dead ahead looks like a good, firm place for you next footfall could be a snapping turtle—a big one… Read more…

 

-Robert F. Jones