I was of a mind to write about recycling. I haven’t exactly done it, but here are my recycling-related entries in Flandrum Hill’s Scavenger Hunt. The purpose was to choose five images that would best represent the five elements: Fire, Water, Metal, Earth and Wood, substituting colors for the literal element if desired.
Metal. This fish died and washed up on the beach, where it’s fading from silver to white. Other creatures have fed on the carcass. Depending on how the fish died, they may be sorry they dined there. High mercury levels in fish threaten the Great Lakes fishery and recreational fishing as well. Metal makes great tools but lousy snacks.
Wood. Woodpeckers drill away on dead and dying trees—and on my siding—in search of insects. The woodpecker’s holes speed the decomposition of the wood. Water gets in, other birds and small mammals nest in the holes, and eventually the neighborhood just goes to rot and ruin . . . and then the dead tree becomes part of the forest floor. It’s spongy, crumbly, covered in moss. Seeds fall there and grow. The nurse tree nourishes new growth, and the cycle begins again.
Earth. In Mama Nature’s compost heap leaves and pine needles and cones and insect debris crumble and decay. Water seeps through. Worms and tiny organisms turn it all into soil.
Fire. Short of starting a fire and taking a picture of it, I couldn’t capture that element directly. Let this fiery color stand in for the flames. They can warm us or destroy us. Powerful things, flames. But water puts them out.
Water. The element we cannot do without. It shapes the landscape, feeds the tissues of all living things, moves plants and pollen and creatures of all kinds from one environment to another.
The Great Lakes. Don’t mess with ’em. I mean it.
Torch Lake Views 
Joan
July 21, 2009
Hey, Gerry, great photos!
I like the way you used the recycling theme–very effective. The bright leaf should do very well for “Fire,” as we can use the colours used in Feng Shui if we can’t find the real thing. I like your descriptions/explanations, too.
I am likely the first one to see yours, as I am (1) a night owl, and (2) on the West Coast, where it is just after 9 p.m. Oh, wait, there are a couple of participants in Washington, so they may be viewing your photos as I write!
Flandrum Hill is sound alseep by now, but I have just under 3 hours to get my submissions in. I just this weekend have been learning how to do digital photos with the computer, and will be emailing Amy my photos in a few minutes. Looks like I’m the only non-blogger entering the hunt.
Great photos!
Gerry
July 21, 2009
Hi Joan and welcome–and thank you for the kind words. I wonder if I have time to open a virtual office in Hawaii and submit my post from there . . .
Nah. But I’m still editing. Come back in a couple days and see a whole different post!
I’ll look forward to seeing the images you send Amy and how she posts them.
flandrumhill
July 21, 2009
Gerry, I love how you’ve integrated the images with nature’s cycles and recycling. You’ve also introduced how the elements overcome one another. A great addition to the subject of elements in nature.
I like what you said about metal making good tools but lousy snacks. There’s a dark side to everything.
Thanks for mentioning nurse trees. One of these days I’m going to write a post just about them. They are so crucial to the growth of large conifers especially and so often overlooked.
My earliest memories of nature involve white pine needles and cones on the ground in Northern Ontario.
So glad you added an image of them both 🙂
The Great Lakes are so great that your lakescape looks like a seascape! It is beautiful.
Thank you so much for participating.
Gerry
July 21, 2009
Amy it was my pleasure. Thank you for the exercise. It was a good one, and the entries from around the world are a wonder to visit.
uphilldowndale
July 21, 2009
Dare I ask how the mercury became such a problem?
glad Sadie and Miss Cowboy didn’t get to that fish first!.
Gerry
July 21, 2009
Good morning Mrs. Uhdd. The mercury comes mainly from the air, and it gets into the air primarily from burning coal in power plants. Then it rains into the water and enters the food chain, accumulating as it goes up. Big fish can have more than the maximum for safe human consumption (and it doesn’t do the fish any good either). We’ve been working a long time on reducing mercury emissions and have come a long way but there’s a long way to go. Eating Great Lakes fish is safe and I do it all the time. The threat is longterm buildup and is greatest to babies in the womb.
It is good Miss Sadie and the Cowboy didn’t get into the fish, but it wouldn’t be the mercury that would kill them, just the usual effects of eating spoiled food. Really icky, revolting, returning-to-the-earth spoiled food.
centria
July 21, 2009
Oh this is fun. You definitely get a creativity award. No, wait. We all get a creativity award. Love how you put this all together and informed us as well. Don’t mess with the Great Lakes. You mean it. (laughing….)
Gerry
July 21, 2009
Yes’m I do indeed mean it. I don’t get any prizes at all, not even the fabled prize for showing up, as I was late, which is becoming a chronic condition around here. And I’ll fix that as soon as I find my alarm clock. It must be here some . . . . oh, look at that story in the Record-Eagle, that’s interesting . . . . wait, wait, why are those birds flying that way????
Joan
July 21, 2009
Gerry, you’re a hoot!
(In Canuck terms, that means you’re really funny!)
La Mirada Bob
July 21, 2009
Sweet Gerry has managed to be a hoot all her life.
p.j. grath
July 22, 2009
Gerry, you are so clever to connect all your images to recycling and to the Great Lakes! That leaf does look like a flame, too. Should I feel funny that I love the rotting fish image best? Though I’d rather eat them fresh (as we did tonight–lake trout–yum!)! Love the commentary, too, and the rock/paper/scissors aspect you introduced.
(Nurse logs have been on my mind a lot these mornings, but I haven’t yet found just the one to photograph.)
Gerry
July 22, 2009
I don’t know why you should feel funny. The Cowboy liked the fish best, too. The whole experience has rather put me off fish for the moment, but I’m sure I’ll be back at it in a day or two.
I would have done a photo of a nurse log–you’re right, it’s that, not nurse tree–but the one I found was in the woods where I was looking for Miss Sadie and the Cowboy when they went walkabout and . . . best not to dwell on it. There are some bang-up examples at Raven Hill and I will do my best to capture one.