I make maps to understand what it means to be blind, and a flaneur . Those ideas are elusive destinations. Think of them as streets you can wander along with me. Start with the first post, ![Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]](../wp-content/uploads/2008/04/isle_royale_fog.jpg "Fog at Isle Royale [Source: wildmengoneborneo.com]")
"Brendan, this is what the world looks like all the time to me. Just a little fog. It’s a fine day for boating on the Great Lakes.” Without missing a stroke he turned to dart a skeptical glance at me. Brendan the Navigator. When we named him I didn’t tell his mother everything the legendary Irish name implied. But I imagined him taking on the role of navigator for me. Growing up with Coastal Survey charts and tales of Great Lakes shipwrecks, he came to know Superior as another home. He never doubted the wisdom of canoeing there with a father who was half blind. 
If there is an emerging genetic underclass, I could run for class president or class clown. Read more in 
![Charlotte Casiraghi in a red dress. [Source: Stylophile]](../wp-content/uploads/2008/02/charlotte_casiraghi_red_dress.jpg "Charlotte Casiraghi in a red dress. [Source: Stylophile]")
When I figured out who Charlotte Casiraghi was, I realized that I once sent a poem to her mother. 
Poet and street artist Miss Tic isn't exactly a kid in a hoodie with a can of spray paint. Maybe she can still run like hell when the police show up, but can she sprint in high heels? Well-known in international avant-garde circles, her work is exhibited now at the Venice Biennale as well as the alleys of Paris. We do tornadoes in Ohio. Usually they come and go before you know one is in the neighborhood. So it was a surprise Sunday when the remnants of Hurricane Ike arrived with winds exceeding 75 mph. It was surreal — the sun was shining, the wind was blasting, trees were snapping, and it went on […]
Entries Tagged as 'trees'
Held Up By Hurricane Ike
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September 17, 2023 at 3:51pm
by Mark Willis
updates · village · trees Add Your Comment
Resurrecting a Date Palm from Ancient Seed
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June 19, 2023 at 12:05am
by Mark Willis
While I’m waiting for kale to sprout in my garden, wondering impatiently whether it was penny-foolish to plant seed from a three-year-old packet, I take heart in this news story from ScienceNOW, written by Emma Gatti (12 June 2023):
Scientists have successfully grown a date palm from a 2000-year-old seed dug up from the […]
archaeology · ecology · trees Add Your Comment
Forests in Flux
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June 17, 2023 at 11:24am
by Mark Willis
In the 13 June 2023 issue, Science examines the future of the world’s forests against a backdrop of climate change and intensifying human activity. In Science, News reports take a look at how humans have reshaped wooded landscapes across the globe; a Review explains how forests influence climate through physical, chemical, and biological processes; and […]
ecology · trees Add Your Comment
Ms. Modigliani’s Garden: Laburnum
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June 8, 2023 at 10:00am
by Mark Willis
Laburnum, the Golden Chain Tree, blooms spectacularly in Ms. Modigliani’s garden on her birthday. [Photo by a blind flaneur]
Sylvia Plath referred to the image of the Laburnum tree and “its blond colonnades” in her poem The Arrival of the Bee Box, first published posthumously in the collection Ariel (1965).
Oscar Wilde referred to Laburnum in […]
flowers · trees · Toronto · Ms. Modigliani Add Your Comment
Making The Earth Say Trees
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May 10, 2023 at 8:30pm
by Mark Willis
At the beginning of April my son and I walked the property lines of his nascent farm to make our plans for this year and next. Standing at a surveyor’s stake at the back of his soybean field, I thought of Henry Thoreau. I would make the earth say trees, not beans or grass, if […]
Henry Thoreau · trees · Brendan Add Your Comment
When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d
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May 1, 2023 at 12:54pm
by Mark Willis
When my father died, I knew I would metabolize my grief and honor his memory by being the best father I could be. When my mother died I knew suddenly what it really meant to feel like a motherless child. The path of transformation was not so obvious then. Maybe I am still looking […]
Walt Whitman · trees · Mary Lou Willis · memoir · poetry Add Your Comment
Toronto Flaneur: Cherry Blossoms In The City
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April 26, 2023 at 3:00pm
by Mark Willis
Flowering Cherry Trees line the walk around the southwest corner of the Robarts Library at the University of Toronto. [Photo by Ms. Modigliani]
trees · Flaneur's Gallery · Toronto · Ms. Modigliani Add Your Comment