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Drunken trees
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“Drunken trees” is a common expression for trees in the boreal forest that tilt in different directions due to the thawing of underlying permafrost.
As I walk through the forest on our farm, I see these leaning trees, shifting and moving as the years go by, with some deep within sinkholes. As the frozen ground thaws underneath these trees, the ground loses its structural integrity, causing the soil to sink, collapse and destabilize these tree’s shallow root systems, creating a ”drunken forest.” |
Rings
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These rings remind me of the ice as it freezes, leaving beautiful circular patterns on its surface. These same patterns are found in a tree’s inner growth rings, a bird’s nest, the spiral of a shell or a fern, the meandering of a stream, the spider’s web or the pattern found when looking deep into a sunflower.
This circular pattern is a fundamental repeating pattern of life. A reminder of how life is not fixed but a constant flowing cycle of energy always moving. |
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Art and text by Susan Kerndt, a hay and vegetable farmer and a farmer-collaborator on the Permafrost Grown Project.
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