Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Time Matters (Week Five)

Anne Dalke's picture

"There is no time" (Rachel Carson)

Time was short.
(I didn't "leave" myself enough of it.)
Time was long.
(I counted the rings on fallen trees.
150 years apiece.)
The stones in the graveyard evolved.
From Wissahickon Schist (surely?) to marble (really?).
How long will that last?

Comments

Srucara's picture

The concept of rings on trees

The concept of rings on trees and indentifything their age through these "wrinkles" that they seem to have has always fasinated me. I can imagine those 150 year old trees you have encountered witness a world changing through the industrial era, when bloodletting was practiced as the "most modern: form of medicine, through World War I, II, and through years of Bryn Mawr Women wearing long dark dresses and holding their hair up with hairpins to wearing bootcut denim and hairspray.

et502's picture

tree rings


I like the connections that you make between events in history and the ages of trees.

When I saw this facebook page, I thought of this post; it gives some info on tree rings and Dendrochronology: "Dendrochronology is the all-encompassing term for the study of tree rings and their structure to interpret information of historical events and processes"