Wander on the Gambles

As echoed thus far, I found the paradox of the wild and the human-manufactured fascinating. From my perch on a rustic wooden bench on top of an abandoned cement circular installation in the ground, the evidence of this juxtaposition was everywhere. Nature has been subtly working on a telephone pole beside me for many years now, as is apparent by the branches of some ground plant that have made their way, twisting and turning around the cords on the pole, almost trying to imitate them and disguise themselves as man-made.
Beyond the telephone pole, as I’m sure has already been described, there lie this interesting contrast of a pristinely maintained golf course and this wild underbrush that has taken over the majority of the passage way, cut through by only a narrow swath of cement that is fighting a losing battle against the natural tendency the land wants to take.
Another battle that caught my eye was the one taking place in the community garden. Someone planted this otherwise lovely green grass in the garden, and I was a little surprised by my aversion to it. It was so blindingly…green that it jarred the senses against the backdrop of other plants in their own version of hibernation. It seemed almost like that Hollywood Stepford wife who, in efforts to fight the process of aging, freezes her face with plastic surgery. Which, instead of supplementing her natural beauty, is jarring to the eye and unsettling next to the deep smile and worry lines of other women who refrain from altering their natural state. That is the green grass next to the wild beauty of the rest of Gambles Mill.
Another fascinating facet to this experience for me was this suppressed life in death in the plants and trees around me. Washington state is dominated by various breeds of evergreens, so this cycle of death, rebirth, life, and dying that occurs annually in the flora and fauna here was very foreign and kind of refreshing. Instead of living in a constant season of…fall? The variation is really wonderful.