Peatlands

The other day we visited Peatlands Park which as the name might suggest is home to some typical Northern Irish bog-land. While the nature of the landscape might be entirely different, the wildness reminded me of the moors mentioned repeatedly in Wuthering Heights (a novel which was on my mind since we drove past a sign stating "Bronte Homestead" with an arrow and I spent a good while wondering which of the sisters it related to, if not all of them--perhaps a trip for another day). Within that novel the landscape is very symbolic of the relationship between characters and the threat of nature and untamed things in general. That novel just further reminds me of the tie between man and nature--the way we fear it and depend upon it, but also how quick we are to personify things that have no humanistic qualities. We annually name hurricanes and tornadoes, or think of daisies as cheerful, when neither has any more emotion than the other or control over its being. And yet when you go forth in a wood alone and start to feel a sort of mood emitting from the trees you are in fact only seeing a reflection of what is inside yourself but normally drowned out by the daily noise of society and technology...