Running Wild

If the pinnacle of running boredom is the treadmill, then the polar opposite is trail running.  You get the beauty all around you, but also the focus required by a natural landscape that will trip you up if you do not pay attention.  Mindless trudging is not permitted.  I do not run often, but I run the trails at Tryon.  I focus on the footing that changes from prairie to woods to dune.  I spot the occasional creature--box turtle, snake, deer.  There is something primal about it that is pure, and the primal setting is a lot easier on the joints than pavement.

Want to take a lap?  The Tryon Farm 5/10/50K is May 18th.  More information is available on the Tryon Farm website. (Noonans at the Farm: three now, but lots more for the run.)

Take nothing for granted

I have been looking at Tryon Farm for 15 years.  It was my great joy to look at it last weekend with two couples who were seeing it for the first time. None of the flaws I see were visible to them; instead, they were overwhelmed by the land, the architecture, the setting. the barn, and perhaps the Noonans.  It was a good lesson in vision--do not lose perspective, do not get too close, the farm is a special place. (Noonans at the farm for the weekend: ten)

Rising Waters

Here in the Northeast we are contemplating waterfront property with a different perspective post-Sandy.  The waves breaking in front of the house are nice, while the waves breaking the house are not. Interestingly, some of the new thoughts on shoreline protection look a lot like the pond at Tryon--wetland areas with vegetation,  controlled slopes below the waterline, and a careful consideration of how the water will flow rather than trying to stop it from flowing.  So the lesson is, in small things like the pond and in large things like how we build our cities, that we must adapt to natural forces as our world changes, and give up patterns of living that no longer work.  (11/4/12;  Noonans at the Farm: 2)

Natural Swimming Area (cont'd)

We did not swim before Labor Day.  Perhaps I meant the next Labor Day.  In any event, the work has commenced.  There is a large hole (Olympic-size, Mr. Lochte) and a large liner within it that some skilled craftsperson is seaming, if that is the word, or sealing the seam, if that is the phrase.  In any event, the goal is that the water stay where it is put, except for some splashing and circulation over plant life.  We are making steady progress, subject to delays for two weddings in the barn, which I am told will proceed on separate weekends despite the unscheduled descent of the barn chandelier.  (What, your barn has no chandelier?)  I won't say never a dull moment, but I will point out that our dull moments are enlivened by the croaking of frogs, the chatter of chickadees, and the leaping of the deer through the prairie grass, and soon the splashes of swimmers.

Nature makes nature better!

So it was determined that in the summer in Indiana it is hot, and that water cools a person, and because the pristine waters of Lake Michigan are very close but not on Tryon Farm,  the people of Tryon (some of them) decided to build a natural swimming area so they might cool themselves.  Think not of lanes, lifeguards, and chlorine.  Think instead of a pond, minus creatures, bottom muck and algae, with the water filtered and purified by plants so that nature makes nature better. (Okay there is a pump involved.)  Having trouble visualizing it?  Come visit and plunge in--the construction is in progress and we will swim before Labor Day.

The Road

I understand that the pitch is all about nature--but what about asphalt?  Coming into Tryon Farm you follow a conventional road with a little veer to the left and then a right turn after a straight at which point as you proceed you could go right again to 31 Tryon Farm Lane. Do not go right.  Stay straight.  The road is black and dead flat.  There are no curbs.  The road snakes through the trees.   The trees are fifty feet tall and are inches from the edge of the road which has been laid out to preserve them.  This road is part Hansel and Gretel and part Audi commercial.

Now try it on a moonless night on foot or in the vehicle of your choice.  Put your video games down--the world is a magical place.

Tryon Farm Cures NDD

There was an op-ed piece in the New York Times recently suggesting that many current health problems stem from NDD or Nature Deficit Disorder.  While only half-serious, the author notes the benefits of walking, sunshine, and exposure to dirt as opposed to the sort of thing I am engaged in right now.  Or as a spoof in the New Yorker put it, the outdoors is actually the outdoors not a virtual simulation of the outdoors--it is all real.  Fortunately there is a cure; Tryon Farm cures NDD in minutes.  (4/5/12, Noonans at the farm: 3)