Tree Signs Along the Longleaf Trace

From about mile 1.5 to mile 3 of The Longleaf Trace, there’s a stretch where signs appear indicating various trees along The Longleaf Trace. I took a picture of each sign for curiosity, future nostalgia, and for a series of poems I’m working on. I assume there are more trees, such as the bamboo and lilac trees I have spotted but that are not marked. (I’m not good with identifying trees, but I can identify those two.) If you know of more trees along the Trace, please leave a comment thanks.

The order of these pictures are in the order as I encountered them. I walked west for the first part, so I took a picture of the tree signs on my right-hand sign, or towards the north. Then I turned around and walked east, and took pictures on my right-hand side, again, but this time to the south. The last of the north signs is, I think, “Sweetgum,” which is right at the 5K marker.

Chinese Tallow Tree

Blackgum

Yaupon

 

Sparkleberry

Post Oak

Shortleaf Pine

Sassafras

Tulip Poplar

Loblolly Pine

Longleaf Pine

Eastern Dogwood

Beautyberry

Elliott’s Blueberry

Southern Magnolia

Sweetgum

Blackjack Oak

Supplejack

Crabapple

Crabapple and Supplejack

Groundsel Tree

Wax Myrtle

Hornbeam

//

The Longleaf Trace, if you don’t know, was once a railroad track, but it has been converted into a long walking and biking path. It begins at The University of Southern Mississippi campus and goes west 40.2 miles until it ends in Prentiss, Mississippi. More officially:

This is South Mississippi’s premier running, biking, hiking, equestrian trail. It is a beautiful linear park,  41 miles long and fairly flat (a rails-to-trails conversion), extending  from Hattiesburg (elevation 220′) through Sumrall (290′), Bassfield (460′), and Carson to Prentiss (336′). The trail is 10 feet wide and paved with asphalt. It has been extended to the USM campus, and negotiations are underway to acquire the right of way to downtown Hattiesburg. And can you imagine the impact of someday extending it from Prentiss to Natchez, thus connecting it to the Natchez Trace and Mississippi River Trails? (www.longleaftrace.org)

//

May 11, 2014 (Mother’s Day): I walked another mile or so along the Longleaf Trace to Jackson Road, where there’s a rest stop, too. There is also this sign, with the unfortunate typo:

Trail Identification Longleaf Trace 2008

There’s also another half dozen or so other trees that are labeled in the extra mile stretch. Hopefully, I’ll add them to this collection. I doubt however I’ll extend the long poem I wrote, which has a section for each tree, plus a couple others.//

Evil Penguin Lookout: The Movie

Those of you who follow me on Facebook know that since the beginning of the year or the end of 2012, and especially this summer of 2013, I post three or four times a week a picture from Longleaf Trace where it bridges over Highway 59 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. Most of the pictures look something like this:

It’s just something I do on my 5K or 10K walks on the Longleaf Trace. The Longleaf Trace, if you don’t know, was once a railroad track, but it has been converted into a long walking and biking path. It begins at The University of Southern Mississippi campus and goes west 40.2 miles until it ends in Prentiss, Mississippi. More officially:

This is South Mississippi’s premier running, biking, hiking, equestrian trail. It is a beautiful linear park,  41 miles long and fairly flat (a rails-to-trails conversion), extending  from Hattiesburg (elevation 220′) through Sumrall (290′), Bassfield (460′), and Carson to Prentiss (336′). The trail is 10 feet wide and paved with asphalt. It has been extended to the USM campus, and negotiations are underway to acquire the right of way to downtown Hattiesburg. And can you imagine the impact of someday extending it from Prentiss to Natchez, thus connecting it to the Natchez Trace and Mississippi River Trails? (www.longleaftrace.org)

One night (January 4, 2013) on one of these walks, I took a picture at night.

Then the following commentary occurred:

Through time it became Evil Penguin Lookout or sometimes Scary Penguin Lookout. I prefer the former but the latter is an equally acceptable name.

Today on my walk, I decided to film Evil Penguin Lookout instead of taking a picture. That way everyone can see what it looks like. I was going to provide more commentary, but there was a dude walking on the bridge and I was too self-conscious to talk too much, especially since I felt weird enough filming the bridge. So here’s Evil Penguin Lookout: The Movie, with a twist ending.

//

The Line Break 2012 in Review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

4,329 films were submitted to the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. This blog had 40,372 views in 2012. If each view were a film, this blog would power 9 Film Festivals

Click here to see the complete report.

Holmes’ Hattiesburg Hideaway

There ain’t much to this post. It’s just a short video of my new apartment so my family can see what happening. Non-family members can also watch.

This video has been updated. It’s the same video, but the video and audio are now aligned and the video quality is better.

Updated 8-21-12.//

Paintings from the 1990s

I have wanted to scan these water color paintings for quite some time before the color faded even more. I finally did it, though the colors faded. I’ve tried to touch up the color in a few paintings. These are are all water colors on 8.5″ x 11.7″ paper. You can click each image to see it bigger, and I would suggest doing that, too.

//

The Beginning of Time. Circa 1997.

I painted this based on an experience I once had in 1989, where for a moment, the briefest moment I’ve experienced, I could see the beginning of time. I think this picture is of some time before inflation or before 10^-42 seconds. The following day I performed a similar meditation, but that time I experienced the breadth of the universe. I reached out my hand as far as I could into infinity and then I scratched the back of head, which scared the hell out of me and immediately woke me from my meditation.

//

Slain Bison. Circa 1997-99.

This is my attempt at Paleolithic cave art. I had to photoshop in the arrow because it was barely visible. It had faded over time. Below is supposed to be a puddle of blood with a stream of it in the lower right of the puddle. And there is also an udder in the bison’s belly. The spear enters from the top of the bison which is parallel to the stiffened tail. The spear exits the bison in the belly at the black gash mark. The arrow is bloody red. This image is really sexual on a Jungian level.

//

The Mouth of Language. Circa 1997.

The colors have faded here. The tongue should be redder. This painting could also be titled “Double Vagina Dentata.”

//

//

//

The Rose Triptych. Circa 1995.

This a series about the life and death of a rose or possible states of a rose. This was highly symbolic on a personal level and very Jungian, but not as Jungian as the vagina dentata or the slain bison. I think the triptych speaks for itself.

//