This morning I went home for the weekend. I was interested to see how a month of Cultures of Nature would change my perspective on the nature I grew up in for 20 years. Sure enough when I stepped out of my car and did a 360 I noticed an Evergreen (pretty sure it is an Evergreen) tree in my neighbors side yard. It had been overtaken by ivy vines. It may be difficult to tell from these photos but the greenish blue of the Evergreen is barely visible because the ivy has just completely overtaken it.

In class we have discussed how nature has a tendency to take back control from humans (as we saw in Ginny’s Gorp a few weeks ago). Seeing this ivy vine take control of a strong and old Evergreen made me think about how nature can even take control over itself. Ivy is not the only plant that does so as we have seen along the Bushkill Creek, Japanese Knotweed is invading and controlling that environment.

Is this ivy another balancing act put on by nature? Should we let this happen or should my neighbor have intruded and trimmed the tree when he first saw the ivy growing?