My favorite month of the year is here. Hello, November! This month's letter was inspired by a trip to The Gene Stratton-Porter Historic Limberlost Cabin in Geneva, Indiana and the Cabin at Wildflower Woods in Rome City, Indiana on Sylvan Lake.
Gene Stratton-Porter was a naturalist, artist, conservationist, and author of 26 books in the early 20th century. Though she is less known today, she was nationally famous for her books during her time. She was a contemporary of author Laura Ingalls Wilder, however, Gene's books came nearly three decades before Wilder’s Little House in the Big Woods, describing early American pioneer life. Stratton-Porter’s most notable novels were Freckles (1904), A Girl of the Limberlost (1909), and Harvester (1911) to name a few. Her books were about nature and everyday occurrences as well as romance and other more difficult themes. She also wrote nature books on birds and moths, and others that introduced ideas of land and wildlife conservation. At the heart of her connection to nature was her love of a swampy area of Northeast Indiana near the town of Geneva, Indiana, called Limberlost. As home to a vast array of wildlife that she studied and photographed, she saw the value in maintaining this area and expressed her concerns for the loss of animal species there when the swamp began to be drained for agricultural purposes.
“When they reached her she stood on the path holding a pair of moths. Her eyes were wide with excitement, her cheeks pink, her red lips parted, and on the hand she held out to them clung a pair of delicate blue-green moths, with white bodies, and touches of lavender and straw color.”
Gene Stratton Porter from A Girl of the Limberlost.
Gene later owned a cabin she named Wildflower Woods in Rome City, IN on Sylvan Lake. She used this location as a sanctuary for her pursuits of studying nature and writing books. The week after my trip to Limberlost in Geneva, I took a trip to Wildflower Woods where I walked in the gardens, through the orchard, and along the lake before taking a tour of her home. I tried to imagine how Gene Stratton-Porter viewed the world as a naturalist. I came to understand that she lived a life that focused on the simple details, hard work, and living a life of gratitude. She was quite a remarkable person.
This month's letter is about autumn, Wildflower Woods, and a time of gratitude and Thanksgiving as seen through the eyes of author Gene Stratton-Porter. I painted illustrations of her cabin, a butterfly in her nature collection, and a quirky little tree frog that we found resting on a bench. The letter comes with lots of little gifts, including a map of Wildflower Woods, field notes, an original photograph of her orchard, stickers, and a card by Lorna Clark. Happy Thanksgiving!
Following the map, we walked through the brown and brittle garden and along a wooded path down to Gene’s cabin. Leaves of crimson, orange, and yellow silently swirled down from surrounding trees like embers and carried with them the scent of burnt autumn decay. We admired a gray tree frog lethargically clinging to a bench, its pebbly stone-colored back looking like a statue. When we gently poked it with a leaf to see if he was ok, his quivering throat reassured us that he was. Soon the trees will be bare and cold. Frogs will dip back into their primordial ponds to settle in for the winter. “The seasons run with swift feet,” Gene reminds us.
Comments