Comments on: Followup to Entry 17: Tree tags http://urbanplants.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/followup-to-entry-17/ Thu, 16 May 2013 04:25:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Leslie Kuo http://urbanplants.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/followup-to-entry-17/#comment-82 Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:27:38 +0000 http://urbanplants.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/follow-to-entry-17/#comment-82 Wow, these journals are really odd. I hadn’t heard of them before. People didn’t really use the past tense like that in the 1900′s, did they? (I did go, I did see, I did do.) I guess they are just the personal language of this particular child? How did you hear about these journals? Had you already read them as a child? It’s nice that they’re all online – thanks for sharing. I’ll probably be going back to read more.

]]> By: sarasea http://urbanplants.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/followup-to-entry-17/#comment-77 Thu, 09 Oct 2008 02:54:34 +0000 http://urbanplants.wordpress.com/2008/10/02/follow-to-entry-17/#comment-77 The idea of a private space underneath a canopy of green in the middle of a city is a beautiful one.

When you mention the greenery enjoying the status of “secret hideaway, refuge, imaginary world,” of course so many children’s books come to mind. But in particular I am reminded of the childhood journals of Opal Whiteley in which she regularly visited her “cathedral” in the woods. These journals are quite remarkable – she grew up in the early 1900′s in Oregon, and her world was filled with the eccentric inventions of her imagination. Her friends were the animals on the farm and she gave them names like Peter Paul Reubens (the pig) and Thomas Chatterton Jupiter Zeus (the rat). She and the animals were always going on “exploration trips.”

I discovered that her journals are online! here’s a link to a pretty little passage about digging plants for the cathedral.

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