Spice Route Studios - Photography

Lin Timbers is a graphic artist who lives on 28 wooded acres set deep in the Madawaska headwaters. A country girl who graduated from Sheridan College, worked in the computer graphics industry and lived for many years in Toronto before sensitivity to chemicals drove her find another way, she yearned for land in the country with a return to the fresh air and farm life of her youth. An inveterate explorer of county forests and windy roads, Lin fell in love with the rocky waterfalls and wild forest of her new home. Lin is currently building a chemical-free log home using trees from her housesite and continues to find new wonders to explore in her woodland paradise. With a digital camera and her black labrador retriever Emma as constant companions, she continues to record the wonders of her chosen home.

Stepping out from the deep shade of the woods, I scramble down the wet, mossy rocks where a small spring gurgles over a white quartz ledge and carefully tip-toe through the grassy hummocks of the beaver meadow, through which the creek meanders. When my eye is captured by a glint of colour in the long grass, I push the dew-laden stems aside to behold wild floral treasures! Clutching a stem of the hooded blue flowers in my hand, I rush back home and excitedly look up my latest find. I learn the purple-spotted flowers marching in pairs up their squared stems are known as marsh skullcap (scutellaria lateriflora).

The beaver meadow is home to tall spotted joe pye weeds (eupatorium maculatum) with their tight pink buds that burst forth like tangled fireworks, the clustered white flowers of boneset, whose latin name Eupatrium perfoliatum, refer to its peculiar habit of piercing its own leaves as it grows, patches of blue flag (iris versicolour) with their feet almost in the water and little blue orchids whose exact identity I'm still trying to find. And that's the most wonderful thing! I'm still learning, still discovering and still in awe of my little patch of paradise.

As an artist I don't have to leave home to find constant inspiration all around me. The 28 acres on which I live, is a wonderland of many micro-climates which produce a rich variety of plantlife. From deep mossy woods, to open wetlands... rocky waterfalls, to dusty roadsides, and upland meadows which have taken advantage of the opening in the forest canopy created for my hydro line, to spring forth with sun-loving plants like starry blue-eyed grasses (Sisyrinchium angustifolium), wild fire pinks (Silene virginica) and tiny blue lobelia inflata, also known as Indian Tobacco... life in the woods is a constant and incredibly beautiful lesson in biology and botany.

The woodland paths are dotted with airy foam flowers (tiarella cordifolia) and white bunchberry blossoms (cornus canadensis) framed by leafy whorls. Ground-hugging, „fur-lined‰ partridge berry (Mitchella repens) trumpets open from pairs of long pink buds, purple heal-all (Prunella vulgaris) stands guard amidst its mat of green and waxy spikes of pyrola blooms (Pyrola rotundifolia), with their long pistols suggestively hanging below the flower, tempt the bees. Nestled in the deep moss, are patches of sorrel with their lemony shamrock-like leaves and pert candy-striped pink and white flowers; while stands of majestic wild sarsaparilla, their big floppy leaves hiding a threesome of spiky green flowers, tempt me to try creating old-fashioned rootbeer from their spicy roots.

There's nothing like waking up in the middle of the woods on a dew-fresh morning... loons calling overhead, the sweet complicated song of the little brown wren who surely is the Celine Dione of the bird-world welcoming the day and the fresh scent of balsam trees on the fresh breezes. I certainly don't miss the aural insult of city traffic, the rasping rawness of laundry chemicals in the air and the breath-stealing perfume assault of city life... give me the incredible wild woods any day!

Graphic and ideas constantly abound; Lin's website; or email her below.