Nisga’a lava beds
Posted by Theresa Kishkan
The Northern Leg got off to a grand start in the Terrace Public Library this afternoon. (The room was hung with quilts which had me quickly decide to change my reading to a passage from my essay, “An Autobiography of Stars”, a celebration of the narratives inherent in quilt iconography.) Nan and Kari read from their vibrant books, Pink and Jeffrey and Sloth. And Mary wrapped up the session by reading the prologue of Conceit, a richly evocative conclusion. After the reading, our intrepid driver Bryan offered to take us to the Nisga’a Lava Beds. What an amazing experience. I hope he’ll post some photographs—those of us new to blogging can’t even image uploading photos to this site! The landscape was eerie and beautiful, a vast expanse of barren rocks articulating stream beds and caverns, and punctuated here and there with spruce and pines. Also a deciduous tree which smelled heavenly and which we couldn’t identify, though the dead leaves scattered around the bases looked like poplar leaves. Little red clumps of stonecrop and saxifrage. Crispy lichens and tiny fronds of parsley ferns. Very lovely. Somehow I imagined we’d drive to venues and eat meals and didn’t forsee such stunning sidetrips. Tomorrow we leave early to head to Prince Rupert to visit schools and the library. I remember the run along the Skeena River from camping trips years ago and look forward to the mist, the dense green forests…
