Seeking Texture on the Page, Finding it Everywhere Outdoors

With the floods in Houston at Biblical proportions, it feels almost flagrantly disrespectful to go on enjoying the glorious weather we have had at this end of August in New England. But we are watching and listening and, as this evening’s news reports from Boston show, finding ways to help from a distance. May the patience of people waiting to be rescued be rewarded with their safe transitions to places providing comfort. And may Louisiana be spared a repeat of what Texas is enduring. During harrowing events like this, Nature seems anything but a beneficent force.

Meanwhile, around here everything looks so different, so lush and serene at the same time.

In my weekly writing group, we’re talking about the concept of “texture” quite a bit. In this context, it means not so much the way something feels to the touch but rather, dipping into the dictionary for help here, “the quality created by the combination of elements in a work of music or literature.” Wait—why not art too? Maybe because that’s taken care of in the first, more common, definition. In our writing, we’re trying to create sentences that don’t just lie flat, say BLAAH, but provide enough substance and depth so that readers can grab onto them, jagged edges and smooth parts too, and go places in their minds.

Needing to preserve my own writing strength mostly for the manuscript now, I thought this week I’d share some pictures of different kinds of textures I noticed, almost without even trying, in my regular travels – walking and biking and driving back from tennis—close to home. Here and now, anyway, Nature’s infinite variety is on daily display.

Mountains in the distance…