Some Thoreau (and Mooney) inspired photos of the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens

I post here just a few photos from a visit last week to the Cambridge University Botanic Gardens.

In the midst of all the opportunities to take colour photographs a few views struck me as being worthy of taking in black and white. On my Ricoh GR (the camera I used to take the photos below) there is a black and white setting called TE, toning effect. It reproduces a process somewhat akin to selenium or sepia toning. It suited both the scenes and my somewhat Thoreauvian mood.

I was undoubtedly in such a mood because my friend, the philosopher, Ed Mooney, has just published a truly wonderful and insightful book called "Excursions with Thoreau: Philosophy, Poetry, Religion." I recommend it unconditionally. Here are two reviews about the book:

“Henry David Thoreau brought to philosophical writing a personal voice and a situated, embodied sensibility. Edward Mooney proves himself a worthy heir to Thoreau's legacy by speaking to his readers as an extracurricular intellectual and spiritual companion. We follow along as Thoreauvian saunterers, adventuring through rich fields of reverie, with Mooney as our engaging and always insightful guide. Excursions with Thoreau is a powerful illustration of how philosophy can live up to its name as the love of wisdom, grounded in wonder and defined by transformative encounters. It sheds new light on the work of a great American philosopher of the nineteenth century, and will introduce readers to Mooney's distinctive mode of narrative reflection on human experience and its meaning.” –  Rick Anthony Furtak, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Colorado College, USA

“Without wasting time on the tired question of whether or not Thoreau is a philosopher, Mooney's decisive arguments uncover for us the profundity and strangeness of the thinker's ideas. Mooney carefully and elegantly uncovers a Thoreau who is attentive to questions of life and loss that led him to formulate a complex ethics while rethinking the meaning of the communal. By bringing Thoreau into conversation with such thinkers as Marx and Kierkegaard, Mooney reveals challenges in Thoreau's writings that have still not been sufficiently addressed. Excursions with Thoreau is beautifully written and will be indispensable for future conversations about that writer.” –  Branka Arsic, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, USA

I hope you seek out the book. I hope you enjoy the photos below too.