.. here solitude floated up from the vertical gorges, filled with cypress or cedar as if with black spears. The silence buried the sound of its own waters, and a thin haze, spun in the blueness of air, divided one range from another, as if the heights wore haloes... Higher up the oak leaves lifted into sunlight, and their tyrunks, and those of a tall tree like a chesnut, stood furrowed like stone among the strange hieratic stones.

The Ruins by Scott Smith is a horror novel about survival. Survival against what? I can't say. That would be telling. But I will say that The Ruins is one of the best-paced novels I've ever read, though it does come off as a cheap horror flick with its simplistic plot and unlikable characters. Still, it's worth reading by any fan of horror.

I carry my digital camera with me all the time. Living on the North Shore offers many opportunities to use it. Besides so many beautiful plants, there are spectacular scenes and cast-off cars and ruins within a few minutes drive of where I live. Here are a few of them.