Rebecca Brown's Interview with
Ruth Ann Ingraham
Author of
Swimming with Frogs: Life In The Brown County Hills

Rebecca:
I've been enjoying Ruth Ann's journal about the land around the cabin she & her husband, Joe, bought & retreated to for many years. I found her insights & thoughts helped immensely with my own life. So, my first question is: have you kept a journal all your life, & why?

Ruth Ann:
I have not kept journals “all my life”, unless you include my cursory, juvenile diaries. I did serious journaling in 1963, the year my first husband & I sold all our belongings, left our Indianapolis families, crossed the Atlantic Ocean in mid-winter on a German freighter & moved into a VW camper, our home on wheels for nine months. Our travels included a trans-Sahara trek before there was anything resembling a road — merely tracks in the sand. I still have the yellow legal pads on which I recorded our adventures. Occasionally, during the years that followed, I wrote about my young children & my troubled marriage; later, my newfound love, Joe. But those writings did not compare to kind of journals that I began in December, 1990, & continue to keep to this day when I'm at my Brown County retreat. Why do they matter? My Brown County journals are history — both natural & personal. They may interest historians 100 years from now.

Rebecca:
How did keeping a journal help you heal after your husband's death?

Ruth Ann:
Joe, my husband of 8 years, died in our home under the care of Hospice. I was holding his hand & had just told him how much I loved him when he left us. We, Joe's family & friends, surrounded him with our love those final weeks & that gave me solace. But truly, journaling after his death was my salvation. I poured my heart & soul — & even my tears — onto paper. My grief was not pent up inside. & I felt that I was still communicating, still sharing with Joe.

Rebecca:
What has the Snapping Turtle taught you?

Ruth Ann:
Snapping Turtles have a terrible reputation as aggressive & dangerous creatures. My understanding is that if taunted & poked with a stick (or a foot), for instance, they will defend themselves & attack. Left alone, they will leave us alone. They are ancient creatures that have survived time. I revere that in Snapping Turtles. They cohabit our earth with us.

Rebecca:
We're wood burners too — tell us about the wood you burn, why you like it & the makeup of your forest in Indiana.

Ruth Ann:
My cabin is located in south central Indiana, an area distinguished by forested hills & ravines. Its current topography was formed thousands of years ago by melting glaciers. This part of Indiana, like most of our state, was heavily forested before the Europeans settled here. (Picture young Abe Lincoln during his youth in southern Indiana holding an ax & standing next to a tree stump.) However, the terrain in the southern third of Indiana, much of it too steep to farm (early settlers tried but failed), is highly valued for scenic beauty & wildlife. Though once heavily logged, the forests regenerated. The trees that thrive in my woods include red & white oak, red & sugar maple, beech, tulip poplar, black walnut, shagbark hickory & sassafras. Many of these species are prized for use as veneer.
     Without question, I prefer oak in my woodstove. It burns hot & long   doesn't spit sparks at me when I open the woodstove door to add fuel to the fire

Rebecca:
Why are swims in ponds with tickling tadpoles at “grandmother's” home out in the country so important for children?

Ruth Ann:
We read today about nature deficiency among children. What is more elemental than plunging into water that's home to fish, turtles, tadpoles, water striders, water skimmers, dragonfly larvae, plant life & multitudes of microscopic creatures. (I must add non-venomous snakes to that list as I now know that I share my pond with the midland banded water snake.) If children can enjoy natural surroundings, such as Grandma's pond, won't they want to protect such places when they grow up?.

Rebecca:
What would you say to someone who says “Nothing ever happens in my neck of the woods!”

Ruth Ann:
I would say that they should first free themselves from the guilt of doing nothing. Find a place in the woods, a park or a garden and be still. Then simply absorb your surroundings. Listen intently. Watch closely — for ants on the ground, pollinators at a flower, birds in the trees, I attended a nature writing class sponsored by the North Cascades Institute. One of my instructors said, “The simple act of observation when bored leads to inspiration”.

Rebecca:
You have a gallery of superb photos of birds, berries & mushrooms. How did you get into photography & what camera do you use?

Ruth Ann:
My parents, Clarence & Lois Cornish, were prize-winning amateur photographers who shared their stunning images with thousands of people. They “focused” on nature & their travels & I still have tens of thousands of their slides. As a young wife & mother, I was the photographer in my little family. (Isn't there one in every family, the person you seldom see?). 1992 was the year of the mushrooms in Brown County when Joe & I noted several hundred species. My mother, 92-years old & legally blind, “loaned” me her Leica camera & lenses, & included a ‘bellows’ for macro photography. That summer & fall, I spent untold hours on the ground photographing fungi & above ground zooming in on flowers & insects. That was the beginning of a new passion. After Joe died, I lost my desire to take pictures & shelved the camera equipment. Three summers ago, prior to joining a Mushroom Foray in Mexico, I purchased a digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix 400. That camera brought me back to looking through a lens, as the photographs on the cover of Swimming with Frogs attest.

Rebecca:
You include many delightful drawings, did you take art classes?

Ruth Ann:
This is an easy one to answer. I am artistically deficient. As you will note, Chris Carlson is the artist. I suggested ideas to her that would be key to each chapter & she took it from there.

Rebecca:
What are your pet peeves, rurally speaking.

Ruth Ann:
An attendee at a recent book talk asked me what I wish were different at my Brown County cabin. That, too, is an easy answer. I wish that I were not beneath the flight-training pattern of Indiana's Air National Guard, located in the next county at Camp Atterbury. I have a keen sense of hearing. Even on chilly days with all windows & doors shut around me, I hear birdcalls, those of tiny warblers in nearby treetops & those of distance streams of sandhill cranes. I can also hear the near & distant rumble of jet fighters — sometimes 24/7. Because this beautiful country is what it is, lightly populated, you could expect an air base to be located here & not near a major urban area. But as a consequence, my hope for round-the-clock tranquility is shattered.

Rebecca:
Would you tell us about the Indiana Native Plant & Wildflower Society (www.inpaws.org) which you helped to found?

Ruth Ann:
Thank you for asking about INPAWS. I am still vitally involved, 13 years after our native plant society's founding. Each member would give a different answer to the significance of INPAWS. Personally, INPAWS has opened my eyes to the enormous array of plants that evolved here through time. I incorporate them into my Indianapolis garden & protect them from deer in Brown County. They are important because they thrive with little help from me & also because they play a vital part in the chain of life. Through INPAWS I've become aware of invasive plants & the devastation they cause. I now volunteer in numerous ways to stop & even reverse this process where possible. INPAWS conducts an annual Native Plant Sale & Auction, organizes field trips, brings nationally renowned speakers to our annual conference & rescues native plants before bulldozers scrape them from the land.
     Some view Swimming with Frogs as a book of regional interest only. On some levels this may be true, but the human experience is universal. My book reveals one person's experience — mine, as I experienced love for nature, place & person; faced grief; discovered joy; confronted fears. Also, I believe that what is true & good for Brown County applies to other “semi-wild”"places — no matter where.
     I recently found a card that reads:

I pledge allegiance to the earth
& all the life which it supports.
One planet, in our care,
irreplaceable,
with sustenance & respect for all.

Rebecca:
Thank you, Ruth Ann, for an inspiring glimpse into your world, both of the place wherein you find yourself & your inner life.

Do catch my review of Swimming with Frogs — if you like exploring country life & the seasons, as well as the seasons of your life, you're going to love this one!

Rebecca Brown
Published 03/12/06