Snow In The High Country. November 8, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: November, snow
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Early November is early for snow in the Berkshires, but it’s not unheard of. So the other morning I wasn’t shocked to encounter The Great White on my way to work, passing as I sometimes do over the high country of Florida.
It looked like this:
No, really, there was snow on the ground:
I’m hoping for a bit more Autumn before actual winter sets in, but in these parts, there are no guarantees.
Anyway, it’s still novel enough to be interresting to look at.
A Few Moss Shots… November 6, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, macro photos.Tags: moss
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…Before the snow flies. These are sphagnum mosses growing on a big dead log by the Deerfield river:
Not the best photos, but before long there won’t be much moss ’till Spring, thus these arms’ length efforts.
Hope you like them. 
This Morning. November 4, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: Deerfield, full moon, hunters moon, morning fog
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On the way to work, along the road down to Shelburne Falls. Mist rising off the river, courtesy of Elliot’s eye for infinite depth of field:
…and a waning Hunters’ Moon set against a Florida (MA) hillside:
…by way of Gizmo, my 400mm accomplice.
They’re both pretty close to raw, as I haven’t time to do much polishing.
Later,
R.
Sky Shots. November 2, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Love and Death.Tags: full moon, hunters moon, sunset
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A drive-by posting here, of this evening’s ride home from work, the first one since we turned our clocks back.
I dislike this time of year for it’s theft of my precious daylight; nonetheless, my circuitous ride home transited from sunset:
…into full-on night, with a Hunters’ Moon piercing the clouds:
The detail wasn’t there, but it made itself known nonetheless.
Sorry to be such a stranger in my own land, but we’re still busy turning piles of boxes into a home. It’s coming along, though, and I’m hoping to be back in circulation sooner rather than later.
I miss you all, miss stopping by your places to see what’s up and such. But living in the have-to present is good too, and it’s what’s happening now.
‘Till later,
R
Mount Greylock. October 21, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Love and Death.Tags: Mount Greylock
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Several views, garnered over the last few days.
First, a view of our proudest peak in sunlight and shadow:
…and through a stand of autumn-ravaged birches:
Last Friday we had our first snow of the season, which disappeared from the roadways early on but lingered on high for long enough to snap a picture:
…And lastly, a cheery shot taken from Adams’ Bellevue Cemetery:
A salute to our highest peak!
Rivers. October 19, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: fall foliage, rivers
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Rivers in autumn. Dark, mysterious, wreathed in color, heavy with the sweet scent of decay, with tannic swirls along their descending paths to the sea.
The Chickley in Charlemont:
…and farther up in Hawley, my former neighbor to the south:
The South River in my new home, Conway, sulking its way down valley on a dark day:
The Cold in Florida, shrouded in morning mist:
…And at their mouths, collecting them, shepherding them to the sea, the Connecticut, here looking down river into Hadley, where the college crew teams practice:
…and there looking up river into Montague, placid, swirling to a slow beat:
Water of life, rivers of time, inescapable and precious.
Long may they flow.
Phall Pholiage Photos (With A Hat-Tip To Phydo.) October 15, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: foliage, local towns
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Pardon, if you will, my Ph imbalance; it’s just one of the many imbalances I’m dealing with these days.
This year’s foliage season seems to have peaked while Susan and I were fully engaged in moving in together, and thus went largely undocumented. It’s a time thing, you know?
Anyway, I snapped an occasional picture, and since it’s been such a while since I blogged, they’ve piled up to the extent that I might reasonably be judged to have “been there,” when in fact I’ve been speeding past this phase of my life on the way to somewhere else.
So here they are, unceremoniously dumped before tomorrow’s forecast of snow renders them irrelevant.
A calm stretch of the Deerfield river, with the Bridge of Flowers in the distance:
Ferns gone by in the high country of Monroe:
A farmscape in nearby Cheshire, where affluent suburbia crowds a traditionally agricultural valley:
A late-greening field in the high hills of the intentionally misnamed Florida, which has a growing season which makes the blink of an eye look like stop-action photography:
The same farm on a different day, from a different angle:
Hey, I got a million of ‘em. Guess I’ll have to come back soon to finish ( or at least further) this dump.
Later then,
Ralph
Ruby Tuesday – The Bishop, CA Edition! September 28, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Ruby Tuesday!.Tags: Bishop, Buttermilks, CA, Ruby Tuesday!, Sierras
6 comments
Half way up California’s fabled East Side sits the quintessential Western town of Bishop. I’d driven through there once before, ’round about 1980, but all I recall about that particular trip was that the brownies were absurdly green.
Ahem.
Fast forwarding to March of 2009, I had occasion to stop there with my buddy Lizz on our whirlwind tour of Southern California, ostensibly in search of wildflowers but taking in anything which was visually Not Massachusetts. I’d expressed my desire to see Mount Whitney before descending into Death Valley, expecting the geographic contrast to possess a certain power (which it did,) and Lizz did me one better by first humoring me, then spiriting me a little ways farther north to Bishop, where Galen Rowel’s Mountain Light Gallery exhibits some of that photographer’s astounding work.
People. If you’re ever in the area, make this stop an imperative. You’ll be transported by one of the visionaries of modern photography to places which we mortals can barely imagine, exquisitely rendered by an artist of rare stature. I bawled like a baby before half a dozen of his works.
By the time we left I was trembling, partly with desire to see what Galen saw, and partly out of the fear which comes from knowing how rare that gift really is.
We drove Up West ’till a late season snow storm made continuing imprudent, then parked and wandered around beneath the thick grey skies, benefiting from the dry air of the high desert as it ate the falling snows, leaving us to swim in the turbulent air below great granite massifs piercing a blanket ofy winter sky.
And amidst all of this, hints of Ruby enlivened the austere majesty of the High Country:
I bet you thought I forgot to dance with The Meme What Brung Me, courtesy of Mary.
No way, Mary. I;m clumsy, but I’m not a cad.
Late September. September 27, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.Tags: Cheshire, fall colors, foliage
2 comments
Massachusetts, like any place else, has its better moments. And a disproportionate number of them happen in September.
Mind you, I’m prejudiced; I happen to have happened in September as well. But that notwithstanding, the mix of warm wet air and cool dry wind do produce an invigorating perceptual pallet, weather permitting, of course. This year the weather wasn’t particularly permitting, delivering oranges when reds were expected and substituting browns for the yellows I ordered.
But still, it’s been pretty:
Looking down into Cheshire on the way home from work.
The niches in the landscape which had access to daily fogs and vapors fared well this past month, with dense fogs down at the river rising with the sun, misting the steep valley slopes before dissipating into a bright blue sky.
Mosses loved it:
…as did I.
Hey, what can I say. I’m a Libra.
Anyway, expect light posting for a couple of weeks, as Susan and I are moving in together; that is, we’re each moving to a mid-way location so we can both keep our jobs.
This past weekend saw the bulk of my moving, with my brother and me doing most of it (Susan is having health complications, and despite a laudable willingness of spirit, her body isn’t really cooperating.) I’m certain it was a sight – he, at 5′4″, is the family giant, and though he’s fit as a fiddle, he recently injured his back. Between that and my totally destroyed shoulders and right ankle, we must have looked like the Jerry’s Kids Moving Company! 
And next weekend we do it all again with Susan’s move. So you’ll likely only be hearing from me when I can’t stand up any longer but am too wound up to sleep.
Come to think of it, this may devolve into nightly posts after all!
Mr. Maple. September 23, 2009
Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Love and Death.3 comments
Striding through the woods, up the steep hillside, stepping carefully over a single white wood aster as though it were a treasure:
Such grace for one so large!
