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Falling Waters. June 17, 2011

Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature.
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It’s been a rainy week here in Western Massachusetts.  Not full-on rainy, but rather, storms blowing through most days:

Lots of these anvil-shaped summer storms, lots of morning fogs.  Lots for the farmers to be thankful for as the planting season swings into high gear:

Streams which are frequently dry this time of year are cascading down from the hills:

…turning things pretty verdant:

Those last two shots were taken on Mount Toby in Sunderland; the next two are of Black Brook in Savoy:

…on a rainy afternoon after work:

Beyond the forest’s edge, the flowers of the fields soaked it up, exploding in riots of color:

…with daisies reaching up past red and yellow hawkweeds and clovers, toward the eventual sun breaking through steely skies:

If we get a modicum of sun over the next few weeks, this will be a stellar growing season.

But then, this is New England, so we’ll get what we get.  😉

Thanks to Elliot for most of these shots, and Ollie for the rest.

 

 

 

A Walk In The Rain. June 20, 2009

Posted by littlebangtheory in Art and Nature, Love and Death.
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Got rained out of work on Thursday, so I took a walk along the railroad tracks near the Hoosac Tunnel.  It was a strange mix of natural beauty and post-industrial destruction, with the cleansing rain putting the best face on the scene as softly furred mullein and optimistic daisies reclaimed an abandoned rail:

mullien under daisies

Sometimes the two plants seemed to be conspiring in their effort to affirm the power of beauty to confound our headlong rush toward its dissolution:

daisy and mullien

Then I took a drive up into the clouds to see what was happening up above.

The air was heavy with blowing fog, and every surface was bathed in fine beads of glistening dew.  I parked at the end of a woods road and made the short hike out to the Raycroft Overlook, a CCC Work Camp project which is itself being reclaimed be the inexorable processes of nature.

The walk along the narrow ridge was magical, with the northern slope dropping steeply off into the clouds:

Raycroft forest

…to the old stonework vantage point from which the Deerfield river can usually be seen a thousand feet below:

Raycroft Overlook

On this day the “river view” dissolved into the clouds, leaving only the insistent red clover under foot to demand its mountainside back from us arrogant interlopers:

red clover

Wrapped in a raincoat and photographing under an umbrella, I was lost in the surreality of the feeling of helming this great stone ship through the swirling clouds.  The experience was cleansing, and convinced me to venture out into the rain more regularly.

I hope you enjoyed these.