Nature
Mussel Salute
On this last morning before Mexico
A long beach walk
savoring long low winter light
salt spray and the cadence of
tumbling rocks in gentle waves.
And lastly,
a goodby salute from a sun bleached mussel.
At the point
in Nature, Southcoast
At the point
where salt marsh meets the sea
graceful s-curve wave lines
crash against the salt marsh tidal flow
crisscrossing arcs, like shards of broken glass,
dance for a minute in the risng sun
and are gone.
Saltmarsh Cartography
in Nature, Southcoast
What looks like a satellite view of England and Scotland is in fact, December's first frost in the salt marsh.
New England variations
in Nature
Four years ago on this day, there was no balmy breeze like today.
Sunday Dawn
in Nature
Seventeen days from the winter solstice and the sun now rises almost at its most southerly point in the sky. Deep rose and rich amethyst tones fill the horizon lighting my southern facing beach with its best exposure. In those magic minutes before the sun breaks the horizon, the waves are purple black, but with a stripe of deep pink at the base. Ephemeral and fast moving in the rising light, my frozen fingers didn’t synch quickly enough.
Nonetheless it was a gorgeous tableau- velvet textures on a moving sea.
Fall Color - At Long Last
Hurricane Irene didn’t destroy our roads as it did in Vermont, but it took with it all the fall color. But a return trip to Storm King gave me a chance to revel in the autumn art show that makes the vagaries of this climate bearable. The entire landscape at Storm King is part of the display. Carefully planted fields of grass turn shades of grey, muted purple and oranges adding texture and color to the scene.
Andy Goldsworthy's wall of arching curves.
Charles River Canvas
Fall Photo School - For one hour photograph only diagonal lines. Despite the muted light, Charles River reflections made a great canvas...
On the edge of Autumn
in Nature
Bride Brook Salt Marsh, Rocky Point State Park, CT
Abundance of free flowing water
in Nature
Southford Water Falls, CT
Storm King Wanderings
Late summer greenery around Andy Goldsworthy's gracefully arching wall at Storm King Art Center.
Nestled among the gentle hills along the Hudson River, the 1995 Americas Cup contender has found a gentle spot for retirement.... This boat was one of Ray Lichtenstein's last paintings and it resides now on its own little island in a pond at Storm King Art Center
Alphabet in the Wild....
in Nature, Southcoast
The Letter T is brought to you by the toadstools at Destruction Brook.
The Letter W is brought to you by the corn husks of Cornell Farm.
The Letter J is brought to you by the Simsarian's Vermont Garden Gate.
The letter X is brought to you by Vermont farmers. Read the sign carefully....
The letter M is brought to my the sideways tree along the alpaca field at the Cornell Farm.
What a difference a day makes....
in Nature, Southcoast
A typical morning at Anthony’s Beach....
And the same scene early in Hurrican Irene's visit...
From City To Country
Cappadocia is the heart of ancient Anatolia. It is a landscape that is both familiar and fantastical. Bounded by three long extinct volcanoes rising 12,000 feet, it is a mix of high plain and gentle rolling hills. On first glance it is an arid landscape of mesas familiar to travelers through the American west. But it is only dry on this June day. In winter this area is covered in snow, giving it a rich supply of water that supports a world of green. The soil that appears dry and ashen is really volcanic soil textured with humus fertilized with pigeon and bat guano. Imagine the striated mesa tops of Utah surrounded by lush fields of vegetables, wheat and grapes. And while Cappadocia is not the part of Turkey known for its fruit growing, cherry and apricot trees are everywhere -strategically placed in small family fields and yards.
In the US both large scale agriculture and small family gardens are almost always square and rectangular. Here, Turkey’s non-linear aesthetic and a graceful accommodation to the landscape are at play. Those uneven mesa tops don’t come in tidy squares, so the fields follow the land, as do the graceful arcs of the plantings.
As we drive from the airport and our eyes adjust from an urban to rural landscape, the gardeners in our group feast on the display of wildflowers. A few turns down some windy roads and we are in Balsac – a landscape uniquely Cappadocian. This is the home of the fairy chimneys. Formations of yellow-white toufa stone topped with dark volcanic basalt. Wildflowers are growing everywhere in this strange landscape.
After a two days in Cappodocia, we decide that the royal blue stunners we have been seeing are a form of statice, but I need the help of one you gardening guru’s out there to identify this pea-like flower.
