These warm rainy days - the kind that belong in April are here in December.
It makes me appreciate the long shadows of yesterday’s Sun.
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.
A Creche Scene for the Times
in Art, Southcoast
I am not one for Christmas Pageantry, but this morning, the creche in front of Amicable Congregational Church in Tiverton, RI, stopped me in my tracks. There, gathered around a 55 gallon drum, were wooden figures whose chiseled tears and black eyes told volumes about hard times. The shopping cart in this tableau was not one filled with Christmas gifts and gaudy packages. It’s emptiness tells a story about homelessness, loss and the deprivation of human dignity - a powerful message in this season of consumerism excess.
Split Personality - a self portrait
in Musings
Taken in front of Alyson Shotz's Mirrored Fence at Storm King Art Center.
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.
Fall Luminance
Lower Texas Falls, Vermont
The last light filtering into Lower Texas Falls, Vermont
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.
Sign language.
Opening Scene
I felt like a movie director this morning. There was no story, no actors, but a magnificent opening credit scene. Green lawns, classic New England stone walls, and a morning sky filled with fast moving clouds from the Northeast dappling the light. From the sky, the camera pans in closer to the treeline as a cello note, deep and plaintive, follows the brown leaves falling in a graceful steady arc to the ground. Not the golden and red beauties we associate with New England autumns, but salt scarred and wrinkled brown leaves, a legacy from Tropical Storm Irene. A portent of the drama to unfold…..