Peepers!

One of the things that T and I most enjoy come Spring is a walk on the D&R Canal towpath.  We most enjoy going at twilight when there is a good chance we can hear the Spring peepers.  Usually we make our first trip to hear the peepers in late March or early April.  By then, thanks to the pandemic, the parks were closed to visitors.  We might could have snuck in, but T was reluctant to take that step.  So we waited.  This past weekend, state parks in New Jersey were re-opened.  We took a walk to hear the peepers.  The trail was welcoming.

We saw some wildflowers.

And in the woods as the twilight settled around us, we could hear the peepers in the distance.  

That’s happy!

I Live in Hope

The violence of this week has been unsettling and demoralizing.  Just when I feel our nation may be able to make progress, we seem to take violent steps backward.  I’m at a loss.  

My world view has always been to live in hope.  I know of no other way forward.  But a week like this one can make it hard to find that hope.

For me, nature’s unrestrained beauty is restorative.    So I visit familiar trails and search for hope, fragile and weary though it is.

If I look long enough, it is there.  And so I live in hope.

Evening Sky

As we approach Winter Solstice, I seem to notice the sky at twilight much more often.  I suppose that’s the effect of mourning the loss of light.  On occasion, my greater awareness brings great rewards, as it did last weekend when the late November setting sun delivered a truly spectacular sunset.

The older I get, the more I appreciate the beauty of the natural world.  That’s a blessing I can always embrace.

December

I have a friend who makes the most beautiful photos of nature and found things.  She’s a talented artist but the photos are more than just talent at work.  Through her lens, I can see the beauty of the items and places she has photographed.  I can also see the respect and appreciation she has for the natural world and things that have been left to nature.  Characteristically, she is modest about her rather immense talent.  Looking at her pictures and talking to her about what she views has given me a richer appreciation for the things that I see.  When I make a picture of something in nature, it’s with a renewed eye for that which I find lovely.

Last week, on a frosty morning, there were leaves on the pavement with a shadow of ice imprinted below them.  They were lovely.

The patterned icy print was ephemeral but I caught a shot just before the morning’s sunlight melted the picture away.

Thanks to C for always reminding me to look for the beauty that is around me.

Niagara Falls

One of the side effects of growing up in California is disdain for the waterfalls on the east coast.  The fact is that my expectation of waterfalls is that they look like the amazing falls of Yosemite National Park.  At Yosemite, Bridalveil Falls descends more than 600 feet.  Yosemite Falls is even more splendid, falling over 2400 feet.   There are 8 other waterfalls in the park.  It is unreasonable to expect that other waterfalls compete with this splendor, but alas it is my expectation.

Niagara Falls upends that view because while it isn’t tall it really is quite beautiful thanks to its width and abundance.  The falls are exceptionally wide, with two falls and so much mist that it’s hard to see the larger horseshoe-shaped falls completely.  Suffice it to say that the falls are famous for good reason.  But the most surprising element is that the Americans (for once) didn’t take the best for themselves.  The Canadian side of the falls have the best views and the nicest parks.  Go Canada!

T insisted we see the American side first, mostly because it has a nice view, albeit one that would be completely uninteresting if I’d seen the Canada view first.   The American views, seen from the cliffs alongside the American falls, were lovely.

But the American falls when viewed from the Canadian side were amazing.

As for the horseshoe falls, the Canadian share of Niagara Falls, they are hard to make a picture of because of the sheer volume of mist generated by the falls.  They can only be fully viewed from the Canadian side, tricky given the mist.  But I gave it a go.  First, from the edge by the rapids that precede the falls.

And then in the midst of all the water blowing around.

Lovely!

In the Woods

Some of the prettiest sites at the Bowman's Hill Wildflower Preserve weren't flowers at all, they were trees.  When I lived in Nashville, red bud trees were everywhere.  Around here, they are less common.  But there's one in the corner of these pictures.

I checked out another up close and personal.

There was an iron tree (T recognized it from pictures she'd seen in books...that was happy).

What remains of this tree has clearly been put to work on behalf of the woodpecker population in the forest.

I could look all day at views like this.

And I wouldn't mind a little cabin in the woods with a view like this one.

I keep coming back to the dozens of pictures I made at Bowman's Hill.  They're a daydreamy respite from the crazy pace of the last month of school.