The rain lets up.
A pileated woodpecker
hammers on my house.
Autumn for the trees
is a second springtime
for the rocks.
Four parallel lines
on the maple log
where the bear thought better of it.
This fall, once again,
I’m shocked to see how much the leaves
had managed to hide.
__________
Yesterday, when the rain eased up in the early afternoon, I took my camera for a walk down the hollow. For folks with high-speed internet access, here’s a ten-photo slideshow of the results. Dial-up users can browse the photos here.
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Beautifully intimate studies, Dave. The whitened crack in particular calls to mind Andy Goldsworthy’s work. Loved the bear scratches. I have been struck, too, as I look now into my neighbor’s back yard, by what the leaves can hide.
Great photos/slideshow, Dave! Yes, the bare trees reveal much, especially the lovely lines of the branches against a brighter sky.
Thanks, mb and m-l. I’ve taken pictures of that zig-zag crack before, but these were the first with my new camera. A good example of the sort of thing I was all too likely to ignore before I became a shutterbug.
Great shots. The rain always makes the colors so saturated.
Oh, and thanks for the Smorgasblog link!
Great photos, dave. That open-ness is one of the my favorite things about fall. When the leaves finally fall here, we see the Olympic Mountain range through the bare branches. Mt. Townsend is about 25-30 miles away, but on a clear day in fall, we watch the rising sun turn the snowy peak every shade of pink.
I stopped by here late yesterday and found only a blank page. Just thought you might want to know.
I liked:
Autumn for the trees
is a second springtime
for the rocks.
A striking gnomic utterance which could easily stand on its own.
this is why (only one why of many) I love to visit your site.
Love your photos. thanks Dave.
Thanks for the comments & compliments.
gnomic utterance
FWIW, I thought of that one just by staring at the photo for a while.
I stopped by here late yesterday and found only a blank page.
Yes, that was my fault – I was monkeying about in the code, and removed the wrong jot or tittle. Probably a jot.
(o)
Beautiful photos! In number 6 in the slideshow, did you see the animal face in the bark? It looks like a wolf to me.
The photos of the gash in the bark reminded me of an orbital shot of the Grand Canyon, complete with Rio Grande running through.
Autumn woods have this nude-like quality that feels almost embarrassing to peek in on. It’s like catching someone just stepping out of the shower. You want to hand them a towel.
kenju – Thanks. Yes, now that you point it out, I do see that animal face. But it looks more like a fox than a wolf to me.
butuki – After the snow flies is when the woods really looks naked, I think. Right now I find myself focusing more on the brightness of moss and lichen.
Extraordinary photos, esp. the close-ups. I know they can be “like” a lot of things as well as like themselves, but one of them is like a Jackson Pollock, in 3-D. I guess we see everything, including nature, through the filter of what is already etched in our consciousness – which, in turn, is filtered…..on and on like those multiple mirror images.
I guess we see everything, including nature, through the filter of what is already etched in our consciousness
Almost everything. I think it’s important to at least leave open the possibility of some sort of Zen-like direct seeing.
Thanks for the comment.
Stunning photos. I can smell and touch them. I wrote something in the piece you kindly linked to about the crowds and noise of the city drowning the texture and detail of things – thank you for sharing a little here of what I’m starved of.
Oh, Jean. I do hope you can get out of London soon.