Monochrome Vision

The rare moment is not the moment when there is something worth looking at, but the moment when we are capable of seeing.

Joseph Wood Krutch

monochrome

color eludes my eyes

the dormant grass, the bare trees,

the tangle of fallen branches and leaves.

it is all - all one giant mess,

confusing my sight-

and yet there you stand,

nearly hidden

in brown and white;

just like another branch=

before me.

standing tall and (nearly) straight, the bare trees

a rain drop lingers on the surface of a puddle…reflecting

The messy reflection of barren things in the fen waters (Johnsons Shut-Ins State Park, MO)

a nest that fell on the stone path (Johnsons Shut-Ins State Park, MO)

a mass of volcanic rock, slowly etched and worn by a river finding its way through (Johnsons Shut-Ins State Park, MO)

There is a sense of patient waiting in the gray skies, bare trees, and dormant fields.

The days are short,

The sun a spark

Hung thin between

The dark and dark.

John Updike

I have been thinking about beauty in late fall - mainly whether or not there is any. In the U.S., in the Midwest, it can be very gray, cold and wet this time of year. Everything seems to be the same dull brown or gray. I struggle to find something colorful to photograph - a rare blue sky, a bright berry, a bird, a sunset…but then I thought, why struggle? Why not try to see beauty in this season as it is? It is a darker kind of beauty, a melancholy beauty; but still worth the effort of seeing.

Thank you so much for being here. I will see you next week!

Consider the Fallen Leaf

How beautiful the leaves grow old. How full of light and color are their last days. - John Burroughs

October 3, 2022 - A fallen maple leaf in the evening sun

Consider the Fallen Leaf

i saw the leaf before me

full of holes,

curling in upon itself

turning brown

fragile

disintegrating

i saw its veins

darkened by sunlight -

its stem caught

in the crack of a stair

i saw its long shadow

stretching

curling in upon itself

full of holes

i saw the leaf before me

October 3, 2022 - Gathered Leaves and needles from Pier Cove Ravine Trail

October 3, 2022 - Gathering leaves on the trail today, I realized I didn’t really know much about leaves. What do they do for the tree, why do they change colors this time of year, why do they fall off, or if they don’t fall off, why not? Here’s what I learned:

Leaves use water, air and sunlight along with the chlorophyll they already contain to make food (sugar - sucrose) (for the tree. In the fall, when light changes, the chlorophyll starts to break down and whatever color is left in the leaf; depending on its particular chemistry is the color you see. The leaves help the tree grow as long as there is sunlight and available water; but in the winter, when there is less sunlight, and the hard ground makes it difficult for the tree to absorb water, the leaves need to fall off in order for the tree to conserve water. The reason evergreens don’t lose all of their leaves is that their needles or leaves are coated and don’t cause the tree to lose water, so they don’t need to be shed. In warm climates, some trees that are not traditionally considered evergreen also don’t lose their leaves; because they have more available sunlight, and the ground doesn’t freeze. Once leaves fall, of course, they still feed and protect the tree by covering the ground and then breaking down into compost. Birth life - death - rebirth - over and over again every year. It’s amazing.

October 4, 2022 - Fall. Falling. Fallen.

October 4, 2022. We’ve experienced a bluff collapse on Lake Michigan the past few years… it makes for striking images on the beach. The land slid down, trees slid down with it, some falling and dying, some managing to survive in a new location. They are all here; the fallen, the falling and the living - going through fall transition.

October 4, 2022. Sentinels

October 4, 2022. I saw a group of red pines standing next to a house on my run Tuesday night. Evergreens. Tall and regal. Soldiers standing at attention.