Truly, we live with mysteries too marvelous to be understood.
How grass can be nourishing in the mouths of the lambs. How rivers and stones are forever in allegiance with gravity while we ourselves dream of rising. How two hands touch and the bonds will never be broken. How people come, from delight or the scars of damage, to the comfort of a poem.
Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have the answers.
Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads.
On Christmas Eve morning we headed 13 miles north to find some snow without a sheet of ice on top of it. It was melting up in Ledyard but still looking lovely and was walkable. I was delighted! I was going to get my chance to walk in the snow covered woods!
trailhead, others had been here, too
In the winter there are fewer men in the fields and woods … you see the tracks of those who had preceded you, and so are more reminded of them than in summer. ~ Henry David Thoreau (Journal, December 12, 1859)
first glimpse of a wolf tree
The preserve’s website mentioned wolf trees, which are “relics from the agricultural era when trees along the edges of fields could spread their branches.” My curiosity piqued, I soon spotted one. I’ve seen trees like this before, but didn’t know there was a term for them.
winter shadows are long and enchanting
moss peeking through the snow
beech marcescence with splotches of lichen
part of the huge wolf tree, probably an oak
In the strictest sense, wolf trees are those spared the axe during widespread Colonial-era deforestation in order to provide shade for livestock or mark a boundary. As second- and third-growth woods filled in abandoned pasture and farmland, these titans have become crowded by dense, spindly youngsters. Where those upstarts are tall and narrow, competing fiercely for canopy light, the wolf tree they surround has fat, laterally extended boughs and a comparatively squat trunk—a testament to the open, sunny country in which it once prospered. ~ Ethan Shaw (The Old in the Forest: Wolf Trees of New England & Farther Afield)
wolf tree bark close up
wolf tree leaves high up on a branch
my favorite picture capturing the magic of the snowy woods
Avery Hill Brook
When we got to the brook we decided to turn around because there was no bridge and crossing over by stepping on the small rocks looked like a dicey proposition. But on the way back we paid more attention to the little things peeping out from under the snow.
ice, leaves, moss, lichen, rock
oak leaf in snow
chunky snow melting on rock
lichen, moss, leaves, snow
The winter, with its snow and ice, is not an evil to be corrected. It is as it was designed and made to be, for the artist has had leisure to add beauty to use. ~ Henry David Thoreau (Journal, December 11, 1855)
more beech marcescence
part of rock surrounded by melting snow
simplicity
puffs and sparkle
We will return some day, better prepared to cross the brook and make our way to the cove, where we might find osprey and waterfowl. It was good to get a great walk in before heading home to hunker down for the fast approaching Christmas wind and rain storm.
We wound up having a good Christmas, even though it was pouring rain all day. There were treasured video calls with family. We finished a jigsaw puzzle together while listening to my winter solstice playlist on shuffle. Watched the final episodes of a Norwegian TV series on Netflix, Home for Christmas, dubbed in English. (Hjem til Jul)
“In the Still Light of Dawn” by Alan Giana
As we started to close the drapes at dusk we found ourselves awestruck. The eastern sky, opposite of the sunset, was violet!!! We couldn’t believe our eyes! The color comes from the extra moisture in the atmosphere refracting the setting sun’s light rays so that the violet is reflected.
12.25.20 ~ eastern sky at sunset
Color! What a deep and mysterious language, the language of dreams. ~ Paul Gauguin (Perception & Imaging: Photography as a Way of Seeing)
I’ve dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they’ve gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.
~ Emily Brontë
(Wuthering Heights)
2.25.17 ~ Insect Hotel ~ Museum of Life & Science, Durham, North Carolina
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee, One clover, and a bee, And revery. The revery alone will do, If bees are few.
~ Emily Dickinson
(The Poems of Emily Dickinson, #1779)
They are not long, the days of wine and roses: Out of a misty dream Our path emerges for a while, then closes Within a dream.
~ Ernest Dowson
(The Poems of Ernest Dowson)
First rehearse this song by note, To each word a warbling note, Hand in hand with fairy grace, Will we sing and bless this place.
~ William Shakespeare
(A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
On May 23rd we took the Bergen Railway (Bergensbanen) from Oslo (altitude 75′, 23m) to Myrdal (2,844′, 867m). The line crosses the Hardanger Plateau of Norway (Hardangervidda) at 4,058′ (1,237m) above sea level.
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
All these pictures were taken through the window glass from the train. Some by me and some by Tim. The scenery was so utterly breathtaking we took turns trying to capture it on camera and then sitting back to enjoy the panorama for a spell.
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
I was starting to get the feeling I was unprepared for the weather on this trip. Many passengers were bundled up in winter clothing and some got off at various stops carrying their skis. Apparently Norway was also having a late and cold spring.
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
Little did we know that there had been an avalanche the night before which was blocking the track between Myrdal and Bergen. No one was hurt. It didn’t affect us, though, because we were getting off in Myrdal. But I think everyone going to Bergen got off in Myrdal, too, and made the next train ride down to Flåm more crowded than it otherwise might have been.
wondered if this person lives here year-round or if this is a vacation home ~ 5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
one of my favorite shots ~ 5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
trying to imagine living here ~ 5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
turf roofs ~ 5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
look how deep the snow is on the sides of the plowed road ~ 5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
there was some amazing snowlight ~ 5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
snowed in? ~ 5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
5.23.15 ~ Hardangervidda, Norway
As dreamy as the scenery was, when we got off the train at Myrdal Station it was startlingly COLD!!! Fortunately we didn’t have to wait too long for the next train.
The human heart has hidden treasures, In secret kept, in silence sealed;- The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures, Whose charms were broken if revealed.
~ Charlotte Brontë
(The Poems of Charlotte Brontë [Currer Bell])
It is that dream we carry that something miraculous will happen that it must happen – that time will open that the heart will open that doors will open and that the rock face will open that springs will gush forth – that the dream will open and that one morning we’ll glide in to a harbour we didn’t know was there.
~ Olav H. Hauge
(The Dream We Carry: Selected & Last Poems of Olav Hauge)
