Flash Flood Refuge?
The first of three long exposures of the Virgin River from the Narrows on the way back to Pam. Earlier on Pam headed back, concerned about thunderstorms and the possibility of flash floods. I hung on, for the perfect photo. I came pretty close here, with the flowing water coming aound this outcrop of picturesque boulders, canyon turning sharply right up ahead.. The Narrows, Zion National Park, Springdale, Utah
A Bumper Apple Crop
More from the day Pam and I walked up the hill from our Malloryville Mill House.
The setting sun works its magic on a century plus maple tree on an esker bank. The glaciers deposited this esker, under the tree, when waters from the melting flowed under the ice to carve a tunnel later filled with glacier debris.
The light brings out the beauty of two this pair of silos from the early 20th century abutting an abandoned barn and active cornfields.
Pam is using my first camera, a Sony Mavica. It writes to a 4.5″ disk that limits the number of exposures and I carried a number of the disks. It has a decent variable lens. We still have that camera. These photos are from my Sony dslr Apha700 with a variable lens.
At that time, our three apple trees gave a bountiful harvest. We spent two days making and canning apple sauce. For some batches we’d grind in blackberries or concord grapes. We enjoyed the work over the next year. Our grandchildren loved that stuff.
These apples hung from a tree of the farm house next to the abandoned barn. A young family lived there, their toddler daughter recognized us from other walks and came over for a “hello”.
Visual Spirit
The title is a fragment from the thirteenth chapter of the First Epistle to the Corinthians.
During brief moments of the upstate New York autumn season perfect images are mirrored in quiet pond waters.
It this case the effects lasted a few seconds.
The site of this photograph, McLean Bogs, is part of Cornell Plantations. McLean Bogs is known for its biodiversity and is reserved for research.
This work is a composite of four images, the mirror image of each of two photographs. I print it on a stretched canvas 5 feet wide by 4 feet high.
9/11 Remembrance
I choose to remember September 11, 2001 with the IPhone 7 video of September sunlight shining through clear water, set to the music “Blessing.”
The post header is sunlight shining through the clear water of Reavis
Creek, Superstition Wilderness, Arizona.
Two Huts and a Hearth
Drombeg has two huts adjoining the Fulacht Fiadh with a connecting path.
Hut B incorporates a rock lined hearth that possibly served as an oven.
Survey of elements
The previous post was an overview the Fulacht Fiadh associated with the Drombeg Stone Ring of County Cork, Republic of Ireland.
In this post, we explore the elements of these fascinating remnants from the late Bronze Age, over 3,000 years ago.
It is amazing the rock wall survived human need for the valuable wall stones. Portions were stolen, though for the most part we can see enough to understand.
Drombeg’s Fulacht Fiadh, a Bronze Age cooking site, used heated stones to boil water for cooking, dyeing, and brewing.
Notice the groupings of visitors in the middle distance of Pam’s photograph, gathered around remains of late Bronze age elements.
There is a sign to explain…
In modern Ireland the word fulacht means barbeque and the archeological sites with characteristics in common, such as a water source, health and pit, are named “Fulacht fiadh,” derived from Old Irish sources. In all cases the link is to some kind of preparation activity involving heat and moisture. Found throughout Ireland, Great Britan and the Isle of Man where the sites are called burnt mounds. The Drombeg Fulacht fiadh exemplifies all characterists. There is a horseshoe shaped rock walled/banked, now a remnant, enclosure, entrance to the south. In the middle is a pit, at Drombeg lined with rock, a spring on one side, a hearth on the other. A stone saddle quern, used for grinding grain, was nearby Adjacent huts, rock walls with post holes, do not suggest a settlement, but rather a temporary use.
“Tree of Life”
In my last Pinelands post, “cedar water” was featured. This post is a exploration of the “cedar” in “cedar water.”
White Cedar, also known as Swamp Cedar, is a water loving tree seen here to the right of Quaker Brider, Wharton State Forest.
“Cedar water” is the dark, tea like, flow of Pinelands rivers colored by vegetable tannins.
White Cedar thrives along Pinelands waterways, lending color to the “cedar water.” 18th Century sea captains favored cedar water for long voyages, famours for staying fresh far longer than other waters. Also known as arborvite, “tree of life”, for the medicinal properties of the bark, well known throughout Native America.
Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
A Magnificent Display
Libe Slope is between the West Campus and Quadrangle / Libraries.
Besides the exercise of walking the 18 degree incline several times each day, Cornell students and alumni remember The Slope for autumn color.
Seen from the north on a cloudy October day, this Pignut Hickory (Carya glabra) is the largest tree on the Cornell Campus, at 79 inches in diameter.
Take another look at the previous image. Can you find the grey squirrel? This hickory grows south of the Johnson Museum and among the autumn glories, it is the largest and brightest yellow canopy on Libe Slope.
An overcast day is the best to capture this spectacle. October 20, 2012 provided both bright sun and dark, rolling autumn clouds. I waited on the north side, sheltered from the glare of the sky, for these perfect moments.
The pignut hickory is native to these Eastern United States. It is known to favor moist slopes and this specimen has thrived on The Slope. The ground beneath it is thick with nuts.
Just one week later, late afternoon on a sunny Friday as hurricane Sandy approached the east coast the hickory has fewer, tawny golden leaves.
A rare Pinelands maple tree over the cedar water of Mullica River looking upstream from Quaker Bridge on a warm August morning 2021.
Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 