Dr. O.D. von Engeln – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Shuffle off

All Souls’ Day, observed on November 2, is a Christian tradition of praying for the deceased, originating from ancient practices and shaping cultural rituals like Mexico’s Día de los Muertos.

November 2, 2023October 30, 2023 MichaelStephenWills9 Comments

Shuffling through the hot coals of autumn on All Souls Day.

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All Souls’ Day, observed on November 2nd, is a day of prayer and remembrance for the souls of the deceased. Stemming from ancient traditions and solidified within the Christian liturgical calendar, this day serves as a solemn occasion to commemorate the departed. Its roots are deep, with a rich history that intertwines with both religious and cultural practices over centuries.

Origins
The concept of dedicating a day to remember the dead predates Christianity. Many ancient civilizations, such as the Egyptians and the Celts, held ceremonies and festivals to honor the deceased. The Celts, for instance, celebrated Samhain, which marked the end of harvest and the beginning of winter. This was believed to be a time when the veil between the living and the dead was thinnest.

As Christianity spread across Europe, there was an attempt to integrate pagan practices into the Christian framework, leading to the establishment of days dedicated to the deceased. By the 7th century, monastic communities in Europe had begun to designate a day to pray for the departed members of their communities.

Establishment
All Souls’ Day was formally institutionalized by St. Odilo of Cluny in 998 AD. He declared November 2nd as a day for all the monasteries associated with his Benedictine congregation to pray for the souls in purgatory. This practice quickly spread, and by the 11th century, it was widely celebrated throughout Christian Europe.

Theology Behind the Celebration
Central to All Souls’ Day is the belief in Purgatory – an interim state where souls undergo purification before entering Heaven. It’s believed that the prayers of the living can aid these souls, expediting their journey to paradise.

Modern Observations
Today, All Souls’ Day is observed with varying levels of prominence across Christian denominations. In Roman Catholicism, it retains significant importance, with masses dedicated to the departed. In other Christian traditions, it may merge with other observances, like All Saints’ Day (November 1st) or be passed over entirely.

Cultural Influences
Over time, All Souls’ Day has influenced and been influenced by local customs and traditions. In Mexico, for instance, Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) coincides with All Souls’ Day but has its distinct flair, involving vibrant parades, elaborate altars, and specific foods.

Bullet Points Summary:

Ancient Foundations: All Souls’ Day has its roots in ancient civilizations that honored the dead.
Samhain: The Celts observed Samhain, marking a time of close proximity between the living and the dead.
Christian Integration: Early Christians attempted to integrate existing pagan rituals into their religious framework.
Monastic Observances: By the 7th century, monastic communities began designating days for the departed.
St. Odilo of Cluny: He formalized All Souls’ Day in 998 AD for his Benedictine congregation.
Spread: By the 11th century, the observance had spread throughout Christian Europe.
Purgatory: Central to the day’s theology is the belief in purgatory and the power of prayers to aid souls.
Variation in Observance: The day’s significance varies across Christian denominations.
Cultural Mergers: Local traditions, like Mexico’s Día de los Muertos, have both influenced and been influenced by All Souls’ Day.
Modern Practices: Today, the day may involve attending masses, lighting candles, and visiting graves of loved ones.
In essence, All Souls’ Day is not just a day on the liturgical calendar; it’s a reflection of humanity’s timeless effort to understand, honor, and find meaning in the cyclical nature of life and death. Through rituals and observances, we bridge the gap between the past, present, and the profound mystery of the hereafter.

Click Me for another Malloryville post, “Formed By Water.”

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Dappled Sunlight

The Malloryville eskers near Freeville, New York, highlight the region’s glacial history and contribute significantly to biodiversity and local ecology.

October 30, 2023October 29, 2023 MichaelStephenWills11 Comments

Walking here, I enjoy telling the grandchildren of the immense, mile-high ice sheet that once covered this land 10,000 years ago, creating these hills and hollows.

Click Me for another Malloryville post, “Formed By Water.”

Eskers are geological features that tell a rich tale of the glacial history of an area. In the landscape near Freeville, New York, the eskers of Malloryville stand as prominent reminders of the last Ice Age and the profound effects glaciers have had on the North American terrain. These elongated ridges, composed primarily of sand and gravel, not only offer a visual spectacle but also provide crucial insights into the glacial processes that shaped the region.

Eskers are formed by the deposition of sediment from meltwater rivers flowing on the surface of or within glaciers. As these glaciers recede, the sediment accumulates in the paths previously carved by the meltwater streams, eventually forming ridges. The Malloryville eskers are particularly notable for their well-preserved structure, giving geologists and enthusiasts alike a clear vision of the patterns of glacial meltwater flow from thousands of years ago.

Located just a few miles from Freeville, the Malloryville eskers are an intriguing natural attraction. The topography of the area, largely shaped by the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the last glacial maximum, is characterized by various glacial features, but the eskers are undeniably some of the most distinct. Their serpentine-like appearance, weaving through the landscape, immediately captures one’s attention and beckons further exploration.

From an ecological perspective, the eskers of Malloryville contribute to the area’s biodiversity. The unique microenvironments created by these ridges offer habitats that differ from the surrounding landscape. This differentiation allows for a variety of plant species to thrive, some of which are specially adapted to the well-drained soils of the eskers. Additionally, these ridges act as corridors for wildlife, facilitating movement and offering vantage points for species like deer and birds of prey.

Historically, the eskers near Freeville have also had an impact on human activity. Native American communities, recognizing the strategic advantage of these high grounds, are known to have used them as pathways or even settlement sites. In more recent history, the gravel and sand composition of the eskers have made them targets for mining activities. While this has led to the alteration or destruction of some sections, it has also highlighted the importance of preserving these unique geological features for future generations.

Efforts to study and preserve the Malloryville eskers have grown in recent years. Local educational institutions, in collaboration with geological societies, have undertaken detailed studies to understand the formation and significance of these features better. Such initiatives not only contribute to the scientific understanding of glacial processes but also raise awareness about the importance of conserving unique geological formations. Given the potential impacts of climate change on glacial landscapes worldwide, the eskers serve as a poignant reminder of the dynamic nature of our planet and the traces left behind by the ebb and flow of ice ages.

In conclusion, the eskers of Malloryville near Freeville, New York, stand as testaments to the glacial history of the region. These winding ridges, with their intricate patterns and rich ecological contributions, weave a story of natural processes that have spanned millennia. They remind us of the ever-changing nature of our planet and underscore the importance of understanding and preserving its geological wonders. Whether one views them with the eyes of a scientist, historian, or nature enthusiast, the Malloryville eskers offer a captivating glimpse into the ancient forces that have shaped the world around us.

Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Coming and Going

beneath the bridge

October 29, 2023October 25, 2023 MichaelStephenWills1 Comment

Standing on a stream spanning bridge it is fun to drop a stick or leaf, watch the progress, disappearing beneath the bridge to emerge and continue riding the water downstream.

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Click Me for another Malloryville post, “Formed By Water.”

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Fall Creek View

from abandoned railroad bridge

July 29, 2022July 22, 2022 MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

Fall Creek meanders through the esker fields of the Malloryville Preserve. Here is the view from an abandoned railroad bridge. A major watercourse of the Finger Lakes, throughout the 19th century Fall Creek provided water power for local industry: grain grinding mills, cooperage and furniture. Here the stream bed is wide, flow slow and pacific for a mirrored surface, the effect broken by a single drop from an overhanging tree or, maybe, a fin’s flash.

Pam and I visited Malloryville last weekend to enjoy a “socially distanced” walk with family.

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Click Me for another Malloryville post, “Formed By Water.”

Copyright 2022 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

The path beckons

just around the corner

October 31, 2020October 30, 2020 MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

What is there, just beyond?

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Click Me for another Malloryville post, “Formed By Water.”

Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Kame = Pile

Kettle and Kame Topography

August 31, 2020September 1, 2020 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

Hard on the defunct gravel pit of the northwest side of the preserve is the deposit of glacial rocks washed to some extent by melting ice the former owners of the pit were turning over for profit with the averted result of destroying the water sources for the ecosystems of the future preserve.

The deposit is called a kame. Kames are the obverse of kettles, formed with an enormous remnant of glacial ice melts in place leaving a substantial depression. A kame is formed when earth gathers in a depression formed by meltwater running over a glacial surface. When the glacier melts (in this area the ice wash a mile high), the washed earth is left as a steeply sided pile we experience as a hill.

Water flowing beneath glaciers forms the long, ridged hills, eskers, we explored in yesterday’s post.

The forested land of this video the kame, upper left, shown in the header, an IPhone7 photograph of GoogleEarth. Also marked is a path for the primary esker, the bog formed by a kettle and another kettle that is now a pond. Click me to view a pdf file saved from GoogleEarth. It provides a clearer view of the header image.

Click me for better experience viewing the following video. To do this from WordPress Reader, you need to first click the title of this post to open a new page. Note the replay icon (an arrow circling counter-clockwise.

Click Me for the first post of this series.

Thank You for visiting. Here is a recapitulation of Malloryville Preserve.

Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Long, Ridged Hill

A Look at an Esker

August 30, 2020September 1, 2020 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

Well formed, sinuous, graded on both sides, eskers can be mistaken for man-made earthen structures, such as railroad embankments. Here is an example, nine-tenths (0.9) of a mile long substantial enough to direct the flow of Fall Creek. On entering the Malloryville esker bed the stream makes a right angle turn.

Here we are at the foot of the primary esker of Malloryville Preserve (it is marked as such on the information placard of this series first post). The slope to the right is the esker. A swamp lies to the right.

This video provides a better feeling for this esker.

Click Me for the first post of this series.

Copyright 2020 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Turtle Socks

Flowers from Mars

August 29, 2020September 1, 2020 MichaelStephenWills20 Comments

Two kettles of the preserve represent a pond and, below, a bog. Here is a photograph from the observation platform using the IPhone 7. I brought along the Canon dslr and 100 mm “macro” lens for the stars of this show…..

….purple pitcher plants (scientific name: Sarracenia purpurea). In past years, the central observation deck cut-out, hosted healthy pitchers. Today, invading high bush blueberries from the bog margin, crowded out the pitchers and the only flowering plant were among the grasses 8 to 10 feet away. My goal was photographing the extraordinary flowers.

Each flower rises from the base on a strong stalk. Here are the pitchers, also called “turtle socks”, flooded with sunlight.

A flower unlike any I have experienced, like the carapace of an insect, the reproductive element underneath a hood.

The posterior, there are only bracts.

I have, somewhere, macro images of the pitcher, with the downward facing hairs. Brought the wrong lens to capture this at a distance.

Click Me for the first post of this series.

Flowing water

Water flowing from glacial till

August 28, 2020December 8, 2025 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

Amazingly swamp, fen, bog, marsh can all be experienced during a thirty minute walk within this preserve. Here we are traversing a swamp …

…buoyed along on planking from recycled plastic.

The founders of this place, from a dairy farming family, strove for years to protect the water sources from encroachment by development, primary a duplicate of a gravel pit found on the other side of the Fall Creek valley.

This former acidic rainwater, percolating through glacial till, is buffered and chemically altered to create these multiform environments.

Water, flowing quietly, almost soundlessly, with powerful effect.

Click Me for the first post of this series.

Formed by Water

Overview

August 27, 2020August 16, 2020 MichaelStephenWills11 Comments

Let’s digress from our exploration of Iquique, Chile for this attraction local to the Finger Lakes Region of New York State, an environment diametrically opposed to the Atacama desert. The Preserve at Malloryville opened 1997, eleven years after we moved to our home our home on Fall Creek (see header photograph).

The correct name is the O.D. von Engeln Preserve at Malloryville. I knew this name from his Finger Lakes geology book obtained from the library and read closely in the early 1990’s. It helped me understand the landscape among which our home was set, in 5 minutes walking distance from the future location of the preserve.

The text from the above information placard at the preserve entrance says it all:“Wetland habitats are shaped by the water that supplies them: the amount, how it moves, and the minerals it carries. Malloryville’s eskers, kames and kettles control the rate of delivery of water to the surface and suffuse it with varied concentrations of minerals. As ground water bubbles to the surface at the base of these hills, distinctive wetland habitats form, each with its own unique community of plants. The preserve’s intense concentration of bog, fen, marsh and swamp habitats is the direct result of ground water moving through this unusually complex array of glacial features.

Before the preserve was opened I was familiar with the landforms described in the above placard. My son and I did his first camping on top of an esker outside our front door. We enjoyed hiking along Fall Creek.

To be continued…..