When I was a child, I dreamed of living in Boston and now that I do, I am always looking for pictures of the city that form a portrait that will express my feelings for it. This photo essay is a Valentine to the city I love.
I rambled around yesterday with my camera and found lots of images of winter loosening his icy grip at least for a few hours. The temperature got up to somewhere near 50 degrees Fahrenheit.
I was sorely tempted to take off my winter parka (yes, in New England we pronounce the name of that garment “parker”) but my grandmother's voice echoed in my head. She cautioned me to wear a coat outside until the snow was out of the woods.
Well, there’s still ice and snow around, even if there aren’t a lot of woods. It was too much trouble to go to the Arboretum so I contented myself with believing that it was still full of snow there between the trees.
There wasn’t any snow around the metal trees (aka light poles), although there were some dirty puddles. And sand, lots and lots of sand in various sizes beginning with fine grained dirt-type particles on up through small pebbles with a few cigarette butts thrown in for flavor.
In some places, you can’t get there from here. There was a set of steps in the back of a building that apparently haven’t been used since, hmmmm, mid-December. You can climb them but there’s no way out.
Ice has burst forth from drain pipes on the outside of a building making beautiful, ethereal shapes that look like something from another world.
In the city, nature has a way of surprising you with her presence. Puddles may look like dirty pools of melting detritus but they can hold images worthy of an Escher print and easily as breathtaking.
With beauty before and behind me,
With beauty below and above,
With beauty all around me, I walk.
— from a traditional Navajo ceremony
If you enjoyed this post, please “rate” it.
Text and PhotoArt
Copyright © 2009 CoyoteOldStyle. All Rights Reserved.
TIP:
Enter the amount, and click "Tip" to submit!
daisyjane
Joan H.
Scylla the Rock
Algis Kemezys
Ralph Tingey
marytkelly
Salon.com
Comments
It ties the post together.
Just lovely pics. brings back memories for me my friend
Mission, I'm so happy that you enjoy them. Thank you.
Goofy terrier spaniels, limping,
and vain Fox pundit bobble heads.
Next? A image from mortified viagra users of a Doberman dressed in a pink frilly tutu?
I surly hope not that!
Arthur, it is a dog-eat-dog world and this morning I chose to bite back. Thanks for your comment.
Thanks for sharing.
(rated)
I know it's just the cruel tease of our annual February thaw, and that the worst is still yet to come, but that mud felt great.
Oh, and by the way, my post got hijacked, too. Right now, it's at http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=107902
Would your advice be to repost it?
PPS: Do you sell your photographs?
Mumbletypeg, I've gotten into the right-hand column so maybe I'll be okay. Thanks for clicking through and your kind comment.
They will pass away. Ignore. They are feeling awful lonely?
stink dogs. By the way, I love old dark room black & whites.
That's were I met my (sorta cranky, she is who she is?) wife.
In a darkroom, developing black & white prints from 35 mm.
The camera was a Cannon F- 1. I loved it, and self-developing.
The close quarters in a photo-lab? A bumps in the isles? Oops. Then:`After three beautiful children?`Huh. O the Puppy love?
It led to a kinda... a parental dog's life? The children are Great!
I will no go there...it's a long story. Woof. Rough. Love coyotes!
So, Ya no need to run away. Honest. I got a coyote hat.
The Lady who made hats had a high school sweetheart.
Sad. He was killed in the Viet Nam War. Ya walk a poem.
`
Instead of engaging any "combative mentality" ... You are:`
Continuing to gently insist that there truly is a better way.
You encourage inward spiritual growth, and well-being.Ya!
I sense: ` "a labor of a kind heart" ... Thanks. Learn. Be calm.
Ya probably have lovely callused hands with good "dirt" nails.
Ya cook with a good Earth under the finger and toe nails? huh.
No banditry. You live a wholesome livelihood. Blessed Friends.
Neighbors surely stop bt when they smell your victuals simmer.
~
I recall this:
Pull down thy vanity, it is not man
Made courage, or made order, or made grace.
Pull down thy vanity. I say pull down.
Learn of the green-world what can be thy place... Ezra Pound, 'Canto LXXXI.
~
... what we owe the future is not a new start, for we can only begin
with what has happened. We owe the future the past, the long knowledge that is the potency of time to come. - Wendell Berry.
We rally need a renewed vision, and know our respected and unique Place.
Work well. Honesty. We are inextricably bound together with the lives all sorts, You are correct. Be gracious. Inform. Instruct of what precious Truths have
informed, and brightened You.
The poem you closed with:`Harmonious.
Let's try to master ugly cynicism and hopelessness. Inspiration. I'll think all day about that notion ... Every humans is to aspire to be a natural walking poem?
The irony? No try that.
Just Be. O No compete.
Ya will walk graciously.
I'll purge my mind of the airy celibacy notion? I no go to church,
and it's best to read Natures books, stroll along brooks and creeks
Trees have tongues, and on windy days the air is filled with melody.
So, serve the Earth. Be alive and know Ya living creatures. Heehaw.
No wit for thunder and lightening to strike. That knock socks off Ya.
Serve a betterment of People, Land, and Community. Grow gardens
Indeed!
Please!
I will be late for a VA appointment Valentine date.
I love my physician. She's only in her middle thirties.
We meet in DC. It's to hug the loveliest Sycamore tree.
O Please.
no tease.
JK, thanks for the compliment. I think these are better than viagra, too.
ds, thank you and thanks for dropping by and commenting.
Thumbed.
Monte
cartouche, thank you for your kind words. It's important to look for beauty wherever you are.
Thank you, MikelK. I love you too!
Wordsmith, I appreciate you leaving such a nice compliment.
Michael, when I saw that I was reminded of M.C. Escher's work "Puddle." His drawing is in color but I think this is more effective when we can ask our brains not to see that it's super muddy. Thank you.
And it is frustrating indeed to get a post buried by spam! (rated)
You're an awesome photographer, Style. You and I have themes in common. I particularly love your tree and reflected tree images. Trees in winter are just the best!
I do like winter trees since the deciduous ones drop their leaves so you can see the structure underneath. And I decided that all those pix of pristine winter snow don't tell the whole story. At this point, the snowbanks are covered with layers of sand so they almost look like dunes. It's a surreal landscape. Thank you for coming by Rich.
And thank you to everyone who stopped by and appreciated my work.
Like we talked about yesterday, these photos speak to me. I'm planning on writing about them, and I'll send you what I've written, okay?
rated