Day 102: I’m Lichen It Here

 Backyard Nature, Natural History, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Apr 122014
 

Since I began this project over 100 days ago, I have photographed one subject far more than any other:  a black metal mailbox with one side covered with lichens, located about halfway down Piney Woods Church Road.  I am quite fond of lichens, and have even gone on several field excursions with a renowned lichenologist, Sean Q. Beeching.  I have seen many lichens covering tree branches, growing on rock, and even living deep within some rocks.  But I have never seen lichens covering a metal object before.  It was enough of an oddity that it captured my attention early on in the year.  Knowing it would make a worthy image, I would often stop to photograph it just in case none of my other images for the day worked out.  Each time I would take maybe three or four photographs of the same mailbox, from different camera positions and orientations.  Yet I always found something else to celebrate that day, and the lichens were always left behind.  Today, it seems fitting to pause and appreciate them.  I admire their tenacity for managing to get a toehold on this mailbox, and enduring in all sorts of weather.  And I thank the mailbox owner for letting them be, rather than scraping them off and painting over the metal, or replacing the mailbox with a shiny new one.  These lichens greet me everyday as I pass them, and I am grateful for their presence on my journey.

I'm Lichen It Here

Two Animals Beginning with S

 Backyard Nature, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Apr 112014
 

I was scratching my head trying to figure out what to title this pair of images from today’s saunter down Piney Woods Church Road.  Then I realized that both of these are animals whose names betin with the letter s.  Not terribly creative, but sufficient for late in the day on a Friday.

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From the Morning

 Backyard Nature, Golden Hour, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Apr 102014
 

I had a marvelous time exploring Piney Woods Church Road this morning.  Strange to say, I walked the its length hundreds of times with our dogs before I began this project, and I was bored with it and really wanted to be anyplace but there.  Yet since beginning this project 100 days ago, every day I have found joy and delight exploring this 4/10-mile gravel road.  Today I left my wristwatch at home, and spent an hour and a half exploring the early morning light.  Here are a few more photographs from my day’s adventures.

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Day 100: Mirrors of the Morning

 Backyard Nature, Golden Hour, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Apr 102014
 

I lie prone on the damp ground, gazing through a camera lens at drops of dew clinging to blades of grass in the sunlight.  The ground sparkles with minute mirrors, inviting me to pause and reflect.  It is Day 100, and I am part-way along Piney Woods Church Road, on my journey home.

Mirrors of the Morning

Day 99: The Bend

 Golden Hour, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Apr 092014
 

At last, a photograph of Piney Woods Church Road, at about the half-way point.  Bathed in golden late-day light, the path appears enchanting.  And so it is, and has been, these past three months.  I approach a bend in my own journey; tomorrow is the 100th day of the Piney Woods Church Road Project.

The Bend

 

More Late-Day Images Along the Road

 Backyard Nature, Golden Hour, Piney Woods Church Road 365 Project, Sense of Place  No Responses »
Apr 082014
 

Here are two more photographs from today’s late-day ramble down Piney Woods Church Road, in the time of day photographers call the “golden hour” before sunset.  The first is of leaves of Chinese wisteria; the second is a nondescript shrub aglow with light.

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