Silent New Year

Not a sound at the marsh today (January 1st, 2017). Hundreds of acres covered with a thin sheet of ice, perforated only by tiny islands of marsh grass and dead pin oaks. The few remaining geese and ducks have moved to the open water of lakes and rivers. Not a sound, not even “the sweep of easy wind …”.

Groves of dead oak still stand in silence after more than fifty years, gray with age but unaffected otherwise. Today’s blue sky and early afternoon light accentuated the bleached wood and made for a dramatic black and white image close to shore. 

First Note

“First Note”
Among the blessings conferred by early morning excursions into the marsh has been the opportunity to observe Red-Winged blackbirds as they usher in the day with their first notes. In the morning twilight, almost an hour before sunrise, this blackbird was first to rise from the marsh to greet the morning with its song. Abruptly, the landscape erupted in a cacophony of disparate songs; harmony in its dissonance.

Isolated on a dead pin oak before sunrise and silhouetted, Kirie-like against the eastern sky, its colors were indiscernible. It made more sense to process this photo in black and white without the slightly hued and muddled colors of the predawn sky.

This is a moment I wish for everyone.

Arcos de la Frontera, la Ciudad

Arcos de la Frontera

We are excited to be home but grateful for two weeks in France and Spain which included a couple of days in this extraordinary town of Arcos de la Frontera. Arcos, considered by many to be the most beautiful of the “White Hill” towns, is about sixty miles south of Seville and less than an hour from the Mediterranean. The Rock of Gibraltar is visible to the south and west. This image is deceiving as the town of Arcos spills down the side of the mountain from an altitude about 1,200 feet above the Guadelete river. In the lower left foreground is a small bridge built in the late 1800’s by Gustav Eiffel, the architect of the Eiffel Tower. 

“Santa Maria de la Sede”

“Santa Maria de la Sede”

Europe’s third largest church and the largest Gothic church in the world, Seville’s cathedral is a “must see”. It was built by the Catholics over the course of the 16th century using architectural remnants from a century long war with the Moors. The Cathedral is adjacent to The Alcazar and adjacent to the famous Giralda Bell Tower.

Arcos de la Frontera

“Early Cubism”??

At the risk of mixing word origins, metaphors and history, “Arcos de la Frontera ” (see previous post) could easily be described/experienced as a “byzantine labyrinth”. The “old city”, sitting atop the hill in the previous post, is a complex maze of angles and shadows formed by endless white stucco walls, each rectangular but positioned at various angles to one another. Sun is reflected in so many different directions by the faces of the buildings, it is almost impossible to gauge time of day or direction.

One has to consider whether “Cubism” might have been influenced on some level by the the geometry of this architecture. The principal founders of the movement, Picasso and George Braque both spent time in southern Spain surrounded by the angular shapes and two dimensional surfaces of the buildings. This architectural geometry, perhaps in a less conscious way, appears to be reflected (at least potentially) in their early works; Picasso growing up in Malaga (Andulucia) and George Braque having spent time in Barcelona shortly before both pioneered a radically new style and movement. A short search of the history of Cubism is rich with papers on its impact on 20th century architecture but appears not to have explored the inverse; that is, the possible causative link between architecture as the antecedent. Would love to have thoughts or comments from others far better versed on the subject.

Coot, Two Geese and a Mallard

A contemplative scene from a visit to the marsh the morning of April 11, 2013. Enlarging the image one can see a mallard flanked by two geese. The solitary coot lists slightly in the foreground. None seems particularly anxious to begin the day.

For me, this day was an unexpected gift, yielding extraordinary opportunities for wildlife and light. Most importantly, I had come to the marsh before dawn to reflect on my father who had died on April 11, seven years earlier.  As I look back on that morning I have to think my father had something to do with the way in which I saw the landscape.  And, one might imagine he had something to do with presenting the opportunity.