I've always loved both morning and night. People ask, are you an early bird or a night owl? It's hard for me to decide. I usually end up choosing the one that is easier for me to experience. While I can wake up in the morning, often quite early and without hesitation, it's even easier for me to stay up talking with friends late into the night...or early into the morning! Both are beautiful times, though. Early morning offers tranquility and the prospect of a new day and a new chance to make a difference. Late night presents a calming time for reflection after a (ideally) fulfilling day.
During a snow-less Christmas season down in Maryland at my parents' house, I often stayed up late into the night chatting with friends from college and spending time with friends from home. One night, I happened to be reading, enjoying the peace, and went upstairs to watch a rainshower that fell on the neighborhood. I looked outside, towards the neighbors' house, and immediately ran downstairs to my room to grab my tripod and camera. This is what I saw, and what I wanted to share with you...
6 comments:
I will go out on a limb here and comment that, in this case, it was the Night Owl that caught the worm (photo).
Thanks for sharing what I must assume was a kind of "magic" moment for you. This is an awesome image and begs the question, how did witnessing it affect you?
Nature, in its amazing diversity, has the power to open our minds and sensibilities if first we open our eyes and ears to quiet events such as this...which you obviously did. Unlike us, you have the additional blessing of your memory of the moment.
What a great post you have made to Earth Korner!
Witnessing it actually made me reflect on the interaction of man-made and natural things. Let me explain a little about what you see.
My parents live in a modern cookie-cutter development. Every home is one of five designs; the house colors are all the same; I know where all of the development's bathrooms are from being in 6 homes throughout the neighborhood. I was raised in a rural neighborhood, every house a different color and model, yards different shapes, etc. This house is not like that.
What you're seeing is the raindrops on the skeleton of I believe a red maple. The light is from the neighbor's spotlight, shining on her wooden reindeer next to her driveway.
Without that spotlight from the holiday season, this wouldn't have been possible. Without the houses being almost atop each other, it wouldn't have been possible. It was absolutely beautiful... but without man's waste of electricity, I would've seen a wet tree. Interactions between man and nature can create beautiful things, but how often do we place our spotlights in the right place to make that tree look magical? We often overdo it.
There are people who work with and around nature to appreciate it more. Some of the most beautiful places in Corning are those that accentuate nature--Centerway Park, focused on the river and water; Market Street during the Christmas season, with the lights woven through branches of trees along the sidewalk; Denison Park, with its pond and stretches of grass, paths and bridges working around and over them to provide larger areas of grass; Bridge St bridge at sunset (or sunrise), the colors reflecting off the water... I would love having one of the offices in the Corning headquarters, right along the river--can you imagine working, and not being distracted by the birds, the sun glinting off the water, the wildflowers along the banks..?
There's a movie, "At First Sight". One of the main characters is an architect. She was working on a project, making a building, and she was moved by a tree that was in the lot, so she designed the building around the tree, emphasizing its beauty. The business owners hated the tree, and rejected her plan. So she had to rework it to exclude the tree in order to keep the job.
I think I will be taking a closer look at our city now. I love your perspective on man's interaction with nature.
It would be wonderful if all of our choices to build and create gave due respect to the role nature might play when we are finished. Do we compliment nature's beauty or do we insult it. I suggest that in most cases we "accidentally" do both.
I think this guy deserves to be added to this thread... Frank Lloyd Wright. I've unfortunately never seen his work in person, but almost everyone is familiar with Falling Water. And if they aren't, they should be. This is a guy who loved nature, and created works of art in the form of architecture around natural formations. Beautiful creations...
http://www.pbs.org/flw/buildings/index.html
If you wish to see Frank Lloyd Wrights in person we have one of his houses here in Rochester on East Boulevard. Although tours are generally not available you can drive by and take a look at the outside and enjoy other amazing home archictecture.
http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/103_flw.html
Click this link to see a picture and other examples of his work.
pdk
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