“Meanwhile, from the uncertainties of this age, this mad era of ours, we must turn perhaps, to the only certainties –– the things upon which our senses seize, the things that delight our eyes, our ears, our skin and to the magic aura created about these things by memory –– that so carefully and subtly magnifies the emotionally significant phases of experience, and suppresses all the rest.” — surrealist photographer Clarence John Laughlin, in correspondence to Hazel Guggenheim McKinley (10 July 1941)
I don’t think I need to enlarge on the uncertainties and madness of our times, do I?
Escapist that I am, or mystic, or human in need of connection to habitat: Another visit to Cape Cod, a week or so ago, and in that few days’ memory what persists is the tide, the rocks and shells — so much salt water, the scent, the feel of salt-saturated air on the skin — and the rabbits, snakes, butterflies, birds. And — made both more vivid and somehow also dreamlike in memory — the mist, the fog, the vistas, the colours.
Animals
spring azure butterfly, Atlantic White Cedar Swamp, Marconi site, Wellfleetbrown elfin butterfly, Pamet Trails, TruroJuvenal’s duskywing, Pamet Trails, TruroPainted Lady butterfly, Pamet Trails, Truropiping plover, Coast Guard Beach, Easthamseabirds, Great Island Trail, Wellfleethorned lark, Great Island Trail, Wellfleetgoldfinch in pine, Nauset Beach Lighthouse sparrow, Coast Guard Beach, Easthamsparrow, Cove Motel, Orleanslaughing gull, Mass Audubon, Wellfleetjuvenile great black-backed gull (I think), Great Island Trail, Wellfleetsmall black racer snake, Pamet Trails, Trurocrab claw, Coast Guard Beach, Easthamcrab claw, Great island Trail, Wellfleet
feisty marsh crab, Mass Audubon, Wellfleetmarsh crab, Mass Audubon, Wellfleetone of several skate egg cases, Great Island Trail, Wellfleetwaved whelk egg case, Ballston Beach, Truro – I had never seen one beforegreen frog, Mass Audubon, Welfleetladybug on forearm, Pamet Trails by beach, Truroone of many grass spider funnel webs (I think), Nauset Beach Easthamlarge black & white cat, Mass Audubon … a crow was yelling at this cat and chased it awayrabbit at Mass Aubudon, Wellfleetrabbit on Try Island, Wellfleet
Rocks & Shells
rocky beach, Great Island Trail, Wellfleetprominent rock, Great Island Trail, Wellfleetpink-yellow rock, Coast Guard Beach, Easthampink rock. Coast Guard Beach, Easthamiridescent mollusk, Great Island Trail, Wellfleetsnails on clam shell, Great Island Trail, Wellfleetmollusks, Coast Guard Beach, Easthamindigo blue scallop shell, Great Island Trail, Wellfleetscallop shell, Great Island Trail, Wellfleetslipper shells, Great Island Trail, Wellfleetsnail shell (nautilus), Coast Guard Beach, EasthamGreat Island Trail, Wellfleet
Colour
forsythia, Mass Audubon, Wellfleetsand, weathered fence, Mass Audubon, Wellfleet
pine with zipper-like stem, Nauset Light, Easthampink bearberry flower, Great Island Trail, Wellfleetmoss along trail, Mass Audubon, Wellfleethooked mussel, shell, feather, bladderwrack on Coast Guard Beach, Easthamred and black bladderwrack (I think), Great Island Trail, Wellfleetblue sky, sand trail, grasses, Pamet Trails, Truropink moorings on Coast Guard Beach, Easthamwooden shingles, metal flashing, grate, cinder block, grasses, Coast Guard Beach, Eastham
Plants
common shepherd’s cress (Teesdalia), Coast Guard Beach, Easthamspotted wintergreen (Chimaphila maculata), Mass Audubon, Wellfleetwormwood (Artemesia), Great Island Trail, Wellfleetblack huckleberry shrub, Atlantic White Cedar Swamp, Marconi Site, Wellfleetserviceberry (Amelanchier canadensis) flowering, Pamet Trails, Trurosome kind of cherry tree flower, Mass Audubon, Wellfleet
Mist and Fog
shoreline in fog, Coast Guard Beach, Easthamdune erosion, fog, Coast Guard Beach, EasthamNauset Lighthouse in fog, EasthamCoast Guard house through vines, fog, Easthamcontrolled brush fire in fog, Coast Guard Beach, Eastham
Angry Ocean
Nauset Beach, EasthamCoast Guard Beach, EasthamCoast Guard Beach, Eastham (with birds)Nauset Beach, EasthamCoast Guard Beach, Eastham
Vistas and Views
“You have stood before some landscape, which seems to embody what you have been looking for all your life … All the things that have deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it–tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should really become manifest–if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself–you would know it. Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say ‘Here at last is the thing I was made for.’” C.S. Lewis, from The Problem of Pain
the most amazing views at Pamet Trails in Truroboardwalk in marsh, near bay, at Mass Audubon, Wellfleetstairs, Atlantic White Cedar Swamp, Marconi Site, Wellfleetsandy path, Pamet Trails, Truroview to ocean from Marconi Wireless Station Site, Wellfleetanother view to the ocean at the Marconi Wireless Station Site, Wellfleetpath to Nauset Lighthouse, Easthammarsh grasses over the boardwalk at Mass Audubon, Wellfleetbay, First Encounter Beach, Easthamentrance to Pamet Trails from Ballston Beach, Truromore views from Pamet Trails, Trurocolourful patches of grasses and shrubs, Pamet Trails, Trurogut, Great Island Trail, Wellfleetmagical light, Atlantic White Cedar Swamp, Marconi Site, Wellfleetboardwalk through cedars, Atlantic White Cedar Swamp, Marconi Site, Wellfleetbeach view from Pamet Trails, Trurolight sky at horizon, Great Island Trail, Wellfleet
Thanks, Rachael. No, same camera. … sent it away to an eBay guy to fix it and had it back in less than a week! We love all the options for walking and seeing wildlife on the Cape.
Such great photos. Did you get a new camera?
the birds, the weathered fence, the sandy parhs – I can’t pick a favorite.
Thanks, Rachael. No, same camera. … sent it away to an eBay guy to fix it and had it back in less than a week! We love all the options for walking and seeing wildlife on the Cape.