Landscapes
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Walking the Gorge Trail
Exploring Buttermilk Falls involves a steep ascent through many layers of Devonian shale and sandstone that have eroded for thousands of years under the relentless progress of water. It’s a lovely climb, but first, you take stock from the ground, where you’re greeted by a welcoming pool sporting an unnecessary warning not to jump in. (It’s too chilly even to be tempted.)
You take note of things like reflections on calm water, and the lazy drift of fallen leaves.
Then you start to climb. A humanly-constructed stone staircase ascends next to the natural staircase of the falls.
It’s short but steep, and you welcome the chance to stop for a bit, turning back to survey the view from a new elevation.
You can’t really see it yet, but from a little higher up you’ll discover a large mall with a Home Depot just beyond those trees at the bottom.
As I look, I remember a family photo experiment in the grass of that park when our daughters were young. We set up a tripod with a camera that shot a series of pictures as we dashed toward it, trying to look ominous but succeeding mostly in looking goofy and disorganized. So many walks trigger memories! The landscape bears an intimate record of our activities — not just the bad stuff, like dumping chemical waste or garbage, but good stuff from the times we spend together.
Turning to look across the stream, you note the daredevils: trees crowding to the edge of a cliff that will only ever crumble.
What comes next? The ascent is nowhere near completed. I’ll share more in the next post.
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Scenes from the Outer Banks
We visited several highlights at the Outer Banks, in North Carolina. This black bear was in the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge. It was our second time visiting, and we still haven’t seen any alligators — but the bears are certainly impressive. They can be observed from the car as you travel the roads of the preserve.
We also took a dolphin watching cruise one evening. Though we saw a dolphin or two, the most striking natural phenomenon was the rapid incursion of a cold front that blasted us with wind and a major temperature drop shortly after the cruise began. The sky stole the show.
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Visiting Chincoteague
Despite being a diehard Marguerite Henry fan as a child, and revisiting the books and movie with my daughters as an adult, I’ve never been to Chincoteague. Till last week, that is. We stopped on our way back north from a vacation further south, spending a night in “America’s happiest seaside town.”
While there, we had an absolutely stellar experience touring the waters around Chincoteague and Assateague by boat. Our guide, a lifelong Chincoteague resident, shared a wealth of knowledge and keen observation that gave us a sense of the local and natural history of the place, the ponies, the diverse coastal birds and other wildlife, and the way the community has evolved into a primarily tourist economy. These pictures capture only a small part of what we were able to observe.
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Morning
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Late February, Late Afternoon
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Outer Banks in June
I thought I’d posted these earlier in the summer. Better late than never! These are a few select pictures of a great experience at the beach.
To scroll through the photos manually, click on a photo and move forward or back in the sequence using the arrows.
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Winter Beauty
These photos were taken back in December. I was trying out a wonderful Christmas gift of a new camera. I’m posting them months later when the chill has lifted, and I can enjoy them without my teeth chattering!
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Niche
Some people have a talent for creating beautiful domestic niches in the midst of a wild landscape. These images are from a visit with some of those people.
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Early Summer: Outer Banks
What a treat to enjoy the vast, changing landscape of the ocean for a few days…
Morning 
Osprey 
Pelican 
Just a few blocks away from the wide open, salt-sprayed spaces was the Nag’s Head Woods Preserve, a place of clinging, muggy air; wetland chirps and croaks from all manner of unknown (and unseen) creatures; and green scum covering everything from the water surfaces to the turtles and, yes, the beaver — the first beaver I’ve seen live, though in our area we see the signs of beaver activity often.
It was an amazing place, and it hosted far more wildlife and plant life than we were able to see. As may be apparent from the pictures, we were racing a cloudburst, and the walk was accompanied by rumbles of thunder and general eeriness.
Still, I think my favorite environment was the beach. The grandeur, the invitation to reflect on possibilities, and the good spirit of others made it a wonderful week.
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Feeling Crabby
I have quite a few photos I haven’t posted this year. For this one, I’m reaching back to last summer, when we visited the Outer Banks and were amused and captivated by the hermit crabs. Have you ever seen a more dejected expression than this little crab wears?
We enjoyed watching them survey the world from their holes, darting out now and then and scurrying quickly back to hide. My husband even set up what we happily dubbed the Crab Cam to capture one on film.
Of course, there were plenty of other sights as well: ospreys, pelicans, dolphins, shorebirds, and the various lovely moods and prospects of the ocean.
