Figure 1 – Fall Foliage along Little Fresh Pond, Fresh Pond Reservation, Cambridge, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015

It is so glorious along Fresh Pond just now. So I have to share the view with you. The weathermen think that the foliage will peak this weekend. The image of Figure 1 is across the Little Fresh Pond. It is amazing to just walk along and watch the leaves fall. The birds seem filled with expectation. The woodpeckers have forsaken their usual diet of bugs beneath park for readily available berries; so instead of climbing up the trees they flit among the leaves, often hanging upside down.

I have been watching very closely for the ducks. The mallards and the ring necks are congregating in the pond. Yesterday I saw a pied billed grebe in the water. Today I saw a raptor flying along the waters edge. But I have yet to see my favorite, the white hooded merganser.

It all makes you think about the cycles of nature and of life. The Earth, save its cycles, seems to never change, but in reality and on a geological time scale it does. You have only to look at the Pond itself – a glacial kettle pond, like it’s neighbor Walden Pond of literary fame.  The landscape of Fresh Pond is indeed a book about glaciation. And to read this book is to realize that ultimately the world changes. But this prospect only enhances the profound sense that the seemingly endless seasonal cycles evoke in our minds. It all is truly glorious.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 91 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode, 1/800th sec at f/9.0 with no exposure compensation.