Figure 1 – Sentinel along the Concord River just below the Old North Bridge. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

It is a very strange year. Thanksgiving has come and past, and it is now December. But Boston has been warm and snowless, leaving us all with the sense that it was summer only yesterday. Still the beautiful bleakness and the darkness of a world nearing the winter solstice has set in. I took the photograph of Figure 1 about ten days ago. That little tree stands guard in all seasons just where the Concord River turns to go under the Old North Bridge. If water only had eyes and remembrance, but it has neither. Rather the river and, indeed, this little tree in majestic silhouette are merely metaphors. I so much love this quintessential American place.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USMlens at 70 mm. ISO 400, Aperture Priority AE mode, 1/1000th sec at f/9.0 with no exposure compensation.