Figure 1 – Catbird, Assabet River national Wildlife Refuge. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

Happy Father’s Day everyone!

For the last few weeks I have been trying to get a good photograph of a catbird at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge. Finally the little fellow of Figure 1 took pity and actually seemed to pose for me. I always love a sharp bird photograph, where the eyes are sharp and you can see the details of the pinfeathers. And, of course, I love the meows of these birds. This was taken with my big birding lens, which seems to have a mind of its own and gives nice sharp images when it wants to. I am quite pleased with the sharpness and the bokeh of this one!

Canon T2i with EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 275 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture priority AE mode 1/400th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation.

“More than a catbird hates a cat,
Or a criminal hates a clue,
Or the Axis hates the United States,
That’s how much I love you.

I love you more than a duck can swim,
And more than a grapefruit squirts,
I love you more than a gin rummy is a bore,
And more than a toothache hurts.

As a shipwrecked sailor hates the sea,
Or a juggler hates a shove,
As a hostess detests unexpected guests,
That’s how much you I love.

I love you more than a wasp can sting,
And more than the subway jerks,
I love you as much as a beggar needs a crutch,
And more than a hangnail irks.

I swear to you by the stars above,
And below, if such there be,
As the High Court loathes perjurious oathes,
That’s how you’re loved by me.”
― Ogden Nash

Goose Love, Assabet River national Wildlife Refuge, (c) DE Wolf 2021

After several days of rain, it was another beautiful day at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge. There were, however, a large number of mosquitos out. I couldn’t be sure if they were trying to eat me or to mate with my hearing aids. Either way it was very annoying! The palm warblers eluded me in my attempts to photograph them. I was however, able to get the photograph of a pair of Canada geese (Branta canadensis) against a somewhat dreamy pastel background. I call it Goose Love, although since most of the actual mating pairs are currently being followed around by fuzzy goslings, I’m not really sure what we have here – perhaps a clustering of immature males. 

Canon T2i with EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 285 mm, ISO 1600 Aperture Priority AE mode 1/4000th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation

Figure 1 – Irises on the Pond, Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, Sudbury, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

Hot was the name of the game today. I, needless-to-say, set forth for my walk to the Assabet River Wildlife Refuge at high noon. The plus side was supposed to be the lack of other people. But, of course, there was a particularly noisy family. Jabber, jabber, jabber. I mean if you want to see wildlife the first rule is “to shut up.” Anyway, I came upon these irises just at the waters edge, offsetting the lily pads just now coming into bloom.

Now clearly, the color is a bit oversaturated here and then someone’s been playing with the “vibrance” toggle. You modified this! the color isn’t real! Well, my goal today was to create a sense of an impressionist painting. Mea Culpa, people! But the point is significant. The color algorithms of modern cameras and cell-phones are designed to give a “pleasing color.” The same was true of color films. Kodachrome, Ektachrome, and all the other brands, indeed all the various ISO’s give distinctive palettes. The pursuit of “true color” is an elusive target. Everyone’s eyesight is tuned slightly different to “true color.” It is a physiological not a physical concept. This is not to say that “true color” doesn’t exist. If you apply fancy scientific monitoring you can achieve it. NASA does it! But do you really  want to?

I want to suggest that the final image should be true to the color vision in “your minds eye” – the physical seeing but the emotional seeing. The day was hot, the water dark, the lily pads emerging, and the irises magical!

“A rainbow is not afraid of showing its true colors because it knows it is beautiful inside out.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo

Figure 1 – Swan pair with cygnets, May 28, 2021. Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, Sudbury, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

Perhaps the most beautiful encounters in the northern forest are with the swans. They are the gloriously pure white dancers on the pond and they never fail to delight. I came upon this pair yesterday at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, and so well concealed were their cute and fuzzy cygnets, that I didn’t notice them at first. In the image of Figure 1 the curiosity of one precocious chap has gotten the better of him, and he seems to stare back questioningly at the photographer.

We have discussed swans before. The are giant mythical creatures that bring elegance to the most mundane and, for that matter, most muddy pond. I suppose that what makes them most special is that they seem to transcendence the everyday. Indeed, like altar boys dressed in pure white, they epitomize transcendence.

Those who awaken never rest in one place. Like swans, they rise and leave the lake. On the air they rise and fly an invisible course. Their food is knowledge. They live on emptiness. They have seen how to break free. Who can follow them?

Figure 1 – Summer Idyll at Walden Pond, Concord, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2021

Rapidly now spring is transitioning into spring. Summer is the sense of intense light and perhaps a bit of blurring haze. I took the image of Figure 1 at Walden Pond last week. Children playing at the water’s edge – the perfect summer idyll!

The scene would undoubtably set Thoreau ablaze. This is not what he bargained for. He came here to commune with nature, to transcend beyond rationalism in the firm belief that divinity pervades all nature. Today it is kind of spoiled by high school coeds happy to reveal their youyhful physiques, strutting about in bikinis, and middle-aged men stuffing themselves into ridiculous wet suits that hold in their guts. 

I sigh and grumble like an old man!

“The stars are the apexes of what wonderful triangles! What distant and different beings in the various mansions of the universe are contemplating the same one at the same moment! Nature and human life are as various as our several constitutions. Who shall say what prospect life offers to another? Could a greater miracle take place than for us to look through each other’s eyes for an instant?”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Figure 1 – Bleeding Hearts, Sudbury, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

It is hot. Rapidly spring is becoming summer. But let us dwell a while and consider the “Bleeding Hearts” of Figure 1. These, ever so feminine flowers, are so delicate and, yes, cardioid in shape. Suddenly college and The Calculus are remembered. 

You can take a deep breath and consider the origin of the term a “bleeding heart.” Christ is wounded in the heart and bleeds for the world. This was the original meaning. In the mid-twentieth century, conservative columnist and hater Westbrook Pegler remade the phrase when he talked about “bleeding heart liberals.”  The right continues the tradition. the phrase has become a meaningless trope. I am proud to be one and I prefer to side with Mahatma Gandhi on this, which of course returns us to the original meaning.

“My austerities, fasting and prayers are, I know, of no value if I rely upon them for reforming me. My penance is the prayer of a bleeding heart for forgiveness for sins unwittingly committed.”

Figure 1 – Wild pink lady slipper orchid, Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, Sudbury, MA. May 2021. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

For me, the ultimate sign of spring is the blooming of the wild pink lady slipper orchids, Cypripedium acaule. You just need to know where to find them because they are very particular in their soul requirements. I know the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge like the back of my hand. And the land seems to treat. If you listen you know just when and where a particular flower or bird will come into sight.

It used to be that the pink lady’s slipper could not be cultivated. But more recently they have been successfully grown from seed, provided that you are willing to meet their very special needs.    But honestly, there is nothing more thrilling and special than coming upon these in the northern pine forest. They seem out of place in the sense that one is used to thinking that orchids are denizens of the tropics.

So this year I am going to offer Figure 1 that I took at the peak of this years blooming along the Assabet. It is perhaps reminiscent of Cinderella’s glass slipper. That too was.is a thing of great magic, and the one point that spring never fails to make is that we all need a little magic.

Figure 1 – Pin Oak in full bloom, Mclean Meadow, Belmont, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

We were wandering around the Mclean Meadow in Belmont, MA and in the cemetery came upon the glorious display of this pin oak. It was still the wonderful chartreuse season; so hence the glorious shades of green. Have alternated between black and white and color on this one. And I am still not perfectly happy with it. But it is definitely a great sign of spring; soon to be early summer.

Figure 1 A dandelion diadem. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

“I’m afraid there’s no denying
I’m just an awful dandy-lion
A fate I don’t deserve”

The Wizard of Oz

I was in a conversation the other day about the dandelion. I should say lowly dandelion. But that was just the point of discussion, why do we consider the dandelion lowly? 

“Hath not a dandelion glorious color? Hath not a dandelion leaves, stems, petals? Is it not quenched with the same summer’s rain? Do not its seeds float on the same glorious summer winds as the flower?”

Well you will perhaps get both my allusion and my point. I have recently read a defense of the dandelion. I am most convinced by the arguments in favor of eating dandelions. Drying the roots and adding it like chicory to coffee. Sprinkling dried leaves on your favorite pizza. Tossing young leaves and flowers in your salad and, of course, there is always the matter of dandelion tea.

The English name dandelion is a corruption of the French dent de lion meaning “lion’s tooth.” So wherefore does its bite come from?  I want to advocate that we revert and view the things of this world as a young child. Do you remember cresting a hill and coming upon a glorious field of golden dandelions? Do you remember the wonder of metamorphosis from sunlike orb to delicate diaphanous crown of seeds? Do you remember seeing how many puffs it would take to blow them off the stem, and the magic of wondering where the wind would carry them? I submit that the world would be a lot better off if we spent more time dreaming once more like children!

I suspect that the contempt to which dandelions are held evolves from our inability to control them, to confine them to this patch of garden and not yonder. Other flowers are subservient; the dandelion is a rebel demanding freedom.

So all of that is an argument meant to introduce the image of Figure 1, “a dandelion diadem.” Besides being a tribute to the abilities of the iPhone camera system, this image seems to reflect a million worlds of the universe. Perhaps it shows that we are part of “The Matrix.” It certainly evokes the world of networks, of neurons, and artificial intelligence. It seems to be a fractal world of chaos. But while I have not taken this image to emphasize the point, the dandelion’s flower and its crown follow the same mysterious order of the Fibonacci sequence, which we have previously discussed. So really universe of all things lies within the (humble?) dandelion, and its seeds floating on gentle breezes represent explorers and colonizers of new worlds.