By now, I suspect that everyone is tired of sunset photographs. So today I am going to cheat a bit and post an image of a sunrise on November 6, 2021 over Pigeon Cove in Rockport, MA taken with my big telephoto. The solar disk breaks through the clouds and trees. Indeed, I find it very intriguing to guess just where the sun will come up and am ever delighted to watch the first impression of the disk breaking through the trees lining the shore.

I have come to believe that to live by the sun, to watch its rising and settings, to gaze on the planets and mentally trace the great ecliptic arc in your mind’s eye is to live as we were meant to live.

“Sun worship is fairly simple. There’s no mystery, no miracles, no pageantry, no one asks for money, there are no songs to learn, and we don’t have a special building where we all gather once a week to compare clothing.”

— George Carlin

Sometimes the greatest element of the sunset lies not where the sun sets but opposed to it. Following the sunset of my last two posts my companion drew my attention to where the sea met the sky and the mist, the very shades of magenta and orange.

To me this is magical and I know the name of the magic. It draws us, or myself at least, to the seminal myth of English speaking peoples, the Arthurian myth, of the isle hidden amongst the mists of Avalon.

I think that humans cannot escape their myths. We either know them subconsciously or both consciously and subconsciously. And with these medieval Arthurian myths, we know them best when the days grow short, when we are cast in winter’s cold and darkness, when we approach the winter solstice.

“There is no such thing as a true tale. Truth has many faces and the truth is like to the old road to Avalon; it depends on your own will, and your own thoughts, whither the road will take you.” 
 Marion Zimmer Bradley, The Mists of Avalon

Sunsets and sunrises are an amazing sequence of shades and hues. We sat and watched for a long time after the sunset that I posted yesterday just watching the evolving shades of red, orange, magenta and cyan. And, of course, we were each caught up in our own thoughts, remembering. Figure 2 shows one of these images.

I think that one can sense the northern nature of the scene, the nip in the air and the earliness of the fading light. We all eagerly await the edging of the sunset minute by minute to later times. But still when you sit there and immerse yourself in the color and the moment, you come to realize that there is no place that you would rather be.

“She was in that place in your soul where friends go who die but you still love them and talk to them and think of them.”
― Cathy Lamb, No Place I’d Rather Be

A remarkable aspect of Rockport, MA is that there are locations, where you can watch the sunrise over the sea and locations where you can watch the sunset over the sea. It sounds like a mere curiosity, but, in fact, it represents a resetting. You lock into a synchrony where you join with the rhythm of the heavens. You live differently by the sea.

A few weeks back, we raced up after work. As I have groaned about before, Massachusetts juts out onto the ocean and really should be on Atlantic Maritime along with Halifax. As a result, this time of year it all gets painful. We are cast into darkness, like one of those medieval history movies at just after four pm. On that particular day we arrived at Cape Hedge Beach moments before sunset. Worth it! We were greeted by the specter of Figure 1, “Photograph of Woman Photographing the Sunset!”

“Every sunset brings the promise of a new dawn.”

 Ralph Waldo Emerson

Figure 1 – White-tailed deer, Assabet River National Wild Life Refuge. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

The other evening I was on my usual walk through the Assabet River Natural Wildlife Refuge, when I saw something ahead of me on the path. It was a deer. All I had was my iPhone so I started clicking and slowly walking towards the deer. Every time I clicked with that artificial shutter click of the iPhone the young deer twitched its ears. But it did not run away. In fact, it started walking towards me. Finally, when I was very close, it retreated slowly into the forest. But I soon discovered that I could walk along side it, and again driven by curiosity it walked towards me. This is unfortunate in these woods. One could tell by the spots that it was young, not quite a fawn but not fully grown, probably born in the spring.

What wondrous magnificence! Figure 1 is my favorite image. I love the way that its ears and white tail are back-lit with a translucent magic. This was really a gift! It reminds me of falling in love. Have you ever fallen in love? I have, and you know who you are!

“You’re walking along minding your own business, you’re looking neither to the left, nor to the right, when all of the sudden, you run smack into a pretty face. You begin to get weak in the knees, your head’s in a whirl! And then you feel light as feather, and before you know it you’re walking on air! And then you know what? You’re knocked for a loop! And you completely lose your head!”

Walt Disney’s “Bambi.”

Figure 1 -“The Gossipers,” Codman Community Farm, Lincoln, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

The topic today is gossip. This is not the gossip of modern times, nasty internet gossip and viral falsehoods, but rather the gossip with its origins in two people, or in the case of Figure 1, two pigs wallowing in the mud and talking about someone else. Such gossip is generally not so kind, as in “she’s barely put on a hundred pounds since spring!” But it is a pastime for a late summer’s day. 

I encountered these two pigs at the Codman Community Farm in Lincoln, Massachusetts. They really seemed to be in gossipy chat, almost smiling and having a very good time of it! We know, od course, that pig’s can talk, you just have to take the time to listen to them. We remember E. B. White’s “Charlotte’s Web.” So pigs always bear a certain sadness about them! There is an organic earthy smell to the mud and the barnyard. After all …

“Life in the barn was very good- night and day, winter and summer, spring and fall, dull days and bright days. It was the best place to be, thought Wilbur, this warm delicious cellar, with the garrulous geese, the changing seasons, the heat of the sun, the passage of swallows, the nearness of rats, the sameness of sheep, the love of spiders, the smell of manure, and the glory of everything.”
― E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web

Canon T2i with EF 100 to 400 mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM lens at 190 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode 1/800th sec at F/7.1 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – NGC 6334, the Cat’s Paw Nebula. (c) DE Wolf 2021.

I continue the joys of remote telescope, which has the advantage of enabling me to see all sorts of wonderful deep sky objects, including those in the Southern sky. This week I used the Skygems Hakos Veloce 200 RH remote telescope in the Namibian desert to photograph NGC 6334 the “Cat’s Paw Nebula.”  This is truly the anvil off the gods. NGC 6334 is a stellar nursery. Stars are literally being formed before your eyes. It lies in the constellation Scorpius and was discovered by astronomer John Herschel in 1837. Herschel observed it from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. 

Skygems Hakos Veloce 200 RH in Namibia remote telescope. Stack of 6 600 sec exposures.

Figure 1 – Gladiola blossom. (c) DE Wolf 2021

Today with Figure 1, we are “in the pink” and waiting for the return of hurricane Henri. With all the depressing news, I am trying to fill my days with flowers and other beautiful things. Yesterday it was galaxies; today it is gladiolas. I had thought to do this for form in black and white. But the color was too compelling and I succumbed. For this kind of image the iPhone is your friend!