Four days after anonymously taking (and posting) this photo, I actually met the couple on the Causeway in Old Saybrook, where they were walking and I was photographing. I recognized them immediately as we struck up a conversation, and mentioned taking their picture and subsequently posting it, while possibly (also) taking liberties with the title. Lo and behold, no problem there, as they (Susan and Peter) have been married 48 years, a lifetime of “living, laughing, fighting and loving”, as Susan describes it.
I’m not sure they would have agreed to a portrait out there on the Causeway, but I think it would have been a good one – they are a handsome couple and the late afternoon light was remarkable. Unfortunately I only had a behemoth Sigma 150-600mm rental with me – good for distant birds, not so good for close portraits. And so it goes ..
The March full moon is commonly referred to as the Worm Moon, for the earthworms who tend to make their way to the surface around this time. And lo and behold, I saw a robin out in our garden today, tugging on something.
Down here near the coast of CT, the robins tend to stay around all winter. I’ve noticed that they save the red holly berries until January, and then a whole flock will clean out the shrubs over a few days time. They won’t touch them earlier in the winter, and the same goes for other red berries in our neighborhood.
It was interesting to be out after dark on the river. Though I was only about a hundred yards away from the nearest homes, I felt a bit uneasy, like I was out in a wilderness far away from civilization. There were coyotes howling some distance away, and the intermittent calls of waterfowl settling in for the night. But mostly it was quiet, and in the end peaceful, with an occasional lap of waves on the shore.
That’s one of the Three Sisters mountains in the back, a distinctive ridge line for which the town is known. My best not-a-farmer guess on the cover crop? Oats.
On a quick trip to VT this past weekend, I was struck with the many patches of wild lupines growing on the roadsides. They remind me of the black-eyed susans and daisies that will soon follow in these places, but less egalitarian and more patrician in their bearing. The meadows were also a sight to behold; the grasses are spring green and knee high, and waving with the winds. Summer beckons!
There are a number of photographs in the Vermont Exit Ramps book that translated well into print, but this one – across two pages – was particularly striking. Taken at the St. Johnsbury Farmers’ Market.
There’s been many a cover of Pete Seeger’s classic 1955 song, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone”- a call for peace that’s been recorded in over 30 languages – but perhaps the finest was the first, by the Kingston Trio here. Then of course a version by the man himself here, from a 1968 concert in Sweden.
