In search of new territory, we’ve lately been looking South, as we did on Monday.
Because many of the sites we would like to visit are inside national parks that are not yet open, it has mostly been a matter of checking the lay of the land.
There was an appeal recently on a local forum for volunteers to work in the Vermont parks, which set me wondering if indeed all parks will be open. The Department of the Interior has drastically cut full-time staffing, hoping to replace them with seasonal employees.
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Whenever possible I avoid taking photographs that include power lines, people and vehicles, but especially when myself in a moving car, this seldom occurs.
That row of cars had me wondering whether the vehicles we drive say something about current society. We seem now very much to favour black, silver and white, glaringly punctuated with a new vibrant metallic red and the occasional intense orange or something I could only describe as bilious green.
The colours we choose are supposed to reflect our personality, so one assumes that this is true when it comes to the cars we drive. Not just the colour but the shape and size. Back in my childhood, American cars were enormously long:
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But as traffic congestion and parking space increased and decreased in equal proportion, the length had to go. So now we have ridiculously tall SUV’s and pickup trucks. Small drivers literally have to climb aboard. Surely they must guzzle gas as those old monstrosities did?
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How easily I get side-tracked. Other things came to mind on Monday. For one, the number of abandoned farms and factories we saw, even more than in earlier excursions we’ve taken.
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Places that must have employed hundreds of people and supported entire communities.
It is eery passing through, because it’s as if everyone suddenly simply vanished, which is probably not far from true, though I don’t know where they will have gone.
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To dwell on it would be depressing and I was concentrating on trees, trying hard without really managing to capture the glorious redness in them.
Red is far from my favourite colour, but I do love it in Nature.
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Sailing by, I had no hope of identifying them but many must have been maple or copper beech. Backlit by the Sun, they are exquisite.
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Very hard to capture.
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But I kept trying.
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Small trees.
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And tall trees.
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At times I managed to catch a hint of the colour.
In an ideal world, I’d lie all day beneath such a tree listening to birdsong on a gentle breeze.
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Many trees were intensely pink. They will soon shed their flowers, of course.
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After passing through Williamstown, MA, we found ourselves travelling along the Taconic Ridge which must be spectacular in the Fall – we noted for the future.
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Having lost the trailer in front of us, we drove many miles without seeing another vehicle and traversed a small valley where a tiny hamlet sat completely derelict.
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We wondered what had become of the people who had called this home. Where do you go when your farm can no longer support itself?
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While it did not quite depress me, I felt a hollow sense of emptiness and sadness.
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Of lives disrupted and hopes abandoned.
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Further on we passed through small communities.
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Where still there was not a soul in sight and we’d not yet seen another vehicle.
After a while it begins to feel spooky!
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But, all too often we come upon construction sights where fancy new homes are being built, which usually involves clearing woodland, felling more trees rather than repurposing what has been abandoned.
It is hard to make sense of.
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One of the reasons why white cars ar so popular in the UK is because most manufacturers include basic white in the price of new cars but charge extra for many other colours. I have a metallic silver car, but didn’t choose that colour particularly because I bought it second-hand. Julie bought her car new in 2015 and had to pay a little extra for a shade of light blue that she liked. The last time I bought a new car I had to pay a lot extra for dark green metallic. I like all your copper or red-leafed trees, and love the classic front porch on the white painted house. I have always wanted a porch, but they are incredibly rare on British houses.
Best wishes, Pete.
Thank you, Carolyn, for the wonderfully beautiful views, the road leading somewhere, and the abandoned farms, which make me sad because something can be done to save the places without falling trees somewhere else. I agree, it doesn’t make sense!
Joanna
I think the most popular car colour in SA must be white. Berto is of the opinion that because it can get so hot in SA, white is the most practical colour to stay cool (although it probably won’t work in countries where it snows regularly – visibility might then become a problem – I think). Anyway … I got sidetracked 😉. I like your red and pink trees … yes, lets rather concentrate on the beauty of nature!
Most likely the abandoned places are due to the extremely high New York taxes.
Several true, short stories. In my time and theirs I owned a Hugger Orange 69 Camaro and a Marina Blue 66 Nova SS. MG Midget, VW Van… at a music industry trade show a father and son from a music store in the heartland stood in front of what can only be described as a large vitamin B pee yellow drum set with black hardware. Father – Godamn that’s ugly. Son – Godamn you’re old. Yes there are many black and white and pewter, more as what we’re offered than by oh wow! choice. Jeeps being the most colorful row on the lot is a statement of some kind. Not sure what, though.