More November Nature

As i continue to work through images from my late November visit to Nova Scotia one thing keeps presenting itself again and again...the amount of life still to be found in the surrounding countryside through this supposed dying season. Beyond the expected evergreen of fir, spruce and pine, green living things still peek out from behind frost covered leaves, beautiful in their deathly hues of golden browns and reds. Here and there flowers are still in bloom, defying the cold and frost. And where life is not quite so obvious it can be found going underground, into a state of hibernation, preparing for the long, dark winter ahead only to sprout and bloom again come spring. The cycles of life are eternal. Death is only the illusion which feeds rebirth. 

(please click on images for an enlarged gallery view)

All Photos ©David Sorcher 2016

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

For the Ardor of Arborists (of Birch and Bark and Breaking Boughs)

Well yes, i suppose i am showing my love for alliterations here, but they do make for entertaining titles. 

Today i devote my blog to the unassuming tree. Though symbolically venerated over the centuries in just about every culture around the world it still seems to me that they are very often taken for granted in our modern world or perhaps, worse yet, simply commodified as a mere resource for construction or destruction (fuel). And yet, the tree is so often found at the very center of art and mystical studies as the ultimate symbol for life, the universe and, well...everything. 

I began putting this blog together with some recent images of birch, a tree i have always loved for it's striking, stark beauty (standing out whitely against a blackish forest), its wonderful variety of texture and pattern as well as its over all general usefulness. I've padded the gallery out, though, with a few other varieties that grow in the Nova Scotian soil, the identities of which i am unsure, not being an arborist myself. But one needn't be an arborist to feel a deep emotional connection and respect for our dear ligneous friends. Their importance to our survival as a species is so often under-appreciated and understated as to present a clear and immediate danger to our very existence. Whole societies have failed or suffered severely for not protecting the sustainability of their forests. Think Easter Island or Haiti. 

So am i a treehugger? Perhaps. In this instance though perhaps i am simply an admirer of natural beauty. But i also understand that we all breathe just a little bit easier for their existence.   

(please click on images for and enlarged gallery view)

All Photos ©David Sorcher 2016

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

For the Love of a Frosty Morning...

Temperatures were fairly balmy for my November in Nova Scotia and it wasn't until the end of our trip that they started to drop consistently below the freezing mark. There are very few things that can get me gleefully out the door at the cold crack of dawn like the sun glistening seductively off a good morning hoar frost. It's as if the already beautiful flora has been lovingly adorned with tiny icy jewels and each successive rimy capture makes me feel like a slightly richer man.

(please click on images for an enlarged gallery view).

All Photos ©David Sorcher 2016

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Nova November

Natural beauty really knows no particular season. I've been coming to Nova Scotia's south shore for many years now, but this was my first visit in the month of November. I had been warned it could be bleak and rainy, but i have always loved a good fog and a little of weather only adds a bit of  "atmosphere" and a touch of character to a good landscape scene. Though i have come up for the first week or so of winter, often spending Christmas/New Years with my Maritimes family and friends, these transitional days of the late autumn season have previously escaped my camera until now. 

This trip i was unable to take as much time as usual specifically on the task of image capture because we actually spent much of our time in the process of house hunting. That's right, after so many years of talking about moving back to my wife's ancestral homeland we are finally taking real steps to make it so. But we did, of course, also make time for some walks along Hirtle's Beach and frankly, just stepping out back in my in-law's yard can be a satisfying nature adventure for me. I was pleased to find that no matter what time of year i am in the Maritimes i am always entranced and seduced by its beauty. True, i have yet to experience the true deep winter months of February and March, but i have always kind of liked the snow and i do drive an all-wheel drive vehicle so the quest continues to make this place my year-round abode. ;-) 

(please click on images for an enlarged gallery view)

 

All Photos ©David Sorcher 2016

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED