Back
to the abandoned locks
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More
pix here from
an earlier visit to the abandoned locks
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More
pix here
from an earlier visit to the Deep Cut.
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19
January 04:
Hoping for snow and the contrast of cut stone and snow, the
Reverend and I returned to the abandoned
locks near Nunda on the Genesee Valley Greenway near Letchworth
State Park.
We
weren't disappointed. With a high in the mid-teens and packed
snow on the old rail bed, we revisited the seven locks, now
abandoned, that marched up the hillside from Nunda to the
Deep Cut. It was a day for walking and for taking pix.
Happy
accident of form here as the Reverend, in bending back
to see overhead, matches the angle of the tree she is
looking at.
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The
aspects of design on this day were the rock, with colors
of gray and yellow, the snow, and the bare trees, shrubs,
and twigs in general. |
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And
the red of the mountain ash berries. |
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The
locks startle the walker in any season, but in winter the
snow transforms what is always startling into a new form,
always shifting. |
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Twigs
scribble on the figure ground of quarried stone. |
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In
some ways, this pic can stand as a defining image for this
outing -- the strong diagonal of the lock wall and the road
nearby, made to seem nearer still by the bare trees. |
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Some
trees hold their dead leaves well into winter. The Reverend
walks along the abandoned rail bed next to the line of the
locks. |
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The
next several shots go from general to specific. |
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As
the image narrows, a bold angle emerges on the near side
of the lock cavity. |
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Nearer
still. |
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And
nearer yet again. |
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Although
dry-laid, the lock wall stones have resisted time in spite
of the extremes of cold that cause heaving. |
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More
scribbles on the ground. |
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Bold,
bare red twigs against the snow. |
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The
mirrored image of birch bark and the truck from which it
sprang, put me in mind of the archetypal image of the scroll
of the Ten Commandments. |
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