Contemplating Crow - A Personal Reflection

    I spent a couple of days in Down East Maine this past week at the house where I will be doing the photographer's retreat this September.  It was a very foggy two days but that doesn't stop a dedicated contemplative photographer!  In fact, it seemed to greatly enhance my visit.

   This is a view of the fog shrouded coast along the coastal trail of Quoddy Head State Park.  A spectacular place to walk.  I had the entire place to myself and I sat on a bench and soaked in the hushed atmosphere.  Even the perennial screeching gulls seemed silent and the ocean was remarkably calm.

   I watched this crow, that tiny spot of black at the edge of the cliff, for nearly one half hour...he never moved a feather!  He seemed wrapped in his own revery as well. I wondered what impressions he had of the place. The foggy light gives a very atmospheric quality to the landscape and added to the mystical sensation I experienced there.  To have this all to myself was truly a gift.

   Later, I turned inland to walk back to the parking lot.  The forest floor was carpeted in spectacular mosses.  It reminded me of the cultivated moss gardens I had seen in Japan but here it was nature herself that was the gardener and it was every bit as beautiful...perhaps more so because it was so uncontrived.

   Strange lichens hung from the tree branches giving the whole landscape a rather unworldly quality.  Tolkien would have felt right at home here I'm sure!  Again, to walk quietly in a captivating landscape with no one to intrude upon my contemplative thoughts was something very special indeed.  Visiting popular tourist places off season is something to consider and is something I often do simply for the peace and quiet.  It will only enhance your experience to walk alone and unhurried with a solitary crow for company.....