The Bleak Midwinter and a Walk Around the Pond at Dusk

Our nearly snow-less winter continues.  However, that has not meant that the cold hasn't invaded our fair city (Cambridge, MA).  The Charles River is frozen.  And so is Fresh Pond.

The bleak midwinter without snow is especially bleak.  The cold keeps one from lingering and there is little to see in the snowless, barren landscape.  Hope is hard to find.

Today is the celebration of Martin Luther King, the holiday to honor the vision and hope he brought to the struggle for equal rights and equal recognition.  There was the usual services, inspirational speeches and, this year, a demonstration in Boston.  Time has past, but the hoped for vision is not fully realized.  At times, we're still two nations, not fully understanding each other.  At times, we're still in the bleak midwinter of relations and understanding.

Back in Cambridge at the end of the day, the three of us took a brisk walk around Fresh Pond in the gathering darkness of the dusk of a bleak, but snow-less, mid-winter's day.  It was cold.  But if you keep moving, it was ok.

In the bleak midwinter, hope can be found if you keep moving ahead.

The setting sun casts its orange light on the Ringe Towers trio across the frozen pond.

Dusk in the west beyond the hill of Kingsley Park.

The abandoned track of the Watertown Branch of the once Boston & Maine Railroad passes the west side of the pond.

Little Fresh Pond is frozen over.  In warmer weather, it is a favorite spot for dogs to take a quick swim.

The last light of the day reflects off the ice.

Saturday in the Park in a Snowless Winter

Often by Christmas or New Year, here in New England, we would have snow on the ground, or at least frozen ponds.  However, this Christmas was relatively warm, having followed weeks of warm yet cloudless days. No snow or frozen ponds. Finally, on Christmas afternoon, the sun came out.  We took a brisk walk by Pleasure Bay.   

Today, though Saturday, I was heading to my office.  If I get off the train at Charles Street, I have the opportunity to pass through the park on my way.   In the morning sun, the Public Garden proved quite photogenic, even with bare trees, no snow, and an unfrozen lagoon.

That is perhaps the most wonderful aspect of this park - that it remains beautiful in any season!  Here are some photos of a Saturday in the Park, on a snowless winter's day.

Entering the park from Charles Street

The bare willows, weeping gracefully

Duck taking the ramp up to the island in the lagoon

Looking over the lagoon

Strolling by the Bay on Christmas Day

Christmas day found our family gathering with a bit of time between the opening of the presents and supper.  It had been an unusually warm Christmas Eve with rain and temperatures up in the 50s F (about 10 to 13 deg, C).  Christmas day started out warm but the rain ended by noon, so it seemed a good day to take an afternoon stroll and get some fresh air. 

Of all of us assembled, on Rosie and I were interested, and she was thinking out beyond City Point in Southie (South Boston), at Castle Island and Pleasure Bay.  Before the landfilling that connected Castle Island to the drumlin we now call South Boston, Pleasure Bay was just a channel between Boston Harbor and Dorchester Bay.

Over time, Pleasure Bay was enclosed by a causeway with two gated culvert connec-tions that allow the tide to enter and leave.  This causeway is also a pleasant walkway around the oval-shaped bay, separating it from Dorchester Bay.  It is now part of a state park.

When we arrived after 3 pm, we found the temperatures dropping and a stiff wind blowing over the bay.  For a day about 50 deg. F (10 deg. C), it felt like about 20 deg. F (-5 deg. C) when the wind blew right through my winter coat.  Still, the late afternoon sun hiding in and out of the clouds provided some wonderful photo opportunities.

We arrived greeted by this spectacular scene across the Bay.

With Pleasure Bay to our backs, we can view the monster cranes at the container port known as Conley Terminal

Another view across Pleasure Bay looking towards the sunset.

From the causeway, we can look across the bay to the Boston skyline.

Another view from the causeway looking east towards the treatment plant on Deer Island with the Atlantic Ocean beyond.

Approaching the pavilion that marks the midpoint of the causeway.  I stopped for this photo despite the blistering winds.

The pavilion bathed in the yellow light of a late winter afternoon.

This view shows the chop on Dorchester Bay.  The causeway separates the two bays.

Sunset over Dorchester

Winter Evening

December brings short days and chilled evenings.  But what compensates for shivering outside and inside alike (our place is not so well-insulated) is the soft yellow lighting of the later afternoons, as well as the Christmas card dusk light of snow-covered scenes, such as the one on the right in Brookline, just outside of Boston.

The visual treats make the winter evenings of December a special time of the year.

Late afternoon waterscape.   The Charles River near Watertown Square.

A few weeks later, the Charles River is frozen and snow-covered, as seen through the wood near the river bank.

Slightly pinkist hue of the early dusk on a snow-covered December evening along the Fresh Pond Parkway in Cambridge.

Dusk sky above a snowy scene in Cambridge

Even the stop lights show red and green for the coming Christmas season.

For examples of the warm yellow lighting of late winter afternoons, see my post "Beauty in Urban Industrial Photography."

Evening on the Verge of Spring

March 18, 2011

When finally the snows of winter had left us by late March, the barren ground was once again visible. Beginning the day after Christmas, we the white blanket piled up week by week in snows that never seemed to end.

March 18th, in the still bitterly cold evening, I caught this view in Boston's Public Garden. In the foreground is dry lagoon. The afterglow of sunset is visible down the axis of Newbury Street, puncuated by the tower of the Church of the Covenant.

Spring officially is officially here in 3 days. But the real rebirth of spring is a few week away, after we endure yet another April Fool's Day snow!

Tracks in the Snow

As a transportation engineer, I have always been fascinated by railroads, particularly as they fit into urban and rural landscapes. Compared to modern highways, rail lines are much narrower and therefore were built less intrusively.

In the winter, it becomes somewhat obvious whether a rail line is used or not. Here in Cambridge, we have two infrequently used freight branch lines. Running through the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and East Cambridge is the Grand Junction Branch, with about 2 to 5 trains per day. In the western portion of Cambridge, running through the reservation at Fresh Pond in the Watertown Branch, which is recently abandoned.

The picture above on the right and the first two photographs show the Watertown Branch. The first photo below shows the rail line cut into the rock that makes up the core of a low drumlin forming the southern boundary of the glacially-carved Fresh Pond. The second, just a few hundred feet from the first, finds the tracks in a flat terrain. The final photograph is looking down the Grand Junction branch from Hampshire Street, just outside Kendall Square.

Newly Fallen Snow

Nothing is as pure and beautiful as newly fallen snow. I can just sit and watch the gentle flakes fall, turning everything -- lawns, trees, streets, sidewalks, houses, cars, lawns, and even the trash in the gutter. Especially in the city, the transformation can be most dramatic.

After our winter drought, we had a little bit of snow again in the Boston area.

Below: Snow falling in the halo of a street light and covering steets, sidewalks, cars, and the roofs of houses.

Below: close-up of falling snow covering the branches of a tree.

Below: The next morning, snow covered tree limbs contrast with a bright blue sky.

Below: Snow covered lawns in the Public Garden complete the winter sceen of a Back Bay skyline.

Winter Drought

We usually think of droughts as happening in the summer. With no rain for weeks, lawns and flowers and crops dry up and wither. But, droughts can happen even in the freezing cold of winter.

While Washington, DC, and the surrounding areas were pounded by 2 to 3 feet (0.7 to 1.0 meters) of snow, the Boston area missed out on the entire storm. What snow we had graddually disappeared, melting little by little on the colder days and then disappearing when we got a brief thaw.

Now it's freezing cold and again and snowless. These photographs in Boston's Public Garden illustrate what a winter drought looks like: the brown lawns, bare trees, and fozen ponds, but no snow. It's not the kind of sceen you'll seen on any Christmas card where the snow is always beautifully white and freshly fallen!

Below: The snowless lawns are brown and the lagoon is frozen solid in this view looking down Newbury Street.

Below: A little contrast of morning and evening showing the same view. The church spire is that of the Chuch of the Covenant. The evening view was in December while the morning view is February.

Below: A comparison of the lagoon bridge in a snowy winter (left, Jan. 2009) and a winter drought (right, Feb. 2010)

Below: A close-up of the brown lawns and bare trees. One advantage: a young couple taking a shortcut across the fozen lagoon.

Below: During a winter drought, there's no snow for skiing (except at the facilities with snow making equipment). If you can't ski, at least you can skate: a business man did just that on his lunch hour.