Sunday, November 21, 2010

The St. Regis River, Brasher Falls And A Wondrous Apple Tree

I'd driven up to the farm with all six of my dogs, made a walking tour of the grounds and gotten settled in my little apartment. I shoveled a lot of dirt, spreading it out over the new septic system where heavy rains had caused settling. I'd visited the neighbors and the afternoon sunshine was beginning to glow in that twilight sort of way. So I took Daphne and Clover, the two Papillon puppies and drove to the nearby town of Brasher Falls, where they have a brand new (but tiny by city standards) IGA grocery store. I wasn't even sure that I needed to buy anything, but I wanted to get out and do something. In the town of Brasher Falls, I stopped to photograph the bridge over the St. Regis River:

I bought a few groceries at the little IGA market and then drove north hoping to find some new roads to explore. Everywhere I drove I encountered the St. Regis River. It twists and turns and has many branches, so it really does seem to be everywhere. But up north of Brasher Falls, it was running calmly and placidly. Compare this river with the one in the first photo:

The quiet river at dusk filled me with a sense of serenity. The trees on the shore and the clouds overhead were beautifully reflected in its mirrored surface:

But I took a wrong turn in my exploring and wound up making a big circle, finding myself back near the farm once again. I was very tired by this time so considered it a fortuitous accident. I let the dogs out to run once again and this time I took special notice of the apples outside my door. There are two flowering crab trees there, but one of them is growing intertwined with what appears to have been a wild apple seedling. The fruit looked like Golden Delicious, so I decided to try one:

Indeed, it also tasted like a Golden Delicious apple. I wondered if the tenants had not yet discovered these wonders or if it was simply a matter of such an overabundance of apples, pears, blackberries and raspberries that they simply couldn't keep up. Well, I decided to keep that tree in spite of its crowding the flowering crab:

But the sun was setting rapidly and the temperature was falling. The dogs and I settled in for the night in our comfy little apartment:

I cooked myself dinner, the dogs got dog food and everybody got drowsy:

I can see the starry skies through those windows when I'm in bed. And the skies that far out in the country are vast and the whole milky way is plainly visible. There is one street light, a true oddity so far out in the middle of nowhere, but since it's all by itself it doesn't drown out the stars. Well, we were all tired. You can see Daphne's head drooping in this picture and Fergus is already zonked out. Good night:

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