Gray Day. Picture with Sunlight.

[rejectomorph]

Withering camellias are dropping their petals and the sky is marbled gray, lending the still day an elegiac quality. Fresh leaf buds have appeared on most of the trees, but the air is cold. It is as though three seasons are coexisting. It's Sprallter in California. Or is it Falltering? Whatever it is, I wish it would make up its mind.

A couple of weeks ago I posted a picture of Concow Reservoir, the very small lake which lies at the end of the old flume along the west bank of the Feather River. That was the view toward the north. I also have a view toward the east. Cut for size.





I took the pictures while standing on western end of the low earthen dam which holds the lake, so, between the two of them, you've pretty much seen the whole pond. If it were more accessible, I'd take more pictures of it, but it's in an out-of-the-way location. Still, I hope to get back there on a day with some big fluffy clouds to reflect in the water, and maybe some ducks swimming on it. It wouldn't look quite so lonely, then.

Comments

Re: Doesn't Look That Lonely Now

[rejectomorph]

I'm not sure if "how is it there" means what is it like over there or how did the open field come to exist, but I can't answer either question with authority. There is an outlet with a bridge over it at the east end of the dam, and all the property beyond that is private. (Actually, the reservoir is privately owned, too, by the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, but they allow visitors to walk around their property without supervision-- most likely because it would be too costly to keep them out.) In any case, I've never visited that field, but I suspect that it is not mowed.

Whether it was deliberately turned into an open field, or is one of the natural meadows that exist throughout the forests and woodlands of the region, I couldn't say. It might be grazed, most likely by horses (it being rather small for cattle, and, being unfenced, sheep would wander off into the woods.) Many people in the area keep horses. I've even seen them tethered in vacant lots here in town, cropping the spring grass. Again, because the land looks to be unfenced, it probably gets cropped by the abundant local population of deer, as well.

In any case, if it isn't deliberately kept open, the wood will eventually move back in, and wildfires will create other meadows in other places. They will last a few years or a few decades, and then be recolonized by the woodlands in their turn. The landscape of the Sierra is remarkably dynamic and, even left on its own, would still change considerably over the years.