Wednesday, September 5, 2012

A FEEBLE FOG


There's fog on the river this morning—a pale, ethereal veil that as I look upstream, gradually swallows both color and detail until all I can see is a mysterious luminous wall, beyond which could lie anything from Gollum's lair to Shangri-La. 

The thought occurs that a man of derring-do who'd had his coffee might immediately take it upon himself to venture yonder way and investigate…instead of merely snapping a photo and heading back inside once Moon-the-Dog had conducted her own peregrinations. However, like most such notions not acted quickly upon, the thought soon becomes as diaphanous as the fog itself and fades away.

Ahh, well…it isn't the dense all-enveloping fog the weather service predicted—the sort of fog which offers photo opportunities at every turn; a transfiguring September fog I'd hoped to spend the morning recording. But perhaps it would thicken sufficiently later on, metamorphose from the feeble into the substantial—become a real pea-souper. 

Maybe I ought to pour that second cup of coffee and be patient.         

12 comments:

Gail said...

HI GRIZZ - I like the fogy view so much and I really like the mystery of all the possibilities that lurk beyond the shadowed mist -
Love Gail
peace.....

The Weaver of Grass said...

It is just that sort of mysterious fog that evaporates as soon as the sun tries to push through - lovely, ethereal photo Grizz.

Grizz………… said...

Gail…

I like fog, too, because of the way it always piques my imagination. Though I'd hoped this morning's predicted fog would be denser—better for photos—this was as good as it got.

Grizz………… said...

Weaver…

You have it exactly right…by the time I'd written my piece and posted this photo—maybe half an hour—the fog had disappeared and the sun was shining.

AfromTO said...

thanks for the last couple of beautiful landscapes-I can just walk right in to your photos-so if you see me step out of a morning mist-don't be surprised.

Grizz………… said...

AfromTO…

Surprised? Uhhh, if I'm standing there newly risen from my slumbers and desperately under-caffeinated, and you appeared from the fog like a cross between an Ohio riverbank version of the Lady of Shalott and Marley's ghost…I might plumb keel over! Then who would you bedevil about posting more landscapes and fewer bug shots?

AfromTO said...

I thought of poetically canoeing downriver thru the fog but by looks of it I would be dragging or portaging for miles.So a sweating bedrangled figure with a canoehead isn't quite the vision I would like to project to someone who hasn't had his morning caffeine.(ps.I decided to boycot bug photos until I saw a landscape)

Grizz………… said...

AfromTO…

You BOYCOTTED commenting because of my butterfly and dragonfly photos! Sheeesh! Talk about picky. Com'on now, some of them were pretty good with lots of lovely color. I like a good bug pix every so often…and you gotta admit there are bugs a'plenty out there just waitin' to have their portraits snapped. (Too, I might as well forewarn you, more's a'comin'.)

However (sigh), I'll try to up the landscapes and longer views. How about still lifes? You okay there? Should I issue a menu? (Lemmie see…I'll have one of them trees-and-field thingies, and a side of leaves-on-water…but mind you, none of them close-up bug snaps!)

Now, about you carrying that canoe across the riffle…

Actually, from the riffle you see—which is normally quite easily canoed when the stream is at its usual level of water—to a point maybe two miles from here, it's really just one long waist-deep-or-deeper pool with only one other riffle.

But low as it now is, with all those round, slick riffle rocks, when you got close with that canoe atop your head, you'd assuredly suffer a terrible fall, break various bones, possibly die, and within the process certainly scare every heron and smallmouth bass within miles, set all the neighborhood dogs to barking, and cause me to burn myself with my hot coffee…and even if you lived you probably wouldn't appreciate my inability to call the ambulance (or coroner, if you didn't) and settle the critters—for the fact of the matter is I would be unable to scrabble to your rescue or dial a cell because I'd be rendered prostrate myself by uncontrollable laughter.

I regularly watch wading fishermen attempt to negotiate those rocks. Few make it without a pratfall…or more likely, multiple tumbles. Many stay down after the second or third header and wisely crawl to the nearest bank. Sometimes two or three fishermen lock arms and have a go together, believing combined strength and a buddy to lean on equals safety in numbers. It does not. What it produces is a multiple pile-up…which is even funnier than watching just one lone soul mangle his body and equipment.

For my part, whenever I see fishermen heading for the riffle, should they not be familiar (or wearing casts and bandages from being recently educated) I've learned to set all hot liquids—actually, all liquids and food in general—aside, place my camera gear somewhere where it can't be knocked about, take a few deep breaths while I can still manage them…and make myself comfortable as I wait for the inevitable.

I'm sorry—I know this attitude and response is both ungentlemanly and un-Christian. I don't think it's at all funny when I fall while a'stream (well, maybe a little bit funny, but not if I've damaged one of my precious fly rods, or painfully hurt my even more precious old carcass) and I honestly don't wish to see anyone badly injured. But…sigh…I'm Irish, I love to laugh, I come from a long line of incorrigible laughers who are more than a little prone to laughing at what others deem inappropriate moments…so what can I say? Watching others fall is funny to me, and I laugh. And laugh. And laugh. It is doubtless a character defect. And I could tell you some real stories about friends and family members who've become, shall we say, miffed, at my laughing when they fell. Several so miffed they turned temporarily homicidal. Which, of course, made it even funnier.

Nope. Not the grand entrance you likely have in mind—though I would come visit you in the hospital or nursing home, so long as you understood the likelihood of my occasional giggles, guffaws, snickers, chortles, and mirthful hysterics.

AfromTO said...

Settled I'm parachuting in!

Grizz………… said...

AfromTO said...

Mind the sycamores…

Wanda..... said...

Your patience payed off...there's a 'dense all-enveloping fog' out there this morning, at least there is here.

Grizz………… said...

Wanda.....

Huh. Nothing here. Looking out my workroom window a hundred yards downstream, I can count every leaf—there's barely a wisp of mist above the water.

Maybe tomorrow…