Millbrook Mono

It was a Millbrook morning. I saw flurries there on Friday of last week, and this day was even colder. With a temperature of about 12 degrees F (or around minus 11 C) on this morning, there were frost sparkles on the boardwalk, which creaked with my every step.

I usually go further, at least to the duck blind, but this morning's visit took me only to the bridge over Thompson Run, and I stood there for a few minutes, watching the changing light as it illuminated the slats of the left part of the bridge, with the sweet swell of Mount Nittany behind it. The light coming through the right part of the bridge cast its shadows before me. Bare tree limbs reached out like bony fingers to scratch the sky.

And I listened to the quiet, which was broken only by the sound of birds. A group of mallards arrived, and they played tag on Thompson Run. A kingfisher showed up and sat on its usual perch over the run, and I was startled when a second kingfisher buzzed past me, and the first one chased the second one up the creek, the two exchanging mighty cackles. (Who knew there were two!?)

I will admit that with the extreme cold, I had been hoping for a chance at some shots of frost mist rising, which is in my opinion the holy grail of all of the photographic experiences that I've had at Millbrook; perhaps even that I've had anywhere, ever, if I admit it. Have you ever been out with your camera when the conditions were so awesome you could hardly believe it?

Where you walked around like Alice in wonderland, if only Alice had a camera; and took many, many pictures to try to capture it, to try to make it stay? I have had that experience here; and it was pure magic. That is what the word covet is for: I long for those moments; I want another chance. This winter I will get one, I promised myself, as I stood in the bitter cold, watching the ducks and the kingfishers and the light.

In the U.S., we use the word heartland to describe the middle part of our country. The online dictionary says it can also mean the essential or central part of a place, any central or vital area. To take the word most literally, a heartland would be a place where your heart lives, or where it longs to return. I think of my visits to this place and I realize that Millbrook has become a heartland of sorts to me.

The song to accompany this image is U2, with Heartland.