A Model Dog

On November 7, 2016 By trashonthemonocacyIn Dogs, Monocacy River, Photography3 Comments

When I’m taking pictures for my blog, I generally make a point of moving the camera so that my images don’t include my old labrador companion, Poppy. Since she makes a point of shadowing me, no matter how her bones ache, excluding her isn’t a simple matter. Yesterday was no different: I paused for a picture, and, while I fiddled with the composition and perspective, she walked into the frame. Again,

and again,

and again.

It’s hard to be too upset, though, when, first of all, she’s sweet and adorable, and, second, she often improves the pictures, imbuing them with life and interest that landscape alone sometimes can’t. Even if it is a brilliant fall day, which it was.

Besides, she’s been known to help me with the trash every now and then. Yesterday she carried a McDonald’s coffee cup all the way back to the main walking path for me…and there wasn’t even anything in it for her to eat. (She is a labrador, after all, and her motives and motivations are usually pretty simple and obvious.)

She really is a very good dog.

Love, Up Close

On October 21, 2016October 21, 2016 By trashonthemonocacyIn Monocacy River, Reflections4 Comments

This is the very first image I posted on my blog: my original header.

Initially I hesitated to use it because the Monocacy, the polluted but lovely southern river for which this blog is named, is nowhere to be found. Ultimately, however, that is one of the very reasons that the picture is so appropriate. A river is more than the water that flows into it; it is the land that surrounds it. It is the land that determines its health. It is on the land that I find most of the trash that pollutes its waters.

But this image is really about the heart spray-painted on the trunk of the dead tree. Ostensibly it is vandalism, a sort of trashing of nature, but the symbol and its underlying message imbues it with its own sort of beauty. It also reflects my feeling toward this small part of a much larger ecosystem. This heart on this tree is on a small island on a small river (the Monocacy) that flows into a larger river (the Potomac) that flows into a delicate bay (the Chesapeake) that opens into an ocean (the Atlantic). This space is so much more than it seems. And so is the tree.

Let’s look a little more closely. A heart:

And more closely still. An imperfect heart:

And even closer. A mere smudge:

Or something more. This heart on this dead tree is the marker for an entrance to a whole other world. It hides the holes made by birds looking for insects looking for food looking for a home. If I were a microbiologist, I could say more, but even my limited knowledge allows me to appreciate the complexity of the life provided by this rotting trunk.

And appreciation is what this blog is about. Appreciating the ugly in order to appreciate the beautiful. Appreciating the moments that make a small life big. Appreciating the life around me so easily overlooked. Appreciating how often things are not quite as simple as they seem. Appreciating a world of writers, thinkers and artists who may not think of themselves as any of these things.

Love from the Monocacy.

Art Trash/Trash Art

On October 5, 2016October 5, 2016 By trashonthemonocacyIn Photography, Trash1 Comment

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Kit-Kat in Black and White

When first beginning my blog, I hoped to capture some beauty in the trash I find. Occasionally I entertain myself with close studies that approach (yes, merely approach) the artistic in composition or contrast, but most of the time trash really is just a blight on the natural landscape. An unwelcome interruption. Still, I photograph what I find. Even if I’m not making any artistic contributions to the world, I am at least leaving a sort of sociological record. (Can you see the future dissertation title: “Bud Light and Flavored Cigars: A Study of the American Consumer in the early 21st Century”?)

7-Eleven, Coffee in the Leaves

Annie’s and Minute Maid on the Shore

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What I Like About You: Japanese Hops and Coca Cola

Coffee and a Yogurt

Stars

On September 29, 2016September 29, 2016 By trashonthemonocacyIn Monocacy River, WildflowersLeave a comment

As a beginner armchair botanist, I can hardly claim any expertise in the identification of asters. They come in such a high variety, with only the slightest differences between them, that I have wasted hours trying to distinguish one sort from another. Am I seeing a bushy aster (aster dumosus), a calico aster (aster latiflorus), a little of both, or something else entirely? After several doubtful attempts to label a few of them properly on my Wildflowers of the Monocacy page, I’ve decided to dump pictures of them here, in a despairing blog post.

Despair aside, however, asters really are as bright and lively as the stars for which they are named. Right now, they are constellations of white light in yellow fields of goldenrod; delicate pinpricks of color.

Summer Inventory

On July 26, 2016July 26, 2016 By trashonthemonocacyIn Monocacy River, Trash2 Comments

The Monocacy is low enough now that new trash (that is, old trash that is new to me) is revealed every day, and I’ve been able to reach places that were covered in water only a few weeks ago. Rusty cans, broken bottles, fishing line, shoes, and socks: they’re all out there, waiting to be discovered. I haul out up to 3 bags a day, but I’m always leaving something behind. Here’s just a sample of what I find in a day:

Bud Light cans (5)

Corona Extra (caps and glass bottles, 3)

Krispy Kreme box (1)

Coca Cola Cans (2)

Busch Beer cans (2)

Tequila (1 large glass bottle, shattered)

Skoal (1)

Fanta can (1)

Grab & Go Chocolate Milk jugs (2)

Coors can (1)

Bud Ice bottle (1)

Gatorade (small plastic, single serve, 1)

Orbit Gum (1 empty package)

Salt packets (7)

Disposable Plate wrapper (1)

Green napkins (?)

Burger King bag (1)

Trolli Sour Brite Critters (1 bag)

Walmart bag (1 plastic)

Eagle Claw hooks (1 pack)

Fishing line (3, tangled)

Float (1)

Bottle caps (unidentified, 9)

Doritos (1 bag, family size)

Diaper (1, with wipes)

A Few of My Favorite Things

On July 22, 2016July 22, 2016 By trashonthemonocacyIn Monocacy River, Nature2 Comments

Because I can’t pick just one thing when I have such little time to write, and The Sound of Music is inspiring any time of the year…

A doe, a deer, a female deer. There’s a Where’s Waldo scavenger hunt going on in downtown Frederick this month, but at the river we like to do things a little differently.

Raindrops on…Sharp-winged Monkey-flowers. Because the bloom of the mimulus alatus is beautiful, but the common name is even better.

Ford every stream. Seriously. It’ll cool you off.

How do you solve a problem like… trash? Clean it up, one piece at a time.

Dangerous Beauty

On July 15, 2016July 15, 2016 By trashonthemonocacyIn Nature2 Comments

The Honey Locust, or Gelditsia triacanthos, is a remarkable but treacherous tree. Its lower trunk is covered in 3-inch barbs so sharp that in the past they were used by woodsmen as pins, spear points, and animal traps. (More recently, they’ve been known to pierce running shoes and flatten bicycle tires with a budget-busting regularity.) The trees are common along the Monocacy River, and currently they’re festooned in the long, flat, curling seed pods that inspired the “honey” in their name. The pulp of the pod is sweet enough to tempt wildlife like deer, squirrels, and rabbits, and Native Americans, in addition to using the pulp of the Honey Locust as a thickener and sweetener, also roasted its seeds as a source of protein. I, however, prefer to admire the trees from a distance.

Shoe

On July 13, 2016July 13, 2016 By trashonthemonocacyIn Monocacy River, TrashLeave a comment

A shoe without its mate is a forlorn thing, especially if it’s somewhere out of place, like on the side of a road or, like yesterday, in the muddy shallows of a river. Where is the other shoe and, more importantly, where is its owner? I could concoct a million stories about how this lovely black flat found itself in the Monocacy, but there is only one true one, and I almost certainly will never know it. Still, I like the possibilities.

The Little Things

On July 12, 2016July 12, 2016 By trashonthemonocacyIn Monocacy River, WildlifeLeave a comment

When I think about summer along the Monocacy River, I think about sun, heat, and humidity, of course, but it’s the little things that really define the season…things like spiders, bugs, beetles, bees and other creepy crawlies. Some of these invertebrates are welcome: I love examining spiders in their webs, watching damselflies flit from plant to plant along streams of shallow water, and bees bumbling over the wildflowers in the floodplain. On the other hand, the invasive insect destroyers, like japanese beetles, which descend upon plants in dense, reproducing masses and devour their hosts’ leaves to bits of lacy shreds, repulse me. Yesterday, however, when I saw a slew of them chewing up some stinging nettle, I was almost happy with them. So, you see, it really is the little things. As long as you don’t mind getting a gnat in your eye every now and then.

More Trash Talk

On July 6, 2016July 12, 2016 By trashonthemonocacyIn TrashLeave a comment

In honor of our recent Independence Day, I’m returning to my main topic: trash. The 4th of July produces a lot of it, in the form of picnic scraps and recreational debris, like firecracker wrappers, cigarette stubs, and fishing paraphernalia. For now I’ll think of the trash as evidence of our ability to rejoice, in spite of the storms, literal and figurative, that are pounding our nation.

TRASH ON THE MONOCACY

Tag: Photography