Sitting in the woods with my class last week, I was struck by how grays had come to dominate. The light environment is transformed. Of course, a “fifty shades” wisecrack had to work its way into my impromptu lesson on the visual aesthetics of the forest. The witticism turned into a small project for my walks of the last week: pay attention and find these shades. So here they are, fifty photographs of variations on the theme.
Gray is the most egalitarian of hues. Indeed, its essence is that is not a single color. Instead, gray gives us a muted echo of all the light spectrum, a moody version of white. Contrast this with the bias of other pigments — reds, blues, yellows — that reflect just a tiny slice of the light available to them.
Gray is an unassuming mirror of the world and a quiet companion for its more assertive kin. It absorbs metaphors with ease, having combined light and dark: ash, silver, lead, pepper. A suitable tone, then, for winter reflections.
Happy Solstice, fellow ramblers.
David George Haskell 
Marvellous! I love grey days, although I do admit I tend to hunt out the little bits of colour. I want to run my fingers over your photos and feel the variety of textures there. Thank you.
Thank you, Elizabeth. I agree that the rare flashes of color are worth seeking. Glad you liked the variations in texture! I love the different forms taken by tree bark.
OK. I admit it: I wish I had thought of this.
Thank you!
Wonderful — thank you, once again, for sharing your rambles with us.
And Happy Solstice,
Emily
Thank you Emily! Happy Solstice.
So glad we all survived the solstice and can see this – thank you and happy mid Winter in whatever form you prefer it from ireland, where we get rather a lot of grey days
Yes, looks like we made it through another end-of-the-world… Thank you for your greetings from Ireland. Happy mid winter to you.
Many of my family live in Scotland, where I suspect that the extent and variation of the greys are at least somewhat like those of Ireland. All that grey means enough moisture for glorious plants!
Thank you for the lovely meditation of slides! Happy solstice!
Thank you, Alexa!
What a splendid way to ponder the solstice, David – thank you!
Thank you Jim Ann. Greetings to you on this solstice.
So beautiful. Thank you.
Thank you, Ray.
Ah, visualization. Your photographic imagery is as enchanting as your word imagery…I enjoy both immeasurably. Thank you.
Thank you Arlyn. I send my solstice greetings and best wishes to you and to Jack.
Welcome back, Sun. May it shine on you and Sarah!
Arlyn is so right (no surprise there); the prose is poetry, and wonderfully fitting for the exquisite photographs.
Thank you Kat!
Subtle, beautiful and true.
Thank you, Jim. Happy Solstice to you.
The WHITE golf ball’s pushing the theme, but I’ll give you the other 49! Some very nice images; thank you for sharing your winter woods–it’s definitely my favorite time of year.
Ha! Yes, I threw in the golf ball as an homage/joke re: the golf ball in the Forest Unseen. They show up everywhere. I should have photoshopped it to fade into gray… :)
Glad you liked the photos!
The golf ball photo made me laugh . . . recognizing from the description in the book.
Beautiful shots for a peaceful meditation. I love winter’s soft, subtle, restful hues. Thanks for sharing these.
Hi Elizabeth, Thank you. Glad you enjoyed these. I agree with your blog post from earlier this week — it is sometimes healthy to unplug from the world news and tune into the news of the local woods. Whether or not that news is happy (not always), it is important and overlooked.
A preponderance of lichens! Love them.
golf ball image reminds me of an old Jean Shepard tv episode, part of a series he did, “Jean Shepard’s America”; many years ago on public tv ( he wrote and narrated the now famous “A Christmas Story” movie classic), in which he is out in the snowy, desolate wilds of Alaska waxing all poetic and is surprised (all scripted of course) to come upon an empty Budweiser beer can.,,,so i see the golf ball as a punchline in the universe.
A golf ball will serve as the period at the end of humanity’s sentence on this Earth.
The Budweiser can might serve as an exclamation point. I find all kinds of old beer cans in the woods, archeological remains of student forays over the decades.
Here is the Shepard episode (I think): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AA6j0WRzEqw Cans etc start after minute 15!!
And another echo of the same era from Bud: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dpTmvSuWbA Wow
very much enjoyed the Shephard braodcasts, never occured to me that they might be on youtube, as a kid living near NYC a good radio was essential survival gear, even if you listened under your bed after lights out. thanks for the memories and your ongoing “Ramble”, my wife also enjoying the soaps for Christmas… Peace.
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