May 7, 2011

Yosemite National Park--Landscape Photography & Literature

I'm back!  I have been ever so crazy busy at work the past few months that all of the fun things in life seem to have been set aside--and blogging about books here at ProSe has really suffered mightily.  Fortunately, I was able to get away for a nearly week-long camping trip with some friends during the first week in May.  The primary purpose for our trip was to endeavor to make some decent landscape photographs.  We stayed in Lower Pines Campground in Yosemite Valley in Yosemite National Park.  The weather was splendid, and with all of the snowpack in the High Sierra (almost 200% of normal), the waterfalls in the Valley were just booming.  Truly spectacular!

I took Thomas Hardy's novel, The Woodlanders along with me for a re-read.  As I wandered about the park, from beautiful location to beautiful location, I would sit below a waterfall, or out in an open meadow, or under a tree, or even in my camp-chair next to the campfire, I'd pull out my Hardy and read.  I have to say that this re-read of The Woodlanders was even more meaningful to me than when I first read it in 2010.  Hardy;s description of the dense Wessex forests around Little Hintock and the lives of his rustics just seemed to come alive for me in the grandeur of one of America's most beautiful national parks.

Anyway, I just wanted to leave a short note that I am back to my blog, and that I am continuing to read some really terrific books these days.  I am currently re-reading Hardy's The Return of the Native, Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre for group discussions in a Goodreads.com group, and reading Charles Dickens's The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club for the first time for another group discussion.  I also have R.D. Blackmore's Lorna Doone in my immediate queue to-be-read.

The photograph I've posted here is a photograph that I made in Cook's Meadow on the floor of the Yosemite Valley.  The small pond is one of the ephemeral ponds that are created by the high-water conditions during the spring run-off.  Do 'click' on the photograph for a larger view too.  Stay tuned--more about my Yosemite photography trip and books I'm reading to come.  Cheers!

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5 comments:

  1. Glad to have you back. Love the photograph. It's been at least a decade since I've been to Yosemite. High time I visited again. :)

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  2. It sounds and looks (from photo) so idyllic. I have only read Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Hardy, but loved that.
    I have no direct experience with the beautiful landscape you inhabit, but remember thoroughly enjoying Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods, which describes his adventure and misadventure on the Appalachian Trail I think.
    Very glad you are back posting.

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  3. I love Yosemite - a photographer's dream. I did spend three hours there over a decade ago taking pictures and it wasn't until I headed home that I realized there was no film in the camera!!!
    Ann

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  4. Thank you, Ladies, for the lovely comments! It means a lot to me that you found this posting interesting. More to come too. Cheers! Chris

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  5. Wow - what perfect conditions for reading The Woodlanders! Lovely photograph too.

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