On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
JanieM
The Village and Good-bye
As I write this post, autumn has arrived in New England. Again.
A year ago—though it feels like just last Tuesday—Steve from Mendocino was saying that autumn would round out four seasons of picture-taking with my new camera. And now another year has passed with barely a blink. At the same time, so much is going on that historians will be busy analyzing it for decades.
Time runs differently when you get older, and I was still trying to adjust to that change when the pandemic came and threw any remnants of time passing normally into the dustbin. For over a year I never went anywhere (my son did my grocery shopping for me) except to get in the car and go for a drive once a week, just to remind myself that the world was still out there.
Then, in the summer of 2021, it seemed like maybe we were heading back to “normal” life. Steve first raised the question of a Mendocino visit in June, but he and his wife thought we should wait until after fire season, not to mention that my first grandchild was due in November. So we planned a trip for February.
January brought the omicron variant, a new wave of covid infections, and a postponement until April.
But the trip did happen at last, and a very lovely one it was.
And then it was over.
Most of these pictures are from the last set I took in Mendocino, on a day when I sweet-talked Steve into taking me on one last, unscheduled jaunt. Unlike my younger self, my older self wasn’t surprised that a long-awaited adventure was coming to an end. But these last pictures still have a bittersweet feel to them, an echo of what I wrote in my first barn post over a year ago. Part of the reason I take pictures, I said, is that “someday I’m not going to be here, but right now I am. Everything changes, and my pictures are my ongoing attempt to capture the flow, one moment at a time.”
I was in Mendocino, then I wasn’t. In fact, another half-year has gone by since then.
Autumn has arrived in Maine, and I’m grateful that I’m still here to try to capture it.
Again.
My very first raven: Until that morning, I had somehow managed to get into my seventies without ever knowingly having seen a raven. This one posed for a picture, and I was standing by with a camera.
Mendocino High School sports field – If I hadn’t had kids who played sports, I’d be skeptical that anyone could pay attention to a soccer game with that view behind them.
Palm house – Just for fun, any old house in Mendocino village.
Mendocino Theater Company – Waiting for the next performance.
The village and the sea, in constant conversation.
Gallery Book Shop – Every well-furnished village needs a bookstore.
An empty gallery and some colorful shopfronts. I wrote earlier in this series that the landscape was so different in Mendocino compared to Maine that it required me to see in a whole new way. That includes the built environment, which is more colorful and somehow more varied than what I’m familiar with at home. There’s a subtle feeling of lightness to the buildings that may be related to the fact that they don’t have to withstand a Maine winter. I’m not sure that theory is correct, but I’m working on it.
Circling back to my first morning.
Morning mist along the Comptche-Ukiah Road.
The road goes ever on and on….
And then it’s time to go home.
raven
Awesome.
Benw
Love the photos with the sea!
JPL
Thank you for sharing your amazing story with us.
Dorothy A. Winsor
What a beautiful place
HinTN
Not to belittle the quality of the photographs but you write beautifully. I really like the raven and the football field. Enjoy your Maine autumn and thank you for Mendocino.
Albatrossity
Thank you for this series. Looking forward to the next steps you take on your path!
JeanneT
Lovely! Now I’m waiting for some photos of autumn in Maine…..
WaterGirl
I wanted to mention that I added a tag of “Mendocino” like I do for some of the OTR series. So you can click on Mendocino at the top of the post and see these 5 Mendocino posts from JanieM as well as Steve from Mendocino’s posts that have been about Mendocino.
Not sure I got every single one tagged, but I tagged all the ones I could find.
kindness
Never saw a raven before???
JanieM
@WaterGirl: The tagging is great. Thank you!!!!
J R in WV
@kindness:
We don’t have many ravens here back east. Crows, sure. ravens, collecting not so much.
Thanks for all the great pix, I feel like I spent a weekend there with you guys now. Take care when you get back to WINTER in Maine.
We spent a couple of weeks in Maine years ago, half collecting rocks in old quarries around Poland Springs and the rest driving up the coast as far as the Roosevelt family compound just across the border into Canada… Lovely place in June.
Yutsano
Quoth the raven, “Nevermore!”
Although I’m pretty certain Mendocino isn’t going anywhere. Hopefully. It’s a lovely little town!
Just One More Canuck
@Yutsano: Quoth the raven, “eat my shorts”
PaulB
Thank you for sharing this with us. Lovely photos, lovely prose, and a lovely story.
munira
Love the photos and your comments about time and aging. I can so relate.
MazeDancer
Lovely photos!
Everyone should be able to interact with Ravens. So smart.
West of the Rockies
Gorgeous photos! The Gallery Book Store is wonderful. I hope you picked up a few good books and a commemorative store-cat coffee mug.
My wife had a very dangerous kayaking sea cave excursion last week in Russian Gulch. I fished her out. The sea can change fast.
Mike Mundy
There’s an interesting Masonic statue in Mendocino.
West of the Rockies
Interesting explained Mike #18. I always assumed the statue was Death and the Maiden. The real title and explanation is much less dark.
Madeleine
I do so appreciate your eye and, as others have said, your way with words. Both are sense and thought provoking. Thanks and sadly good-bye to Mendocino . . . For now.
BigJimSlade
Lovely!
way2blue
With your raven photo—I immediately thought of Hitchcock’s film, The Birds. Which was set not that far south from Mendocino. A bit of a chill… My favorite in this set is photo of the field with lingering early morning fog. Such a welcome part of our coastal landscape. Thanks for sharing.
JanieM
Thanks, you all. Glad you enjoyed the pics.
Next time will be a chance of pace, so stay tuned. :-)
Albatrossity
I recall Bernd Heinrich’s books about ravens (especially this one) discussed ravens in New England states such as Maine and Vermont, where he lived. His first book on the topic, Ravens in Winter, (which may be out of print) definitely dealt a lot with ravens in that part of the world, There are ravens in every county in Maine, according to Maine Audubon. So you should be able to find some there, maybe this winter!
JanieM
@Albatrossity: Thanks for the info! My son-in-law has called my attention to a raven calling in his neighborhood (southwestern Maine). I will try to be more on the lookout, and maybe listen to the call again on YouTube so i’m more likely to recognize it when I’m out and about.
JanieM
For fun — Ravens in Winter from AbeBooks. Will order a copy tomorrow.