Photo of the Day: Water Fountain and Pond, Pascack Brook County Park, Westwood, NJ

Seeking to enjoy a brisk walk and a brief respite of bright sunshine two days ago, I drove a few towns away from where I live in Bergen County, NJ, to Pascack Brook County Park.

I don’t get there often, but I always enjoy the change of scenery, including a fountain in the middle of its pond. It appealed to me so much that I felt compelled to take the photo accompanying this post.

Photo of the Day: Saddle River County Park, Fair Lawn NJ

I took the image accompanying this post yesterday while soaking in the sun. 

Though I entered Saddle River County Park from Fair Lawn, that’s not the only suburb encompassed by its 577 acres. It also runs through five other Bergen County towns: Glen Rock, Paramus, Ridgewood, Rochelle Park, and Saddle Brook.

I can never get enough of bodies of water, and though the crisp air may have kept more people from venturing outside, I was happy to take the path around this pond without bumping into crowds.

Quote of the Day (Martha Gellhorn, on November)

“In November you begin to know how long the winter will be.”—American journalist and novelist Martha Gellhorn (1908-1998), "November Afternoon," The Heart of Another (1941)

I took the image that accompanies this post a couple of days ago in Pondside Park in Harrington Park, a few towns away from me in Bergen County, NJ. I was coming back from a trip into Rockland County, NY when I saw this park on the side of the road, and pulled over for a walk.

I have increasingly felt that autumn is all too short a season in my part of the country, with warmer temperatures encroaching on the traditional point marking fall. The past several days, however, the temperatures have dropped and the winds have whipped up. I had to pull my scarf around me a little more tightly the other day as I circled this pond.

Leaf-changing—heck, leaf disappearance—can occur so rapidly these days. The magnificent profusion of colors seen on trees just a couple of weeks ago is all gone. The many leaves crunching beneath my feet were all brown, as were those that remained on trees for now.

So, to take up the question posed by Gellhorn so long ago, how long will winter be? I might have worried more about global warming if we continued to have balmy temperatures at this point. For now—fingers crossed—Earth is back into its usual rhythms, I hope.

Photo of the Day: Pascack Brook County Park, Westwood NJ

I took the image accompanying this post a week ago while visiting Pascack Brook County Park, about a 20-minute drive from where I live in Bergen County, NJ. 

Though there are picnic areas, pavilions, playgrounds, and athletic facilities, this pond, with its circular walking path, is the centerpiece of the 79-acre park.

Photo of the Day: Saddle River County Park, Ridgewood, NJ

The Northeast has had its share of low temperatures and damp conditions since the official start of spring. But warmer days (think: high ‘70s) have alternated enough with these periods to lure out the buds on at least some trees.

That was certainly the case the other day when I walked in Saddle River County Park, not far from where I live in Bergen County, NJ. I was especially taken with the landscape in this image, with cherry blossoms springing to life with the park’s wild duck pond and fountain in the background.

Quote of the Day (Henry David Thoreau, on a Pond in Winter)

“Out on the silent pond straightway
The restless ice doth crack,
And pond sprites merry gambols play
Amid the deafening rack.
 
“Eager I hasten to the vale,
As if I heard brave news,
How nature held high festival,
Which it were hard to lose.
 
“I gambol with my neighbor ice,
And sympathizing quake,
As each new crack darts in a trice
Across the gladsome lake.”— American essayist, naturalist and poet Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), “Fair Haven,” in Collected Essays and Poems, edited by Elizabeth Hall Witherell (2001)
 
I took the image accompanying this post during the winter four years ago in Pascack Brook County Park in Bergen County, NJ.

Photo of the Day: Walden Pond Reflections, Van Saun Park, Bergen County, NJ

Temperatures in the low 80s this afternoon brought out pandemic-exhausted visitors to Van Saun Park, not far from where I live in Bergen County, NJ. I took this photo while circling Walden Pond there. 

Photo of the Day: A Break From a Dreary Sky

It doesn’t sound very extreme, but throughout the morning and half this afternoon, my area of northern New Jersey was in the grip of a gray drizzle. Gradually, almost imperceptibly, the droplets from the sky ceased, and I waited impatiently for the sun.

When the sky opened at last, I made a break for it. My restless spirit took me on a 20-minute drive to Pascack Brook County Park. As I neared the entrance to the 79-acre park, the combination of the sun and the snow left on the ground produced a white curtain of light rising from the still-icebound pond.

Had the sun come out earlier, I’m sure throngs would have lined the path encircling the pond. Still, I didn’t mind. The few walkers who did turn out made me smile, consisting as they were of parents with very young kids and dog owners with very small pooches. (I mean, small enough to deposit in a handbag, had they wanted.)

Puddles were as deep as they were widespread, but no matter: It was worth it to bolt out the door, take a drive, and come away with this photographic memory of how I seized the day.

Photo of the Day: Fountain, Saddle River County Park, Ridgewood NJ

Many times over the past couple of decades, I’ve circled the wild duck pond in Saddle River County Park, north of where I live in Bergen County, NJ. But until this afternoon, I had never done so while so much of the surroundings in this suburban arcadia were taken up by snow and ice.

Most of the pond, it turned out, was still frozen over. But after two days when the thermometer exceeded 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the small northern part of the water had opened up, concentrating the attention of walkers like me, in a way it never had been in the non-frigid seasons of the year, on this fountain.

So I eagerly photographed this moment in time, this promise of better things, so needed now, in this season of death, in this region and even this country.

Photo of the Day: Gray Skies and Fountain, Roosevelt Common, Tenafly, NJ

Though I live more than two miles away, Tenafly’s Roosevelt Common has been a constant in my life for 45 years. The site’s memorial to Theodore Roosevelt holds its interest, but above all, its pond has been a source of tranquility and even beauty for me.

The fountain at the center of the pond especially drew my interest today—enough, obviously, that I photographed it.

The thermometer may have read 49 degrees but with no sun, it felt cooler. Elsewhere in town, even as seats and tables remained in place for outdoor dining, they were largely unused, with potential patrons no doubt discouraged by the plunging mercury.

The gray sky seemed an appropriate reflection of the gray spirits so many have felt in this region of the Northeast in recent days as COVID-19 cases increase, along with the probability of tighter restrictions on business and private gatherings.

Given these circumstances, then, seeing this pond and fountain didn’t make my heart soar. But it was a sign of life, the way water always is, even amid a contraction of nature that has felt more severe this year than ever before.

Photo of the Day: Tappan Memorial Park, Tappan, NY

Last week I visited this park, located behind Tappan Library, on a short drive across the New Jersey border into Rockland County, NY.

It would have required an aerial shot to convey the pond’s curve, but I was still taken enough with it to take this photograph.

Photo of the Day: Reflections and Wires, Winter’s Pond, Mahwah NJ

On a trip up to Mahwah in northern Bergen County yesterday to dine outside with a friend, I spotted this lovely site on the right side of the road. I could only make out one sign as I drove back: “Duck Crossing.” The site turned out to be Winter’s Pond, part of the township’s Winter Park, named after a family long associated with the town.

The first recorded mention of this pond was back in 1799, when John Winter used it to power his sawmill. The mill ceased to operate in 1894, but since then the site has been used for other purposes, including running ice houses and serving as a popular ice skating spot.

More recently, from 1992 to early in this past decade, cleanup of the pond and park was conducted, including dredging the pond and adding a covered bridge and gazebo, both of which added to its picturesque flavor. Even after so much time and different uses, you can still see evidence of the industry that has formed a part of this area's life in the wires and towers visible in this photo I took yesterday.

Photo of the Day: Pondside Park, Harrington Park, NJ

A couple of days ago, I took advantage of the abundant sunshine to walk around Pondside Park, seven miles from where I live in Bergen County, NJ. I relished the chance to walk the wooden path around a 32-acre park I have rarely visited, and not at all during the months of the COVID-19 outbreak. I took many photos as I walked around, including the one here.

Cooler temperatures may have led much of the wildlife often in abundance here to move on. But I did see a heron, who appeared quite surprised by the attention he was receiving from a solitary photographer.

Photo of the Day: Pond Garden, Berkshire Botanical Garden, Stockbridge, MA

I took this photo three years ago, as part of a visit to Berkshire Botanical Garden, a 24-acre site even more picturesque than the town in which it’s located: Stockbridge, MA.

This man-made pond with a waterproof liner sustains all kinds of life: frogs, toads, dragonflies, salamanders, and water beetles. But, for anyone not particularly interested in observing these creatures at close range, the pond garden is simply a good spot to catch one’s breath amid the noise and haste of the world.

Photo of the Day: Spring at Roosevelt Common, Tenafly, NJ

Just before the weekend, Gov. Phil Murphy signed an executive order reopening New Jersey’s state parks and golf courses. I have never been interested in the latter, but lack of access to the former because of the coronavirus—and the associated shutdown of county and city parks—did as much as anything this past month to dispirit me and make me feel closed in by this all-engulfing crisis.

Still, I decided this weekend not to take my chances with even the county parks, as the governor’s relaxation of his prior order came with a cap of 50% of parking capacity. With temperatures over 70 degrees this weekend, and with the possibility of New York visitors pouring in, I did not want to be around any areas sure to test Murphy’s (not to mention the police’s) tolerance for “knuckleheads.”

So I went to a smaller, less frequented park—Roosevelt Common, about two miles from my home in Bergen County, NJ. Even here, there were limits, with the tennis court closed off to users, along with the centerpiece of the site: a stone monument honoring the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt, America’s first conservation President.

I had wanted to get a picture of this memorial to T.R. for a different reason: to honor his strenuous effort in 1906 in passing perhaps the most enduring and beneficial legislation of the entire Progressive Era:  the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act. 

To state what should be obvious but which, painfully, far too many don’t see today: that achievement has been undermined in the last few weeks by the current occupant of the White House, an individual who, by undercutting any Presidential role in safeguarding every American against untested and even insane medical "cures" and food hazards, richly deserves the nickname given him by one of my friends: “The Orange Menace.”

Though I was sorry that a fence kept me from photographing the Roosevelt memorial, the Common still offered unfettered access to the principal feature of its natural landscape: the pond. It doesn’t take long to circle it, but for decades it has never failed to soothe my spirit. I hope others may enjoy it for generations to come.

Photo of the Day: Lily Pond, George Westinghouse Memorial, Pittsburgh PA

While I was being driven around in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park a few weeks ago, this lily pond practically beckoned me to get out and photograph it. My fascination increased with each step I took, especially when I discovered that a) this was the George Westinghouse Memorial for one of the great figures of America’s Industrial Revolution, and b) that creator of the sculptures here was Daniel Chester French, the genius behind the Lincoln Memorial.

The film The Current War came and went too quickly for me to catch this past fall. When it comes to DVD—especially now that I’ve had a chance to see the George Westinghouse Memorial—I will be sure to see it, for in many ways its subject matter—the struggle between Westinghouse and Thomas Edison over their two competing power systems (alternating and direct current, respectively)—is crucial to understanding the course of American business in the last century and a quarter.

Westinghouse was neither as flamboyant nor eccentric as Edison, but he richly merited this beautiful point of stillness in Schenley Park. In 1930, 16 years after his death, roughly 55,000 employees at his former firms chipped in to raise $200,000 for this memorial—$2.5 million in today’s dollars, an extraordinary amount at a time when the Great Depression was already being felt. (Surely, they were grateful because, in those pre-Social Security days, Westinghouse was among the first industrial magnates to establish a retirement pension system for employees and dependent family members.)

Some 15,000 people came to the ceremony dedicating this memorial, which was designed by architects Henry Hornbostel and Eric Fisher Wood in a modern style but many beaux arts influences. Originally, the pond was supposed to be filled by a natural stream, Phipps Run, but storms forced the pond to be retrofitted as an artificial water feature. Over time, the pond no longer held water.

The firm of Pashek + MTR was commissioned to bring the memorial closer to its original conception. The changes the firm introduced were meant to:

* restore a trail and overlook in the adjacent stream valley of Phipps Run;

* replace the random flagstone paving;

* reconfigure the pond’s mechanical systems;

* converted compacted lawn areas uphill of the pond into meadow rain gardens.

After years of fundraising and restoration, the memorial was rededicated three years ago this past October.

The story of Westinghouse and this memorial merits more details, which I’ll try to provide in the next week with another post or two.

Photo of the Day: Fountain Spray, Wood Dale County Park, Bergen County NJ

I took the attached photo this past Friday, on a visit to Wood Dale County Park in northern New Jersey.