Let Your Freak Flag Fly, Little One!

My husband and I went for about a three-mile hike in the Barrens, which turned out to be the probable demise of my blue Kamik hiking boot. It made it all the way there, but the soles started dissolving and falling apart into black dust on the final half-mile home.

I've glued them with Shoe Goo, I've done what I could, but I suspect the damage is too severe to really salvage the boots. Before all of that, though, what a grand hike we had! As you can tell, I'm walking the shoes right off my own feet! I guess I'm not ashamed of that; there are worse fates. (And yes, I do have other assorted hiking shoes and boots to choose from; so no, I'm not barefootin' it due to this recent development!)

The vernal pools or ponds are in fine shape now, much larger and more full after last week's precipitation. It won't be long before we hear the peeper song that makes these woods ring. On our trip, I photographed three vernal ponds and one of the bigger Tow Hill ponds that was once upon a time an ore pit in Scotia's early days.

The vernal ponds are ephemeral and variable in size. They are present in about three seasons of the year, and they disappear in late summer. They do not support fish, which I understand is one of the key benefits of a vernal pond: no fish to eat the amphibians and their eggs and sub-forms!!!! Hooray!

This was the smallest of the ponds I photographed on this day. It is only about 12 feet across. However, it had the best reflections of any of the ponds, and so I say, Hey, little one: Let your freak flag fly!!! Fly it high! Celebrate the day with every color of the rainbow!

As far as a soundtrack tune for this photo, I couldn't decide between these two songs, so here they both are: Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga with Shallow at the Oscars; and Lynyrd Skynyrd with I Know a Little. And for the sub-story, of my poor boot that bit the big one, here's Tracy Chapman, with All That You Have Is Your Sole (I mean Soul).