Photographer's Log Photographer's Log

RESTING ISLAND IN THE STORM
February 2006. It was nearly dark as I drove along Stump Church Road in one of the few snowstorms that befell us last year. As is so common when snow is falling it was very silent, peaceful. It being near dinnertime during the snowstorm I was pretty much alone on the roads. Minutes before I had stopped to admire the beautiful old white Stump Church in the driving snow of the approaching evening. After driving on this farm came into my field of vision as I rounded the corner.
Through the tree branches and snow the outbuildings and silos of this farm looked like a group of sojourners gathered closely together, bravely keeping the cold and snow of winter at bay. They seemed to be waiting on the spring (which was not far away) to release them once again into animation from their long winter’s solitude and slumber.
The little horses seeking shelter next to the shed wall seemed to express accepted weariness with the inevitability of the blowing wind, chilling wet snow and enforced home-bounded-ness of it all. You could almost feel their hearts slowly beating in cadence with the heart-rhythm of the farm-island itself and all those upon and within it. The slow beat of a resting heart waiting, waiting.
In spring the quiet would end with hustle and bustle all around the farm. The dust of the earth and seed would fill the air in place of the propelling snow. The acres of white on the ground would give way to new carpets of green growing crops. The rustling sound of snow flakes falling upon buildings, ground and fur coats would be replaced with the roar of great farming machinery, turning earth, planting seed, pushing water, spreading fertilizer.
A resting island no more, the farm would rise with great stretches and yawns and spread out as far as the eye could see, reveling in the freedom which is brought by the warm sunlight and rains of Spring.
But, just then, in the twilight, I was viewing the great island of interdependent beings and structures quietly settling down after one more day of sustaining plans and unobtrusive work while awaiting nature’s release. -June Mohan

To contact the artist email her at: junemohan@hotmail.com.