Bright Water Bog

[asakiyume]

We went for a walk at Bright Water Bog in Shutesbury, MA, yesterday. It was a misty, moisty, equinoctial day, with ice still present in places.

It was perfect. I do love-love-love places that blur water and land. Best of all? There were cranberries. Enchanting.

Cranberry, lower portion of the photo




Cranberry, upper portion of the photo


Cranberry, near the center of the photo


I saw a few just out of reach and was going to put a foot off the boardwalk and onto a tussock to pick one.

"I don't know if that's solid," Wakanomori said.

So I pressed on it with my hand, and down, down my hand went into that cold water. Not solid! Magic.

Canada geese or maybe otters or moose deliver mail here, I think:


Actually it's a geocache location.... shhhhhhh

This lichen-bespangled pine sapling is enjoying the acidity of the bog.


So much beauty--a mingling world of blurred boundaries.

Comments

[troisoiseaux]

The close-up pictures are so cool!

[asakiyume]

It was a truly beautiful place. In my brief experience, bogs are beguiling places!

[sartorias]

Oh that is so very lovely. Thanks for posting these!

[asakiyume]

My great pleasure! I wish I could take you to this spot in this season!

[summersgate]

What a lovely walk in a BOG! Thanks. I've never been in bog.

[asakiyume]

I've only been in one or two others--they have very much their own unique look!

[sovay]

Cranberry, lower portion of the photo

I love this picture best. The skin of water. I am so glad you had a bog!

[asakiyume]

The skin of water, and under it, the sky--a sky filled with moss and leaves and pine needles!

I thought of you and Spatch. You guys should visit there next time you come out this way!

[sovay]

I thought of you and Spatch. You guys should visit there next time you come out this way!

He didn't recognize the bog by name, which it only seems to have had for the last year, but guessed correctly where it had to be and knows the area. Thank you for the trail map! I'll pass it on.

[asakiyume]

My pleasure! If and when you visit, I'll look forward to your photos!

[ellenmillion]

I love these photos! I miss my tiny worlds.

[asakiyume]

Yes, you're still in deep snow! But your season of tiny worlds will come 🌱

[house_wren]

Thank you for the boggy walk!

[asakiyume]

My pleasure--thanks for joining me!

[missroserose]

This was a lovely bit of joy, thank you :)

[asakiyume]

Very happy to share it with you 🌱

[radiantfracture]

Cranberry bogs are so cool. Excellent photos.

[asakiyume]

They are! And this isn't even a cultivated one--this is just a wild bog with some wild cranberries growing in it!

(And thanks--it was all the doing of the subject matter.)

[wayfaringwordhack]

Your closeups are like immersive paintings. Beautiful.

[asakiyume]

It was a most enticing bog--really made me want to actually immerse myself (though then I would have been very cold, so... best not to).

[heleninwales]

That's a lovely boardwalk through the wetland. Bogs are such an interesting and varies habitat. Our bogs are mostly peat bogs though, but there are other wetlands in lower lying areas.

[asakiyume]

I'm wondering if most bogs don't form peat after a while? Your comment sent me looking at types of bogs to see if I could figure it out, but it would require more time. But regardless, depending on where they're located, they look like they can be very various! What I like about this one and the other one I remember visiting is how many different *little* plants I can see: on a tiny scale, full of variety.

I love ~~all the wetlands~~

[cmcmck]

Sadly they don't grow wild here although many berries do!

[asakiyume]

The UK is blessed with wild berries, that's for sure! Love your summer brambles.

[puddleshark]

Oh, that is so beautiful. And the cranberries like jewels! I can see how they might lure the unwary to step from the path...

Thank you!

[asakiyume]

very, VERY tempting!

[smokingboot]

Magical equinox cranberries!

[asakiyume]

When we were there, I had not realized it was the equinox. After the fact, it made the whole thing all the more perfect.

[osprey_archer]

What beautiful photographs! And I love the idea of a post box for someone who lives in the bog, coming in by canoe perhaps to collect their mail...

[asakiyume]

Yes, a bog selkie. Where here "selkie" means, I guess, an otter shifter or maybe a beaver shifter.

[umadoshi]

Those are absolutely gorgeous photos!

[asakiyume]

I am so glad you like them! I can say that they faithfully represent this gorgeous place.

[rimturse]

Gorgeous! So, similar to where I live, and yet, there's something just slightly "off" with the colours and vegetation, which makes it very interesting. :)

[asakiyume]

I am so glad you have bogs near you! The coloring of this one will probably change as spring advances.

[rimturse]

They definitely have their own beauty. We don't have that many left in Denmark. Only 4.5% of the country is covered in bogs, compared to 25% some 125 years ago. We're lucky to have them and other similar-looking wet areas fairly close to where we live. :)

And we of course have bog bodies, the best known are the Tollund man and the Grauballe man.

[asakiyume]

When we went walking in the bog, part of me wanted to lie down in it and just be a bog body!

[rimturse]

lol... hopefully that won't happen for a very long time!