Monthly Archives: October 2009
A short break
I drove to western Maryland this morning for a (very) short vacation. I’m only staying over tonight.
I visited Swallow Falls State Park earlier this afternoon. Beautiful as always, the falls were flowing with great force today. At one point, I sat down on a huge boulder just to the side of Little Swallow Falls; it was all mine for nearly half an hour, and I could almost have thought myself the last person on Earth. The forest around the falls is nearly all hemlock, white pine, and rhododendron, which, in concert with the lush, green ferns, gave the park a deceptively summery feel. I’d like to visit again in the winter. Such lush greenery would complement a snowfall very well.
Here’s a photo that I took of Tolliver Falls, which is probably the most photogenic (but, ironically, probably the least famous) of all the waterfalls at Swallow Falls State Park.
By way of an introduction
When I was much younger, my taste in classical music was almost completely encompassed by the sunny (musically speaking), late eighteenth century. My musical world was the world of Mozart, Haydn, Dittersdorf, Salieri, and Johann Christian Bach. Somewhat later, when I became involved in the early music underground of northern Delaware, I finally developed an appreciation and love for (J.S.) Bach, the seventeenth-century Germans, and the French baroque composers. (My early distaste for Bach wasn’t grounded in disgust for his music, but, rather, in fear and awe for its technical demands.) Still, I never cared for the moodiness of nineteenth century symphonic music; listening to Beethoven was a stretch. But just as I’ve aged, as life has become more complicated and less easy, so, too, has my love for Brahms and Bruckner grown.
And so, I’m not sure why I’m ready to give blogging a try again. My last abortive attempt failed as miserably as does my memory in trying to remember its URL. Just as well, I suppose. Maybe I’ve grown up in the meantime. Or maybe not.
