Home › #BlackstoneRiver › SQUARED PERSPECTIVE – BLACKSTONE RIVER – PHOTOS By GARRY & MARILYN ARMSTRONG

SQUARED PERSPECTIVE – BLACKSTONE RIVER – PHOTOS By GARRY & MARILYN ARMSTRONG

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Square Perspectives – 26 July 2020

So far, I’ve offered mostly closeups. Birds, a tiny chipmunk, squirrels. This time it the Blackstone River. These are photos I took in June, but they’ve been sitting in my “in box” ever since. Late last night, I decided it was time to do something with them. This is summer in the Valley.

Stone bridge over the Blackstone

If it weren’t for the bugs — which are having a great year with the warm winter and the current heat wave — and the humidity, it would be a beautiful time of year. Between the lethal mosquitoes and COVID-19, it hasn’t been a great year in any way at all. The changes in weather are bringing exceptionally hot weather which we are warned may be “the future” for this area. Between the heat, disease and the sharks lurking off the beaches along the Cape, Summer is not a great time for people, though I hear the insects and many birds seem to find the weather pleasing.

 

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Categories: #BlackstoneRiver, #Photography, Nature, New England

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8 replies

  1. Alli Templeton
    07/28/2020 • 03:29

    Absolutely beautiful photos, Marilyn. I wouldn’t have thought that rivers would lend themsevles to square format pictures very well, but clearly I was wrong. Love the bridge, and that last one needs framing. 🙂

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  2. swo8
    07/26/2020 • 10:49

    I love how the bridge and its reflection look like an eye.
    Leslie

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  3. BeckyB
    07/26/2020 • 10:23

    wow that last one you have created is a work of art, and just loving all the others that you and Garry took. Wonderful perspectives – when you look at these can almost forget the pandemic and climate change troubles

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    • Marilyn Armstrong
      07/26/2020 • 15:23

      I think I’ve taken at least a thousand pictures of that bridge. First, it looks amazing during every season. It is exceptional in Autumn — if we still GET Autumn — and if you can slog through the snow — assuming we get any snow this year — it is beautiful in the winter and of course, summer. There’s a big (free) parking lot next to it. They’ve fixed the ruts in the paths (last winter’s heavy rains washed them out), added a couple of picnic tables and steps to more easily get up and down the the hills to the river. It’s just about 3 miles from our door to the park which is actually a series of four or five parks, all along the Blackstone River and Canal, so if you are a good walker (or runner), you can go from park to park.

      We used to walk our dogs along those paths which were created for horses to pull raw materials from the mills as far away as Worcester all the way to the docks in Rhode Island. Uxbridge was a much bigger town back then, too. We are right in the middle of the river and there were many mills in our area and the immediately adjacent area of Rhode Island. Big canals like this one … and many smaller ones that ran from a river directly to the mills so they could load up on small barges and move them to the bigger barges in the main canal.

      All the big barges went downstream, so the water did a lot of the hauling. Amusingly, the men walked alongside the horses, not in the wagons since space was valuable and they didn’t want to waste any of it on people.

      In the winter, when nobody is around, you can let your dogs run loose — assuming you trust them not to decide to jump into the water (I had a water dog who saw anything wet and had to leap into it … which was nerve-wracking when there were dams with falls nearby!). I’ve had Scotties who couldn’t swim — to much body, too short in the legs — who nonetheless loved water and would occasionally decide to dive out of the canoe into the lake, causing first ex-husband to take the next dive to rescue a wet Scottie. You’d think that would stop him, but it didn’t.

      We eventually confined him to the shore where he could wade up to his chest and wallow in the water.

      The Blackstone, now that it has MOSTLY been de-polluted, is a beautiful river. There are parts of it that are designated as safe for swimming and most of it is safe for kayaking … but there are a lot of pontoons to warn people of upcoming dams.

      Photographically, Garry’s a bit more adventurous around the river, but he can walk up and down the hills easier than I can. I have to depend on long lenses and I don’t get as interesting a perspective as he does.

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      • BeckyB
        07/26/2020 • 15:32

        Thank you so much for sharing so much history and memories. I am even more in love with it now.

        Just glorious, can see why the dogs have been tempted over the years.

        and yes the same here with regards no space for the humans in the boats.

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