Five

SATURDAY, JULY 16, 2005

There is an inherent quiet around Quabbin Reservoir. It could simply be because Quabbin's serenity is such a change from the hustle and noise of Worcester and its just-as-noisy surrounding suburbs. The lush greenery we encountered on our hike seemed to act as insolation against the outside world.

I am fascinated by the fact that Quabbin was created at the price of Dana, Enfield, Greenwich, and Prescott--the four towns that were flooded. It lends a somewhat eerie atmosphere to it all knowing the ghosts of those towns are submerged beneath the water. We have friends who collect antiques and at one time, about twenty years ago, they owned an old fire truck from one of the flooded towns. Alas, I can't remember which town.

Last Saturday, we hiked up Soapstone Hill and on the way came to an old soapstone quarry. The water was an interesting light green color which was covered with, I believe, duckweed. Even the frogs were the same almost irredescent green. See photos at right.

David and I had visited the Fisher Museum at Harvard Forest last summer when we hiked one of the trails. I remember, particularly, the diorama titled "Old-Field White Pine is Succeeded by Hardwoods 1915 A.D." and being amazed at its description: "Clear-cutting of the "old-field" white pines led to the succession of mixed hardwoods across much of the landscape. The inability of white pine to sprout after being cut, in contrast to the prolific sprouting of our hardwood species, facilitated this succession." It was a new concept to me that one kind of tree could be chopped down and a completely different species grow up in its place.

I was very impressed with the intricate detail of the trees and figures displayed in those dioramas. The artists did a great job capturing the details of each scene using, among other materials, copper wire, clay and wax.

It took me a long time, but I finally found the name of the wildflower at the right. It is Spotted Wintergreen. I found it on this amazing website for the Connecticut Botanical Society. Under the "Wildflower" section, the flowers were listed according to their family (heath, primrose, orchid, etc.) as well as their color--which is GREAT, because, chances are, I won't know a darn thing about the flower I'm looking up except for its color. That website is like an online version of "Identifying Wildflowers for Dummies."

There are more images below from our day at Quabbin, climbing Soapstone Hill.