April 19, 2007

Dartmouth trees.

Old trees are complicated and wise:

Dartmouth tree

Trees near a church have religion:

Dartmouth tree

They speak to you through the perfectly Protestant stained glass:

Dartmouth tree

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

I do bonsai. I like to check out the "composition" of trees in nature, and I've gotta say that that first tree is one ugly tree.

Ann Althouse said...

It's been through a lot.

Anonymous said...

Well, one thing it never went through was a judicious pruning.

Bissage said...

At 150, every tree has the face it deserves.

Ruth Anne Adams said...

perfectly Protestant

What do you mean?

Anonymous said...

Must be an evil tree then, Bissage.

Brent said...

Absolutely LOVE your photography, Ann.

If I use one of your photos for my desktop, is that legal?

Jed Sorokin-Altmann said...

*sheepish grin* Now I'm depressed. I miss Dartmouth. :P

How is your visit up there going? As a Government major, I spent many hours in the Rockefeller Center, although I preferred Rocky 1 or 2 to Rocky 3, where they are hosting you. Rocky 1/2 are much more comfy chairs and a less cramped environment. :P

Anonymous said...

The panes make the window people. The panes are the key to the beauty of the whole thing. Also, the height. High ceilings are very often simply beautiful in themselves.

Please make a note of it, particularly if you are an interior designer or an architect.

Robert Burnham said...

I don't know for sure about that window, but those purple panes of glass may be a century or more old.

Old panes of glass — early 19th century and before — were made in cast-iron molds and typically show streaks, striations, bubbles, and other iregularities when viewed closely.

Even older windows (17th century) are often perceptibly thinner at top than the bottom because the glass has flowed. (It's just a supercooled liquid, after all.)

And the color: two centuries of ultraviolet sunlight tends to turn clear glass purplish.

So before you leave, you might want to take a very close look at those windows....

Chip Ahoy said...

Protestant as in Mennonites, Amish, Puritans, etc., not stained-glass-with-pictures loving Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, etc..

Scientifically, glass is liquid. Stains settle and glass droops over centuries. -- 100% of fact.

Ann Althouse said...

The church is from 1771. I have some more pictures which I'll put up soon. It's the most perfect church I've ever seen. Perfect and Prostestant.