Nothing is more quintessential New England than the white painted wooden churches. When they are surrounded by all the colours of the autumn season they create a drama of their own in its calmness (maybe an oxymoron, but a true one).
We stayed at a small inn next to the Crystal Lake in the tiny village of Eaton Center. I got up in the early morning, when Jennifer was still asleep, to catch the church and the trees in its glory, but the mist was hiding it all. Disappointed, I returned to the inn and we had a nice breakfast while I regretted not being able to capture the image that I had seen the possibilities of the previous evening. When we left after breakfast and past the place again the mist was lifting, but the lake was still calm providing nice reflections and we stopped and captured the image here and below. I wasn’t the only photographer. This is a beautiful spot and the sandy beach was full of marks of tripod legs from other photographers before me. Still, it is a very tranquil place to reflect on nature’s beauty.
Some of the villages were so beautiful that they just demanded us to be there, capturing the contrast between the white churches, the red and yellow barns and the trees in all their green, yellow, orange and red. The image below is from Peacham, where we were lucky to arrive as the sun painted the clouds in the sky in yellow and orange and the sun lit up the trees on the hills in the background.
We had taken the wrong turn in the village, and before we captured the church and the barn we turned around the car at an old cemetery (it was called the Old Cemetery) and I got an opportunity to capture the late evening sun painting the tombstones in its warm colours. And next to the second image of the Old Cemetery in Peacham is another cemetery in Mount Holly in central Vermont. In both images the setting sun with its long shadows and warm light makes the atmosphere so calm and peaceful.
Just south of Peacham are two other villages that we passed on our way north. The morning had been grey, misty and dull and the clouds lifted as the day continued. But when the sun is hiding behind the mist and clouds, the colours become more saturated bringing its own charm to the setting. I photographed the villages of East Corinth and East Topsham with its churches, barns and houses surrounded by the trees in autumn colours.
The Connecticut River is for a long stretch the border between the states of Vermont and New Hampshire. The image below was captured with me setting up my tripod on the bridge crossing the river and capturing the autumn colours, the mist lingering above the tree tops and a forlorn church spire sticking up among the trees.
Above you can see the church in North Pomfret. A wonderful village, where we strolled and found plenty to admire. In a forthcoming post, I will show some other images of barns and their charming post office, but here I focus on the tranquil church.
And finally, below, we stopped overnight in Massachusetts and north of Worcester and captured the Old Stone Church at West Boylstone. I should have arrived earlier in the morning before the wind destroyed the opportunity to see any reflections of the lovely church, but then we would have missed our lovely breakfast. We stayed at a simple motel and had to go out to a small café too have breakfast. Each of us had a meal more reminiscent of a large dinner than a breakfast. Jennifer ordered blueberry pancakes. The lady told her that the dish contained three pancakes, but maybe she would be happy having just one of them. In the end, she couldn’t finish the only one she had ordered. Jennifer snapped the pancake dish with her iPhone, but she has to publish that on her Facebook account, as I haven’t those photos. And you, my readers, as a consequence have to do with my photos without reflections!
