Views from Long Johns Bridge

As readers of my previous photo essays well know, another of my favourite places to visit is Long Johns Bridge in Upper Southwest Mabou: the beautiful views it affords of the Southwest Mabou River appear in many of them. Photo #1 looks downstream from Long Johns Bridge and was taken six hours later on the same day as the grey view from the Colindale guardrails; in the meantime, the sun had appeared and even some blue sky with it. This is the best photo I have showing the state of the colours at Long Johns Bridge on this Friday, the opening day of the Celtic Colours International Festival; given the later afternoon hour, the sun didn’t light up the trees in this view anywhere near as well as the morning sun in the other views on this page, but you can still see that, while there is some fall colour, mostly reds, few trees have changed while some others are only tentatively starting to change.

Photo #2 is essentially the same view as in photo #1, but taken two weeks later, on my final day in Cape Breton; that day was the best for photography of any during my stay and I took as full advantage of it as I was able, delaying my departure from the Mabou area until 14h. Many more of the trees here are now in full colour, with the oranges and yellows dominant, but with a good representation of the earlier reds as well. The mixed hardwood/softwood forest here guarantees that greens will appear, but very few of the deciduous trees have retained their summer greens.

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Photo #3 is a wider-angled downstream view taken from the centre of the bridge. The lovely golden tree at the far left is glowing in the sunlight, a beautiful sight. Its neighbour to the right is one of the few deciduous trees that has kept most of its greens, though hints of colour can be seen at the tips of some of its branches. Through all these gorgeous colours, the lovely Southwest Mabou River flows on tranquilly, rather deeper than it was during this summer’s drought and deep enough to reflect the blues of the skies overhead. I find this peaceful scene simply enchanting; what a lovely place!

Photo #4 shows some of the beautiful trees on the west side of the river looking upstream. The reds of the trees at the right are most intense close to the water; they are attenuated higher from the ground, where they intermix with some yellow leaves and some unchanged green leaves. The yellows of the trees left of centre are similarly intense, becoming less so as the eye moves towards the reds at the right. Too bad such beauty is so fleeting!

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Photo #5 looks further upstream where plenty of colours are visible in the sun, but here the yellows have it over the oranges and reds, though a few trees sporting those colours can be seen. The number of deciduous trees relative to the evergreens is significantly less than on the downstream side of the bridge. Also quite pretty is the tree in the upper middle above and to the left of the tree sporting the red branches in the centre; it has just begun to turn and is now showing an amalgam of greens and oranges—one wonders what colour it will ultimately wear once the change is complete. Orange, perhaps, like the tree below it and to the left?