Meditations at the Power Plant (2)

TRANSFORMATION

Site of the power plant today, at center

 Little remains today of the building that powered the granite industry at Halibut Point.

Lichens and blooming shad bush, early May

Natural elements have transformed the barren landscape. Bacteria and lichen spores carried through the air extend their colonies over sterile surfaces. The acids they release, and those from falling rain, make nutrients available to organic life. The physical forces of freezing and thawing, solar radiation, and weather break up stone into particles of sand and clay. Humus accumulates to improve water retention and soil texture. Pathways develop for the arrival of herbaceous and woody plants as the process accelerates.

The power plant c. 1909, center
Photo courtesy of the Sandy Bay Historical Society

The transformation of this lifeless terrain in the last century recapitulates the planetary development of the biosphere that evolved over billions of years.

Oxeye Daisies growing on the foundation

With favorable moisture in June daisy flowers blanket the power plant's remaining fragments of brick and concrete.

White-tailed deer browsing in the shrubbery

Reforestation proceeds by pioneering plants in the surrounding grout piles.

Cranberry blooming at the water's edge

The large cavity blasted out of the ledge beside the power plant fills continuously with ground water to sustain novel vegetation delivered by seeds from near and far.

Garter Snake closing in on a Bullfrog

The development of this little Eden draws diverse life, including the wily serpent.

The frog's narrow escape

Familiar Bluet damsel fly on lily pad

Once they arrive at the pond, certain damsel flies and dragonflies perpetuate themselves in the aquatic environment as egg and nymph stages beneath the water surface, to emerge as winged adults into our familiar world.

Painted Skimmer dragonfly on Loosestrife flower

Dragonflies use flowers as hunting perches for preying on smaller insects. Everything about their metamorphosis, their appearance, and their fast, agile flight mesmerizes observers of all ages. 

Spicebush Swallowtail on Pickerelweed

Butterflies seek out flowers to exchange pollination services for nectar. These progeny of different kingdoms are crucial to each other's needs.

Great Blue Heron foraging in Pickerelweed colony

Birds are the apex visitors both in creation and harvest of the pond. Quite possibly, and by chance, they have introduced varied germs of biologic life to this isolated spot as those species cling to, or pass through the digestive tract of, these boundless creatures that ultimately benefit from maturing ecological niches. 

*  *  * 

In last week's meditation I traversed from the currently blooming Japanese Andromeda through photographs of plants blooming successively later in the spring, without adequately noting that those flowers are not yet on display in the local landscape. So no, the site of the erstwhile power plant, while extraordinary in many ways, is not seasonally precocious. My meditation leaned to  mood rather than clarity.