Punched-hole cathedral

Interior, Fingerspan, Wissahickon Valley.

The shape of a finger

Fingerspan is secluded deep among the trees along the steep banks of the Wissahickon Gorge, just a short walk south from Livezey House, so that you tend to stumble upon it with surprise rather than seek it out as a destination. If you are in a hurry, you might think "What an odd little bridge," and keep on going. If you are in a more contemplative mood, you will stop in the middle of the span and admire the unique view of the Wissahickon through the punched-hole mesh. Then you might turn around and see the "knuckles" and the "nail" and realize that this is more than just a bridge.

When I think of a bridge, I think of a reaching, a touching, a connection. So I decided to use a finger, the shape of a finger, for the bridge.
-- Jody Pinto

A mini-documentary on artist Jody Pinto's inspiration, as well as footage of the installation of Fingerspan, can be found here: http://www.fpaa.org/child/Fingerspan-PeterRose.html.

Fingerspan

Fingerspan, on the east side of the Wissahickon Valley, a short walk south of Glen Fern.

Gimme Swelter

There's Alex, son of my girlfriend, earring buddy (despite the disapproval of his mother) , guitar hero, tuning his ax before the show at the School of Rock best in show concert out in the middle of nowhere on a hot hot afternoon in the middle of New Jersey.
"War, Children, it's just a shout away... "
How Rock and Roll can it be if your mother is there to give you thumbs up, but Alex pulled it off. As did all the other kids that day. A great show!

Forgotten beauty

The ruins of this fountain, which must have been beautiful when it was whole, emerge every winter when the undergrowth recedes. You will find it along Forbidden Drive near Lincoln Drive. By mid spring is has disappeared again.

Rinker's Rock

During [Edgar Allen] Poe's years in Philadelphia, 1839-1844, he often visited the Wissahickon. He advises those who would see the best of the creek to go out the Ridge Road to Roxborough, and, "taking the second lane beyond the sixth milestone, to follow this lane to its terminus." This route would bring him down to the creek almost opposite the Monastery. It was just below here, on Mom Rinker's rock, he saw the elk, that he wrote about in "Morning on the Wissahiccon," in The Opal for 1844.
-- The Wissahickon Hills, Cornelius Weygandt, 1930

Bunnies

Window display at Robertson's Flowers, Chestnut Hill, Sunday afternoon, March 2.

Children at Play

Detail from the sculpture Children at Play, Saylor's Grove, near Wissahickon Avenue and Lincoln Drive, Monday afternoon, February 25.

The plaque accompanying the sculpture reads:

CHILDREN AT PLAY
GIVEN BY
EDWIN DAVID WOLF
1938-1976
SCULPTURED BY HIS FRIEND
PETER ROCKWELL.

Toleration, another view

I'm cheating today -- this photo was taken two weeks ago, on January 26. I want to spend a little more time talking about this fellow.

The statue is known as Toleration, and stands as a tribute to the local Quaker tradition. It has been presiding over this spot on Rinker's Rock on the eastern ridge of the valley since 1883. To give you an idea of scale, he stands close to ten feet tall; this photo was taken from the trail at the bottom of Rinker's rock, maybe forty feet below. The Wissahickon itself runs about one hundred and fifty feet below.

The most outstanding characteristic of this statue, to me, is its obscurity. He's not easy to find, standing on a secluded outcropping of rock far from the most used trails. Most stumble upon him by accident.

Looking for snow

Taken around 9:00 this morning, atop Rinker's Rock, looking out toward the western ridge of the valley. That's the Toleration statue to the left. A dank, drizzly and cold morning, appropriate for February.

This has been a mild winter, with no more than a coating of snow. It occurs to me that if we don't get snow in the next week or so, the chances of it for this season will soon quickly diminish. In three weeks it will be March. To be sure, we can get a major snow storm in March -- anyone of a certain age living in Philadelphia in 1993 will remember that year's late season blizzard. But that storm is remembered as much for its rarity as for the amount of snow.

One response to public space

Detail from graffiti, under the Henry Avenue Bridge, Monday morning.

Face the face

Detail from an old water trough along Forbidden Drive between mile posts 4 and 4 and 1/2.

One of the delights of driving on the Wissahickon was the stops at watering troughs. Young bodies develop growing pains if too long subjected to the decorous sitting-still proper to a Germantown wagon. We always climbed down while father allowed Don or Nellie to have a drink at any of the watering places along the drive.
-- The Wissahickon Hills, Cornelius Weygandt, 1930.

Looking good for one hundred

Sunday afternoon, January 27.

The Walnut Lane Bridge turns one hundred this year. When it was constructed at the turn of the last century, it transformed the neighborhoods of Roxborough and Germantown, making it possible to travel from one to the other in minutes rather than in a day. It was a world class undertaking in engineering, being the largest poured concrete structure in the world, as well as boasting one of the largest central arches. Germantown's Cliveden of the National Trust will host an exhibit later this year commemorating the anniversary of the bridge's completion.

H'm, this would look good as a beer label.