Breaking Light: A Shining Pathway Into the Sun

It was a morning when the moon played hard to get. The full lunar eclipse was supposed to be viewable from our area. However, dense cloud cover prevented me from getting even a single glimpse of the blood red moon. I am a moon lover, as many of you know from prior blips. To say I was disappointed would be a vast understatement.

However, life has its compensations. On my drive to work, the dark clouds and breaking light put on an outstanding show. And I knew just where I could find a decent vantage point to shoot it: the very tippy-top point in the Children's Garden of the Arboretum.

And so that is exactly where I went. And from where I was standing, I could look down into the Arboretum gardens and into the northeast side of Penn State's main campus. It's funny, but while I was standing there, I suddenly realized I've spent the last 30 years hanging out on this end of campus.

First, as a student in the early 1980s, I lived in North Halls, then a rented room in a house on East Park Ave. And I worked in Mitchell Building (at the corner of East Park and Shortlidge) for many years, until it was torn down and replaced by the business building you see standing there today (right side of photo).

And of course, then the Arboretum came along, with the first tree (the Hosler Oak, also known as the Witness Tree) being placed in the gardens in spring of 2005. And I've been visiting the Arboretum ever since, every chance I get. Out of curiosity, I looked it up: 133 (now 134, with this photo) of my Blips are photos I've taken at the Arboretum.

In all of the pictures I've taken there, this is the first really decent view I've found to capture the gardens from above. This shot wasn't even possible before the creation of Childhood's Gate, the Arboretum's children's garden, which I visited in July on the second day it was open to the world. The series of steppes you can see in the right side of a picture taken on that day is what I climbed to get this shot.

On this particular morning, every leaf and branch between myself and the Arboretum's solar clock was lit up with sparkles of water from the overnight rains. And the breaking light reflected off the stones of the solar clock itself turned them into a pathway into the sun. From my vantage point, I looked at them and thought: I could fly down and walk on that shining, sparkling pathway, if I had only had wings.

The song to go with this photo is a favorite, and I can't believe I haven't used it until now: Pink Floyd, with Shine On You Crazy Diamond. I'm including two versions: one is a traditional version performed live in concert. The other is a bit more mellow: an acoustic version performed by David Gilmour. If you saw the moon eclipsed on this morning, perhaps that can be your diamond. But I missed the moon, so my diamond will have to be this morning's sun. Enjoy!

Bonus links: The Arboretum's solar clock has been featured in several of my prior Blips, and just for fun, I'm including links here so that you can view the clock in several different seasons:
Thursday 5 July 2012: Heaven Is Under Our Feet
Thursday 20 June 2013: Arboretum Gardens in Summertime
Tuesday 6 August 2013: View of the Arboretum Strolling Garden
Thursday 6 February 2014: In Which Time Itself Slumbers Beneath the Snow
Friday 9 May 2014: Tulip Time!