Day 63: Green Mountains

Middlebury (town and college), Vermont, 6:50am-8:00am
chilly, post-storm, bunched clouds

Mountains make me nostalgic. I don't know if it's because I grew up in a valley of sorts, with mountains always in the distance, or if it's the universally-good memories I have of hiking and traveling in mountainous places.

This morning I was in Middlebury, Vermont for a gig at Middlebury College: smack dab in the middle of the amazing Green Mountains!

It was a little hard to discern which way was East, with clouds blocking the sun and an ambiguously lightening sky all around me, but I eventually found the pinker clouds and a good viewing spot by the track course.

It was a classically beautiful sunrise: dense blue clouds with hot-pink underbellies above blue mountains. Beams of dusty pink reached out of a couple peep-holes in the clouds.

Nearby, a stagnant pool of water, while not promising for aquatic life, nonetheless encouraged some trees and a lively chickadee population.

Bird of the Day goes to the Starling, however, who both grooved:

and melodicized (with reversing-truck accompaniment):


Recent research reveals that starlings are considered a kind of pest, which is a shame, since they are killer-singers!

**Update 12/5: My versions of the Starling melody: