I notice subtler difference in the regional terrain than someone from another place might. That is true everywhere. Sheep look alike, except to shepherds.
Driving west, the terrain starts becoming more open in the last few miles before leaving New Hampshire. Vermont is greener, or with lighter green of pasture land rather than forest. There is more slate. As it is still largely forest and hills/mountains, I doubt many would notice the difference. Railroads running north and south start right on the other side of the Connecticut River, and there are more of them through Vermont and on into the Lake George area. I don't think there are any trains in New Hampshire now.
That Green Mountain terrain prevails up to the waterways of New York, that historically-important stretch of near-continuous navigable water from NYC to Montreal. As soon as I got west of Saratoga Springs, though, things flattened out and were even more open. Agricultural land now, showing the first hints of Ohio. Coming from Ohio it would likely seem the opposite, with the impression around Rochester that they were seeing the first hints of New England.
True. I doubt I'd notice the terrain you speak of. I'm not noticing it like I think I should here in northern Alabama, southern Tennessee. I'm actively looking for it and it's eluding me. It is wanting to know what perennial plants I'll have a hard time killing that is fueling my search. Though many sites say camellias flourish around here, those I brought with me from Louisiana did not.
ReplyDeleteI've never traveled north of D.C. or east of Detroit. I've always intended to remedy that.
I notice subtler difference in the regional terrain than someone from another place might. That is true everywhere. Sheep look alike, except to shepherds.
ReplyDeleteI am reminded of my experience in visiting an old friend in my hometown. He lives at the end of a paved road, which is an estimated mile and a half in length. I never bothered to measure the length- "drive to the end of the road" sufficed. His house should be easy to locate, even after not having driven the road in years. I found out, not so easy. I kept driving on the road and not locating his house. I finally figured out what threw me off. A side road off the paved road to my friend's house, formerly a dirt road, had been paved with white stone. (limestone?). I unconsciously recognized the difference, which threw off my memory of the road.
My hometown is part of an ecotone (ecological boundary)- or near it- between primarily deciduous and primarily evergreen trees. Which I noticed well before I moved.
I have noticed that many areas in my hometown that were pastures during my childhood have now reverted to forest. A swamp has been gradually drying up.
The house where I lived for my first 3 years burned down in the '70s. Nonetheless, in previous trips back home I was able to locate where it had been (about 8 miles from where we moved.) The last time back home, I couldn't locate it.