This is an image for Photos.

Blotches and blurriness aside, I really like this photo. Stand back; your computer is spewing peacefulness all over you.

The mountain to the right is called Owl’s Head. It makes more sense in the daylight – its leftmost point is a big, gnarly rock face, rounded and jutting. When I hiked it as a kid (it’s not long – maybe 3 miles round trip), Dad would always take my brothers and me (at our request) on a little detour that led to an abandoned cave. You could stand up inside it and walk deeper, if you dared, but the dripping, echoey blackness seeping out the mouth always prevented us. A year or two ago my older brother and I went there and brought our flashlights (he builds his own – the type you really don’t want to point at someone’s face) and turned them on. To our disappointment, it was less than 15 feet deep. The spiders and murky puddles and slick black walls all seemed pretty pathetic in the searing light. The moral? Don’t seek out the pleasant places from your youth. The more time has stroked their memory smooth, the more bummed you’re gonna be.

(PS – Hey guys! If any among you who know how to use photo editing software are also frustrated by the dark splotches, I will totally post a fixed version if you send one to me.)