Serpent Capstones in the Rain (Nonnewaug)

 I’m actually posting these photos in the reverse order in which they were taken. I returned from yet another Physical Therapy appointment on yet another drizzly yesterday, drove up the driveway, pulled up to the front steps, and sighed. There’s so much to be done, and I’m so far behind, I couldn't help but think. I should be embarrassed to show you these photos, of these capstones I’m trying to keep from tumbling down, but you know there’s always just the right day to see something you missed in the last 42 years or so…

This one I thought I knew so well, even to some possible feathers behind the eye:

If one looks closely, one might see a Snake head rather than a rectangular block, dressed with steel tools acquired sometime or other by someone associated with the Nonnewaug band of the Pootatuck, of the Paugussett, sometime around 1700, or perhaps as early as 1673.

But yesterday the stone seemed to transform before my eyes. It suddenly became another snake eye, another snake looking north, dressed with those steel European masonry tools:

A remnant of a smaller snake below the capstone snake(s):

"Just like Sacsayhuamán," joked Dr. Johnnie Rock Lobster... 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Snake_Form_at_Sacsayhuaman.JPG

More South End of the Big Lake (CT)

 Overlays on Snake-like Segments of Stones,

Other Acquired Images and LiDAR

West at top view:

http://wakinguponturtleisland.blogspot.com/2024/05/big-snakes-up-by-south-end-of-big-lake.html

Big Snakes Up by the South End of the Big Lake

 

I caught a glimpse of a gap in some stonework as I turned onto the highway north,

 by the south end of the Big Lake.

  I’ve passed by the spot a billion times, going to a million places, as they say.

I passed by for the billionth plus one just the other day and decided to stop next time, on my way home.

  Weaving past the tick colonies in the barberries, shoes and outer clothing treated with permethrin, it's just a short walk to the gateway in the stonework:

I'm reasonably sure that this may be the head of a snake,

a Big Snake, that Big Snake Being,

a Great Serpent:

Looking North, once again here's another one of those variants that's sort of square or rhomboidal or something that I don't really understand too well 

 

Two stones "stand up" against it...

Perhaps a horn?

I'm looking at the stacking details, the sizes of the stones, the colors... 

I at least think this is the otherside. I walked back along the upper, higher side of this row of stones, these big "stone wall-like" snakes, these stone cultural features of unknown age...

Back to the gateway:

Continuing south  - and up, a very important direction, I can only go so far before the tick infested barberries and rosa multiflora blocks the way:

I switch to the uphill side and easy walking:

There's not much visible of this sort of retaining wall sort of thing, so I spot a spot where I can ease over and down so that I can look up, to see what sort of stacking is going on:

There's a treefall spot where around two feet more of this segment of stone is exposed:

Back to the gateway and I headed home...

Lidar with west at top: