It's Spring, the Cranes Have Arrived

The downtown area is bustling with several construction sites 

at various stages of progress. Among them is this site just north of the

Capitol Building which will be made up of apartments and

a large grocery, a much-needed amenity for the residents of the

many downtown apartments and condos.

At the end of last year, the site had been scraped, 

preparing it for this orchard of concrete pillars that will grow upward,

acquiring floors, walls, and HVAC systems that will eventually

become homes. If you look at the tops of the pillars, you can see

the little re-bar shoots that will have concrete poured 

over them to become additional levels.

As ever, I was enthralled by the sight of men working in a hole.

They were removing old transformers that had been part

of an earlier building on that site.

What had initially caught my eye, of course, was the huge crane 

that had been installed on the site last winter. There are numerous 

other cranes that move in and out for various tasks, such as

the removal of the transformers. The top image pleases me

because of all the textures and patterns in the picture.

None of them is decorative, all are functional, primarily

adding strength to what would otherwise be a flat piece of steel,

and allow the poured concrete to flow around and amid

the various components.

It seems as though the cranes are always around, 

but they seem to take on additional urgency as the weather warms.

It may be that the people are more visible; like pilot birds in service

to their host, they attend to the needs of the cranes

in order to obtain what they themselves need.