Winding, Crooked Trails

Scanned panorama photos

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Scanned panorama photo

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A picture speaks........

Sometimes I see things in the desert

Like crows and bears, stuff like that.

  And other strange creatures

We have a winner

Kellynnw guessed correctly, well she didn't guess, she knew.  I don't think I know you Kelly but congratulations.

 It is in fact Goblin Valley State Park in Central Utah.  Off the beaten path but well worth the trip.  If you ever find yourself in Hanksville, Utah, stop at Blondie's and get a big fat cheeseburger, they'll plop it on the grill right there so you can watch it sizzle, see the cheese melt, and they'll also deep fry the potatoes in front of your very eyes, order a hand dipped shake, flavor of your choice, to go and drive on up the road and play with the mushrooms and goblins and creatures of all sorts..........and if you're really lucky it will rain and no one will be around and you can leave your clothes in a heap and have the experience of a lifetime, alone or not, doesn't matter, although, not alone, would be really fun.

You need more info, that's why god invented google   

More photos, cause my words are caught in my throat

This place.....unlike any other I've seen, but then I have seen several of those.  But really this one, otherworldly.  Anyone other than Neena know where this is?  I got lost once walking around among these weird little guys, like a maze.

This place wasn't white man "discovered" until mid 19th century.  By a cowboy looking for his cows.

Best thing is, no one is ever here, at least not when I've been there, which is three different times.

And yes, I've cavorted naked here, alone, but naked nonetheless.  For the joy of being naked and molded in the warm living shapes of redrock check out Katie Lee's "Sandstone Seductions" page 151, my copy is signed by the author who is now 85.  You get a chance, and have some extra time, google her, amazing woman.  I met her when she was 83 and she's still woman and a half.  She knew Glen Canyon before it was flooded better than anyone alive today, for that alone I was in awe upon spending a few moments with her.   She taught me how desirable one can be at 83. 

Any guesses?

Oh, and when it rains here, which I've seen once, it's winding rivulets of swirling chocolate ooze to stomp and splash in.  And every rain, and every wind, changes the shapes.

Like me naked, these photos are best viewed large.  Just sayin'.

Storm over the Canyon, as promised

First Friday

I was looking through some old photos this week and I stumbled across the originals of this little pine tree that was to become, and still is, my profile signature here.  I tool these photos of this tenacious little pine tree on September 16, 2002 in the early evening at Bryce Canyon National Park.  This view is a little different from the one over there to the right, looking the other direction.  My kids got me a Epson PictureMate photo printer for christmas and for anyone looking to print their favorite digitals I highly recommend it as a relatively low cost hassle free way to get prints that rival film quality.  It only prints 4 x 6's but anything larger can be taken to a photo shop for enlargement. 

I realized that I've seen this photo more than any other I've taken over the past few years and I don't even have a printed copy of it.  I do now.  It's a rather large file but it is best viewed large.  The tree is still there, I've seen it several times over the past few years.   Still hanging on in weather both calm and serene and through winter storms that roll through the canyons and threaten to take it tumbling down, down.  In fact, right after this photo was taken a late day squall moved through and I hung around to take some more pics, shielding the camera from the rain with my other hand.  Soon it passed and a beautiful rainbow appeared.  I'll look those up and post them this weekend, they show how fast the weather can change in this part of the world.  I didn't see the sign about lightning on the rim until I was on my way down.  Good thing.  I love that digital photos capture all the facts of the moment, date and time of day, camera settings.   I can recreate the timing of my life from my digital photography, it's memory being so much better than mine.  I remember the moments vividly, the camera records the facts, it's a wonderful partnership.

It's Friday, I got my first delicious night's sleep in what seems like ages last night, I'm energized, sensualized, and caramelized like an onion with all those layers of me held in place by a sweet sticky coating.  I think an onion falls apart when you caramelize it but it's my analogy so I'll take poetic license and depict it as I see fit.  Reminds me, I have to look see when my poetic license expires.

I think a dramatic license should have restrictions, don't you?

I could get further carried away, or perhaps should be, but I have to go to work.......ah sweet Fridays and unplanned weekends.

Color, cause I think we could all use some

Bugs, louder than I've ever heard them, ever, tonight, going on midnight.
Crickets, something else too, what other bugs make noise at night? From all sides, like bugsurround sound, loud.  Eerily beautiful.   Eighty degrees still, the world is on fire, no?  I can still lick the humility and humidity off my lips, this late. 

How does your garden grow?  You restless?  Yeah, me too.  Here come the dog days of August, yeah, August.

August:  Grand, inspiring awe or admiration.

Let's admire, shall we?  Ain't that one virginal? All pink and white.  See that 1. down there?  I can't make it go away.  Was part of the definition of august.  These pics are better bigger, but aren't most things?  Although I've been in this macro mood. Close is good.

1.  

Lessons learned

All spring and summer I've watched the teeming life out here in the five acre woods.  With the luxury of time and access I've spent dozens and dozens of hours out here, not counting the many hours sitting right here  gazing out the windows.  I walk out this back door ten, twenty times a day.  It really is a microcosm of an ecosystem, water and trees and undergrowth and squirrels, chipmunks, birds a plenty, humming birds, woodpeckers butterflys and bugs, flowers wild and planted, color, mostly deep rich green.  There are buckeyes and acorns and the constant popping of shells on the deck from squirrels overhead picking and peeling.  The creek dries and floods and has stones for chipmunk crossings and for birds to perch to drink water that is clear except for after a storm when it runs muddy chocolate.

There is death and sex and a food chain, woodpeckers pecking bugs out of dead trees, birds bobbing for worms, wood bees sawing at my hot tub.  There is beauty in the chain, a leaf laced by chomping, the chompers sexing as they eat, enlarge the photo, you can see the mounted couples. There is gentle rain and crashing thundering sky lit storms, snowfalls and scorching dry heat.  I don't manicure much, I've let it grow weedy in places preferring the natural spread or maybe I'm just lazy.

There is fire for cooking and warming, chairs for lounging, a tub for soaking, and enough privacy for intimacy and standing naked in the rain.  In many ways this wood, this space of green, is why I'm here.  I often wonder how different it would have been these past few months had I been confined to a tiny triangle of backyard, privacy fence surrounded yet with five, six houses within a heard whisper.  How confining and restraining it would have felt.  A house you really couldn't see out of and even if you could, there wasn't much to see.  It was a wonderful inner space but the walls would have drawn in, squeezed and pressed.

There are days, and evenings, that I think it is some of the only sanity I have. 

It took some time to be accepted into it.  For birds and other critters not to scatter upon hearing the door slide open.  Now, they stay, glance at me, and go back to their business.  They feed and live with me, sometimes only a few feet away.  I have a barking squirrel, another tiny one that is as brave as he is fast.  Fat doves eating from the ground, yellow and red finches who only eat niger, cardinals and blue jays for color, a visiting hawk who occasionally takes one of them for lunch.  Canadian geese V'ing overhead with squawks and a bull frog in a nearby pond that I hear at night.  Fireflies by the hundreds that light the night.

It's amazing what you see when you change your focus.