• grass,  Plants,  quotes

    …lived well.

    The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.

    Ralph Waldo Emerson

    Driving to Red Feather Lakes to shoot senior portraits for a friend today. Haven’t been up in that area for quite some time. Have a wonderful Sunday!

  • clouds,  fountain pens,  grass,  horizons,  journal,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  Plants,  quotes,  writing/reading

    Who I’m Becoming

    … the truth is that we simply don’t know — we don’t know where life ultimately leads, we don’t know what we want or what to want, and we don’t really know ourselves. 

    Maria Popova

    I’ve mentioned before my belief of how little I think I think I know. Yet there are times when some sense of knowing does rise within me. This knowing is not about having an answer or solution to a problem. It’s a knowing that somehow changes my perspective on life, this world, people, and myself. I find this knowing to be one of the adventures in life, a place of growth. I am slowly learning small bits of who I’m not and who I’m becoming.

  • grass,  haiku,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  Plants,  sunrises,  writing/reading

    Something so simple

    cloudless predawn sky
    silhouetted needlegrass
    something so simple

    mws

    This image is from Pineridge Natural Area a few days ago. I went for the predawn meditation, to empty my monkey mind and allow nature to fill me with that sense of awe. It’s always a great way to start my day. I was entertained by a half dozen bats demonstrating their aerial acrobatics, silhouetted against the sky. Then I noticed this solitary needlegrass silhouetted against the orange and blue horizon dancing in the light breeze. Grabbed my camera since I had it with me. Something so simple. Have a great Friday!

  • clouds,  landscape,  sunrises

    The Grandeur of God

    “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”

    Gerard Manley Hopkins

    This scene was taken along Weld County Road 90. I drove around this morning in search of new locations to experience and photograph sunrises which offer wide open spaces, solitude, and silence. As I stood there knee high in grasses, a Dove cried out its mournful sad song while a Meadowlark sang to me. A coyote crossed the road and I must have seen a dozen Red Tailed Hawks. And one proud white tail buck stared me down. It is quite isolated, which is one thing I am looking for. I may have found what I was looking for. So be warned you may see more images from this location. Since it’s about 35 miles round trip it’s not going to be a daily visit. Anyway, I am grateful for this morning’s sunrise and the visible grandeur of God. Hope you have a wonderful day!

    Sorry for placing the horizon so close to the center (Well not that sorry.). 😂

  • fall season,  grass,  Plants,  seasons,  Uncategorized

    Fully into Fall

    I needed to scrape frost off my car windshield in order to meet a friend for coffee yesterday. Even though it was cool the warm October sun allowed us to sit comfortably outside. When I returned home the red fescue grass along the edge of the ponds was glowing in the mid morning sunlight. Later I sat outside, watched that 2 1/2 foot tall grass dance for me in the afternoon light and journaled. Last night was our third frost warning in a row. Yes, we are fully into fall in Colorado.

  • Dewdrops,  grass,  Plants,  quotes

    After the Rain

    A good photograph will prove to the viewer how little our eyes permit us to see. Most people, really, don’t see—see only what they have always seen and what they expect to see—where a photographer, if he’s good, will see everything. And better if he sees things he doesn’t expect to see.

    Leon Levinstein

    A light rain or drizzle dominated most of yesterday. It made my 54th class reunion picnic a bit cold and damp. A good time was had but I was still chilled a couple hours afterwards. Clear skies and sunshine this morning. The red fescue grass was bowing down from the weight of glistening raindrops begging to be seen and photographed.

  • clouds,  grass,  landscape,  Plants,  quotes

    Indigenous

    Cumulus clouds in the distance

    “… becoming Indigenous to a place means living as if your children’s future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it.”

    Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

    I have places inside and outside of the city that are sacred to me. I do not have civil ownership to them but I visit them because this is where I find quiet, solitude and regeneration. I cannot think of one place I visit where the hand of man has not trashed it in some way with beer cans, whiskey bottles, old tires, mattresses, chairs, cigarette butts, etc. It is a sign of how little we know about caring for our world, and those we share this land with or ourselves. I believe the care for the land must start with me.