My online journal sharing interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
“A Mystic sees beyond the illusion of separateness into the Intricate Web of Life in which all things are expressions of a Single Whole. You can call this Web God, the Tao, the Great Spirit, the Infinite Mystery, Mother or Father but it can be known only as Love.” Joan Borysenko
Listening to the news grieves this heart.
Voices cry warnings of a storm brewing
somewhere, every day, every moment.I want to turn away from it all,
cover my ears, bury my head in the sand,
still storm clouds rise on the far horizon.With diligence I stay alert listening to the
thunder of lies, watching for lightning bolts of anger,
each a sign of the growing storms of hatred.Oh, to wake from this nightmare, to discover
instead, a sunlight of love rising on the horizon,
offering us the gift hope. This is my prayer!ms
“Like my father, I believe that nonviolence is the antidote to what he called ‘the triple evils of racism, poverty and militarism.’ These three evils were consuming our hopes for community in 1964, and, fifty years later, we remain divided because of their festering effects.” Bernice King
A troubling time for me. Awoke around 3:00 am with distressing thoughts and images running through my head. I have never felt such anxiety in our society, and the world, as I do now. We have those who seem focused on using violence as a solution to quell the voice of people. Haven’t we proven violence is not the solution. Let’s focus on the welfare of people rather than warfare on people.
I made my first visit to the Soapstone Prairie Natural Area yesterday afternoon and evening. I have driven up to the gate before but it was late so I did not venture in. Well, last night was different and well worth the time and drive. The isolation, the quiet and all those birds captured me immediately.
It is one of the Natural Areas maintained by the City of Fort Collins and includes over 28 square miles of wide open vistas, pristine grasslands, miles of trails and world-renowned cultural resources. The city has set it up to be an educational classroom for both young and adult. Excavations in the 1930s by the Smithsonian and Colorado Museum of Natural History conclusively dated human habitation in North America to at least 10,000 years ago and gave new insight into the Folsom culture. Needles, beads and stone tools were found, making the Lindenmeier site the most extensive Folsom culture campsite yet found. They have a herd of bison on over 1,000 acres of pasture but with no visitor access. However, I could see the herd when I drove in the gate with binoculars. It is a large area with no city lights so they have more stars out there. 😊 Another reason I’ll go back!
“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.”―
And, for those who need to know it’s National Ice Cream Day, which happens the third Sunday of every July. Put it in calendar!
“The old Lakota was wise. He knew that a man’s heart away from nature becomes hard.” Luther Standing Bear, Oglala Lakota
I’m aware of how much more time I’m spending in nature. Seems the morning and evenings are always calling me. I took this image last night. But, this morning I took my latte, camera and journal to Red Fox meadows. A red fox scampered across Taft Hill Rd just as I turned into the parking area. Then as I parked the car a red tailed hawk rose up from the grass in the meadow but I did not see anything in its talons. I began to journal and listen. After about 5 minutes the fox came out a wooded area and into the grassy meadow. They were too far away to take a photo so I watched with my binoculars. They just sat there soaking up the sun and seemingly with eyes closed decided to lay down. Even I was enjoying the sun’s warmth. There were blue jays off to my right in a grove of trees having a rather loud discussion about something. I’m pretty sure it was not politics. I then watched a doe slowly walk out of the wooded area but staying close to the trees. I next had a short conversation with an elderly couple on a morning walk, both with canes. They lived nearby and said they were hoping to see owls. He was 88 and she was 83. Then as I started to leave a mother with two boys pulled up. I told them about the fox, deer and hawk which seemed to set expectations for some adventure. As they moved on the youngest told me, “Thank you Mr. Kind Man.” I believe, as does Luther Standing Bear, that nature can soften the heart!
On my walk around Dixon Reservoir I found this most beautiful plant I do not remember ever seeing before. At first I thought it was in the milkweed family because I found it near some mildweeds. But, it’s scientific name is Euphorbia marginata or called Snow-on-the-mountain. I would not recommend trying to say the scientific name if you have a mouth full of peanut butter, just saying. It has grey-green leaves along branches and smaller leaves in terminal whorls with edges trimmed with wide white bands, creating, together with the white flowers, the appearance that gives the plant its common names. I thought they were beautiful!
When I went to upload this image my laptop could not find any photos, either through Lightroom or Finder. I changed card readers and the same thing. Grabbed the manual and began looking up the card information on the card slots. Wanted to make sure I had the camera set up correctly as it is my first camera with dual card slots. I wanted it to be in the Sequence mode, storing images on the card in slot 1 until full then begin storing to slot 2. I had it set up right. I began to think it was a bad SD card. Put the SD card back in the camera and playback showed all the images. It was then that I found the images were stored on the second SD card. I’ve discovered that if you do not have the SD card all the way in, or not even have a card in slot 1, the camera will default to storing images in slot 2 if there is a card in the slot.
So, I learned two lessons yesterday. One was the information on this plant and the second one about my dual storage slots on the new Fujifilm X-T3 camera.