• landscape,  natural areas,  Plants,  poems,  poetic journal,  writing/reading

    It’s Mysterious

    Taken on my walk around Dixon Reservoir this evening

    forest fires destroy
    leaving a path of darkness
    yet new life will dawn

    it’s mysterious
    the laws of nature baffle
    senseless to logic

    ms

    The Lewstone fire is at 100% containment. People returned home yesterday. The Cameron Peak fire is over 21,000 acres and 0% containment. But yesterday evening they had a few showers which helped them. Today the skies are much clearer. We can see the mountains again.

    This afternoon I took the 1.8 mile walk around Dixon Reservoir. Eerily quiet for the first half hour I was there. I was able to finish John O’Donohue’s book today, Walking in Wonder. Plan on starting a Mary Oliver book of poems next. Hope you have a great evening and wonderful day tomorrow.

  • clouds,  horizons,  landscape,  sunsets

    Here we go again…

    Helicopter with bucket heading to the latest fire, the Lewstone Fire

    Yesterday afternoon a new fire began in the Rist Canyon Area. It began as a brush fire and is located about 12 miles from my condo. The above image was taken yesterday evening around 6:40 pm at Reservoir Ridge Natural Area, a favorite hangout for me. Here is what that scene normally looks like at sunset. This is in the same vicinity of the High Park fire back in 2012 that burned over 87,000 acres and killed one woman. Needless to say the air quality is horrible at the present moment. We are now getting smoke from our two fires and but also the smoke from California fires are now moving into the area, even reaching as far east as Nebraska. 

    If you look closely in this image you can see the helicopter carrying a bucket of water to the fire. They have brought in firefighters from the Cameron Peak Fire in an attempt to gain control as quickly as possible. But, we are talking about nature which we have no control over. Last report I saw this morning the fire had grown to 140 acres at 11:00 pm last night with 0% containment. 

    The Cameron Peak fire is now over 19,000 acres and at 0% containment. Weather conditions are not good. Temperatures are expected to be in the 90’s the next five days with no precipitation. I’m inside this morning with my door closed because of the smoke. Not burying my head in the sand but trying not to take in any more smoke and soot than necessary. Probably not going to run a marathon today but I will try to get my walk in.

  • Fujifilm X-T3,  Fujifilm XF35mm f2.0,  landscape,  rants,  sunrises,  writing/reading

    We do not give up hope

    This morning’s sun wanting to shine through

    Smoke hovers over the city
    The foul smell of smoke, now choking
    The amber color uninviting, otherworldly
    So quiet, birds sing in silence or elsewhere

    Despairing mood in this darkened world
    Close my eyes, pray for a brighter day
    Open my eyes, but nothing changed
    I go for a mocha, stare at blank pages

    I sit in the quiet, seek the light within
    Wishing it will shine on this gloomy day
    Now write words, they keep me in the present
    Even in this blackness we do not give up hope

    ms

  • landscape,  natural areas,  poems,  sunsets

    Sometimes

    An late afternoon walk at Arapaho Bend Natural Area in 2017

    SOMETIMES
    by David Whyte

    Sometimes
    if you move carefully
    through the forest,
    breathing
    like the ones
    in the old stories,
    who could cross
    a shimmering bed of leaves
    without a sound,
    you come to a place
    whose only task
    is to trouble you
    with tiny
    but frightening requests,
    conceived out of nowhere
    but in this place
    beginning to lead everywhere.
    Requests to stop what
    you are doing right now,
    and
    to stop what you
    are becoming
    while you do it,
    questions
    that can make
    or unmake
    a life,
    questions
    that have patiently
    waited for you,
    questions
    that have no right
    to go away.