• Arapaho Bend Natural Area,  Art,  horizons,  landscape,  natural areas,  quotes,  sunrises

    It’s All Stories

    July 25, 2026
    Still waters at sunrise at Arapaho Bend Natural Area – May of 2023

    There’s always a story. It’s all stories, really.
    The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything’s got a story in it.
    Change the story, change the world.

    Terry Pratchett

    As photographers and creatives, I imagine we all hope that our images tell a story. On many of my blog posts, I also add content to express my experience of that moment, that morning, that evening, that day. In other words, I am telling a story. Was I cold? In a place of gratitude, or wonder? What birds were singing to me? What was I thinking or feeling? And hopefully the photograph, the content, or both have the potential to be a story capable of changing the world in some small way, including myself.

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  • quotes,  reflections,  spirituality,  sunsets

    A question to ponder

    November 7, 2023

    If we ever want to be happy, then, we need to move beyond the level of simple material satisfaction to the development of the spiritual dimension of what it means to be human. We not only need to find out what we do best and do it to the utmost. We also need to ask ourselves again why we were born. What is it that we have that the world needs and is waiting for us to provide?

    Joan Chittister
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  • landscape,  natural areas,  poetry,  writing/reading

    Afternoon Walk

    August 2, 2021

    Unwanted smoke cloaks the distant trees
    somewhere beyond is the unseeable horizon

    I walk around the pond listening
    longing for the birds song of hope

    I need the embrace of the natural world
    accepting the healing touch it offers

    It’s in the absence of the spoken word
    that I hear the quiet whisper from within

    With slow deliberate deep breaths I
    take an afternoon walk at the ponds

    ms
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  • Avian

    Yellow-Headed Blackbird

    June 10, 2011
    Yellow-Headed Blackbird

    These birds make their presence in our western wetlands. They usually breed in loose colonies and build their nests over water, attached to cattails and reeds. Along with its cousin, the Red-winged Blackbird, they seem to pose for me on my walks around our lake.

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  • Plants/Nature

    Reeds in Ice

    April 10, 2011
    Reeds in Ice

    Yesterday, I posted an image of golden sunlight on prairie grass. That image was taken in the summer while this image was taken during winter. What a difference color temperature makes with the feel of a scene.

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