• landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  sunrises

    I Made a Good Choice

    September 13, 2021

    After quiet time I usually check my weather app. This morning it told me it was 55 degrees with cloudy skies and possible rain. It is very easy for me to tell myself there is no need to go to the natural area because the cloudy skies will not offer a good image and believe that lie. Glad I did not listen to what I think I think I know but ventured out anyway. I was given these lovely clouds for going. I also was able to experience the soft gentle call of an owl from the ridge behind me, listen to mallards squawking on the reservoir as they made gentle v-shaped waves on the water and saw a couple of bats darting above me. I knew I’d made a good choice.

    I’ve been going up there for the past 18 months on a regular basis. It has become a part of my morning ritual. About six months ago I began to see a young lady who would come up maybe 4-5 times a week. She grabs a yoga mat then walks up Overlook Trail to greet the morning sunrise. We now wave to each other as we have become part of the natural area. This morning before she headed up the Overlook Trail I said good morning and let her know I could hear the owl somewhere on the ridge. Said she saw them yesterday morning and “who-hoo, who’d” back and forth with them. Yep, glad I didn’t listen to my thinking this morning.

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  • animals,  landscape,  sunrises

    I’ll Take the Experience

    September 9, 2021

    “This new day has greeted us with no rules; unconditional opportunity. Do not dilute the power of this new day with the hardship of yesterday. Greet this day the way it has greeted you; with open arms and endless possibility.”

    Steve Maraboli

    In darkness I drove east of town to watch the sunrise and distance myself from the city noise: trash trucks, sirens, traffic, landscapers and others. I felt tired but felt the need to stay open to any possibilities the new day may bring. Joyfully I encountered a group of five antelope (pronghorn) along Weld County Road 90. They are always on alert and in my experience they normally quickly run, keeping plenty of distance. So, for them to not run away while keeping a watch on me, was different and provided this photo opportunity. Not the best image because I used a handheld telephoto lens, out the car window, with the car running. No matter, I’ll take the experience I was offered. The sky is still filled with the smoke and will be for the next few days. May you have a wonderful Thursday.

    Okay, I installed a new comment and subscription plugin called Subscribe to Comments Reloaded. Let me know if you have issues with it.

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  • clouds,  landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  Plants,  rants,  sunrises,  writing/reading

    A good start to the day

    September 3, 2021

    The other morning I did not read or journal as I normally do when I arrived at the natural area. Instead I sat on the bench with my chai and camera, just watching and listening. In the predawn darkness I could hear an owl hoot but never saw them. I felt the colors slowly change from the cool predawn blue to the warm golden sunrise. The absence of any wind to move leaves, the thistle or the grass presented a calm. All was still. There was a embracing quiet around me and within me. Every so often I would listen to my muse and lift the camera, compose and press the shutter button. Another good start to the day.

    I enjoy experiencing sunrises, in case you haven’t noticed. I photograph a lot of them, in case you haven’t noticed. After I saw this image on my computer I asked myself the question, “What can I do to be a part of creating sunrise images that have my signature to them, that are not just repeats of yesterday or someone else or do I already have my own signature?” I want to experiment in more creative ways with images that really say something to me and about me. Which means you’ll probably see more sunrise images. 😁

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  • landscape,  natural areas,  Pineridge Natural Area,  sunrises

    Our Skies

    September 1, 2021

    “In a society in which nearly everybody is dominated by somebody else’s mind or by a disembodied mind, it becomes increasingly difficult to learn the truth about the activities of governments and corporations, about the quality or value of products, or about the health of one’s own place and economy.

    In such a society, also, our private economies will depend less and less upon the private ownership of real, usable property, and more and more upon property that is institutional and abstract, beyond individual control, such as money, insurance policies, certificates of deposit, stocks, and shares. And as our private economies become more abstract, the mutual, free helps and pleasures of family and community life will be supplanted by a kind of displaced or placeless citizenship and by commerce with impersonal and self-interested suppliers…

    Thus, although we are not slaves in name, and cannot be carried to market and sold as somebody else’s legal chattels, we are free only within narrow limits. For all our talk about liberation and personal autonomy, there are few choices that we are free to make. What would be the point, for example, if a majority of our people decided to be self-employed?

    The great enemy of freedom is the alignment of political power with wealth. This alignment destroys the commonwealth – that is, the natural wealth of localities and the local economies of household, neighborhood, and community – and so destroys democracy, of which the commonwealth is the foundation and practical means.”

    Thomas Berry

    Each morning our skies on the eastern horizon are filled with smoke. Air quality is poor and the color is repulsive. We do have a short period of time, 3-5 minutes when the sun is a bright orange orb through the smoke, but other than that it is disheartening. This was yesterday morning’s sunrise. ☹️

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  • clouds,  landscape,  quotes,  sunrises

    Life and Spirit of Landscape

    August 22, 2021
    This morning’s sunrise over Dixon Reservoir at Pineridge Natural Area

    “Previously, during the Industrial Revolution, there was a raiding of the resources of the earth, but now there is the actual destruction of the physical earth itself. There is often a complete disjunction here between the religious outlook of people, which can be very pious, and their total blindness to the life and spirit of landscape.”

    John O’Donohue

    Interesting how we give names to much of our land as if it were a living presence having its own life and spirit. Yet, we can show almost no respect to its value of life, only the use of its resources. My prayer this morning is to live life by respecting, protecting, valuing all of creation.

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