Wordless Wednesday
22 Degree Halo Around the Sun: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Nature
Where the pronghorn roam: Monochrome Monday
Monochrome Monday
Roadside Rocks in Malheur NF: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
White-crowned sparrows: Monochrome Monday
These bold little white-crowned sparrows can raise or lower their “crown”, depending upon their mood. They occur throughout North America, but their bill color varies. It can be orange, yellow, or pink depending upon where they live.
They have a cheery and distinctive song that you may recognize. Listen to it here.
Fringed Gentian: Friday Flowers
The fringed gentian, Gentianopsis thermalis, grows in meadows, bogs, and on moist ground. This species prefers growing in warm places and it’s common near geysers and hot springs in Yellowstone National Park. It is the official flower of the park.
This plant grows to a height of 4-16 inches and blooms in May through August. This annual has purple flowers 1.5-3 inches in length. The showy flowers are fringed along the edges.
Fringed gentians can be found across northern Canada and south through the Rocky Mountains and into parts of New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada.
Native Americans used gentians to treat headaches and as an antidote to witchcraft.
Fun fact: The flowers curl up and close on cloudy days leaving just the tops visible. The closed flowers resemble a small windmill.
A Marsh at Malheur in May: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
A different world-Utah rocks: LAPC
You live in the image you have of the world. Every one of us lives in a different world, with different space and different time.
Alejandro Jodorowsky
The geology of Utah is so unique and interesting. I imagined many details of alternate worlds while visiting there.
The formations at Capitol Reef form thrones ready for giant-sized royalty.
The mountains of Zion National Park look as though they have been compressed, kneaded, and scratched by the claws of big cats
At Canyonlands National Park, an army of stone soldiers is forever frozen in time.
A city of towers pushes out the forest at Bryce Canyon National Park.
At Arches National Park, layers of earth tilt and reach towards the sky, hoping they may someday form archways of stone.
Lens Artists Photo Challenge – Something different
Follow Me Mom!: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Where could my dog be?: Monochrome Monday
Oh where, oh where could my little dog be?
Monochrome Monday
Just another stunning sunrise: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Roses-Summer Blooms & Fall Fruit: Friday Flowers
I enjoy watching these roses growing along the Mill A Loop trail along the Deschutes River in Bend, Oregon. They produce a bounty in the summer and the fall for walkers and wildlife.
Friday Flowers
A few moments with a pronghorn: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
A 24″ snowy cake: Monochrome Monday
Care to join me for a piece of snowy cake?
Monochrome Monday
Yellow violets in bloom: Friday Flowers
Waxwings in Winter Willows: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Winter Walks in Bend: LAPC
Winter is a special time of the year here in Bend. Winter walks around the neighborhood are highlighted with landscapes covered in snow and ice.
He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter.
John Burroughs
Buildings are blanketed with snow and edged with icicles.
Twisting trails are carved through snowdrifts.
Meandering rivers are covered with a cool layer of ice.
Bare branches are clothed in frost and snow.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Around the Neighborhood
A frosty spruce: Monochrome Monday
Monochrome Monday
White Sturgeon – A square peg fish: WPC
I immediately thought of this picture I took of a white sturgeon when I saw that this week’s photo challenge at Traveling at Wits End was Something that Doesn’t Belong.
In this photo, taken at the High Desert Museum, a young white sturgeon is surrounded by trout. It doesn’t quite fit in.
You might think this odd fish looks prehistoric and you’d be right. Sturgeon existed 200 million years ago, during the Jurassic period.
Though most sturgeon live 11-34 years, they have been known to live up to 104 years (!) They grow to an average length of 6.9 feet and sometimes grow to a length of 20 feet. The maximum weight recorded was 1,799 pounds. In fact, they are North America’s largest fish. So the fish in the picture may look small now, but it has a lot of growing to do!
High Desert Voices Newsletter – March 2019
I’m sharing the March issue of the High Desert Voices newsletter. It’s a newsletter for volunteers and staff at the High Desert Museum in Bend, Oregon. I help out with the newsletter and I’m particularly proud of this issue.
This issue of the High Desert Voices newsletter includes a History event – 19th Century Making & Mending; Art – a new exhibit by Native American artist, Rick Bartow; Nature – a fact sheet on white sturgeon; People – a profile of our Communication Director; and Recreation – a trail through the colorful Blue Basin. There’s a little more related to updates for the different areas of the Museum and kudos, for work well done.
Enjoy the newsletter! To see more, go to Volunteer Newsletters.
A snowy day at home: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Finding a new world in close-ups: LAPC
When I last visited Yellowstone, I was searching for a new world to inspire me in my fiction writing. Here are some that I found…
A new world of waves and wonder
A world of contrasting colors
A world of muted rainbows
A warm and fuzzy new world
A cold, colorless, and cracked new world
A world where meandering water turns to gold
A new world where everyone lives in spherical houses along the shore
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Close-up
Lilies in the Rain: Friday Flowers
Friday Flowers
My Pocket Fox: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Love nature and share the love: LAPC
Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.
Frank Lloyd Wright
Here are a few pictures of wild things resting, feeding, and breeding. They are always reminding me to love nature and share that love with others.
There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.
George Carlin
Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan’s egg.
Hans Christian Andersen
…When alarmed, their rapid career seems more like the flight of birds than the movement of an earthly being.
George Ord
It’s not only fine feathers that make a fine bird.
Aesop
Each bird loves to hear himself sing.
Arapaho
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Nature
Reclining Grass Widow:Friday Flowers
Friday Flowers
Patterns in the Snow: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Elk of the Shadows: LAPC
Solitary grazer
Hiding in filtered light
Antlers flocked in
Downy velvet
Oblivious to his
Wonder
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Shadows
Landscape of Grand Prismatic: LAPC
The water in some of the springs presents to the eye the colors of all the precious gems known to commerce. In one spring the hue is like that of an emerald, in another like that of the turquoise, another has the ultra-marine hue of the sapphire, another has the color of topaz; and the suggestions has been made that the names of these jewels may very properly be given to many of these springs.
Nathaniel Pitt Langford in Diary of the Washburn Expedition to the Yellowstone and Firehole Rivers in the Year 1870.
Grand Prismatic Spring is the crown jewel of hot springs at Yellowstone National Park. The landscape of Grand Prismatic has all the colors of the rainbow. The cracks and tracks add some interesting texture as well. This 370-foot wide spring is the largest in the United States and third largest in the world.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Landscape
Harvesters of gold: Friday Flowers
Bright yellow blossoms
Inviting hovering bees
To harvest their gold
Pocket Barn Owl: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Unusual Clouds Above Bend : LAPC
The sky takes on shades of orange during sunrise and sunset, the colour that gives you hope that the sun will set only to rise again.
Ram Charan
We have many beautiful sunrises and sunsets here in Bend, Oregon. Sometimes the unique colors and forms of the clouds are totally unexpected and they’ll take your breath away. Here are a few of those moments my camera allowed me to capture.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Unexpected
Blue Basin Trail – Island in Time
Green scenes on Blue Basin trail
I did this easy hike on the Blue Basin trail in John Day Fossil Beds National Monument last October. I felt like a stranger in a strange land on this trail through blue-green badlands.
The trailhead is 14 miles northwest of Dayville, Oregon. This trail is in the Sheep Rock Unit of the monument. The Island in Time trail is a 1.3 mile long out and back trail with an elevation gain of 200 feet. The Blue Basin Overlook trail also starts here. It’s a 3.25 mile trail with a 760 foot elevation gain. There are several other trails nearby.
The geologic history
The unique blue-green colors of the rock formations in Blue Basin are stunning. They range from a pale dinner mint green to a darker, bluer green. The blue-green and tan claystones and siltstones are part of the John Day formation. There were multiple eruptions of Cascade Mountain volcanoes 29 million years ago. The ashfall formed the blue-green layers of this basin. Celandonite and clinoptilolite give these formations their green color.
You’ll see impressive tiered layers of rock bordering the trail. At the end of the trail, an amphitheater of colorful stone will surround you. I had the place all to myself on my hike. Rotate your way around this photo sphere to see what I saw.
I also noticed the smaller landscapes on this trail. Here are a few of those scenes.
Fossil and facts on Blue Basin trail
You will see several fossil replicas covered with protective plastic bubbles along the trail. They removed the actual fossils to protect them from the elements. Over 2,000 species of plant and animal fossils have been identified in the vicinity.
Cat-like Nimravids. These cats ranged in size from bobcat-sized to tiger size.
Oreodonts. This sheep-sized mammal was once as common as deer are today.
Tortoise. This tortoise is like species living today.
A cracked shell may have caused its death.
Map and a word about dogs
Here’s a map of the Blue Basin. Please note the warnings associated with this trail. In the warmer months of the year, you may see rattlesnakes. In October, I saw none. Blue Basin experiences high temperatures in the summer months so be prepared.
There are 13 metal grate bridges on this trail. The sign says dogs may refuse to cross and you may have to carry them. My dog would not cross the first bridge. Sorry, but I couldn’t imagine carrying a 60+ pound dog over 13 bridges. She waited patiently in the car on that cool day.
Amazing paleontology center
Don’t miss the amazing Thomas Condon Paleontology Center while you’re here. The displays impress me and I’m always excited to see paleontologists hard at work in the viewing area. I often wonder what new treasures they will uncover in their daily work.
East Rim Steens Mountain: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
Badgers & Magpies & Leopards, Oh my!
In The Story Who Came to Visit, I mentioned I would be doing an Open Mic event here in Bend. Yes, it does take a bit of courage to do something like that. Yesterday I read a short piece from the children’s book I wrote during NaNoWriMo. The audience was eager to hear the work of local writers.
I read a story about a bullied girl who finds her courage after talking with a magpie and a badger. They both have hidden weaknesses but found their inner strength. Nuǎn, the main character in the story, finds her strength just when she needs it most. A snow leopard that had attacked her and left her scarred is about to attack another child.
Here’s an excerpt from that scene:
Snow Leopard’s ears perked up, and he turned towards her. “You again, Nuǎn?” He hissed and bared his teeth. “Yeowrrr! I already marked you once. Stay out of my way.” Snow Leopard struck out at her, scratching her arm with his long claws.
“You marked me again!” Nuǎn held her hand over the wound. “The first time you marked me, it made me weak. No more!”
Nuǎn grabbed an ax in the yard and swung it down, chopping off the end of Snow Leopard’s long tail. The big cat yowled in pain and leapt over the fence.
“Now you are marked!” Nuǎn yelled at the leopard as it bounded away.
I have a lot more editing and revising to do, but my work in progress was well received by the audience. 🙂
Back to work…
Bald Eagle: Don’t Fence Me In
Bald eagle out for breakfast
I saw this bald eagle standing in the middle of a field this morning and couldn’t figure out why it was there. Then I noticed a couple magpies flying close by. Hmmm. Upon closer inspection, I saw a deer carcass several feet away. I guess everyone was there for a breakfast buffet.
The Road To… Oregon: LAPC
The curving road
Here are some curving roads to various scenic destinations in Oregon. When you’re driving down the road you never know what sights you’ll see just around the bend.
What is straight? A line can be straight, or a street, but the human heart, oh, no, it’s curved like a road through mountains.
Tennessee Williams
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Curves.
Prairie Smoke: Friday Flowers
A Rose by Another Name
Prairie smoke, Geum triflorum, is a native plant of the prairies and it’s a less showy member of the rose family. The sepals on their droopy flowers are fused shut so they can’t open fully. I was drawn to this plant with its plain flowers and deeply serrated leaves.
The plants grow 6-10″ tall and bloom in late spring through early summer. Once the flowers are fertilized, they are followed by feathery wispy “fruits” (achenes) that somewhat resemble smoke. Another common name for this plant is Old Man’s Whiskers. The semi-evergreen leaves turn varying shades of red, purple, and orange in the fall.
Native Americans used prairie smoke roots and crushed seeds in eye washes, sore throat remedies, yeast infection treatments, and to help with stomach and menstrual cramps. The Nlaka’pmx used its roots in a drink and in a body wash in sweathouses. The Okanagan also used it in a love potion for women.
This plant can be found in southern Canada and in the central and northern United States (Zones 3-7). It grows in gravelly soils, but also in silty and loamy soils.
It can be grown in rock gardens and prefers sites with moist springs and drier winters. Prairie smoke tolerates summer sun and has low water needs.
Fun fact: Prairie smoke flowers are pollinated mainly by bumblebees. They have to force their way into the closed flowers to reach the nectar.
Seaside Scenes-Pacific City: Wordless Wednesday
Wordless Wednesday
National Park Travels: LAPC
These photos are of our National Park travels within 1,000 miles of our home. We are lucky to live so close to so much beauty.
I tried to consider what was in the foreground as well as the background in these shots.
Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – My Travels
See more of my park photos at Utah National Parks: Trees & Rocks
Chives vignette: Friday Flowers
The color has faded in these blossoms but they are still beautifully framed by the long spiky leaves on this chive plant.
Friday Flowers