John & Anne Wiley

2010/08/24

Shadows On The Land

There is magic for me, in revisiting another hop on our NxNW Adventure each day. Tonight I’m moved again by snapshots of the landscape passing serenely beneath our wings across Manitoba. The clouds we were navigating between cast enchanted shapes across the fields.

0087 Shadow Shapes

0087 Shadow Shapes

I see also the transient shapes traced by a meandering stream and by shallow creeks. Centuries of land use tell their stories, with the most recent chapters on top. Trees and other life planted or wild are slow dancing with structures, paths and roads. All of these things pass quickly in earth time, just more fleeting shadows gone forever, never seen by some future eye. Only in this brief moment of passage from this particular angle did a finger push a button to create this pale reminder. I was here.

Exploring around our hotel in Winnipeg that night of July 30th, the moon cast a shadow of our passing and complemented the city lights.

0055 Moo Moon

0055 Moo Moon

Walking “home” after our fun meal and a brief wander in the blinding fluorescent lights of a supermarket to find Anne’s new fav yogurt, we paused to admire the fresh concrete curb outside a new mall being built. Vandals left a mark. A vain attempt to cast a longer shadow perhaps? Was it rubbed out in the morning, will it survive a few years until eroded by the severe seasons, or might it last a decade or more before being crushed to dust making way for something new?

0057 Curb Enthusiasm

0057 Curb Enthusiasm

We See UC

Yesterday we finally went for a short flight, but aside from some local interest pix I sent to Edhat this was the best photo we got.

0916 UCSB Gate

0916 UCSB Gate

Such an incredibly beautiful setting for a university, eh?! It’s impossible to really capture the beauty, representing SB’s setting so well as it does. Mountains, ocean, wetland, and all the myriad human attractions ranging from arts and sciences to humanities and (one of my personal favs) education. This town of 150k or so boasts a dozen or so renowned higher education centers, with UCSB standing as a prime example. Can you tell I love living here? Especially when I get to fly! 🙂

2010/08/22

Large & Small

We didn’t fly today after all, though tomorrow’s another day. Meanwhile, more scenes from the early days of our NxNW flight. I like the long view of South Dakota from flying high to get over and around clouds and avoid storms that would be hidden (embedded) if we’d flown below the cloud layer (thicker ahead, than in this shot out the side). It was much lower than airlines, but much higher than our usual view.

8526 Middle View

8526 Middle View

Approaching our rest break in North Dakota we saw farms with long stories to tell. How many generations worked this place before it finally fell to weather and “progress?”

8529 Silent Story

8529 Silent Story

Ellendale’s quiet little airport was so refreshing! Wonderful to smell the earth after flying so high above it. We could hear the breeze, the bees, and this tiny frog.

8543 Frog World

8543 Frog World

We were kids again taking turns gently holding it, feeling the moist skin and the gentle touch of cool little toes. How is it faring how? Closing my eyes, a slow quiet descends in my mind and once again the grasses are rustling around me.

2010/08/21

More Highlights

I’ve been having some computer trouble, so it’s a nice change to revisit more pix from the NxNW flight. So relaxing to rest my eye again on this one just after takeoff from Jackson Hole Airport.

8262 Teton Takeoff

8262 Teton Takeoff

Not many airports offer a view like this within four minutes of takeoff in a small plane. Keep in mind this was only a tiny section of the panorama before us. Seems all the more amazing now, and looking at this pic takes me right back into that sensory feast even at this distance in time and space.

8377 Lakeshore Landscape

8377 Lakeshore Landscape

Along the highway next to the lake were many areas like this, and we wondered if some geysers might be there too though we never saw one. Looks like people have laid logs into some of the ponds. I especially like the spring at top center that looks like some sci fi critter with tentacles. Also the deep one at bottom-right.

Maybe we’ll go flying tomorrow… 🙂

2010/08/20

More NxNW

Today I’ve been looking at more of the pix from the first leg of our big North By Northwest (NxNW) adventure. Soon after passing Owens Lake we crossed into Nevada and took a rest stop at Tonopah (pix on my Photo Page and older posts here made during the trip) and then a lot more similar terrain until almost to Jackson Hole. I’d always imagined Nevada as flat and featureless, but there’s a lot of variation. Sure, it’s dry but there are plenty of interesting geological features.

8088 Wet & Dry

8088 Wet & Dry

Anyplace there are people, there’s some evidence of water and sometimes it’s pretty striking in the vast arid landscape.

8106 Dry Squiggle

8106 Dry Squiggle

Sometimes you see evidence of untamed water that was there in some past wet season. The shapes and textures left behind really get your attention. Not that the rest of the terrain is uninteresting, but it doesn’t show well in photos because it’s so vast.

8121 Softly Patterned Hilltop

8121 Softly Patterned Hilltop

Sometimes we’d wonder about variations in the soils, like on this hill where something made for soft blotches of growth while other areas are bare. You can also begin to see how the smoke from all the wildfires elsewhere was mingling with any agricultural burning, to hang in the air and truncate the longer views.

8123 Oil & Water

8123 Oil & Water

Even with the smoke growing ever thicker, some large features were really striking. Here the effects of water combined with apparent oil exploration sites dotting the hillside road, create an unusual assortment of shapes and colors.

8128 Oasis

8128 Oasis

With little indication of human activity for countless miles, homes you do see are often distinctive. I like how the plantings and architecture here provide a creative contrast to the desolate surroundings. Nearing the Nevada state line we passed a green valley and the smoke seemed to be trapped by the rising mountains leading up to the Tetons. Here’s a photo I like of that area, because it shows how the green valley is lapping at the dry hills like waves on a barren shore.

8142 Grass & Smoke

8142 Grass & Smoke

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