Thing of Purpose

Happy New Year and best wishes for health, wealth, and especially happiness for you and the people you love.   --------------------oOo-------------------- The blog author almost never checks emails or comments.

John Keats does not have a website, but at SpiritInTheSky.com you may visit Norman Greenbaum. Norman Greenbaum: "How many things are you known for? Really, that's all you need to do: one good thing!" Tom O'Bedlam reading 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' by John Keats   --------------------oOo-------------------- The blog author almost never checks emails or comments.

I am sure Monsieur Gellée would have admired the modern version  of the apparatus named after him.   --------------------oOo-------------------- The blog author almost never checks emails or comments.

  --------------------oOo-------------------- The blog author almost never checks emails or comments.

Just after dawn, the west of the valley catches the first rays of the rising sun. The highest point of the ridge is over 10,000 feet of elevation, which is over 7,000 feet above the valley floor. It takes another hour for the sun to rise above the escarpment and light the knoll, by which time the light is much whiter. The valley floor is still in shadow below the western escarpment. Finally the sun apears over the escarpment and floods the valley with white sunlight at around 5,600  Kelvin  in color temperature. In the middle of the day it became necessary to retreat behind a street sign, which made a handy lens shade, while I took pictures of the jets flying high overhead to and from Las Vegas. Later in the day the afternoon sunshine lights up the escarpment and the western valley wall falls into shadow. Persons sleuthing the file names will realize that the sequence is jumbled over two days—no matter, sometimes a story is greater than the sum of its parts. The post title came to me...

Towards sunset, the world became rose-colored. Frontal illumination produced a color palette reminiscent of some of those early post-WWII color films. Backlit, the late sunlight through the snow clumps on the bare tree branches looked like cherry blossom. As darkness fell, the first of the deer could be seen through the trees, coming down to feed. The sunset picture was taken two days before the recent snowstorm, a tribute to the advances in cameras and recording mediums that have taken place since George Eastman gave what is still sound advice as a good way to start.   --------------------oOo-------------------- The blog author almost never checks emails or comments.

The pictures are smaller today; they were taken with an iPod Touch, so they required some post-processing. We could all benefit from the attention of a firm but fair hand. Traffic throughout the region was disrupted overnight: the iTouch even gave me a push alert that church services had been cancelled; hundreds of vehicles were stranded on I-15 through the Virgin Gorge in Arizona, although the road is effectively from Nevada to Utah and just clips through the corner of the 'Grand Canyon State' on its way from the 'Silver State' to the 'Beehive State'. Meanwhile, the 'Sad State' chair continues its vigil—is that a melted snowman seated in the sunshine?   --------------------oOo-------------------- The blog author almost never checks emails or comments.

When seeking new locations for landscape photography, a dentist office may not be the first place that comes to mind. However, visitors to Doc Hatch Painless Tooth Fixin' at MountainView Dental  will find extensive views to both east and west from the second floor offices. The view east from the reception area is delightful and the view to the west middle chair across to cloud-capped Signal Peak is very relaxing. Ornithologists may even be able to do a little twitching: this is the sort of place you hope you will have a long wait and somehow that never happens.   --------------------oOo-------------------- The blog author almost never checks emails or comments.

Fortunately everybody now has an iPhone: mine gave a push notification that Nelson Mandela (b.1918) died today.   --------------------oOo-------------------- The blog author almost never checks emails or comments.

Granted, 'doom laden' may be a pre-enlightenment term, but if you see this just before dark it must mean something is on its way. Just and so: I ventured onto the front stoop to take a picture of this shocked vegetation. This lonely anthropomorphic chair sat out all night waiting for the return of the sun and its warmth.   --------------------oOo-------------------- The blog author almost never checks emails or comments.