Oh, what a beautiful morning!

Yesterday we got up before sunrise and hit the road with our cameras to catch the golden rays of dawn as they hit all the fresh snow we received in the two days before.

It was gorgeous!

Everything had a heavy frosting of peppermint icing. It was bright, clear ... and cold! Generally, the temperatures were in the single digits, with subzero pockets. And everywhere that blue, blue sky!

As we got up around Summit Lake ("up" in the sense of being both north and higher), the community church was never more beautiful in its setting among the pines. Views of the Sleeping Ute to the west and Point Lookout on Mesa Verde to the south were awesome.

(The old ruminant seems to be incapable of loading pictures into this blog in the manner desired, so I'll describe them as they decided to appear on the screen.)

The lowest image is the earliest, while the light was still golden. It's a roadside scene of oak brush and pinon/juniper trees ... and snow. The church is at the upper right, taken a bit later.

The first picture is of the starting point and first few hundred yards of the Mancos Mush course. The picture was taken at 8:45 a.m. (10 degrees F!) and we hope that this is similar to the scene that mushers will experience when Mancos Mush IV races start at 8:30 a.m. on Feb. 9 and 10!

It was SO beautiful up there! And it was such a joy for both of us, pointing out this scene and then that to each other as we drove along and as the sun rose, striking the world from a different angle. I found myself wondering why I'm doing board work for several nonprofits when it is such a joy to be out with Sandy, enjoying and taking pictures of this beautiful world around us. Maybe it's time to retire again! ;-}

Back to the drawing boards ... we had so much fun playing in the snow that it was a rush to get our stuff together to take pictures to Durango for two exhibits, interrupted by someone who wanted to rent the apartment ... a good interruption. 

People at Open Shutter Gallery and the Durango Art Center were SO helpful to these two babes in the woods ... first time we've ever exhibited anything for FeVa Fotos. Sandy has a wonderful shot of two donkeys and I've got a lone musher with her dogs on the Mancos Mush course for "The Art of Animals," a show Open Shutter is running Jan. 11 through Jan. 30 in support of the Mancos Mush.

At the Art Center, the Four Corners Commission is doing a juried art show on "the uniqueness of life, the land, and the diverse heritage of the Four Corners region." We'll know Thursday if either of our entries was accepted. Sandy entered a color-burst of a thistle bud (Thandy's thithles are thomething to behold ... who'd a thunk there could be such beauty, symmetry, variety and intrigue in thistles!) I've entered an evening picture of Shiprock, shrouded in mists and rays of sunlight, viewed down the long slope of Mesa Verde. It's one I took during the Mesa Verde Alumnae reunion in October 2006. 

Snow ... bunches of it!

My goodness, but it dumped last night! The bottom photo was taken midday yesterday (Saturday) as it was snowing in the forest above Mancos, at the starting point for the Mancos Mush dog sled race next month. The top picture is about 26 hours later, mid-afternoon Sunday. Musta been a good 10 inches of new snow overnight. (I didn't load the pictures in that order, but ... stuff happens.)

We had eight inches on the level at the house; four to six inches is a normal snowstorm dump. So, we were out of power most of the night, the Internet connection was down till this evening and the phone was out, last I checked.

Sandy and I were trying to watch "Twelve Angry Men" on DVD last night. We must have had 20power blips during the course of the movie, each one requiring us to turn on the player again and search for where we were when the power went off! I've probably seen that movie a dozen times, but never has it been so long!

Our overnight outage was brief and endurable, but I saw a headline a day or so ago saying that this same storm had left 600,000 people in California out of power. Thinking about that and the three-week long struggle to restore power after the ice storms in the Oklahoma City area last month, I have to wonder: Is our power grid fragile? Seems like a lot of people can be out of power for a long time nowadays. Does that mean a lack of backup systems and routes and/or a lack of ability to respond quickly to electrical distribution system emergencies?

In addition to catching up on things let go while we traveled in December, we're trying to get some photos ready for exhibitions. Yours truly knows from NOTHING about matting, framing, hanging and the whole display business! Talk about feeling like a fish out of water! 

Fortunately, Sandy has way more taste and a better sense of how to go about this sort of thing, so we're getting there. She's got a couple of items ready, including her adorable picture of two donkeys. I'm getting the "Green Death" picture of a mantis eating a hummingbird ready for a "Deliciously Weird" exhibit in Durango in February. Sandy says it would make a good Valentine's Day card ... for an ex-lover?

Pre-dawn ruminations by the old ruminant

Interesting results in Iowa. The best (most hopeful?) early analysis I've read is David Brooks' New York Times op-ed, "The Two Earthquakes." (www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/opinion/04brooks.html?ref_opinion)

What gives me hope is his estimation that both Iowa winners offer a prospect of an administration that cares about Americans. Obama: "... a story of youth, possibility and unity through diversity - the primordial themes of the American experience." Huckabee: "... Huckabee's victory is not a step into the past. It opens up the way for a new coalition."

In Huckabee's case, Brooks says the candidate is "the first ironic evangelical on the national stage ("not at war with modern culture"), one who believes the conservative movement is not well-led and who "understands how middle-class anxiety is really lived."

Unfortunately, Brooks also doubts that Huckabee's position will be successful, expecting that he will be eclipsed by McCain.

Personally, it's nice to see voter affirmation of principles in politics and American public life. I'm tired of the go-along-to-get-along and end-justifies-the-means mode that characterizes the present administration and, I'm afraid, too many of the candidates in both parties.

One of the things I realized when I finished watching "Bobby" was that it had been a long time since I had seen or heard a candidate on the national stage who could describe a star that I'd want to hitch my wagon to. Instead, I've heard appeals for strength (Pax Americana), a strong economy (with increasing separation twixt the top and bottom layers) and urges to be afraid of "them" (a la "1984"). Dare we hope that this campaign will give us a choice between two positive visions of America's future? Other views welcomed. tv

Caucus Day in Iowa

We went to Durango yesterday, which always seems to take most of the day, no matter how few items we have to do. We even managed to find reasonably central parking spaces (VERY difficult to do in Durango), with short walks to our various places of business. Sandy noticed these cute bikes that are used by guests of the adjacent Rochester Hotel. These modern steeds even have individual names, and I loved the colorful horn on "Duke."

Caucus Day in Iowa. Media frenzy. And it will be like this till we vote in November ... 10 more months! And it won't be until after the nominees are selected (crowned? bought?) that we will see the debate really get down to America's future. Right now, IMHO, each party is an isolated echo chamber, arguing over fine gradations of the same outlook, without any real confrontation of differing visions for America in the next four years and beyond. And the people who might really rock the boat and afflict the comfortable ... like Tancredo and Paul in the GOP and Biden, Gravel and Kucinich among the Dems ... will be history in a few weeks and their ideas, no matter how sensible, will be obscured and forgotten in the dust left by the juggernauts of party interests. A pox on both their houses ... this ain't no way to pick a leader, says the old curmudgeon! tv

Ready For A Hike

Tom and Scooby Doo are ready for our morning photo safari.  It was the first time ScoobyDoo had been  in the backpack and seemed to really enjoy the ride.  It was a beautiful day to take pictures of Colorado snow country.   I took a tumble into a snow bank on the  first stop and spent most of the time trying to dry out my camera.  As tempting as it was, Tom passed up the "Kodak moment"  of Sandy trying to get out of the snow bank. Smart fella! :)   All in all, today was a great way to begin 2008!  sf

(And Sandy was exceedingly generous ... and passed up HER Kodak moment ... when Tom decided to go up a mountain trail, backed down to turn around, and got stuck in a ditch. No shovel in the car, and no sand or litter. A neighbor's shovel and about an hour of digging and wheel-spinning and we finally got out. It was a nice, sunny day and I needed the exercise. tv)

More wildlife

Right after I posted the dawn pic, I took Scooby to "pump and dump" and, as I came back in the house, saw these two spectators, one lying down, the other standing. They seemed quite calm.

Yesterday afternoon, as we were making the bed after washing linens, I saw a movement out of the corner of my eye and saw the rears of deers bounding away ... they must have been not more than 20 feet away from the bedroom window.

Strange thing happened when we stopped by Summit Lake (a reservoir of about 40 acres) on our photo trek. A small section near the shore had been shoveled for ice skating. I tested it and the ice creaked; cracks were showing in the cleared section. As we stood there, I  became aware of a persistent, slightly varying, hum ... like piston-engine planes going over pretty high up. As I listened more, the sound was punctuated randomly by cracking sounds. As near as I can figure out, the sounds appear to have been coming from the ice in the "lake," vibrating and cracking as it warmed up in the morning sun. Have any readers experienced this phenomenon? Is there a better explanation? TV

Happy New Year!!!!

What a neat way to start 2008 ... a beautiful dawn past the La Platas, a clear sky, zero degrees outside at 7:15 (when this picture was taken) ... an auspicious beginning. Happy New Year to all!

The Stellar's jays and piñon jays abound at the feeder outside the living room window, keeping us constantly amused at their antics. A grosbeak came by this morning, mixing in with the juncos and chickadees and sparrows on the ground, scavenging the seeds the jays kick out of the feeder. A jackrabbit was poking around down the hill from the feeder a little while ago, and the flock of turkeys swept through the yard again yesterday afternoon.

We had a still, quiet, cold New Year's Eve ... ventured out to a small gathering, came home and Sandy made hot chocolate to sip while we watched "Inherit the Wind" on a DVD. Old movie about the 1925 Scopes trial, with fundamentalist acts and statements that could still have taken place last year, 82 years later.

We're off into the cold on a photo outing, maybe check out the Mancos Mush course, and come home to a big bowl of the hearty chicken soup Sandy is loading into the crock pot. Hope all who read this are having an equally good start to their new year. TV