Occupation of Independence

It is always satisfying to start the return trip (on a bike ride) at a nice view. In this part of the world, the scenic spot is more likely to be a lake or meadow than a mountain. The meadow was packed with purple flowers which I am too lazy to identify. It was too soggy to walk through that meadow so I couldn't really get a photo that does it justice.   Just before taking the photo, a large mother elk crossed the meadow with a young calf following her. Believe it or not I was more delighted with a different animal. It has been years since I have seen a snail. It was fleeing soggy soil apparently, and was posed in the middle of a smooth dark gravel road. I couldn't believe how much of its body stuck out of the shell, and yet it would draw all of the body back into the shell. As Wikipedia explained, after tripping over its own tongue in a few paragraphs of jargon, a snail is basically a slug with a backpack. A few years ago I photographed this slug: I feel sorry for his optometr

It would take somebody more clever and devious than me to make sense of what the Elites of Nato-stan (USA and Europe) really expect in the long term. Consider the neo-Con block in West Nato-stan (the USA). Do they really think this is still 1946 or 1991?, and that the USA can keep ruling planet Earth as the great Uni-Power? Look at the economy of the USA! It sent its industrial base to China. Its economy is based on nothing more than money-printing, services, government employees, entertainment industry trash, real-estate speculation, and diploma manufacturing.  How much of that is real? How much does the rest of the world need? Perhaps the War uni-Party (both Democrats and Republicans) thinks that industry doesn't really matter as long as you have the 'greatest military ever.' Where did they get the idea that the US military was all that great?  It has fought countries in the Mid-East that had no air force, and then lost most of these wars anyway. Apparently American Elit

That does it -- from now on I will carry my smartphone along on all walks outdoors, just as I carry my bear spray.  Something interesting happens when you least expect, and then your "real camera" is back at home. Q.t.𝞹 and I make use of a well-graveled forest road for routine walks. We stay out of the mud that way.  The moisture content in the sky was amazing.  On the way back I saw the most impressive rainbow/halo around the noon-time sun.  It was a complete circle that would have circumscribed both of your palms held up at arm's length. I don't think I have ever seen something quite like that.  By the time I got back to the trailer and camera, the halo was gone. Imagine you were some shepherd in the high country of a drought-stricken land, and you saw this halo.  You would have considered it a divine sign of some kind.  Around the campfire that night, you might have tried to write a song or poem about it.  Let's hold on to the ability to imagine ourselves in

It is fun to look at things from her point of view: Remember that we came to the Inland Northwest in May to avoid forest fires, dry heat, and drought. She seems to think that we were perhaps  too successful. But you must remember that she is a Phoenix girl. I like to think of water as being the fundamental layer of the food chain in nature. And she certainly is enjoying that food chain. She saw her first wild turkey -- a big one -- the other day, and almost pulled me off the bicycle. Soon my first umbrella, in years, will arrive. And rubber-soled muck books. I am determined to get a grip on this situation. __________________________________ The favorite time of the day for me is dawn -- or even, just before dawn -- when birds in the forest engage in beautiful and spirited singing. Wikipedia would probably explain this. But I won't look it up. I prefer to wonder about it. You don't hear pre-dawn singing in the winter. It is one of the best things about summer.