Back yard

It was an overcast day, sort of dreary and a bit nippy. But the backyard of friends was still verdant.

Morning mist on the river

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Starting time

My older son is a runner and I went to plenty of cross country races for several years. The outfits are colorful. These are shots from about four years ago with a high school cross country meet.

Doodles

Some folks are doodlers. A friend of my younger son is one of them. He knows what to do when he runs out of paper.

One son's friend

My younger son and some of his friends like taking pictures, including pictures of each other. I encourage this to help develop a photographic eye. Here is a picture my son took of one of his friends using a panelled mirror.

Les mauvailses terres à traverser

The first Europeans to see this area in southwestern South Dakota called it "les mauvailses terres à traverser." They were right -- it would be a bad land to cross. But the anglicized "Badlands" does not do it justice. This country is awe inspiring: beautiful, though rugged. Earlier in July, according to one of the park rangers, the temperature had risen to 47.7C (118F). It reached about 40C (105F) while we were there. We stayed in cabins that predated the establishment of the Badlands National Park and this were the only lodgings inside the park. The "Cedar Lodge" is a wonderful place to stay. The standalone cabins are a single room with attached sink, shower, toilet room. The room is small with a window air conditioner, no telephone, no television and no Internet connection. The "awayness" was wonderful. So very different from the awayness that Dave MacIntyre gets (see his "Concrete to cottages" blog linked to the side) and different even from the pictures Ali shows ("The Big Picture" blog, also linked) of the United Arab Emirates.


The clouds are moving in; it stormed that night. While it looks like the hills are in the gloaming, it is actually midday, but the sky had an unusual hue. The grey-blue sky, the landscape with varied degrees of sun breaking through, and the layered colo[u]ration of the rugged hills seem impossible to catch in a picture, but this gives a taste.

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Northern signs

Some folks have to see the aurora borealis to know they are in the north. Real woodsmen use other signs, such as these by the highway between Thunder Bay and Dryden, Ontario: