Tag Archives: nature photography

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Weekly Photo Challenge: New Horizons

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A New Day dawning…

magic-mist

…in a new place. Since the first of November, I’ve been living on land owned by the Conservation Foundation where I work. However, at the end of the month, my boss tendered his resignation. What direction will the Foundation take going forward? I’m not quite sure. As the only employee there now, I have a lot of work to do. It will be an uphill slog along an obscured path, maybe more like this photo:  horizonSo, “we’re not out of the woods yet”, but frankly, the woods is where I want to be. That is where new life is pushing up from under the decay. growth piercingAnd that’s pretty exciting! So, my resolution: keep practicing conservation of resources and doing no harm, no matter what others around you may be practicing. Live with integrity and love with generosity. 

warm-rose

Happy Horizons to all!

New Horizon

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Weekly Photo Challenge: RELAX

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I can’t help being reminded of a T-shirt my late husband wore. It was commissioned by his barbershop quartet; they wore them together on a barbershop weekend retreat for practicing, hanging around the lake house, and just “chilling” (in Palm Springs). The shirt simply said: RELAX.  A lot of the people near and dear to me have been experiencing heightened anxiety – myself included.

November has been a difficult month. To cap it all off, my boss resigned on the last day. My boss and I are the ONLY employees of the Conservation Foundation where I work. And I just moved onto conservation land at the beginning of the month. I have a lot of questions about my local future to add to the bigger questions I have about a global and universal future.  

*sigh* So…what do I do to relax? I go outside. I walk. I watch the trees, the sky, the animals, the sun doing what they do without anxiety, on a larger scale, and with the simple grace of the present moment. It never ceases to be helpful to my mood. So, pull up a bench…and relax with me. 

benchLook closely at the beauty all around, and wonder in silence.

moss

Now, don’t you feel more relaxed? I do. 

Relax

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Thanks

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frosted-leaf

Thank you, Blogging Friends, for your valuable camaraderie in this WordPress world! Thank you for sharing your delicious photos, your chewy ideas, and your knowledge of the lore of this land. The bounty of this landscape seems infinite; I look forward to exploring more in the year to come. May we all live together online in peace and harmony, enriching each other with our talents and observations!

With great respect and humility,

— scillagrace

 

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Weekly Photo Challenge: The Magic of Light

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Light is magic. I’m enjoying watching the light, from sun up to sun down, at my new home in the country. Foggy dawn changes…magic-mist…to afternoon gold…

afternoon-gold

…to evening moonrise.

moonrise

Then there are the more nuanced fluctuations of light dancing off cold and warm surfaces and reflective crystals.

frosty-leaf

warm-rose

Isn’t that what photography is all about? The Magic of Light!

Magic

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Tiny

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ladybug

Having recently discovered my camera’s close-up setting, I am having a great time photographing tiny details.

dropletI still find that my camera doesn’t quite depict the way that I see the world — the awareness of the juxtaposition of what’s outside the frame with what’s inside, for example.  

birch-barkAnd the colors and scope of a sunset and simultaneous moonrise.

sunset-moonriseWhere is the camera that can take in all that my eyes and brain and heart envelope? Non-existent. And that’s good because I’d hate to think humanity could be replaced by technology. 

snow
Tiny

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Local

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What a coincidence! Here I am packing up my home and home business and getting ready to move to the place where I have a part-time job with a Conservation Foundation. Why? So that I can live locally with the land that I’m working to conserve. And this week’s word is LOCAL. 

Living where you work, working where you live, eating what grows on the land where you live, using your energy to shape your life — not extravagantly, not wastefully, but sustainably — is important to me.  I think it makes good, common sense. So, here’s a gallery of my office, my new home, and the surrounding area that’s in the land trust. 

The Office
Office Parking lot
Prairie and kame
Ski Fox Hill Kame
My driveway
My new garage

Local

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Water, Water, Everywhere

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“Death Valley is all about water.” So we were told by Jay Snow, the National Park Service ranger, an Okie character with an over-the-top presentation.  It’s the lowest point in the country, parts of it falling below sea-level. It would make sense that gravity would bring a lot of water to that place. And it does. It’s just below the surface of the salt flat. Fascinating! Water does not behave in ways we often assume it will. It remains mysterious, a shape-shifter.  It goes from warm color droplets…

droplet

…to sharp-angled crystals…

snow

…it will eventually dissolve and transform even rock, paper, or scissors.

time cave

Water is life, practically the very definition of it. What would we “dew” without it?

maple drops

droplets

It may threaten to destroy us; at the same time, we can’t live without it. 

mystery 5

For all of these reasons, H2O commands awe, wonder, reverence. We ought to treat it with a great deal of respect and not tamper with it in its natural state unadvisedly or lightly. 

intricate 2

 
H2O

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Nostalgia

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Back in 1997, I self-published a book of poetry called The King’s Gift: Poems and Parables. It contained this one that I titled “Change”:

In autumn, the trees start to sing once again
of the bittersweet mystery of change.
Is it beauty or pain
now attached to my soul?
Is it grief…
          …or relief…
                …or nostalgia?
In the scarlet and gold,
the blood-red of life’s hold on my heart
and the warmth of its love
mingles memories and years
into afternoon tears
falling softly
          …as leaves…
                    …to the ground. 

I feel this way every fall. The change in light makes everything seem altered and thrown back into the past — until my eyes adjust and my brain catches up. Then the brilliance of the season kicks in. I really love Fall for its ability to draw out a range of emotion and hold it, fully aware and unashamed, in its transient environment. 

 

Text and photographs © 2016, Priscilla Galasso. Poetry © 1997, Priscilla Galasso. All rights reserved.

Nostalgia

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Weekly Photo Challenge: Quest

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questAt this point in my life, I am Over the Hill for sure. The sun is setting – how rapidly is anyone’s guess. Anticipating the unknown sounds like an exercise in futility. Any build-up is likely to increase anxiety. I think what is more important is simply practicing being the character I want to be. I am not on a quest to challenge my mortality, but to be at peace. I am looking forward to moving to a more rural part of the state in a month, on 56 acres of restored prairie that’s owned by the Conservation Foundation where I work. My quest will allow me to spend more time in Nature and more quiet time writing.  We’ll see how rapidly that sunset arrives. I’m not looking to jump on any fast trains to get there. 

quest-2

Quest

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THE BeZINE, Vol.2, Issue 12, Environment/Environmental Justice

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This is what I’ve been working on. Besides editing, I wrote 3 pieces and Steve wrote one. Please click on the Be Zine link and enjoy all the contributions! I couldn’t be more enthusiastic about sharing. This is a hugely important arena, encompassing life, health, and EVERYTHING!

The Bardo Group Beguines's avatarThe BeZine

September 15, 2016

The Environment is a complex array of interconnections and interbeing (as Thich Nhat Hahn would say). Steve & I have various metaphors for this. He likes to refer to “his bowling pins”. He imagines setting up a toy set of pins on a lawn and bowling at them. When they scatter, you set them back up exactly where they landed and bowl again. This takes you all over the neighborhood in endless permutations. I think of “trophic cascades”, changes in an ecosystem that originate at an extinction or other dramatic altering of balance, similar perhaps to “the domino effect” but less linear. However you try to wrap your brain around it, the nature of Life on this planet is intricate and incomprehensible. We are wise to approach it with the utmost humility. Because we are intrinsically involved, however, we must not fear to engage. We are already…

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