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Weekly Photo Challenge: Minimalist
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Weekly Photo Challenge: Descent
I wish I’d taken my camera up to Alcove House at Bandelier National Monument. I did not. But those ladders were thrilling! Here’s a shot from tripadvisor.com:
photographer unknown
The descent is about 140 feet. Not bad. Another favorite spot is Holy Hill in Wisconsin. There are 178 steps in the tower.
Hiking in New Mexico and Texas this month led us down into some beautiful canyons: Mills Canyon (1000 ft. elevation change)…
…the Frey Trail down to the Visitor’s Center at Bandelier (484 ft. elevation change)…
…and our favorite, the ‘strenuous’ 1500 ft. Lost Peak trail that gave us views down into Dog Canyon and to our riparian campground on the other side.
Of course, in hiking, what goes down frequently also comes up. Steve turns 50 tomorrow, so we’re working on keeping our knees in shape! Which way is more difficult depends…he beats me uphill, I beat him downhill. (‘Course, he’s 6’2″ and I’m just 5’4″ and we’re weighted differently because of gender…and because I carry a pack and he doesn’t.)
May all your ‘down days’ include scenery like this!
(scroll down for another Halloween post ‘treat’!)
© 2014, essay and photographs, Priscilla Galasso, All rights reserved
Weekly Photo Challenge: Cover Art
The weekly photo challenge came out on Friday morning, as usual. Only this Friday, I was setting up camp in the Dog Canyon campground in Guadalupe National Park, a wilderness park in Texas where there is no Internet (ya think?). I returned to Milwaukee just this evening, after 2 days of driving with only a 3.5 hour stopover to sleep in a rest area off the interstate in Missouri. Needless to say, I’m tired. This is a going to be a quick post. But the Cover Art example on the Daily Post reminded me so much of a shot I took during this 2.5 week journey, that I have to share it. To see the prompt and the example, click here. My ‘magazine’ is a periodical covering aspects of wilderness preservation. (Having spent 5 days at the Wilderness 50 Conference during this trip, I have much more to say about that…but I won’t go into it…yet.) And here is the cover shot:
I’ll be sharing a lot more about Wilderness and environmental ethics on this blog in upcoming posts. Stay tuned, please!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Refraction
Refraction is the change in direction of a wave due to a change in its transmission medium.
Storm in Western Oklahoma
We set off from Milwaukee, Wisconsin last Saturday on a cross-country trip to Albuquerque, New Mexico to attend the Wilderness 50 Conference. As we got to western Kansas, we noticed clouds gathering to the west and north. It’s difficult to judge distances across such a huge, flat landscape. I thought maybe the storm was in Colorado. We cut south through the Oklahoma panhandle, and tumbleweeds flew across the highway. Steve thought this would be a great place to get out of the car and take a picture. Unfortunately, I missed the lightning flashes on the horizon (I wish I’d brought a tripod to take a timed exposure!). The winds were crossing in all directions, curling plumes of rainfall came down from the clouds in mixed directions, as if forming quotation marks across the sky. What are the winds trying to say? We camped that night in the Kiowa National Grassland, at the Mills Canyon Rim campground (elevation 5900 ft.). The rain barely wet the high desert ground, but the WIND was fierce! Eventually, it blew the clouds away, revealing a waning gibbous moon and a host of stars undimmed by human lights anywhere in the area. In the morning, the winds were so strong that I had to put our camp stove underneath the picnic table and bank it with coolers in order to keep the flame from blowing out. By the afternoon, the wind was gone, the skies completely clear. When the sun set, the air got very cold, very fast. And a blanket of stars swept over the sky, banded by the Milky Way.
Waves of wind, changing direction, crossing different mediums (clouds and stars) are an example of refraction and one of the pleasures of wild space. We are here at the Wilderness conference to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Wilderness Preservation Act into law and to find our direction in the call to protect and respect Earth. When the conference concludes, we will venture back into wild lands in New Mexico for more adventures. Stay tuned!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Dreamy
Sailing off into the fog. Setting off on an adventure with a sturdy ship, not certain of where it will take you, but fixed on a course nevertheless.
I am about to embark on a journey tomorrow, making real strides towards my dream.
We’re driving to New Mexico, to participate in the Wilderness 50 Conference. I want to meet people invested in wilderness, in land and species preservation, in the future of our planet.
I want to work toward making a difference, taking a different tack, striking out on a new route toward sustainable living.
Dreams give us an awareness of ourselves, loosened from daily constrictions. They give us a vision of change.
Do you have the courage to live the change you dream about?
© 2014, essay and photographs, Priscilla Galasso, All rights reserved
Weekly Photo Challenge: Signs
Some signs are meant to be helpful, but come across as completely confusing. Like this one in the Milwaukee airport, just past the security checkpoint.
It took me a while to think through this one. I had just been stripped of my shoes, my jacket, my purse and my backpack, been x-rayed, patted down, swiped and wiped, and I felt….discombobulated. So there, with a few chairs underneath, was the designated area for getting recombobulated. See, spell check doesn’t even recognize that word! Helpful, sort of, but mostly not. But amusing, definitely. And absurd.
Another sign I found on my travels. A possible answer to the question, “Can you handle this?”
Turns out, you can’t handle this. 
They never said I couldn’t photograph it, though.
Some signs need translation. The town of Embarrass, Wisconsin on the Embarrass River is nothing to be ashamed of.
I wanted to go into the Post Office and ask about their deep, dark secret. Instead, I went home and looked up the history of the town. Turns out, it was settled by French Canadian loggers who found it difficult to get their floating logs past this point on the river because of snags and debris. In French, “embarrass” means to impede, obstruct or entangle. Oh.
Will you recognize the signs of the times? Well, the times, they are a changin’.
By this time next week, I will be unemployed and heading toward New Mexico for the Wilderness 50 Conference. Yes, the signs are telling me that it’s time for a change.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Nighttime
I gotta admit, my first reaction was something along the lines of “WTF? Who takes photos at night when there’s no LIGHT?!” But this is supposed to be a Challenge, right? (an aside….Steve mentions in passing that he’d be great at making up one word photo challenges. “Yeah, like what?” “Crouton,” he said, not even skipping a beat. I am glad that “Crouton” is not this week’s theme. I have zero photos on that subject.)
Recently (well, almost 2 months ago now), we had a marvelous nighttime adventure in Chicago with my youngest, Emily. We went to Ravinia, the outdoor musical festival, for a Brahms concert. We bought only lawn seats, not the more expensive Pavilion seats. It rained all day, not too fiercely, but fairly steadily. We found that we were among the few diehard music fans that did not let that deter us from setting up a picnic on the wet lawn and dining happily under our umbrellas. When the music started officially (after a brief practice during our picnic), we packed up the food and huddled beneath the umbrellas. The rain was falling in earnest by then. At intermission, an invitation came over the loudspeaker for anyone on the lawn to move into the pavilion, as most seats were empty. A kind man handed us tickets to a box seat well under the shelter, and we moved in to warm up and dry off. It was a thrilling evening, being out in the elements, listening to live music played by real, live, dedicated musicians from Germany…and the occasional roll of thunder.
But my photos from that evening did not come out as I expected. Trying to adjust for low light is very tricky. Still, the sparkle and color and blurry atmosphere is rather fun. Pretend you’ve had a few drinks before you look at them. 🙂
BTW – on the menu: 5 different kinds of cheeses, 3 salads, handmade chocolate-dipped strawberries (thank you, Emily!), a light Chardonnay and the best beer on the planet (from Belgium – Maredsous).
Weekly Photo Challenge: Endurance
The Word Press Daily Post Photo Challenge states: “As we sift through fleeting status updates, toss yet another egg carton in the recycling bin, and watch as seasons change around the world, it can seem like life is made of constant change.”
Well, isn’t it?
And maybe, to step outside of constant change is to see constant continuation. Thich Nhat Hahn doesn’t celebrate his birthday, he calls it a “continuation day”.
If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people. To be born means that something which did not exist comes into existence. But the day we are “born” is not our beginning. It is a day of continuation. But that should not make us less happy when we celebrate our “Happy Continuation Day.” Since we are never born, how can we cease to be? This is what the Heart Sutra reveals to us. When we have tangible experience of non-birth and non-death, we know ourselves beyond duality. The meditation on “no separate self” is one way to pass through the gate of birth and death. Your hand proves that you have never been born and you will never die. The thread of life has never been interrupted from time without beginning until now. Previous generations, all the way back to single cell beings, are present in your hand at this moment. You can observe and experience this. Your hand is always available as a subject for meditation.
–Thich Nhat Hanh, Present Moment, Wonderful Moment
Continuation and endurance are kindred concepts. It’s not about effort, it’s about the flow of life: life to life.
And now, for my illustration. Sequoia sempervirens, the coastal redwood. Amongst the oldest living things on earth, the species includes the tallest living trees on the planet. This particular tree is located in Big Basin Redwoods State Park, about 25 miles from the house I lived in as a high school student, where my brother lives now. It’s nicknamed The Grandfather.
If these trees continue to exist in 50 years, they may exist for a thousand. If they’re gone in 10 years, they’ll be gone forever. Redwoods reproduce by seed cone and asexually through lignotubers, called ‘burls’. Redwood burls are beautiful swirls of richly colored wood when they are sliced open. Unfortunately, poachers take these burls for decorative furniture and cut off the reproductive possibilities. Here’s an article describing how 2 men were arrested and charged for poaching redwood burls in a National Park.
This May 21, 2013 photo provided by the National Park Service shows wildlife biologist Terry Hines standing next to a massive scar on an old growth redwood tree in the Redwood National and State Parks near Klamath, Calif., where poachers have cut off a burl to sell for decorative wood. The park recently took the unusual step of closing at night a 10-mile road through a section of the park to deter thieves. (AP Photo/Redwood National and State Parks, Laura Denn)
What will endure for the next generation? How do I choose my path, living in continuation and protecting continuation in all life on our interconnected planet?
© 2014, essay and photograph, Priscilla Galasso, All rights reserved
Weekly Photo Challenge: Humanity
The slice of humanity that I know best: my family.
My son & his girlfriend
My daughter & her boyfriend
My sister & my brother
Weekly Photo Challenge: Adventure!
I am late jumping into this week’s challenge because I’ve been on an adventure! I’ve been in California for the last week visiting family and taking excursions. I lived in CA for 15 years, but it’s been 4 years since I’ve been there. In the interim, they’ve established a new National Park. The Pinnacles have been designated a National Monument since 1908, but 2 years ago it became a National Park. And it’s still the newest one. My father and brother used to hike there years ago and raved about it to me. This week I made my first visit. California condors have been reintroduced to the area, but I didn’t see one. I did see a tarantula and a wild bobcat, though! The tarantula was in one of the caves that was formed when giant boulders from the top of the Pinnacles crashed down into the canyons. It was very dark under there, and it took me a while to figure out how to photograph the critter. The CCC built some very helpful trails with stairs and railings in the 1930s that make exploring those caves and getting up to the rim of Pinnacles relatively easy. What you might not notice in the photos is the silence. Yes, even in California, one can find silence. Solitude. Space. But those places seem to be shrinking every year as population and development boom. The state has changed since I left in 1991. And it will keep changing. Some changes are good though. It’s nice to know that condors live there now.
scillagrace 
