BS: Thought for the Day - sorta - 23-5-02

Subject: Thought for the Day - sorta - 23-8-02
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 May 02 - 06:30 PM

The landscape of my life has changed with our recent move to western
Colorado. I am getting re-acquainted with the geography of my childhood.
Today and yesterday, the dog and I went for a ride. While the valley we are
in has grown and seems full of development, I was gratified to
see there are still lots of farms and other agricultural areas left.

Yesterday, we went to the wider end of the valley. Spread out like an ancient
delta, the land is mostly green wherever the life-giving irrigation water is
channelled, dry and dusty desert elsewhere. Old-timey looking farmers were
out on slow-moving tractors, lumbering like some weird kind of modern
dinosaurs in a land rife with real dino-diggings. I was surprised to see some
had already cut their first crop of hay. Though I did see several farmers, I was still saddened to see so many areas being gouged and bulldozed; the old farmers gone or given up, "progress" taking over the land for mini-mansions and subdivisions.

Today's ride took us to the other end of the valley where it narrows up against a
huge and extinct volcano. This end has more vineyards and orchards:
peaches, cherries, apples and the like. The roads are more twisty, climbing
small arroyos full of small rivulets and scrub-oaks, as well as tamarisk trees.
Each road had several farms advertising honey, fruit, vegetables, gift baskets
and other home-made crafts for sale, most "in-season" some year round. I
saw a wonderful diversity of barns, most dilapidated, some with their middles
completely missing, others leaning like drunken sailors looking as if a gentle
push would bowl them over.

Each place where I have lived, I've made it a habit to photograph certain
aspects of the landscape. Some were old homesteads in Wyoming, some were
old signs painted on buildings. Seeing the old barns looking so precarious, I
realised it will be them which I capture first on film, in this my return to
"home." I will honour them with the seeming simplicity and clean lines of
black and white film. If I get really ambitious, I may ask the owners about their
history. Mostly I will just share them with others who appreciate the history
and stories they seem to tell.

Thanks,

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Thought for the Day - sorta - 23-8-02
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 23 May 02 - 07:05 PM

I remember very strongly, being driven past a field of 'baby Christmas trees' on the way to my granfer's house for summer holidays, probably about 1968/9. These conifers were about 2' - 3' tall and had just been planted out.

I drove past them again last month. They're all about 30' - 40' tall now, but the rest of the landscape was like it had never moved..... bluebells, wild garlic, cowslips and primroses, wild violets, yellow rattle and red campions, all incredibly intense in colour and scent.

I used to share these things with my family. They're all gone now, and the one person I wanted to share them with then wasn't there. It makes such a difference, looking a at a landscape alone or with someone. I found myself turning round, pointing things out to him, before I remembered he wasn't there, and was never going to see these wonderful things with me.

I don't know what made me feel saddest... the fact that he wasn't there with me, or that I remembered the trees being planted and felt so old, or that the flowers were there, so young and fresh, but would never be so again.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Thought for the Day - sorta - 23-8-02
From: Amergin
Date: 23 May 02 - 07:39 PM

lovely, katdarlin.....but i had no idea it was august....

Subject: RE: BS: Thought for the Day - sorta - 23-8-02
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 23 May 02 - 08:01 PM

As dry as everything is here, it certainly FEELS like August.

Subject: RE: BS: Thought for the Day - sorta - 23-8-02
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 May 02 - 08:07 PM

Yeah, but you're supposed to get snow, tonight, LeeJ! At least that's what NPR is saying. And, it was damn cold here, today, I froze this morning; that's originally why the dog and I went for a ride...I needed to warm up. I'll be damned if I'll turn on the furnace here in the middle of May!

Nathan, I decided to be "continental" and try dating things the Euro-way.:-)

LtS...my dawg is a very appreciative audience and is always very attentive when I tell him to look.*bg* You've painted a beautiful picture. Thanks. I know what you mean about teh trees. Thirty years or more ago my fmaily ahd a tree farm and we planted hundreds of little tiny 2-3 inch trees. I drove past there the other day, the old house is gone to fire and new "mansion" has been built, the landscape changed, BUT they left many, many of the trees all of which are huge now. It was easier for me that they'd changed some things as it didn't make me so sad and I was actually kind of proud to se some of those trees still standing.

kat

Subject: RE: BS: Thought for the Day - sorta - 23-8-02
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 May 02 - 08:10 PM

Oh, duh...sorry Nathan...I just realised what I did! Changing it now...hahaha!

Subject: RE: BS: Thought for the Day - sorta - 23-8-02
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 May 02 - 08:11 PM

That made me think of this poem. I may have posted it here before, but nommatter. It's by Padraig Pearse, and I've seen it said it was the last poem he wrote before he was shot in 1916 after the Easter Rising. I don't know whether that is true or not. Anyway it ties in with the fragility of the world at the time it's most beautiful.

The Wayfarer

The beauty of the world has made me sad
This beauty that will pass.

Sometimes my heart has shaken with great joy
to see a leaping squirrel on a tree
or a red ladybird upon a stalk.
Or little rabbits, in a field at evening,
lit by a slanty sun.

Or some green hill, where shadows drifted by,
some quiet hill,
where mountainy man has sown,
and soon will reap,
near to the gate of heaven.

Or little children with bare feet
upon the sands of some ebbed sea;
or playing in the streets
of little towns in Connacht.

Things young and happy.

And then my heart has told me -
these will pass,
will pass and change,
will die and be no more.

Things bright, and green.
Things young, and happy.

And I have gone upon my way, sorrowful.

Subject: RE: BS: Thought for the Day - sorta - 23-8-02
From: DonD
Date: 23 May 02 - 08:14 PM

A lovely word picture -- thanks.

But -- the ride?? In the car or other vehicle, or on horseback? Here in the suburbs of the Big City, I immediately thought Colorado meant 'horse' but then I wondered. 'what was the dog riding'?

Subject: RE: BS: Thought for the Day - sorta - 23-5-02
From: katlaughing
Date: 23 May 02 - 08:38 PM

Oh gawd, DonD, make me laugh! I do have a funny postcard they print out here of a real dog on a real horse. The dog has the reins in his mouth and the caption reads "Designated driver!"

Actually the West has always been full of fiercely independent people who insist, by and large, on driving their cars everywhere, except in the big cities where public transport is available. Of course with so much distance between places we have to drive our cars unless we have the time/energy/ etc. to ride a bike, horse, whathaveyou. Even in the cities, though, that independence spills over, still, and people eschew the public transport and pay for it in pollution.

Anyhow, thanks for your comments and the dog was riding "shotgun" up front in the minivan.:-)