Nomad exploring life wherever I am
As a measure of how enchanting this state is, I originally thought I would spend two weeks here, then head on to Big Bend. I did go down to Texas, but I came back to New Mexico afterwards, not yet ready to let go of this state. In total, I spent 60 days in this lovely state and, to be honest, I’m still not done with it. I know I’ll be back, so until then, here’s my farewell to New Mexico, featuring my favorite places so far, in no particular order. I could photograph the VLA every damn day and…
Friday turned out to be my last long drive in New Mexico for this stay. I went up towards Taos and just kept going, completing the Enchanted Circle loop. It was a perfect day for it: puffy white clouds, big blue skies, and very little traffic once I escaped Taos itself. Around every bend was something bigger and more amazing. After so much desert, it was a delight to see water reflecting mountains and trees. My camera really couldn’t capture the immensity of the landscape up here, but I did try. It’s not the images on the screen, but the memories they…
Why do one flashback when you can do a five-year retrospective of where I was in April? In 2012, I was living in Aptos (near Santa Cruz, CA) and was in the middle of a month-long project of taking a photo a day of the beach where I lived. This image is still one of my favorites: it was just before sunset and the light hit that little piece of kelp just right. 2013 found me in Seattle, enjoying my first Spring in that city. People often think of ferries when they think of Seattle, but I mostly think of…
In a Japanese garden, everything is clearly designed and planted to create the effect over time of an ageless, timeless oasis where one can contemplate nature and our experience of it. The entrance sets the tone with its clean lines and carefully planted trees and bushes. A hidden path always invites exploration in a Japanese garden to see what lies ahead. A small set of stepping stones encourages one to move slowly and observe the details of the scene. Water and stone are the yin and yang of a Japanese garden. Together they create this beautiful scene, even as the water slowly wears down…
Sometimes the daily work of living keeps me more than grounded. Buying groceries, washing dishes, doing the laundry, it’s all necessary work but it is definitely not exciting stuff and I’m certainly not passionate about any of it. Yesterday I visited the Very Large Array about 20 minutes away. It was cold and snowing, but I showed up. To watch 28 telescopes moving in unison is pretty cool. But the most moving moment was the most unexpected one. An old guy in a hard hat intercepted us as we finished the walking tour and asked if we wanted to know about the sundial…