Bitterroot and Bergamot

Visitor from the forest, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

Happy Halloween!!

# posted by Bitterroot @ 12:02 AM 2 comments

Country, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

Soon the show will be over and the texture of this hillside will have a very different quality, that of muted grays and bare, latticed branches. We will be able to see the structure of the forest.

# posted by Bitterroot @ 12:35 AM 3 comments

Staghorn sumac, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

Here is another sight that I've passed by many times in many years until I really stopped to study the scene while photographing it. This is the "horn" or fruit of the staghorn sumac that grows wild in the midwest. One recent evening I sallied forth to grab some shots in the last light and found this very commonplace fall feature glowing luminously in the setting sun. Just look at those colors of autumn, modulating from deep orange to almost white. Such a beautiful world!

Added note: having just posted this, I found a comment on the Flickr version of the photo from my friend MontanaRaven. She has such a lyrical way of expressing things that I have imported her comment here:

"She is a dancer taking a bow, and behind her on the stage her fellow dancers .... moving, flaming red, the color of fire and grace. They all run towards the front of the stage, bowing to wild applause. This .... this is the performance of the season, the way Autumn plies her graceful lithe way into Winter. One last show of color before they disrobe and go back once again ... to their (almost drab) street clothes."

Thank you M!

# posted by Bitterroot @ 12:03 AM 3 comments

Impregnable fortress in Spain, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

Here's a textured scene of a very different sort from previous entries: an ornate, spiked grille serving the most pedestrian of functions: window protection. My eye was caught by the shadows of the spikes on the grainy surface of the building. This is a detail from the Palacio de Communicationes, or Spain's post office headquarters.

...and another perspective of the same building. The sunlight brings the myriad details of ornamentation into sharp relief.

Spain's post office (!), originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

# posted by Bitterroot @ 9:09 AM 0 comments

Sunglow and rainclouds in Wisconsin, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

Sunday was one of those dreary drizzly days in Wisconsin when you can feel quite virtuous about staying in by the fire on a lazy afternoon. Something (guilt over sloth) drew me outside as the sun was setting. I took a good brisk hike and came round a corner to see these hills.

Suddenly, just for a few moments, the clouds opened just enough to bathe the earth in these splendid colors. The effect was like a spotlight swinging over the landscape. Then the lowering clouds rolled in, the colors faded, and the rain gave me a good soaking. It was another moment when everything came together at the right time. I was really quite awestruck that I was the only person present for this elaborate production.

# posted by Bitterroot @ 12:31 AM 1 comments

Abandoned barn, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

The natural world is taking over this old abandoned farmstead. The grass is springing up everywhere and growing unheeded right into the doorway of the old barn. I was struck by the contrast between the weathering barn boards and the lush greenery overtaking the building.

Abandoned farmhouse, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

And here is the house, sitting with dignity in the impersonal sunshine.

What happened here? This is a solidly constructed place, with loving attention to detail. It's situated in a lovely valley in southwestern Wisconsin, surrounded by other tidy and prosperous farm operations. What quirk of fate drove this family to leave a place that provided such fine shelter?

# posted by Bitterroot @ 6:17 AM 0 comments

Water, rock, leaf, & light 3, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

In thinking about texture, we can't confine ourselves just to landforms: for instance, take water. Or clouds. Or rays of sun. Though these don't have that nubbly or velvety texture that you can feel with your fingertips, their patterns provide a different sort of visual texture that is magical. There's something about those smooth rocks gleaming at the bottom of a swift stream...the combination of sunlight and water is a continuous source of reflection and delight to me. Here are some late-afternoon sunbeams dancing in Rattlesnake Creek just outside of Missoula, Montana.

# posted by Bitterroot @ 12:21 AM 0 comments

Canyonlands, Utah, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

Here is a moonflower, a cousin to the morninglory, growing wild in the Utah desert. Each flower opens once only and unfurls its beauty in the late afternoon or early evening, to bloom all night. On a hike in the Canyonlands, the soft delicacy of this ephemeral flower against the unyielding, timeless rock made a lovely vignette by the side of the trail.

# posted by Bitterroot @ 6:39 AM 0 comments

Blackhawk Lake, Wisconsin, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

This is a wonderful spot, near Blackhawk Lake in southwestern Wisconsin. I love the way the textured grass sets off the perfect sky and the gently rounded hilltop and trees. A scene like this can actually make you forget for a moment that the world is not always an orderly place...

# posted by Bitterroot @ 12:10 AM 0 comments

Canyonlands, Utah, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

This was taken in Canyonlands National Park near Moab, Utah. There's a dramatic contrast in texture here with the patterned, rugged rock rising up from delicate tracery of the leaves.

The sudden cool darkness as the sun slipped behind the canyon rim was striking and a mite alarming! We hiked quickly to climb up out of the canyon before night fell completely. We finished by swarming up a series of ladders set into the vertical cliff face to get to the top. If you enlarge this photo you can just barely see the hikers making their way up the trail.

# posted by Bitterroot @ 12:49 AM 0 comments

Forest floor in Wisconsin, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

Zooming in to an intimate perspective of fall texture, here is a miniature world on the forest floor in Iowa County, Wisconsin. The lichen, the tiny ferms, the jumble of leaves against the rock make a feast for the eyes.

# posted by Bitterroot @ 9:49 AM 0 comments

Autumn in the canyon, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

To explore fall textures...this was taken from a small plane overlooking the Stikine River Canyon in northern Canada. The Stikine is the fastest navigable river in North America. You don't see the river here, but you see the velvety, nubbly texture of the aspen trees as they gleam in the afternoon sun on the cliff overlooking the river.

# posted by Bitterroot @ 12:23 AM 0 comments

The texture of fall, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

The gorgeous fall colors I've seen in the past couple of weeks have drawn me to focus on the textures of the earth. This combination of juniper and huckleberry bushes, taken by Clearwater Lake in the Swan Valley, is an example. The prickly green branches of the juniper set against the glowing red of the huckleberry leaves is a perfectly wrought woodland design. Had not a ray of late-afternoon sun touched this spot, I would have walked right by it on the trail.

More fall texture photos coming up; back to our spire photos down the road a piece...

# posted by Bitterroot @ 12:06 AM 2 comments

Letting in the light, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

Speaking of spires, I was charmed by this tiny cupola atop a tiny house in Hot Springs, Montana. It's quirky and unique. What sort of room does it light up? And can you poke your head up inside there to peep out?

# posted by Bitterroot @ 12:03 AM 3 comments

A fall day in Montana, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

Golden tamarack in western Montana (see previous post of October 8.) This was taken near Clearwater Lake, in the Lolo National Forest. This is a little wilderness lake that gleams under the sun in absolute solitude and silence at this time of year.

# posted by Bitterroot @ 12:34 AM 0 comments

Alpine fir reflections, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

A variation on our spires theme: tiny points of alpine fir are reflected in this pool in the West Fork of the Clearwater River.

# posted by Bitterroot @ 10:23 PM 0 comments

A fall day in Montana, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

Continuing with the spires theme, here is a wilderness valley at the foot of the Swan Range in western Montana. The golden spires here are western larch, or tamarack, which turn golden and shed their needles in the fall. Magnifique!

# posted by Bitterroot @ 1:25 PM 2 comments

Marysville, Montana, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

Here's a sweet little spire on a frontier church in Marysville, Montana, a semi-ghost-town in the mountains outside of Helena.

# posted by Bitterroot @ 11:26 AM 3 comments

Plumed grasses, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

Looking at spires of all sorts, here is a lovely feathery grouping of spire shapes in Madrid's Botannical Gardens. the name for this plant is Cortadera Selloana (Pumila,) a native of South America.

# posted by Bitterroot @ 11:22 AM 0 comments

Last burst of color in waning light, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

An up-to-the minute glimpse of autumn in Wisconsin. It's shaping up to be a beauty!

# posted by Bitterroot @ 5:36 AM 0 comments

Swan Valley, Montana, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

Continuing with spires...I do love that aspiring shape that narrows into infinity. The trees with the sharp tops are subalpine fir. This was taken in the Swan Valley in Western Montana. The Bob Marshall Wilderness Area is just on the other side of the mountain.

# posted by Bitterroot @ 7:13 AM 2 comments

Mont St. Michel, Normandy, originally uploaded by Bitterroot.

Continuing with the spires theme...this fat round turret is one of my favorites. It guards the ramparts of Mont St. Michel, a Benedictine abbey and medieval village built on a rock in the sea off the coast of Normandy. This wondrous place is 1000 years old, and has endured many buffetings of history.

Beyond the turret you can see the stretch of sand that is covered by the tide twice a day. Pilgrims visiting the abbey had to wait for the tide to recede before they could cross from the mainland.

There is something so stalwart about this little spire, sitting solidly on a gloomy winter's day. The muted colors, the emptiness of the surroundings, and the weight of its history imparted a magical quality to Mont St. Michel that I'll not forget.

# posted by Bitterroot @ 10:05 AM 0 comments