While hanging out with another band several evenings ago, I saw Corazon’s band a fair distance away. They were, in fact, up the hill to the left as you’re looking at the above photo. It was a cool perspective, but the horses were just enough over a little hill that they weren’t super recognizable with their heads down, grazing.
I kept an eye on them while enjoying my closer band, and eventually, they came into better view – which you see above. And eventually after THAT, they ended up very close to me and the band I was with. 🙂
A whole photo essay could be dedicated to the artistry of the mustang tail swish. This one, catching that luscious light, would come in near the top of the gallery.
(Photo-nerdy background info: I regularly delete pix that show a horse with a “normal” or straight-hanging tail as opposed to pix that show a lovely swish. I regularly let my camera indulge in its fast burst rate to take multiple images of a moment in order to hopefully get that *pretty* swish (let alone other loveliness).)
From above Disappointment Road looking up-valley – Spring Creek Basin from about mid-ground at left to background. The magic treasure under the rainbow.
We got sprinkles but nothing spectacular in the rain department … unless, of course, you count the rainbow glowing ahead of the rain. 🙂
**** Update: Around 5 a.m., we got a *spectacular* thunder-and-lightning storm that brought the rain in toad-gagging torrents. Every arroyo and creek in the valley is surely rolling and roiling. Catchments hopefully have gotten much-needed infusions by the gallon.
From Chrome’s Point in Spring Creek Basin, I watched the moon rise last night.
There’s a lot going on with our lunar neighbor this month, according to NASA. According to that linked article’s headline, “the next full moon (Tuesday) is a partial lunar eclipse; a supermoon, the corn moon, and the harvest moon.” That’s a hard-working moon!
It’s been rising over our horizons for generations untold. Still so amazing and mysterious and beautiful.
Mysterium was frozen in her tracks, frozen in fascination about what was happening with a little band just down the hill at the road. It wasn’t a big to-do (or so this human thought), but she sure was interested!
September 11 is a date Americans aren’t likely to forget. In 2001, I was on a morning mountain bike ride from my house in Durango, having lived there only a few months. I came home and started getting ready for work (at The Durango Herald) to my phone lit up with messages telling me to get to the newsroom as soon as I could. The rest is a blur of news stories, images and devastating emotions that left my colleagues and I – and the rest of (all of) America – reeling.
As of 2021, I have another – and very good – memory of Sept. 11: The day friend Tif and I went to Sand Wash Basin to load and bring three fillies back to Spring Creek Basin, where we were met by friend Kat to UNload the fillies to the rest of their life in our basin, tucked into a northeastern hideaway in Disappointment Valley.
We are far – so far – away from the world here, tucked into our own (mostly) peaceful valley. I rarely mention outside events, even when they affect me deeply. I’m no longer a journalist, but I do still have a journalist’s curiosity about the world. My world has shrunk, and I find what’s within these narrow boundaries is just where I want to be and what I want to continue to learn about – and share.
That said, history is worth remembering, lest we repeat the sometimes horrible events. … It’s also worth remembering the good parts of our personal histories, that we might repeat those events in the future.
Please don’t let the hate and violence in the greater outside world (or even near at hand) prevent you from embracing love and seeking beauty. It’s always there. Just as the other is. … But the beautiful parts are worth so very much more, always.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 