Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

You know it feels good when you can work a good head rub into your roll. 🙂

Beauty in the haze.

Big boy Skywalker relaxes while watching a nearby band.

The ground was damp when I took this pic of Kestrel last week while she snacked on some four-wing saltbush. It was quite, um, cool. 🙂

This was our view last night in Spring Creek Basin. Looks pretty parched, eh? It is. Those clouds to the east beyond McKenna Peak and Temple Butte didn’t prove very helpful in the moisture department.

The horses aren’t very far from Spring Creek canyon here, which has water in holes and pools. During my hikes around the basin, I keep an eye on the seeps and have seen them recharge with even the recent little rains, so that’s encouraging.

Skywalker, above, is quite relaxed, keeping his own eyes on the band down the hill. He and his bachelor buddy napped for quite a while before finally returning to grazing as the shadows started to creep their way from the rimrocks.

Ma Nature does “fireworks” in the very best way.

No bodies of any species in or near Spring Creek Basin were harmed by loud explosions, no fires were started, no fingers were amputated or eyebrows singed off.

Awe was widespread. 🙂

O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern, impassioned stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness!
America! America!
God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine,
Till all success be nobleness,
And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream
That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam
Undimmed by human tears!
America! America!
God shed His grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!

~ Lyrics by Katharine Lee Bates; music composed by Samuel A. Ward

This Independence Day, especially, let’s help our fellow Americans hold to the ideals of brother(and sister)hood and all lives being equally valued and cherished. We are bound not only by the country of our birth … but also by our planet of birth.

Celebrate freedom. Celebrate each other. Celebrate the wonderful diversity that thrives all across these United States of America.

Hollywood watches a couple of his mares while another couple peek over the ridge behind him. They chose a pretty scenic place to watch the nearly-full moon rise over Spring Creek Basin.

The full moon, known in July as the buck moon, thunder moon or hay moon, will be Saturday night and early Sunday morning, and there also will be a partial penumbral eclipse!