sky watch
January 30, 2022
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Today is the last blog of January 2022, demonstrating, once again, how days and weeks and months seem to be compressing, leaving me wondering how days disappear into thin air. But it is January and winter in the northern hemisphere. A flurry of cloud activity painted across the sky mid-week, hinting at the possibility of snow, and providing dynamic...
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of shortbread and Burns
January 23, 2022
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25 January 1759 is the birthdate of renowned Scottish poet Robert Burns. It is said that friends of the poet of romance got together to celebrate his life for the first time in 1801, after his death in 1796. Although a traditional Burns Dinner consists of haggis (organ meats from sheep, lamb, and some beef with oats, onions, and spices cooked in a...
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vegetables
January 17, 2022
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The word "vegetable" conjures different things in different people. Perhaps overcooked and tasteless and "I'm not eating that" to fresh, crunchy and flavorful. As a photographer with an interest in details, I can't help but analyze both the inside and outside of certain vegetables, looking for the design, color, and patina. So just when you thought...
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color in winter
January 10, 2022
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There are places in the world, even in the northern hemisphere, where color doesn't wain during the winter months. Many flowers are in bloom, even as I write this, in California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington, as well as coastal Canada, in the southern United States and Mexico as well. Parts of the Mediterranean have myriad flowers that provide wi...
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the opening chapter
January 02, 2022
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Today is the third page of the opening chapter of 2022. Although the snow tragically came a day too late for many residents of Louisville and Superior, Coloraodo, New Mexico was gifted rain and snow to close out the year. That is worth celebrating. It has been far too long since there was decent moisture in much of the state. Following shoveling an...
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taking stock
December 26, 2021
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For most of us, 2021 was a year we anticipated with some measure of both dread and hope, leaving us at times feeling like we were in limbo because of the continued severity of the COVID pandemic and unanticipated consequences of it. But as the year progressed from winter into spring and then summer, and as more people got vaccinated, there was a we...
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solstice 2021
December 19, 2021
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Tomorrow, 21 December, is the winter solstice in earth's northern hemisphere. Because it deeply effected their lives, daylight was tracked on some level by early humans and they knew it changed throughout the year. According to EarthSky, "The solstice is when the sun reaches its most southerly point on the sky's dome for the year. At the solstice,...
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design magic in ice
December 13, 2021
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Instructions: Take one six gallon bucket, the likes of which can be found at a hardware store. Fill with water. Leave overnight when the low temperature is 15 degrees Fahrenheit or below. In the morning, drain any remaining water out of the bucket and empty the resulting ice on the ground. Result: design magic.
We would not necessarily have discov...
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New Mexico verdigris
December 06, 2021
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Considering I was unfamiliar with the descriptor for many years, I have long been an admirer of the color "verdigris". A dusty blue green, it is found in many landscapes, including both low and high deserts in the American Southwest. The Secret Lives of Color is a great reference by Kassia St. Clair. About verdigris she says "Verdigris is a natural...
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comfort
November 28, 2021
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The weekly exercise of photography, for me, contains bits and pieces of what I do, see, or reproduce for publication in any given week. Therefore, at the risk of this reading like a "How I spent my Thanksgiving holiday" paper from school, one of today's main blog subjects is the rum ball. I have been constructing these confections every year since...
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thankful
November 22, 2021
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There was a reason other than automobile and mattress sales for the Thanksgiving holiday. Celebrated in America and around the world, it was originally a day set aside to celebrate the bounty of the harvest. I like the idea of Thanksgiving because you do not need to be of a particular religious or cultural background to partake. It is a simple conc...
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complexity, simplicity, and rhythm
November 15, 2021
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Especially at this time of year, when leaves are falling from the trees, revealing everything they shielded, I am in awe, and find myself marveling at nature. Earth is full of complex and yet seemingly simple things that have some level of rhythm. One of the best examples of this is corn. The humble vegetable and staple of many a school lunchroom,...
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the spirit of leaves
November 08, 2021
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Most deciduous trees, by their nature, shed leaves once a year. It is part of their life cycle. And the last hoorah of leaves, as every person in the Rocky Mountains knows, is spectacular. Even as leaves lose their colors and dry, they continue to circle around us, forming eddies in corners, around rocks, and at the base of the tree from which they...
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carbon neutral
October 31, 2021
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For some odd reason, possibly a gift from our respective families, Fred and I are conservatives in the purist sense of the word. Not in the twisted and tortured way that some on the outer edges of the political and religious spectrum use it, but as in "conserving" - money, energy, and material goods - most of our married lives. All four of our pare...
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the produce department
October 23, 2021
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A friend of ours from Arizona wrote that he was going to Safeway to get his COVID booster. He said "I'm pretty sure it is being given by a guy in the produce department." So when Fred was emailed about his own appointment on Saturday at the Santa Fe Artists' Market just north of the Farmers' Market, we thought "Perfect!" He got his jab with an appo...
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© Daryl A. Black