A Grand Canyon

A spot where you can drive down to the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon.  Not quite as "splendid" as in the National Park, but still beautiful.

At the confluence of Diamond Creek & the Colorado River, May 2019. 

Sledding

2006, Northern Arizona

2012, East of Albuquerque

2017, Yellowstone

Snowcoaching

Jan, 2019 near Grand Canyon

Feb, 2019 N. AZ

Sledding in summer clothes?  Fooled you.

2009, White Sands, NM

Now Winter Nights Enlarge

[for winter, nature & Valentine's Day]

Now winter nights enlarge

The number of their hours;

And clouds their storms discharge

Upon the airy towers.

Let now the chimneys blaze

And cups o’erflow with wine,

Let well-turned words amaze

With harmony divine.

Now yellow waxen lights

Shall wait on honey love

While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights

Sleep’s leaden spells remove.

This time doth well dispense

With lovers’ long discourse;

Much speech hath some defense,

Though beauty no remorse.

All do not all things well;

Some measures comely tread,

Some knotted riddles tell,

Some poems smoothly read.

The summer hath his joys,

And winter his delights;

Though love and all his pleasures are but toys,

They shorten tedious nights.

--By Thomas Campion; ~1601

b.12 February 1567, d. 1 March 1620 

Tall Grass Prarie Flowers

Upper Midwest, United States   

Mixed assortment with grasses

[Jesus said], " 'For if God thus clothes the grass of the filed, which today is here and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more shall He clothe you, O you of little faith.' " Matthew 6:30; own translation

Purple coneflower (Echinacea)

Day-lilies

Queen Anne's Lace (Wild Carrot)

Note one deep scarlet bloom, center

Butterfly Weed (Pleurisy Root)

Used by Native Americans for various respiratory illnesses

Black-Eyed Susans

God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand

(for Independence and other days)

1. God of our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand

Leads forth in beauty all the starry band.

Of Shining worlds in splendor through the skies

Our grateful songs, before thy throne arise.

2. Thy Love divine hath led us in the past.

In this free land by thee our lot is cast.

Be Thou our ruler, guardian, guide, and stay.

Thy Word Our Law^, thy Paths our chosen ways*.

3. From wars alarms, from deadly pestilence,

Be thy Strong arm our ever sure defense*;

Thy true religion in our hearts increase,

Thy Bounteous goodness, nourish us in peace.

4. Refresh thy people on their toilsome way;

Lead us from night, to never ending day;

Fill all our lives, with love and grace^ divine*,

And glory, laud, and praise be ever Thine.

  ----Fr. Daniel C. Roberts, 1876; a priest in the Episcopal church, honoring our nation's centennial.

*I don't believe in trying to create "a Christian nation" here in America. We weren't told to create a theocracy in the New Testament.  But I am grateful that we live in a country where we can freely practice and share our faith.  I am hopeful and prayerful that neither the foolishness nor extremism on either the Right or the Left will ruin that for us here.

^While a nice enough hymn in its way, this hymn speaks nothing about grace & love actually coming from the suffering and death of Christ for our sins.

More Desert Beauty

North Rim Grand Canyon

[July 2017 vacation]

Some things are poetry without words!

Angel's Window, on of the few places to see the Colorado River from the North Rim.  

(Look closely through the window on the close-up.)

There is also the escaped buffalo herd from a failed cattle-buffalo crossing experiment over 100 years ago.  (They have some cattle DNA.)

October 2010 South Rim Visit

"In His hand are the depths of the earth;

The peaks of the mountains are His also." (Psalm 95:4)

"...He who was seated on the throne said,

'See, I am making all things new...

  To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment.'

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more,

neither shall there be mourning,

nor crying, nor pain anymore,

for the former things have passed away.”

(Revelation 21:5,6b,4)

Natural Wonders of America

The U.S. Flag featured at some of our public lands for the Fourth of July

(uncredited internet photos)

Flag Raising:  Old Faithful

Yellowstone National Park, WY

Ft. Union National Monument, NM

Southern Swamps

USS Arizona Memorial, HI

Grand Teton National Park, WY

Avenue of Flags

Mount Rushmore National Monument, SD

Storms moving in...

Bryce Canyon National Park, UT

Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

Zion National Park, UT

Washington Monument, Washington, D.C.

Niagara Falls, NY

Devil's Tower National Monument, WY

Sagamore Hill Nat'l Historic Site

Long Island, NY

Sierra Nevada Mountains, CA

Half Dome at Yosemite Nat'l Park. CA 

Folding the Flag

at Ft. McHenry National Monument, MD

(where "The Star-Spangled Banner" was written)