On the northern Oregon coast, a lovely spit about three miles long juts south along the Nehalem River. The south end of the spit is protected as Nehalem Bay State Park. Driftwood piles high at the mouth of the Nehalem River, next to the stone jetty. It is a really nice spot.
It is not a great ski year for the Pacific Northwest. Snowpack is seriously below seasonal averages. Skate skiing this season is mostly a bust in western Oregon. So I thought about past trips, including one I took to the Methow Valley in December 2010, and that turned out to be a great trip because I reconnected with someone who I had not seen in years who showed me the trails. This weekend, the Methow Valley is predicting warmish weather for their annual Tour of the Methow, a great race with many distances, including 80 km.! This is a lovely place, and I always tell my good friends who have not been there, try and go once during ski season.
In the last 30 years, several countries whose current dominant religion (Islam) considers artistic representations of the human form as idolatrous, have seen the destruction of some of humanity’s great artistic and cultural heritage. Those countries include Afghanistan, where cliff-size statues of Buddha at Bamiyan were dynamited in 2001 by the Taliban, and Syria, where the Baathist regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad has outright plundered and looted the great Roman ruins of Palmyra. Both places have been ravaged by civil war, invasions, and religious intolerance. Even before these attacks by religious fanatics and criminals on monuments to cultural melting pots that were ancient Syria and what is now Afghanistan, art from these areas has been plundered and sold.
The St. Louis Art Museum, a great institution that I love dearly, has two examples of art from these locations. They include a funerary bust in the Roman Palmyriene style and the head of a Buddha that mixes Greek-Hellenic features with Chinese traditions, which dates from the 4th century of contemporary Afghanistan, from the ancient Gandhara region. I have no idea how these two pieces ever entered the art market, but many pieces like them have flooded into the global art market because of civil conflict and violence in both countries, where proxy wars, terrorism, religious intolerance, and intolerance have prevailed. Our sense of who we are has been lessened and ultimately chipped away by the destruction of such places.
It was a hot August day when I snapped this picture as the sun was setting on wheat country in Lincoln County, Washington. It was a beautiful day and a beautiful place indeed.
The Cape buffalo of Africa is one of the world’s largest and strongest land mammals. It can toss full-grown lions with a shake of its head and horns, and they are not afraid to attack lions if their herd is threatened. In Tanzania, where I shot this, I was told they are among the most dangerous land animals in Africa. This enormous male bull looks like it had tussled before with a lion, and clearly it did not lose that battle. I would hate to cross their path if they felt threatened. (Click on the photograph to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)
In central Washington, in farm country, one can see quite a few of these heeler mixes. They are very beautiful dogs, and so smart you almost think they could speak to you. I captured these two young males at the Omak Stampede back in 2012. I just saw a similar mix today while running, and its happy smile brought this pair back to mind. Make no mistake, these are working dogs too. (Click on the picture to see a larger photo on a separate picture page.)
I cross over the Ross Island Bridge every day going to work. Here is an angle from below, taken from the Springwater Corridor. (Click on the photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.)
The 49th Super Bowl is still being played. I am listening live on the radio, as the Hawks just went up 23-14. Here is how it looked at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, which thoughtfully opened up its doors to the public and showed the game on its giant screen.
High on the Columbia River Gorge, in the Mt. Hood National Forest, I found a number of standing dead trees that have been thoroughly scavenged by woodpeckers. Lovely place up here. Seven species of woodpeckers live in the forest, so I cannot say which ones may have hammered away here.
This is the last of my “photos in the mist” set that I published this week. I do like this one and the pure joy of watching birds being birds. You can listen to their calls on this web site run by Cornell Labs. I will anthropomorphize here and flat out say its an eery, almost haunting call. Click on the photo to see a larger picture on a separate picture page.
What Beautiful Light 