June 2021

Spent Beauty #48
Bozeman, Montana
2021

This is a lovely yet disturbing image. It is a photo of a balsamroot leaf taken just the other day. Normally the balsamroot and several other wildflower varieties that grow on our land are in peak form in mid-June. This year however the heat and lack of rain is causing them to shrivel up and die much earlier than normal, a continuation of a very troubling trend we’ve been observing over a number of years now. Climate change is having some noticeable effects here I think. We may dry out and burn up but at least we don’t have to worry about seawater bubbling up through our streets and roads like it’s been doing in Key West, Florida lately.

Three Small Totems
Bozeman, Montana
2021

Just some souvenirs acquired while wandering around the American Prairie Reserve earlier this month. I don’t know anything about the feather or rock, but the skull is presumably that of a prairie dog as I found it next to a prairie dog burrow.

Little Landscapes #45
Bozeman, Montana
2021

Another landscape from the inside of a mussel shell.

I see a major storm front over the ocean on a moonlit night sweeping along the edge of a beach, rapidly obscuring a starry sky with a hint of the Milky Way in the background. To get the image, I did not alter the look of the shell itself much at all, I just filled in around it to make the image rectangular. Here is the unadulterated shell:

Everyone’s Favorite Pastime
Ft. Benton, Montana
2021

Harbinger
Antelope Creek, Montana
2021

Camping at the American Prairie Reserve, the storm around this worrisome cloud actually passed to the west of us, but it was a precursor of a sibling storm that hit us later in the evening. That storm brought strong winds, plenty of rain, and near-constant lightning all around, but thankfully only small hail. But that storm itself was a precursor of what was to come the next night a little further east when a storm brought 3″ hail and wind gusts to 113 mph. The area was later declared a disaster zone. Fortunately we headed further west, not east the next day and had a very calm night.

Top Down
Antelope Creek, Montana
2021

View to the interior of a now roofless cabin.

Resistance is Futile
Bridger Bowl, Montana
2021

I was well on my way to freedom when I was sidetracked by the temptation of easy money.

On the Road to Freedom
Bridger Bowl, Montana
2021

Bushwhacking across a meadow on a hike, I stumbled onto the road to freedom. What luck!

Bare Tree #75
Bozeman, Montana
2021

When I look at this particular spot on a rotting log I walk by regularly on our property I am alternately reminded of a swirling whirlpool of water and the central figure in Edvard Munch’s painting The Scream.

The Scream
Edvard Munch
1893

The Opposite of Vestige
Bozeman, Montana
2021

The same table centerpiece as in yesterday’s POTD except photographed just after daylight instead of just before sunset (and it’s the real thing not just it’s shadow). I looked up antonyms for vestige but none seemed appropriate for describing the first sunlight of the day, so was at a loss for a suitably opposite title (compared to yesterday’s) for this post. I suppose I could have gone with “Dawn’s Early Light” but it’s history makes it seem too momentous a choice for this image.