September 2023

The Home Place
Bozeman, Montana
2023

I know that homesteading in the west around the turn of the 20th was to a large degree anything but an idyllic endeavor. But still, this view from the entrance to the Museum of the Rockies Living History Farm made such a life look very peaceful and inviting.

(As an aside, the title for this image was a nod to the book by the same title by writer and photographer Wright Morris.)

The Hatch
Bozeman, Montana
2023

This dinosaur’s demise was way more premature than that of the species in general. I should mention that this photo and those of the last two days were of exhibits at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.

The Usual Suspects
Bozeman, Montana
2023

A lineup of triceratops skulls showing an age progression from left to right.

Prehistoric Makeup
Bozeman, Montana
2023

Sometimes when they reconstruct dinosaur skeletons from partial fossils they try to match the plaster color for the missing pieces they are filling in to that of the actual fossils.  Other times, such as in this case, they use unadulterated plaster which creates a high contrast effect. I doubt that it was the intended purpose, but in this particular case the use of white plaster results in an interesting artistic mosaic of a terrifying “thunder lizard” that from an artistic point of view is quite a bit more interesting than a carefully color-matched effort. (Full disclosure, the darker parts of this reconstruction aren’t likely the real fossils, rather they are reproductions of the real fossils that are safely tucked away in storage somewhere.)

Horse Head
Maryhill Museum of Art, Washington
2023

Without proper context, or seeing the whole sculpture piece, this might not appear as a horse head at first glance. It is part of the sculpture “Winter Rider Variation” by James Lee Hansen. The entire sculpture is an interesting piece, but I found this head shot to be most compelling.

Bare Tree #112
Cape Arago, Oregon
2023

This image suggests to me a stag deer in its death throes, probably because it reminds me of this photo I took in China back in 2016:

Death of a Stag Deer
Beijing, China
2016

Shore Acres #4
Cape Arago, Oregon
2023

Beachball and larger sized “cannonballs” lodged in the side of a sandstone ridge.

Shore Acres #3
Cape Arago, Oregon
2023

Probably what a morel mushroom looks like to an ant.

Skybox
Dubois, Wyoming
2023

A pair of ospreys enjoying the view from their well-positioned nest atop a dead tree.

Tumult
Bozeman, Montana
2023

A last glimpse of lighter sky before a storm closed in around us. It was a more heinous tumult that occurred 22 years ago today in New York, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania–one that still reverberates in many ways around the world. Eleven years ago today, I had a tumultuous day of sorts of my own, as that was the day I had open-heart surgery to replace my aortic valve. That, however, was a good kind of tumult as the replacement valve, although aging, is serving me quite well still.