LARRY BLACKWOOD

Bare Tree #61
Bozeman, Montana
2020

Apocalypse Dogs
Bozeman, Montana
2020

Wild Rose
Bozeman, Montana
2020

Souvenirs and Trinkets
Bozeman, Montana
2020

The wide windowsill in my studio has become a repository for various interesting things I collect here and there. In this case, all these items are from my China trips.

Great Minds Think Alike
Bozeman, Montana
2020

Two days ago an article appeared in the Washington Post about the big social media splash Senator Kamala Harris made showing up to a campaign event wearing Chuck Taylor Convese All-Stars. (See the article here.) The response from the ever prepared Fashion Queen yesterday morning was to dig into her vast shoe collection and come out wearing guess what? Her very own pair of Chuck Taylor’s of course.

Bare Tree #60
Bozeman, Montana
2020

Self Portrait With Fir Tree
Bozeman, Montana
2020

I was surprised to see myself sneaking up on me the other day.

Red Planet, Red Moon
Bozeman, Montana
2020

The moon and Mars are in conjunction this week, i.e., they are very close together in the sky. The moon appears to be welcoming Mars by changing it’s color to match that of the Red Planet. The special effects are courtesy of our local forest fire.

This photo was from two nights ago. Last nights moon was significantly less red, a roundabout indicator that the fire in the area, while still 0% contained, has been slowed significantly even though it had gone from 400 acres in size Friday morning to 7,000 later on in the day. Yesterday, we were allowed to drive up to our mountain house temporarily. The nearest burned area to our house was about 2 miles away. We saw many, many intact homes that were completely surrounded by charred landscapes, pointing to a great job by firefighters in regard to structure protection as well as homeowners who have taken seriously the advice to create a “defensible space” around their homes. We did see two homes burned to the ground and heard there are more.

Today the weather has changed significantly from the heat of the last two days. In fact there is a winter weather advisory out for up to 4″ of snow above 6,000 feet. (Our house is at 6200 feet.) We are comfortable that our house is out of danger from this fire. We feel bad for the nearby devastation and even worse for all the folks out in California who are and have been living with much bigger fires for much longer than we have.

The Loveliest Thing You Don’t Want to See
Bozeman, Montana
2020

A savage beauty, but not the kind of photo you really want to be able to take from your porch. This is from our house in town last night–we got evacuation orders at our mountain house yesterday afternoon. The fire was several miles from the house at the time so in spite of the strong winds the rest of the day, I’m pretty sure it’s still o.k.

That Was Then
Bozeman, Montana
2020

Like the other flower photos I posted this last week, this image was taken back in early June when regular rain and snow promised, and delivered, a good growing season for wildflowers and other plants. Now though it’s late summer and as usual these days, we’re much more likely to see smoke from wildland fires than we are significant moisture.