Summer...

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Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life.

~John Muir
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It is summer...

Staying busy is a great pastime in summer and still... not enough time. I suppose maybe thats why we were given lifetimes. Between work, garden, and photography I'm out of time. Throw in some volunteering and I work at a defecit. A deficit that generally shows up in the Sleep column. But then again... I think that is why god invented naps...

In what spare time I do have I work here at the 'puter, downloading, editing and storing my images plus doing my usual wwwebsurfing of politics and blog discussions. And it seems I've been neglectful here. Over 2 weeks since my last post... dang.

I really enjoy discussions on philosophy, particularly how it regards "god." I mean really... I'm just a blue collar, forklift driving, window cleaning guy. I'm just regular folk. If -- of course -- there is any such critter as a "regular" person. About the only consistency among us I can recognize is our weirdness. We all are weird. We have quirks and personality ticks that make us who we are. But it is that individuality and its expression that makes the irregularity of humanity so regular. So when I come to god discussions I find there are those who assume a very righteous I-know-GOD-and-you-don't folks and there are those who are more humble and unwilling to be disrespectful of others spiritual beliefs and feelings. Over the years I've come to call those obnoxious evangelicals of any organized religion "spiritual fascists." I know good upright normal folks who are excellent ambassadors of their faiths and beliefs. They generally are the ones who live the teachings they would teach if they were ever in a position to do that level of teaching. Personal demonstrations are always helpful... and when done well, very effective.

Maybe that is a big part of why I remain a fan of my two favorite Oregon bloggers. Scott, down in Portland (Portland may lie north of Eugene but it is downhill from here...) over at The Narrative Image is funny, intelligent, light-hearted and a wonderful photographer. I'm always look forward to one of his new blogposts... And Rain with her blog Rainy day thoughts, another Oregon blogger who farms somewhere here in western Oregon, is a great bit of reading. Like Scott she is unpretentious, well spoken -- another example of a "typical" Oregonian -- and a photographer. Rain is thoughtful, country-practical and writes in a very readable and conversational style. (And they both can spell! Typos in final documents are one thing, but I am amazed at our collective rate of bad spelling! And the wwweb is rife with it... an epidemic of carelessness with our very American language.

But I'm digressing...

...in my photographing of life around me I continue to be entranced by the simplicity of sun, sky and cloud. And I wonder how anyone could presume (and there are those who have...) to question or demean my (or anyone else's for that matter) spiritual view of my life and all the other life that passes around me in this vast and immeasurable universe.

When I look to the sky and in one portion of it I see the subleties of the sky painter's infinite color pallette and in yet there, another direction, I witness simple blazing radiance like this:



my faith is affirmed. And I am not persuaded to follow any other way.

What follows are images all taken within the last 2 weeks or so. With maybe a bit more commentary. There are, afterall, things to do...




















And of course it is baseball season. This one is my favorite from this year at the Ems':


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If people think that nature is their friend, then they sure don't need an enemy.

~ Kurt Vonnegut

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