Less Traveled Road

The sky was grumbling and growling as I made my way on the less traveled road. The wind was buffeting the truck and a gust brought the sweet scent of rain in through the window and moistened my face with its coolness. The pickup crested one hill and plunged down another before laboring up the next one. I was heading right for the churning clouds. It was time to stop and watch as the line of pines marched off into the maw of the storm.

Less Traveled Road
A black and white landscape photo of a back country dirt road in Colorado stretching toward a stormy sky with silhouettes of pines marching in the horizon.
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By the way, I have a free drawing for two photographs going on over at Facebook. If you are not yet following me on Facebook now is the time. All of my Facebook followers who RSVP the 500 Fans Celebration Event will be eligible! Good luck! Deadline is midnight August 27, 2010.

Etsy Buy Handmade JulieMagersSoulen

Fog on the Mesa

The swirling mist was cold against my face as if an undead lover caressed my cheek. The stillness was only interrupted by the soft hiss of air against the dead leaves. I walked quietly as if I were afraid to disturb some thing that might be lurking in the fog. Camera in hand I started shooting the misty swirls of air. The tree branches stretched and reached out to me as if to stop my progress. Undaunted I continued. Then as I finished framing my last shot I caught a glimpse of movement in the distant haze. It was time to pay the price for my trespass.

Dedicated to the fans of "Twilight" and all vampire fiction. I hope you had as much fun reading this as I did writing it.

Fog on the Mesa
A heavy fog shrouds the red mesa and a leaning cottonwood tree creating an eerie atmosphere in the mist.
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Cottonwood Fog
A cottonwood tree reaches into the foggy landscape with twisted branches.
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Fog
An ancient cottonwood tree is a pale twisted shadow in the gray fog.
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Grandmother Pine

Grandmother Pine stands where the cold winter wind blows the strongest. The gale is channeled up a steep narrow canyon and breaks over the ridge exactly where she stands. Her trunk is thick and twisted. Her branches are short and sturdy. She barely notices the brutal blast that pushes me about like the fragile being that I am. She offers sanctuary to every creature under her thick boughs where the air is quiet and the light dim. She stands protectively over all who accept her embrace. Thank you for your shelter, Grandmother Pine.

Thank you for your patience regarding my computer difficulties. I am up and running smoothly again, although a bit behind. So my return is a little slow, but I will catch up and have many new photographs as the week progresses. Check back often.

Grandmother Pine
An ancient and twisted ponderosa pine has withstood time and the severe weather on a mountaintop in Colorado.
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Etsy Buy Handmade JulieMagersSoulen

March 2010 Calendar for your Computer

It is almost March. That means spring is just around the corner for most of us. The cold winter snow will be gone for one more year. But before it is totally gone the mists will surround the pines and flow like water down the mountain slopes in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Here is your new desktop calendar for March 2010. If you would like to purchase this photograph you can find the information on the archival quality fine art photo of Evening Fog here. I hope you enjoy your free calendar!

download your free desktop wallpaper calendar for March 2010 here

Easy Instructions
After clicking on the above link
you will be at my Flickr page. Simply click on
"Download the Original size"
at the top left of the page.
The file will then download to your desktop!

Etsy Buy Handmade JulieMagersSoulen

Dreaming of Spring

Like a hibernating bear, I am dreaming of spring. Twitching for it. Yearning for it. Waiting for it. But Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow which means six more weeks of winter. And for the high country of Colorado I know that my wait for green meadows and bursting flowers will not be until June. So wish me luck and happy springtime dreams.

Spring Breeze
The old and twisted cottonwoods were wearing the lacy light green of spring and standing over a field of purple wildflowers.
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Dreaming of Spring
The silhouette of a single small bird perched in the bare branches of a tree is a harbinger of spring to come.
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Horizon
The lush spring grass stretches as far as the eye can see into the horizon with a rain promising spring sky overhead.
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Etsy Buy Handmade JulieMagersSoulen

Snowy Trees in a Winter Landscape

My boots crunched as I walked the dogs in the frigid morning air. Their breath puffed out in jets of steam as they charged ahead. The fresh snow outlined everything in lacy sparkling white. I had to pause and soak it in, the cold forgotten. I am the "Winter Girl." The cottonwoods on the valley floor remind me of old oil paintings of the romanticism period, with pastural meadows and large trees. It would have looked the same to a passerby one hundred years ago. My contemplations are abruptly ended by dog noses nudging me forward. It is time to continue our walk.

Mesa Cottonwoods in Winter
Snowy cottonwoods line a creek at the bottom of the towering western mesa pointing to a water source and creating layers of subtle color.
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Snowy Cottonwoods in Blue
The western landscape turns a subtle shade of blue under the intense azure winter sky and highlights the stark row of cottonwood trees.
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find out how to get a free double matte for this photo

Etsy Buy Handmade JulieMagersSoulen

Goblin Forest in Twilight Land

On our recent vacation to the Olympic Peninsula I was treated to a vista containing every hue of green. Moss and mushrooms, trees and ferns grew in an almost infinite profusion. Trees grew recklessly and would topple over only to become part of the mossy carpet.

The strongest trunks would survive in broken and twisted shapes giving the forest an eerie feel.

This was the land of Twilight, the recent publishing phenomenon of vampire love. According to the popular series vampires chose this forest to live and hunt because it is so dark and dim.

To step off the foot path was treacherous. The forest floor yielded when stepped upon. Moss covered the broken floor so effectively that you could not tell if there was firm footing or an empty space yawning below, ready to swallow any unsuspecting soul.

The gloomy atmosphere gave our imagination room to roam. Who knows what lurks behind those distorted trunks or in those dark crevices? If vampires do roam this is the perfect hide away.

Etsy Buy Handmade JulieMagersSoulen

Sunday Morning Gallery - Autumn's First Kiss

In the Colorado Rockies it has been an unusually wet and cool summer. It almost seems as if we are skipping summer and going from spring right into fall. I should not complain. I am really not a hot weather person. But to see the foliage starting to turn seems just a bit too soon. Having said that, I love autumn in Colorado. The nights turn crisp with clear brilliant starry skies and the days are still warm and sunny. Here are a couple early autumn photographs for your pleasure.

Red Leaf Brier

Autumn Tree

Etsy Buy Handmade JulieMagersSoulen

Sunday Morning Gallery - Lake City to Marmot Crossing

Ric and I took this camping trip in June 1997 but it is one that really sticks with me. We packed up our camping gear, and our dogs Keota and Champ. Champ was just a young pup at the time. We loaded up our brand new Toyota 4Runner to test out its grit, and headed to Lake City, Colorado.

Lake City is an 1870’s mining town, located in a valley formed by the convergence of Henson Creek, and the headwaters of the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River. The picturesque community is surrounded by majestic, 14,000 foot peaks, and tall, old growth Cottonwood trees line the highway through town. Lake City has an elevation of 8,671 feet.



On the way to our camp site we traveled through some beautiful country. I had to stop to take a picture of the "marmot crossing" sign. I had never seen such a sign and to this day I have never seen another one. You know you are remote when you have to stop for marmots!





We finally found our designated camp in a hard to find state forest campground and set up camp. When we stay in one spot for a week we like to set up the "circus tent" which is really just a huge LL Bean tarp that is plenty roomy for outside living when the unpredictable mountain weather gets rough. We learned long ago that it is not too fun to spend all day in a tiny tent with two dogs. It is our outside room with a view.

I will be continuing the story of our Lake City trip with more pictures in a future post. Stay tuned to hear about our 4wheeling adventure to Cinnamon Pass.

Friday Favorites - Trees

In the Presence of Trees

(Oak)

Tree
I named you once.
Oldest soul I have ever known,
standing sentry over the sunflower
field behind the school, your rings were
innumerable. Tree I named you, but that
name is long forgotten, a secret only the slow
stumble of childhood retains. Adults cannot know
the names of the trees. Not the true names
bestowed by fey children with grass
in their hair.
If they knew
they would
never be able to replace them with subdivisions.

(c) 2008 T. Soulen

Kenna Foster



Clancy's Classics



The Eye




Gary Heller Photography


For more Friday Favorites visit:

Allie Art: Photography Benefitting Children
Handicrafts

Remember that if you start your own Friday Favorite blog to send me your link. I will add it to my post and we can start a "gallery walk" on Fridays!

Sunday Morning Gallery - For the Love of Trees

I live in a world surrounded by the beauty and peaceful nature of trees. I see them first thing in the soft blue morning light after a fresh snow. I see them outside my antique window, the only one that occasionally gets frosty. I see them on a misty spring walk with the forest floor a rare emerald green. I see them in the evening after a thunderstorm has beaten and tossed them about only to see them still standing tall even in their death. And I see them peeking through wisps of fog as the whispers flow up hill and around their mighty trunks like a cat brushing a leg. To live in a world of trees is to find the heartbeat of nature and hold it close as a lover until your heart and theirs beat together.