i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
wich is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

E. E. Cummings

Usually, the minute leaves on aspens start to pale and crinkle, I am all over fall colors in the Rockies with my trusty little camera. It’s one of my favorite times of year, as the seasons shift from long, high-energy days to quiet, contemplative nights.

This year, I spent a(nother) month in Colorado Springs teaching an undergraduate class on Climate Change. It is an incredible learning experience for me, and the three-and-a-half week block system means the course is hugely demanding. I love the chance to throw myself at a task completely: intellectually, physically, and emotionally.

So, the moral of this post is that I gave up the chance at photography of mountains draped in yellow and orange aspens for the chance to talk about clouds and climate with an awesome group of college students. Totally. Worth. It.

The field next to my office is filled with wild sunflowers. It is quite beautiful, and one of my favorite parts of summer in Colorado.

On Saturday, Katy and I went up into Rocky Mountain National Park and did some snowshoeing up to Loch Vale. It was … delightful. I hiked the whole thing in two layers of t-shirt, while carrying many pounds of arctic-worthy gear in my pack (that I used a little at the Loch)

On Sunday the air temps plummeted and inhaling (air) deeply made me cough.

This morning, Mon, my morning dog walk was at -15 degrees F. Thanks Canada for the gift of showing me how much of a wuss I am. Even my dog can’t seem to do more than short walks without picking up her feet and looking at me with a very accusing look as if I forced her to walk. She has never found a set of dog booties that she couldn’t kick off in under 5 minutes. There is exciting news on that front, a coworker has a “bootie retrieval system” composed of an X of elastic cord which is tied to each booty and the X lays (stretches) across the dog’s back. Liv took it for a test drive and it worked. You can expect some hilarious video once I get a similar system rigged.

So, I’m trying something a little different this year. Each year at Christmas I put together a calendar with my favorite photos from the year and give it to my parents. This year, my parents (and Bruce) will still get calendars for Christmas, but I had a few extra printed and I’ve set up a place to sell them on this site!

The calendars are very large (11″ by 14″), and have heavy card stock pages. This means the photos are big, colorful, and printed beautifully. The calendar pages have large boxes and good paper for writing notes. The bindings are metal spiral bound.

Check out the For Sale page on our site to find out more about buying a 2009 Calendar or art print of any photo in the calendar or on this site. They make great gifts (just ask the family) or nice wall hangings for yourself.

The calendar is named “Wanderlore” for the combination of travel and stories behind each and every shot. Someday I hope to have a real photo portfolio set up under the name Wanderlore Photography. And with the love and help of all of you, my friends, the dream my come true sooner rather than later! Thank you, and have safe and happy holidays, everybody!

On Friday afternoon, we headed out of Portland and began the 1200 mile trip home.

View Larger Map

Unlike the trip to Bend, this drive was going to be on Interstates the whole way. We camped the first night at a quiet campground covered in dry fallen leaves on the banks of the Columbia river in Boardman, Or. We watched the sunset over the wide, calm river, made dinner on the camp stove and then slept soundly in the cool evening.

The next morning we stopped at the Tamatslikt Cultural Institute on the Umatilla Reservation. We were the first ones in that morning, and had the whole, big building to ourselves. I’ve been to a fair number of Native American museums, but I think this was one of the best. Not only did they cover tradition, and the history of the tribes in the region, but they covered recent events as well. Over half of the museum was dedicated to the time after the first waves of white immigrants entered the area. They talked about the confusion of Christian missionaries, the loss of land and eventually their horses, the forced boarding schools, and then the resurgence of the tribes after the 1960s. They had a great area dedicated to the future of the people, social and cultural projects, and the bright economic future of the tribe.

Later in the afternoon, we had lunch at the Geiser Grand Hotel, once (and possibly still) the finest hotel between Salt Lake and Seattle. It was a focal point for travelers on the Oregon trail and during the western gold rush. It was another, more familiar, view of the same history we had seen earlier in the day. It’s amazing how many different ways there are to tell the same story.

We stayed at a hotel outside of Salt Lake City on Saturday night, and finished the trip home on Sunday. It was another long drive, but full of interesting sites, and a fine way to end a great vacation.