WInd River Peak

WInd River Peak
Originally uploaded by anselm23.

I took this during the July 15 ascent of our NOLS course to the summit of Wind River Peak, a 13,192′ mountain. These were views away to the southwest, and we’re looking over the western edge of the Wind River Range into Idaho. The combination of the person at lower right, the snowfields, the bare granite, the boulders, and the distant plains just conveys this vast sense of scale that I never had with mountains before.

The White Mountains in New Hampshire are going to start seeming puny now.

Moon glimpsed through trees

Moon glimpsed through trees
Originally uploaded by anselm23.

I may be more pleased with this photo than just about any other that I took on the trip. I like the light, the shadows, and the shape of the moon glimpsed dimly through a gap in the evergreen. It’s the best night shot I’ve ever taken, and it kind of proved to me that I need to focus on late twilight shots rather than deep night shots.

This will take some work, though, even with a camera with a night setting, I think.

Water into Split Rock

Water into Split Rock
Originally uploaded by anselm23.

Water plays a major role in a lot of the other photographs. I loved the way this stream had found a path through a broken slab of granite, in order to create this trickle over a rock to the next level of the stream. The rock in question is not split as a result of erosion. If you look closely, you can tell that the granite is hardly eroded at all. It just hapens to be a convenient gap for the water to flow through.

How many of us try to force openings in our lives? How many of us seek to push our way in, thinking that we are like the water?

Did it ever occur to us to seek the path that was already open before us? No, of course not. That would be too easy.

Picasso Rock

Picasso Rock
Originally uploaded by anselm23.

This here, for example, is a “Tree and rock” kind of picture.

As you can see, though, it looks like a portrait of someone that Pablo Picasso didn’t like very much.

I have 871 similar photographs consisting of trees, rocks and occasionally people. Thank you very much.

Trees! Rocks!

Trees! Rocks!
Originally uploaded by anselm23.

It’s amazing to me how different my photos from Wyoming are from anywhere else I’ve been. Usually, I can say with some certainty, “oh, that’s the temple of Hercules in Agrigento, with my dad in the blue coat.” It’s saying something that I can call that picture to mind, right now, in my head.

But Wyoming? It’s amazing. All my photos could be titled, “Trees” or “Rocks.” Some could be named “Trees with rocks!” And a few more could be “People in front of trees and rocks”.

Anyway, if you want to see some of my photos from Wyoming, trees and rocks though they may be, they’re on my Flickr account. As usual, I’ve avoided putting in many pictures of people. Or, in fact, any.

Sonnet for July Full Moon

Hail. lady Moon, as goldenrod scatters
droplets of dew and granules of pollen,
mirroring spires of yellow mullein.
Rafter of turkey toms clangs and clatters
across field, seeking new hiding quarters.
After summer lightning, oak is fallen.
Stream thins and slows, its watercourse sullen.
Vixen frets crow to feathers and tatters.
Trillium wears green anonymity
beneath jewelweed, above marigold,
and alongside maple-leafed viburnum.
Boletus fruits through close humidity,
to medicate maples already old,
with blessings gleaned from wren spine and sternum.

Sonnet for July New Moon

Hail, bright crescent, as wintergreen ripens,
changing pale white blooms for greener berries.
Daylily withers but aster opens;
puffball conceals what spring onion carries,
while galls appear on maple and alder.
Crabgrass and clover jostle with plantain,
while corvées of ants grow ever bolder,
gathering food for their secret mountain.
Orioles flash through dangling willows,
as goldfinches feast on first early seeds
and swallows sweep river for mosquitoes.
Robins and jays peck bugs among tall weeds.
Crickets rehears for an August chorale,
while fishers and badgers skulk on the prowl.

Long delay on this one, but I hope you all enjoy it. July Full Moon will appear shortly.

Joe Courtney’s Reply

I got this a while ago, but because of Wyoming and a bunch of other stuff, it’s taken me a while to reply.

Incidentally, the US Congressional system for responding to constituent mail is set up in such a way that the responses which the Congressmen and Congresswomen give become a statistical analysis available to both the individual M.C., and Congressional leadership. If you write to your Member of Congress frequently enough, and in conjunction with enough others, you may help insure action.

In any case, here’s my letter from Joe Courtney, to whom I wrote asking him to sponsor the impeachment of Alberto Gonzales (original letter: http://anselm23.livejournal.com/322724.html):

Dear….,

Thank you for contacting me regarding Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. I appreciate your comments and having the benefit of your views.

I share your deep concerns about the job performance of Attorney General Gonzales. The recent scandal involving the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys was yet another unacceptable act from the Justice Department which has too often elevated politics above the rule of law. Importantly, after the change of control of the House and Senate, we have seen more rigorous Congressional oversight of the White House, which helped lead to this revelation. In fact, it was a subpoena from the House that triggered the chain of events that revealed Gonzalez’s politicization of the Department of Justice.

The nation’s top law enforcement officer must command the respect and support of Congress, members of our Judiciary, and the American people. I believe that Attorney General Gonzales has lost that support and that our nation would be best served by a new Attorney General. Please be assured that I will continue to communicate my thoughts on this matter in the House whenever the opportunity arises.

Once again, thank you taking the time to contact my office. Should you have any additional comments or suggestions, please do not hesitate to contact me in the future. For more information on my views on other issues or to see what I have been working on in Congress, please feel free to visit my official website at http://www.house.gov/courtney and sign up for my e-newsletter.

Sincerely,

JOSEPH COURTNEY
Member of Congress

Testing, Testing

Journler, the program which I use to write and track my journal entries, is becoming increasingly funky. I like being able to write them offline, and then upload them. However, I notice that when I use Journler to write the entries, I get increasingly bizarre HTML inserted into my entries — which I must then go into LiveJournal’s editing system to remove. It’s getting to be more trouble than it’s worth.

So, I just went into the settings of Journler, and tried to turn off all this extra HTML. I think I succeeded, but I’m not really sure. In any case, this is a test of the preferences, to see if I succeeded. Hope everyone has a great day, and let Lovelips or me know if you can come to the party on Saturday (my last entry was friends-only with details).

*Update*: It seems to be working. Journler only inserted a set of paragraph marks, instead of four lines of special HTML text for the paragraph break….

MidSummer Night’s Party

Repeated from :You are invited to…
Please Join Us to Celebrate and Create…A Midsummer Night’s Dream Birthday Celebration

Saturday, July 28
590 Bebbington Road, Ashford CT
7:30 p.m.

“If you are a dreamer,come in. If you are a dreamer, a wisher, a liar, a hoper, a prayer, a magic-bean-buyer. If you’re a pretender, come sit by my fire, for we have some flax-golden tales to spin. Come in! Come in!“

Shel Silverstein

Come dressed in magical costumeCome dressed as one of Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream’s characters. Come dressed as your favorite anything. Come dressed. Come with Fire Spinning Toys.Come as yourself Come with Poetry, Come with Drums, Rattles, Songs,

Come with an open heart
Come with potluck food and drink; Come at 7:30; Come with a chair and/or blanket.
Please come play with us to honor the July Full Moon (and to welcome Andrew back from Wyoming with a Birthday Party)!

Please send me or a message if you are planning on joining us!