driftlessworld

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Our Best Gifts

As 2024 draws to a close, I’ve been celebrating by listening to Potowatami botanist, author, and teacher Robin Wall Kimmerer read her latest book, “The Serviceberry”. If her earlier book, “Braiding Sweetgrass” was a meditation on reconsidering contemporary western society’s alienation from the abundant earth and native traditions that continue to surround us, “The Serviceberry” is a call to…

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TWICE IS AN IDEA

“Once is a mistake, twice is an idea, three times is a style.” – Artist  Nishant Jain, quoting Miles Davis today during  #WildWonder2024, in answer to a student question “When drawing witk ink, what do you do to fix your mistakes?” Little did I know I’d get to put that idea to immediate use! My flat flowers from an earlier class just didn’t please me. But I didn’t want to waste the nice Arches…

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Wild Wonder Conference 2024

Switching up creative gears for autumn… Take a peek online at the fabulous convergence that is the Wild Wonder natural journaling conference. Hosted by John Muir Laws and taught by a slew of inquisitive, dedicated , deeply skilled artist-scientist-naturalist- illustrator-author-poet-visionaries, this week long conference has become an annual pilgrimage for me, and thousands of creative & curious…

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Sligachan Old Bridge in the Rain

Views from a famous old bridge on a rainy day.

A rainy day hid the Cuillin peaks from us. This iconic site must rank among the most photographed destinations on Skye. A constant flow of visitors, ourselves included, attests to the magnificent landscape and views here, the charming bridge, the impacts of so many feet crossing the adjacent moorlands, and the hiking trails beckoning further travel. A steady stream of traffic approaching on the…

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Colors of the Western Isle

Colors of Scotland, spring greens red compliments and earth tones that went on forever and a day.

The range of early spring colors in Skye, earth tones, prismatic greens and warm reds, the pop of lilac, bright yellows and cornflower blue surprised us beyond all expectation. My travelling companion, watercolorist Laura Starrett, created multiple landscape color grid studies, some entirely of one color range like the greens, to capture the complexity and nuances of light and pigments vibrating…

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Scottish Boats

a colorful parade of Scottish boats just posted to the Driftless World.

The sailboats of summer began appearing during our April-May visit, next to practical, snub-nosed working boats built to endure treacherous conditions on short notice. A quiet spot near a Portree Harbor, otherwise a crowded tourist destination. On the way to Talisker, a hidden cove Departing Armandale terminal aboard the Cal – Mac Ferry, bound for Mallaig Working boast docked at Port of…

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April 21st and 22nd

two days in one, a new collection of images has been posted to Scotland April 24 on Driftless World. Thank you for following our journey.

The more I sift through my images of Scotland and recollect the places represented, the more I feel that I may never encounter a more beautiful landscape. If you go, care for it & tread lightly. Today’s images are all of trails and hills and rocks and appreciation. Carpe vitam.

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More of Scotland

I’m uncertain if the daily updates I’m adding to the new “Scotland 2024” webpage here trigger email notification to our Driftless World followers- I appreciate you all!- of it that action is initiate only by updates here on the index page. So, I’ll continue to post short introductions here to the new daily photo sets, just click the link, or the Scotland 24 tab above, to see the latest…

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Catalpa Queen, June '21, #Boscobel #treelighting #driftless #summerafternoon #iwanderedlonelyasacloud #midwest #streetzen #photography #flakphototrees https://www.instagram.com/p/CQH6Kz9pNtx/?utm_medium=tumblr

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Rainy day Old roads trip in Pana IL, April 21. Follow this at our Flickr acct in bio. #driftlessworldphoto #oldroads #papermaproads #roadtrip2021 #flakphoto #panaillinois #smalltowns #hippocampus #songlines https://www.instagram.com/p/CPhL4uNpiM_/?utm_medium=tumblr

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All fenced in, nowhere to go. April #2021 #iowa #makemeseemag #highway61revisited #oldfarms #blackandwhitelandscapes #oldroad #ontheroads #lenscultureblackandwhite #flakphotoplaces #midwestphoto https://www.instagram.com/p/CPYZmflJvQy/?utm_medium=tumblr

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Old Roads

High, wide & lonesome. Near DeWitt IA. In the current era, long-distance US Interstate travel’s evolved  into brain numbing dodgeball marathon, broken by fast food & gas timeouts.  Interchangeable & indistinguishable pitstops scrubbed free of local identity. To go on the road to see the country means getting off onto the old highways that Google Maps avoids. That travel through slow places that…

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Empty farmsted, Hgwy 61 farm in spring, just N of Davenport, IA #bnw_landscapes #oldfarm #davenportiowa #farmlands #backroads #midwestphotographs #flakphoto #contactsheet #blackandwhitelandscape #goldenhour https://www.instagram.com/p/CPSASB-JmSX/?utm_medium=tumblr

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Summer's almost come #anticipation #covid21 #summer21 #schoolsout #allinthistogether #flakphoto #photostudy #lensculture_streets #driftlessworldphoto https://www.instagram.com/p/COsjq_UJpI1/?igshid=1ru67px2opsvp

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Derelict girder bridge #2, Old Lincoln Highway south of Pana, IL #oldbridges #oldlincolnhighway #gonenotforgotten #highway51 #ruralamerica #abandonedhistory #bluehighways #papermap #derelict #midwestlandscape #derelictphotography #passonby https://www.instagram.com/p/COG5SguJWVP/?igshid=1o6y3ncd45qml

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Old 51 bridge, south of Pana, IL #abandonedplaces #industrialfossil #bridges #derelictplaces #ruraldecay #driftlessworld #oldroute #allfalldown https://www.instagram.com/p/COD7cOpprlW/?igshid=1rrmmbftht2mh

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Family history #homegrown #improv flakphoto #aperture #watchthelight #TortugaQueen https://www.instagram.com/p/CN81lWbpIPM/?igshid=1p7skxf9bzqtt