Saturday, July 11, 2009

Which Way to Look?


Throughout this trip, I suffer the observer’s ambivalence: Do I look up, or do I look down? If I don’t look up, I will miss the awesome massive magnificence of hills and cliffs and buttes. If I don’t look down, though, I will miss the simple pleasures of fabulous wildflowers, pushing their glorious colorful little heads out of scruffy roadside, fertile soil, white sand, or seemingly impenetrable rocks. Blue, lavender, yellow, fuchsia, brilliant purple. Indian paintbrush, brown-eyed Susan, wild mustard, prickly pear cactus.

One of my favorite ground-level features of the west is the sagebrush, which grows in splendid profusion. Its fragrance is spicy and delightful. I pick a small bouquet to add its aroma to our tightly stuffed tiny car trunk. After it has dried, it will be a delightful little decoration in our Virginia home.

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