Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak
"Spacious Skies"

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Wandering Bighorn Sheep



Wild Flowers in the Valley



Snow capped mountains and flowers in the meadows at Yellowstone National Park and Lamar Valley.


The flowers in a summer meadow
are infinite
The big and the small, the colorful
and the plain,
The ones that bite and the ones
that delight . . .
All are intrinsically treasured for
part in the whole.

by Sandra E. McBride
(excerpt from Flowers in the Meadow)

Friday, April 13, 2018

"Where the Buffalo Roam" An American Song


 




"Home on the Range," the state song of Kansas since 1947, was composed by violinist Daniel Kelley with text by otolaryngologist Dr. Brewster Higley.  The poem was published in the Kansas newspaper Kirwin Chief in 1876. However, within a few years of publication, "Home on the Range" gained immense popularity throughout the United States and both composer and writer became practically anonymous as settlers claimed the song as their own.

My Western Home
by Dr. Brewster Higley

Oh, give me a home where the Buffalo roam
Where the Deer and the Antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the sky is not cloudy all day.

Chorus:
A home! A home!
Where the Deer and the Antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the sky is not clouded all day.

Oh! give me a land where the bright diamond sand
Throws its light from the glittering streams,
Where glideth along the graceful white swan,
Like the maid in her heavenly dreams.
Chorus

Oh! give me a gale of the Solomon vale,
Where the life streams with buoyancy flow;
On the banks of the Beaver, where seldom if ever,
Any poisonous herbage doth grow.
Chorus

How often at night, when the heavens were bright,
With the light of the twinkling stars
Have I stood here amazed, and asked as I gazed,
If their glory exceed that of ours.
Chorus

I love the wild flowers in this bright land of ours,
I love the wild curlew's shrill scream;
The bluffs and white rocks, and antelope flocks
That graze on the mountains so green.
Chorus

The air is so pure and the breezes so fine,
The zephyrs so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home here to range
Forever in azures so bright.

Lamar Valley "A River Runs Through It"


 


Tuesday, April 10, 2018

Wapiti Valley






These Children Singing in Stone

by E E Cummings, 1939

these children singing in stone a
silence of stone these
little children wound with stone
flowers opening for

ever these silently lit
tie children are petals
their song is a flower of
always their flowers

of stone are
silently singing
a song more silent
than silence these always

children forever
singing wreathed with singing
blossoms children of
stone with blossoming

eyes
know if a
lit tie
tree listens

forever to always children singing forever
a song made
of silent as stone silence of
song

Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway




Buffalo Bill Cody Scenic Byway winds through the Shoshone National Forest, Cody, Wyoming.  We drove thru Wapiti Valley to the East entrance of Yellowstone National Park.  Passed a lot of unusual rock formations.

Rock Creek




On the drive to Beartooth Scenic Highway, we stopped at one of the camp grounds along Rock Creek. The clear mountain water of Rock Creek flows along Highway 212 and through Red Lodge, Montana and it also passes through Custer National Forest.