"Good Planets", February 10th, 2007

What can I say without touching the earth with my hands?
Pablo Neruda (Ceremonial Songs, 1961)

Welcome to "Good Planets are Hard to Find" for February 10th!

The theme of this post is the second of the four "elements" that the ancients described: Water, Earth, Air and Fire. (My ordering, for convenience) And the first photo I received was of what I call "the bones of the earth". The earth as ballerina, pared to the bare essentials. So let's start there, with the basics.

The Bones

From Celeste Pinheiro, at Dzonoqua's Whistle, "a chunk of serpentine, a rock that comes from very, very deep in the earth." (Note: looking it up, I read that "serpentine in the rough has a silky feel to the touch...")










Bev, at Burning Silo, sent the next two, taken in the John Day Fossil Beds region of central Oregon. More can be found at her online photo gallery.This first one is on the Blue Basin trail.












And these are the Painted Hills, seen from the Leaf Hill trail.















BunnyGirl, of Diary of a (Slow) Triathlete sent a view of Cadillac Mountain, Acadia, Maine. She writes, "This mountain was carved out by the retreating glaciers at the end of the last ice age. Note the cairn in the left foreground."











Dressing the Bones in Green

Patrick Belardo: from his recent trip to Costa Rica (see his blog, A Hawk Owl's Nest for a travelogue), a photo of the Arenal Volcano.













From Pam in Tucson, looking north across the drought-ridden desert towards Sabino Canyon near Tucson, Arizona.










Robin Andrea at Dharma Bums writes, "This photo was taken on one of our favorite trails. We loved the light in the trees, and the little dusting of snow."














Accessories: The All-Important Details

One of my own favourite walks, down at shoe-level. This was taken the week after that big windstorm that blew some 3000 trees down in Stanley Park. The Watershed was spared major damage, but broken branches covered much of the undergrowth. These mushrooms survived. Many didn't.






Dawn Bailey sends a photo of a young goose, taken at Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, in Washington State.















Another of mine, in an urban setting. The bounty of a generous earth in back-yard gardens in Strathcona, Vancouver, BC.












Lights!

From Toby Boyce, at Sadie's Take on Delaware, Ohio, a photo of the sunrise over "Tar Heel Drive at the intersection of Locust Curve and across Locust Curve Park". (I love those names!)









And finally, from SBGypsy, trees silhouetted against a darkening blue sky.















Thanks, again, to all who sent photos. I've held a few over for next week, "Air" or the next, "Fire". (That will be the difficult one to show in photos, won't it? Some brainstorming is in order, methinks. I am eager to see what you all come up with. Such fun!)

You can e-mail your photos to me, susannah at dccnet dot com, or send them to the Blog Carnival, using the carnival submission form.

And, as far as I know, we still need someone to take the month of March. If you are able then, or at any other time, please e-mail Robin at newdharmabums at yahoo dot com .