Song of the little road trip

how much work did you do today,
the day before fall break?
and what did you eat
for breakfast?

was it healthy? or your usual?
two-a-day? or one-a-day?
did you submit
your portfolio yet?

and what are the names
of the things you forgot?
did the traffic slow, and then
pick up again,

and slow and then
pick up again?
what color was the light
when you took

the turn to the north?
do you know where you'll be
staying? what did you buy
at the vending machine?

what's your prediction for
the quality of your fall break sleep?
have you devised the rubric
by which it will be assessed?

are you still writing
in your Pocatello motel
room? are you? still? tell
the truth: does the bathroom

smell like cigarettes?
when you go to the mountain,
what tribute will you give it?
will you lumber like a bear

down the village street? will you
drive over the pass in the dark?
who will be your bodyguard?
who will be your long lost pal?

Epiphanic.

The tallest peaks in the Teton Range are sometimes called the Cathedral Group. The comments of Fritiof Fryxell, the park's first ranger naturalist, said: ‘More evident here than in many of the great cathedrals of men . . . the gothic note . . . it is seen in the profiles of the countless firs and spruces . . . congregated like worshippers on the lower slopes. It reappears higher in the converging lines of spire rising upon spire . . . it obtains supreme expression in the figures of the peaks themselves . . . that towering above all else, with pointed summits, direct one’s vision and thoughts yet higher.’ 

There are two small chapels in Grand Teton National Park. One, the Chapel of the Transfiguration, frames those peaks, the actual mountains a simulacrum, at a distance, of an altar.

All day today, driving in the golden light, we were transfixed.

self portrait with camera & Tetons.

the duomo of the cathedral.

pattern

Teton glacier

The Cathedral Group itself.

At Jenny Lake.

At Jenny Lake.

It was hard to drive away from them.

cloud & light

cascading away, over Jackson Lake.

The Bestiary of Aberdeen.

Facts from today:
1. The University of Aberdeen uses the idea of 'The NORTH' (they may or may not use all caps, although I really think they should) to organize a program ('programme') of interdisciplinary research. The focuses of this research include climate change, the rise of early medieval kingdoms, northern temperaments, and northern colonialism. We saw an exhibit today in the university's library on the Far North, Arctic exploration, and art, anthropology, and science about the far north. Soul stirring. Obviously, any person of sound mind will want to organize a program of study along these lines. I know I do.
2. The library itself is rather superb. I did not know that a really famous illuminated manuscript--the Aberdeen Bestiary--is housed in its Special Collections. Check it out here and here--we saw a great digital exhibit at the library itself.
3. The Cairngorms, and Cairngorms National Park, are actually rather close to Aberdeen. The highest mountains in the UK are within the Cairngorms. Also, Cairngorms National Park is synonymous with The Highlands.
'Would you say that we're in The Highlands?' I asked, as we passed into Cairngorms National Park.
'Yep,' my daughter said.
'We just passed a sign that said, You are in The Highlands,' pointed out the historian.
Ahhhhhhhh. HIGHLANDS. So satisfying.
4. We went to Muir of Dinnet, which is a National Nature Reserve within the Cairngorms, the one closest to the cities in the east part of Scotland. Red deer and red squirrels, as well as the Scottish Wildcat, are at home there, though the wildlife we actually saw was more along the lines of songbirds. It's also where Burn O'Vat is, a beautiful hollow made when ice from a glacier just hung around, carving out a narrow gorge, still wet and green, a waterfall splashing into its base. There are also two lochs, Davan and Kinord, and a big peat bog that's being restored. We took a couple of sweet, not too taxing hikes (that's how I like 'em) on a perfect day.

Miriam

Evie

Amelia, Eli, the historian

the three

the waterfall

scrambling into the Vat

looking across the bog

maybe a foxglove?

grass & sun

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