Tag Archives: environment

Commentary, musings, nature, Photography

Green Lights at Night

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Although I work under the Northern Lights, I have resisted publishing photos of them …

… but this one, with its starry and reflective accompaniment, is a stunner and much too good to ignore.

Taken by photographer Beckey Lee and first published by National Geographic (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/04/your-shot-unbelievable-landscapes/), it embodies all the romanticism of that luminescent northern glow. In fact, many people believe that conceiving under the Aurora Borealis will imbue the child with wisdom.

If you’re interested in seeing them for yourself, there are many choices. Here’s the site for Yellowknife, NWT tourism: https://extraordinaryyk.com/

Thinking about travelling somewhere makes me wistful. Not that I need to (or want to) travel right now, but the idea of that freedom … I hope that we will soon have this pandemic under control, and such things as seeing the northern lights will become possible again. This weird perception that I’m “unfree” is strange. I’m not, not at all, but I feel an illogical and strong sense of entrapment. This must be my limbic brain kicking in. New normal? Hah! New abnormal is more like it.

How about you? Are you feeling trapped?

Happy week. 🙂

Commentary, musings, nature, Photography

Snow People

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Here is an eerie but extraordinary picture from …

… photographer Pierre Destribats. It was taken in Lapland, which is a part of Finland.

The light shown in this photo is very familiar to me. It’s that top-of-the-world, angled sunlight that is passing through a clear, cold atmosphere.

I have seen these formations here in Northwest Territories, but only occasionally and the result is much less impressive. What are they, you ask? These are actually snow-covered trees.

An icy coating forms over the trees when humidity in the air makes contact with the branches. The moisture freezes instantly and begins to form a layer of thick frosting. This results in these rather ghostly, human-like sculptures.

An alien landscape on Earth.

This photo was originally published in National Geographic magazine.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2017/04/your-shot-unbelievable-landscapes/

Happy weekend, everyone. 🙂