Posts by keokee
Hoping for Rain
The summer of 2014 brought an onslaught of horrific wildfires. Surrounding me, nature obscured, and darkened, and the sky filled with smoldering ash. As the summer burned on, the severity of the fires was merciless. It was the first time I heard the phrase ‘Super Storm’. Now, the discussion of Global Warming was no longer…
Read MoreDean’s Passage
The loss of a family member in early spring allowed me to search for his essence in the vast and multi-layered landscape typical of Northern Idaho. As it swirls upward from the deep lake, to the grass, through the wooded cliffs, up the towering crags of the mountains, lifts into great castles of floating clouds…
Read MoreView Over Selle Valley
My home sits on the edge of a cliff 200 feet above the Selle Valley. In a ten-mile view, the Schweitzer Mountains are against the sky, revealing a huge granite bowl with a multi-faceted ski area. The world between here and there abounds with snow, the morning air is full of electricity, and the frost…
Read MoreApril Deluge
When winter rains take on increasingly torrential proportions, it’s fair to assume the spring season has begun. Seasonal springs, overflow, and gush from the mountainside. Enormous icicles cleave into deeply muddied ground and evergreens dump bucketfuls of water from their thick canopy of tightly woven needles. The level ground is riddled with overflowing puddles and…
Read MoreLast Light
“Last Light,” describes that time of year when the winter solstice has almost arrived. From my home above, the valley, the fields spread out in a dimmed coat of silver and at times, it seems only Jupiter holds a beacon to guide us into a gradual rekindling of the spirit through the longer nights.
Read MoreCold Snap
There are late autumnal mornings when the atmosphere freezes into a dry crispness. My breath crystallizes as soon as it leaves my lips. The folds in my jacket and jeans stiffen and make a light scratching sound. More importantly, the colors seem more vivid and the forms of the vegetation seem visually sharpened. My grandmother…
Read MoreThe Night The Stars Fell
Unlike any other winter I know of, the winter in northern Idaho has captured my imagination. Here, the clear winter night is breathtaking; a magical view showing thousands of twinkling stars. In “The Night The Stars Fell,” I wish to portray how on nights when a bright distant moon lights on falling snowflakes, they may…
Read MoreSeptember Moon
This is the first place I have lived where I have experienced “starlight.” Looking up at the vastness of the night sky, the stars appear in multi-layered swaths of infinite distance and density. In summer, the lush forest has the final say in what happens on this land, cutting into the edge of the extraordinary…
Read MoreNeon Sunset
The sun is always at an angle in my northwestern home. In summer when the length of day finally comes to a close, the darkened clouds and summer mists above the lake take on a neon glow that befits the end of a long joyful respite on the cool waters of Lake Pend Oreille.
Read MoreAlive In The Night
Sometimes, visitors seem to add mystery to the summer landscape, especially at night, when lanterns glow on the lake and between the trees appearing as low hanging moons and roughly strewn stars. What is especially strange is how they reveal the form of and provide locations for areas that are usually soaked anonymously in darkness. …
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