Santa Fe burning

I arrived in Santa Fe yesterday. I had read about the fires, but like the tornadoes in Oklahoma, they were abstractions. The tornadoes were horrible; the fires were horrible. But horrible is an abstract emotion. It doesn't bite to the bone. That is when we say "terrible" instead of "horrible."

I could see the smoke before I got halfway from Albuquerque to Santa Fe.

There are two fires burning, in the Jemez Mountains to the west of Santa Fe and the Pecos to the east. They don't threaten the city itself, apparently, and so people go about their lives, though the pall of smoke is ever-present.

It was the sunset last night that really brought home the fires for me. I watched the sun go down for over an hour with a mixture of fascination, horror, and melancholy. It was terribly beautiful.

I am staying at a B&B and my hosts were patient with me when I asked where I could go to watch the sunset. I could see the melancholy in their eyes. The fascination, if they ever felt it, had faded with time. "The fire in the Jemez [to the west] does make for beautiful sunsets," one of them said sadly.

The smoke drifted ceaselessly upwards, as it has done for too many days. It rose into a wide pall that stretched across the entire sky, gradually darkening until it was impossible to distinguish the smoke from the on-coming night.

Tornadoes, fire, drought.... What will we dream in this on-coming night?

Blue Moon event on the Milwaukee County Grounds

This annual event sponsored by the Friends of the Monarch Trail is always lovely. The full moon makes it especially wonderful. There are few places in the Milwaukee metropolitan region better than the County Grounds to watch the sunset and moonrise simultaneously.

 

For more information go to Monarch Trail.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving: a day of reflection; a day of remembrance; a day of togetherness. My offering on this day: this week’s spectacular, stormy sunset on the County Grounds and an old favorite poem by Mary Oliver. And a hearty THANK YOU to all Urban Wilderness supporters!

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about your despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting --
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

© Mary Oliver

Full Moon Party on the Milwaukee County Grounds

Where can you hear great music and also see a simultaneous sunset/moonrise? Only one place: the County Grounds this Saturday.

Sounds on the Grounds

featuring the drumming group Fanka Foli

October 23, 4-7 pm

Moonrise at 5:58 - Sunset at 6:00

It's the last party of the fall season sponsored by the Friends of the Monarch Trail. There will be sandwiches, caramel apples, and cider for sale. The last full moon party was a blast. Even though the full moon declined to show due to cloud cover, the many people who came enjoyed the music and a sensational sunset.

Park in the County Parks administration parking lot at 9480 W. Watertown Plank Rd. If it should rain, the party will move indoors to Barb & Dick's Flowers on Watertown Plank at 124th St.
For more information go to Monarch Trail.

Wauwatosa Council to vote on TIF for County Grounds Tuesday

Last week the Wauwatosa Plan Commission voted 5-2 to recommend approval of the proposed TIF district to help UWM develop the Milwaukee County Grounds. (See previous post for more details and my position on this controversial proposal.)

Tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 21, the full Common Council will be meeting for the final vote on the TIF proposal. Although this will not be a public hearing and the public will not be able to speak, it would be wonderful to see a strong public presence in the audience to witness the discussion. If you can go, please do.

The meeting starts at 7:30 but the vote on the TIF is late on the agenda.

The meeting is in the Common Council chamber at the Wauwatosa City Hall, 76th and North. 



A recent sunset from the Monarch Trail on the County Grounds



Friends of the Monarch Trail rock the County Grounds!

After a promising day of broken sunshine, the clouds piled up and grew ominously dark as over a hundred Friends of the Monarch Trail gathered to celebrate. The large turnout in the face of uncertain weather was testimony in itself to the excitement that the impending annual Monarch migration can generate, as well as the importance of the County Grounds to the public.

There were lively Irish tunes played by Ceol Cairde. “Butterfly Barb” gave an informative tour of the trail that winds along the west edge of the grounds an around the historic Eschweiler buildings to where the Monarchs prefer to roost during their migratory wandering between Canada and Mexico.

Unfortunately, the moon did not make its scheduled appearance. However, just as things dusk began to get really dim, the western sky opened a crack to enable the sun to blaze through and provide the crowd with a satisfying conclusion to the evening, as you can see from the photos I managed to get. And there was a delightful bonus to top it all off: an early platoon of Monarchs showed up to roost. A good omen for this year’s migration!

Thanks to “butterfly” Barb Agnew and her stalwart crew for organizing this wonderful event! To keep up to date on the progress of this year’s migration check the Monarch Trail website regularly. I can testify to the fact that they are easy to miss if you don’t get out there on the right day.

The multicolored sky dwarfs the Eschweiler buildings

on the County Grounds in Wauwatosa

To see more images of the Milwaukee County Grounds, go to my flickr page or my website.

The Monarch Trail Summer Moon Picnic on the Milwaukee County Grounds

Here’s an event you don’t want to miss! How often do you get to see the sunset and moon rise simultaneously? Here’s your chance to see the natural phenomenon, see the county grounds before the bulldozers move in, and hear some great music. Thanks to Monarch Trail.org for the following information:


Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Join the Monarch Trail Friends for a picnic and watch the sunset and moonrise over the County Grounds.

Great Irish Music provided by: Ceol Cairde.

For more information: http://www.ceolcairde.com/

Where: The Monarch Trail - Milwaukee County Grounds, 9480 W Watertown Plank Rd. Wauwatosa, Wisconsin

When: 6:00 – 8 pm, (simultaneous sunset/moonrise: 7:15 pm)

What: There will be a guided tour at 6:15 pm

Why: Due to development plans, this may be one of the last opportunities to see the moonrise and sunset in this vast open space.

Bring: Pack a picnic or snacks, and skeeto repellant

2010 will be a much better year than 2009 was to view the Monarch migration. This pre-migration event will provide information for people who would like to come out in September to see where they gather and where they roost at night.

Rain Date: We will hold a Migration launch on September 11th, same time, same place. The moon will not be attending that evening!

Keep up to date on future trail events and migration information at the Monarch Trail website.

Thanks to Dick Hansen for providing this wonderful shot of the Monarch migration.

A beautiful evening on the Milwaukee County Grounds

I've been recovering from an ankle injury for four weeks and yesterday I got the doctor's OK to go outside without the "walking cast." It's been frustrating not to get out to the county grounds or along the rivers for a month, as those of you who know me can imagine. So, to celebrate my release, I spent a couple hours watching the sunset and the changing clouds and lighting conditions on our newest county parkland. Under the circumstances it was even more delightful than usual. Here are three sample images from my experience.