Prairie Flowers

Art: “I Hear America Singing”

Visited the Pizzuti Collection today to see their photography exhibition, “I Hear America Singing: Contemporary Photography from America”. It’s a small exhibit but worthwhile if you’re in the area. The images that particularly struck me related to humans and our impact on the environment and nature, particularly in the American West.

Fascinating to me was that this exhibit was originally created and presented at the national fine art gallery in Amman, Jordan, where it would have explored the themes of diversity within America and our relationship with the land. Here is a link to a description of the exhibition from Ashley Lumb, curator.

Also, it’s such a pleasure to be able to go to art galleries and exhibitions again!

Desert Housing Block, Las Vegas, Nevada by Alex MacLean

I was really impressed by the work of Alex MacLean, Griselda San Martin and Michael Lundgren. Also enjoyed Lucas Foglia’s “Frontcountry” series. I’ve included links to their websites below.

Views from the Arts Festival

Just a couple of images, things I saw from a slightly different angle during last weekend’s Columbus Arts Festival.

A corner of the Cultural Arts Center. Flowers in jewel-colored vases, reflected in a piano.

Main Street Bridge on a blue-sky gorgeous day, 6/11/2022

Pumpkins Aglow!

A few pictures from the Franklin Park Conservatory’s Pumpkins Aglow! event. We arrived when it was still light but ahead of the rains, so it was a win.

September Flowers

A glimpse of the beautiful, volunteer-planted flowers at the Ohio History Connection this morning. Fall flowers are the best.

Snow Day February 2019 (image)

Here’s an evergreen tree, holding the snow in little cups. This is usually a scraggly tree, but it’s beautiful today.

Turning Toward the Sun

Late Autumn in Ohio

Things change fast during Ohio’s transitional seasons. I had to grab a few pictures before the golden leaves turned brown, the corn was harvested, the sedum darkened.

Park of Roses, Columbus. Late October 2017.

Sedum in late October, after multiple color changes. I love sedum!

The Dingle Peninsula

The Dingle Peninsula is in County Kerry. It’s the farthest west you can go in Ireland. It’s a place of steep cliffs dropping into the sea, sandy beaches, and green pastures dotted with a lot of sheep. There are archaeological ruins, including ogham stones and Dunbeg Fort, an Iron Age promontory fort built right above the sea. We were blessed with warm weather and sun our first day, then rain and a blast of wind the following morning.

The Slea Head Drive is a circular route around the edge — in some places the very edge — of the peninsula. It’s traveled in a one-way manner in a clockwise direction, because the roads in some places are narrow enough they won’t fit two cars. If you do encounter someone going the opposite way, one of the vehicles must back up until there’s a wide spot. This happened twice while we were there, once while we were a few feet away from a low stone wall on the edge of the cliff. That was unnerving. I’m glad I wasn’t the driver!

There were a few bicyclists as well, on what must be an extremely demanding ride.

Inch Beach. It has a surf school — see image below.

Dingle Town itself (An Daingean) — permanent population about 2,000 — is crowded with tourists in the summer. It’s got a harbor with a permanent dolphin resident named Fungie. We didn’t take a boat trip to see Fungie, but his statue is in the town center, so we feel we know what he looks like. Fungie was first seen in the harbor in 1983, and is known for being friendly to humans. Is it still the original Fungie? Here’s a link to a story in the Independent on that subject.

Dingle Town itself is the base for tourists wanting to explore the region. In spite of being a Gaeltacht, a place where Irish is the official language, English is commonly spoken in town. The Gaeltacht was created to preserve the Irish language. I’m told schoolchildren from around Ireland spend time here in the summers, learning their native tongue. It seems the use of Irish is declining, though. Here’s a link to a 2008 article discussing the challenges of trying to preserve the language.

In July, Dingle was full of flowers. Fuchsia, in particular, bloomed everywhere.

And below, a last look at the green hills of Ireland. The sheep had mostly been shorn when we were in Dingle. Many were marked with blazes of color — bright reds, blues, greens — so the owners could distinguish their own sheep when it was time to retrieve them again from common fields on the mountainsides.