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Showing posts from December, 2007

Clouds

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My fascination with clouds might stem from years ago when our family lived in Blue Creek. Sometimes, while the older kids were all gone to school, my mom and I used to go on “nature walks” and watch clouds. We looked for shapes in them. Even though I’m sure we looked at thousands of clouds, I can only remember seeing a rabbit, a pirate ship, and a dog. But since then, I always “look up and marvel” as the Cloud Appreciation Society says. There are literally hundreds of different types of clouds and scientists love to classify them. This jellyfish-like cloud, for example, is a type of cumulus. But the little “tendrils” are referred to as “virga”…precipitation that evaporates before it is able to hit the ground. Sexy.

Rain and Gray

We’ve been having a LOT of rain here in the Valley of the Sun. One of my study sites I’m monitoring has received almost 6 inches in the past week! That’s more than it’s received in all the months previous to now! I can’t wait to see how much the site has changed after this rain! All this rain has reminded me how much I enjoy the greening and clouds associated with precipitation…so that’s what I’m blogging about today. Although I do enjoy bright colors, gray is my favorite. In any shade. You know, that gray-ish blue tint the clouds sometimes get—almost a tungsten hue. And gray skies make me smile…because they’re pretty, because they bring rain, and because I know what (usually) comes after gray skies. But others fail to notice the beauty of gray. Or rain. I was having dinner with some friends last night. One of them said, “I don’t like the cold and wet. Cold is okay, but wet I can’t handle. And the gray skies. I need sun!” Another said, “Well, where I grew-up, there were always clou

Field Studies

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I LOVE being "in the field"! It was one of the things that drew me to Geography! My first experience with REAL field studies was at Weber State with Dr. Murphy. He is a great Geographer and really loves field work (and traveling!). His love of the field rubbed off on me. Even today I play in the field as much as I can. This picture was taken on a recent field excursion through the Sonora River Valley in Mexico. I was driving along, observing the landscape, when all of the sudden we see this road cut that has a volcanic dike shaped like Mexico! How cool! (That's me, squatting on what would be the Yucatan Peninsula...) Of course, we HAD to pull over and take pictures! (The word "MEXICO" had already been painted on the road cut). I love finding "Natural" features that represent everyday objects. And this was one of the coolest representations I've found!