BY THE DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT

Each morning I like to take the dog for a walk.  Some mornings we have a little more time and we walk down to the river.  There is a spirit in the morning that gives strength to the whole day, and a music that tunes the soul.

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?

This morning was still dark as we began our walk, cool and windy. The snow is just starting to run off the mountain and the Jordan is running high.

In the middle of the night
I go walking in my sleep
From the mountains of faith
To the river so deep
I must be lookin' for something
Something sacred I lost
But the river is wide
And it's too hard to cross -BILLY JOEL

We walked for about an hour. 

lights are coming on and the clouds are parting.

On the way home, up the hill,  Hermes and I followed a man and his dog who stopped at the church.

The Tithing Hill Ward is a few blocks from our house.  I was the first bishop in that building.  The man and the dog stopped to put up his flag.  We stopped to take a few pictures because of the song in my head.  Oh say, can you see....

O, thus be it ever when freemen shall stand,
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust"
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

We crossed the street to visit with the man.  He does this most mornings when the weather is nice.  Today is the funeral of one of his neighbors so he thought he would fly it at half-mast.


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Winter Walk

Trail head.  Road is closed for winter.

The first mile the road was bare.

The second mile was snow packed.

Hermes love the snow.

Hermes borrowed my camera.

Butterfield canyon is on the side of the worlds largest open pit mine.

The sun did not come out for our walk

Headed home

Wall Flowers

By Roger Wilcox

Wall flowers hide from the storm
Wild flowers in the desert will grow deep.
Watered gardens truly perform
Wedding bouquets for much wishing weep.

 
The flowers most often seen at the dance
Are the Orchids tempestuous and sweet.
For in the rain forest, life and flowers,
Grow to that of a jungle beat.

Inversions

 

The Salt lake valley is often drowned in an inversion.  The air and the mood gets cold and foggy.  It can be dark on sunny days and very gloomy on cloudy ones.  Lake Bonneville has filled up again and we are the fish swimming unseen just below the surface.



From Snowbird looking towards the Oquirrh Mountains

looking NW from traverse ridge

 

Hermes and I need to escape, for it's not safe in the thick of it.  Different sides of the bowl give us different views.  We crawl out of the sea towards the mountain and then look to heaven and wonder.  It could have looked like this a million years ago.
"Is this the way life has always been?"
"We have to move up or be eaten?"
"Are we not ready to stay above it yet?"
 Hermes looks hungry,  we better return home.

Hermes on one of our winter walks, inversion is building



looking south to the small ridge we walked today