Month: January 2020

Hope~

On By cindy knokeIn Birds, Conservation, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, TRAVEL REVIEWS, Wild Life209 Comments

is the thing with feathers,

(seagulls fishing Washington state)

that perches in the soul,

(puffin in the open ocean off Washington state)

and sings the tune without the words,

and never stops, at all.

(Steller’s jay California).

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,

and on the strangest sea,

(dark-eyed junco California)

yet never in extremity,

(American robin Washington state)


it asked a crumb of me.

(red winged blackbird Washington state)

Cheers to you from Emily & her winged harbingers of hope~

Poem extracts, ‘Hope is the Thing With Feathers,’ Emily Dickinson.

Those Who Came Before~

On By cindy knokeIn Conservation, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, TRAVEL REVIEWS259 Comments

Leave messages,

that are fascinating,

to try,

and interpret.

Ghostly chalk,

on the walls of time.

Left by people,

speaking to us,

telling their tales,

from 4,000 years ago.

Cheers to you from the ancient messengers~

Note: Petroglyphs are carved into rock and pictographs are painted onto rocks using dyes or resins. These petroglyphs and pictographs near Moab Utah are all around. You come upon them as you hike. They are 1500 to 4,000 years old and depict people, both male and female, who appear to be wearing clothes and feathers, and carry baskets and weapons. Some seem to be hunting. There are children of different ages and there are antelopes, deer, bears, snakes, birds and other animals, as well as rivers, lakes, the sun and much more. Look and see what you can find, after all, art is open to your interpretation.

Check out: https://www.myutahparks.com/things-to-do/petroglyphs-moab

Belgium in the Mojave~

On By cindy knokeIn Conservation, EXTERIOR & INTERIOR DESIGN, MY PHOTOGRAPHS, REVERIES, TRAVEL REVIEWS218 Comments

The Oasis Inn in Death Valley National Park lives up to its name. But there is so much more in the area. Come on, let’s go explore….

Check out The Goldwell Open Air Museum, established by four Belgian artists in 1984, just outside the boundaries of the park.

The artists created large scale outdoor sculptures which, in combination with the desert landscape, result in a truly unique visual experience.

The feeling this evokes, like the desert itself, is eerie.

This is one of the artist abodes. Check the museum out at: http://goldwellmuseum.org/

After we explore the remarkable museum and it’s ghostly sculptures by ourselves for as long as we want (there is no one here to bother us), we mosey on down the road to Rhyolite, Nevada, a gold mining ghost town that boomed and busted between 1904 to 1920.

At it’s peak in 1908, Rhyolite had a population of 8,000. By 1920, when the gold had petered out, the population stood at 14.

The post office, the bank, the store, the school, all were abandoned.

Can you imagine living in a desert that reached the hottest temperature on earth with no AC?


One home, built in 1905, was constructed almost entirely of 50,000 beer bottles. It is one of the most well preserved buildings in the ghost town.

You can see the bottle details in this section of wall. You could sing “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall,” in this house, and actually be counting! For more on this unusual home see : http://www.nbmog.org/bottlehouse.html

Cheers to you from the fun to explore and always mysterious Mojave ~