Wednesday we drove south with no decided route in mind. The only thing certain was ending up at the Tucson house-- a necessary trip because of needed maintenance. We arranged for a very dependable couple to look after the Oregon sheep and cattle. This is not something we like having to do in the midst of lambing, even knowing the couple would be as dependable in looking after the place as we are; but there were several big problem in the Arizona house-- and one we didn't even know about but found once we got here.We didn't get an early start because of feeding stock and an unexpected problem-- small ewe with baling twin wrapped around one of her hooves. She has done this before and not sure what impels her to tangle herself, but it required running after her until she got more tired of running than we did.
The decision to head over the mountains and go south through Nevada was made in Eugene. Central Oregon was pretty with snow alongside the road but easy driving with bare pavement. Klamath Lake was frozen solid-- the first time I ever saw that. The sky was just fantastic as the sun began going down.
Driving after dark isn't something I generally favor but Klamath Falls was too early to stop. Right outside of Klamath Falls, a huge full moon began to rise with a bite out of its side. I had completely forgotten about it being the night of the eclipse which is strange given I had been reading various opinions about the spiritual power of this particular eclipse.
We pulled over along
side the highway several times to photograph it at various stages; and even without a tripod, a few of them came out pretty good. Because for me, the real beauty of watching this eclipse happen was the setting around it, I decided to do a little combining of photo and digital painting to create the above image which doesn't do justice to what it was like to be driving through a snowy forest and watching that full moon gradually redden and then be totally swallowed. What inspired me, as much as the snowy landscape, were the three stars closest to the moon. They didn't photograph at all but they were part of its mystical quality. I can well believe this was a special eclipse.
(Posting from Tucson where I will be for about a month.)
4 comments:
Thanks for sharing these photos, Rain. I came home absolutely exhausted on Wed. night and literally "forgot" to go outside and look. We did have some clear sky that night so I saw the papers the following day. We have had intermittent rain the past few days and also predicted for the weekend.
Have a good time in Arizona although it sounds like you have your work cut out for you. Any rain there?
Wasnt one of them SATURN? Supposedly you could actually see its rings. I was driving also, and peeked through the trees and clouds to see the moon!
The moon is a wonderful painting subject. Congradulations on painting it. The remarkable thing about the eclipse is the shapes. The circumference of the earth's shadow is larger so the arc of shadow is more spread out than that of the moon's circumference making interesting shapes during the stages before and after total eclipse. The bright unshadowed sliver almost bulges.
Wasn't it beautiful? I guess that is the last eclipse we will see for five years or so. The really amazing thing to me is that it was clear here in NW Washington State so that we COULD see it!
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