It started with isp problems this morning, followed by a trip out to a dog show and then dinner with family. I’m pretty beat, so will probably just finish up the chores I have around here and relax away from the computer for the evening.
Thanks to reader and sometimes guest blogger Sean McCormick for sending this recent example of his work along. Go check out his other stuff by clicking on the image…

And to think that people actually ask how we deal with the “boredom” of driving across the prairies.

As a meteorologist, I have only this to say:
Wow.
Pete if you think that’s good, you should see the good one on his site. It absolutely kicks butt!
Kudos to Sean – he’s got some awesome pics on his site…I really enjoyed looking through them.
…beautiful.
But that’s really the mountains being blow away by strong winds.
Beautiful work. Many bows to you.
Pat
D&mn, I’m homesick.
Thanks for the lovely show: lots of beauty, lots of contrast and food for thought.
Thanks for the tour. He certainly has talent.Some look like paintings.
The churches have ‘watch towers’…on the lookout for the HRC?
As it was posted on SDA, I presumed Sean wouldn’t mind, so I had already saved one of his similar pics of the storm clouds from last year (that spawned the twisters) and use it as my wallpaper.
Beautiful pics.
When my family and I were driving across the prairies years ago (remember: I’m a city-slicker Easterner, if Toronto counts as “East”), I kept getting mental images of Natives on horseback, hair blowing in the wind, spears in hand, on the hunt for the latest meal or buffaloe-skin blanket. Really, I could almost “feel” the spirit of the first “settlers” of the plains–not that they settled, so perhpas I should say the first inhabitants of the plains.
I was in awe of the people, including the homesteaders, who were able to live in this stark yet dramatically beautiful landscape. I’m not sure I could have handled the relentless wind and the paucity of trees and hills.
How do y’all deal with the boredom of driving across the prairies?
We read.
definitely Alberta pavement. paved shoulders, filled cracks and no potholes.
The sky looks good too.
I guess that’s why it’s said that the mountains get in the way of the view.
Excellent shot. I remember driving through Sask. one night (which sounds…pretentious or something, but did occur; it was one of those 24 hour/Calgary-to-T.O. runs) and witnessing a spectacular display of northern lights. White only. No colours I noticed. Like watching giant waves of crystals play well above the horizon. Magic. Probably routine there, but for this S.W.Ont. boy, novel in the extreme.
Kate, Thanks for a link to some excellent screen savers (not to diminish them….I just get to see them more often that way). I’m also able to change the view, often, from my large collection. I should also say that your great photos don’t go/certainly shouldn’t go unnoticed either. I think I’ll bring one up now! My current one seems to be predicting rain!!
Cheers.
Awesome!
And I’m glad to see someone ventures out into the hilly section of the prairies. 😉
After looking at Sean’s awesome photos, I couldn’t get the thought out of my head: There’s got to be a God.
All this beauty can’t just be “random.”
Spent two summers working in the bush in B.C.
Though I joke about putting a brick on the accelerator, tying a rope to your steering wheel and having a nap for the drive through Saskatchewan, there was always something about seeing that wide open prairie on my way home that made my soul sing.
When you see a scene like that picture in real life, technicolour panorama, only then will you understand why I’ll always be a prairie boy…
Caption: License plate bingo didn’t keep the kids entertained for long.
Helluva snap!!
My sentiments, exactly, watching the sunset in Wisconsin.
No God? Then who painted this?
Patience proved a winner, as I finally got into the site.
Awesome photos, as always!
And worth a slide through the others.
The prairies can be beautiful in their own way.
There is also no truth to the rumour that elected conservatives suddenly turning left cause these PC clouds.
That’s the first thing you’ll see when you leave Alberta to move back home to Saskatchewan. That’s one gorgeous photo!!
batb: Oh, those weren’t the first inhabitants of the plains.
They’d just killed off the previous set of immigrants.
Ancient tradition and all that.
…all that topsoil is being blow to Alberta
Thanks!
😉
Great Photo. Missed the Big Sky when I wasn’t here. Just have to forget the frost heaves and cracks and what the weather does to your vehicle and enjoy the drive and scenery 😉
Can’t wait until it just starts to turn green … the commute to work will be awesome.