Aerial Wonder: Capturing the Essence of Flight

Engines roar as planes await departure, soaring into vibrant sunsets. The sky transforms with colors, revealing a reflective world as night gradually takes over.


Bright was the sky as the engines awoke with a rumble of thunder,
Rolling the tarmac in echoes of journeys yet destined for wonder.
Cloudbanks assembled in towering billows of silver and shadow,
Lifting their faces to heaven, where sunlight had painted them golden.

Far on the edge of the runway, the steel-winged vessels lay waiting,
Southwest and Delta, their banners aloft in the warm evening fading.
Emerald-liveried Aer Lingus, a voyager bound to the island,
Glided in grace on the threshold of travel through luminous currents.

Wheels left the earth with a whisper, a moment of weightless suspension,
Gravity yielding to flight as the city unrolled far beneath us.
Golden horizons drew rivers of fire through infinite heavens,
Burning the clouds into embers that drifted in luminous torrents.

Upward we soared, where the world lay in pools of cerulean mirror,
Lakes interwoven like jewels, reflections of sunfire descending.
Billows of vapor, like castles of foam on the rim of creation,
Tumbled and rolled into canyons of mist in the twilight’s dominion.

Flame on the wings, where the heavens ignited in hues of vermilion,
Rays from the sun, like a god’s final whisper, embracing the skyline.
Shadows arose in their silence, dissolving the last glow of daytime,
Stars in their vigil awakened as night claimed the realm of the heavens.

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Fair Weather View

Cumulus Clouds and Forsythia

I read the New York Times on our porch on a spring Sunday afternoon, taking a moment to capture these fair weather cumulus clouds. Visible are Ithaca’s East Hill, downtown, and a forsythia bush in flower.

More about the flowers, from Wikipedia: Forsythias are popular early spring flowering shrubs in gardens and parks, especially during Eastertide; Forsythias are nicknamed the “Easter Tree”, the symbol of the coming spring.

More about this view, from Wikipedia: Cumulus clouds can form in lines stretching over 480 kilometers (300 mi) long called cloud streets. These cloud streets cover vast areas and may be broken or continuous. They form when wind shear causes horizontal circulation in the atmosphere, producing the long, tubular cloud streets. They generally form during high-pressure systems, such as after a cold front.

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Chapin Valley Views

Northwest from the Mesa Verde Park Road

A pullover on the park road proves this, northwest morning view of the Mancos Valley. The lush grass in foreground is a reason the mesa is called “verde,” meaning green in the Spanish language.

The Mancos Valley has been settled since at least the 10th century AD, although various severe conditions in the mid to late 13th century saw the area and its multitude of small villages abandoned by the Ancient Pueblo People (Anasazi).

The Mancos area is dotted with inventoried and un-inventoried archeological sites, including both isolated houses and shelters and small village complexes. Mancos Valley residents were probably among those who withdrew to the cliff dwellings on Mesa Verde, perhaps for defensive purposes, due to climate change, or as part of concentration policy of possible invaders and occupiers of the region.

Control of the area was contested by nomadic Navajo and Ute people for centuries. Spanish friars and military passed through the area as part of the Old Spanish Trail connecting New Mexico and California in the 18th century. The name “Mancos” comes from the Domínguez–Escalante expedition of 1776, though the reason for the name remains unclear (see below). By some unverified accounts, the name Mancos refers to the crippled nature of the Spanish explorers’ horses after they crossed the San Juan Mountains. According to unverified lore, the horses were rejuvenated by the lush green grass in the Mancos Valley. Somewhere in the town is the point at which the expedition crossed the Rio Mancos on its way to California from Old Mexico. Mesa Verde National Park, Montezuma County, near Cortez, Colorado.

Reference

“Mancos, Colorado” Wikipedia

Click me for more Mesa Verde works in my Fine Art Gallery

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills, All Rights Reserved

Summer Views from Chapin Mesa

North-Northeast to the San Juan Mountains

Chapin Mesa is the site of the Mesa Verde Anasazi ruins Balcony House and Cliff Palace.  These are the views you see before the descent below the cliff rim to visit Balcony House.

These views from the Chapin Mesa rim are companions to two photographs of Balcony House, taken on the same morning. You are looking northeast across Soda Canyon, to a thunderstorm building above the San Juan mountains in the distance. Route 550 from Durango to Silverton climbs passes into these peaks, on the way to Telluride. Chapin Mesa is part of Mesa Verde National Park.

The following fine art image is a combination of the previous photographs

Click me for more Mesa Verde works in my Fine Art Gallery

Copyright 2023 Michael Stephen Wills, All Rights Reserved

Glendalough View near Turlough Hill

An exceptional vista on a May afternoon

Head west from the Monastic City at the foot of the valley, climb pass the waterfalls to reach this east facing viewpoint.

I am standing near the path pilgrims from the west of Ireland travelled to the Glendalough holy sites.

Also, at my feet are “sun stones” a white quartz used by the builders of the Newgrange monument of the Boyne River Valley.

Click the link for my online gallery of Irish theme.
Click link for another Ireland Story “On the Tain Way.”

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills