textures – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

Mesa Verde Textures

Building Techniques

March 4, 2023March 2, 2023 MichaelStephenWills

Transition

When the ancestral Puebloans moved from living next to their fields, in adobe structures, to these cliff dwellings, their building techniques were left behind.

Stone and Mud Mortar with wood beams. Mesa Verde National Park, Montezuma County, near Cortez, Colorado.

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Balcony House

Mud mortar was used to bind stones. Wood poles were used for to construct floors. These are walls captured during the Ranger guided tour of Balcony House.

This flat Kiva floor was achieved through clay, softened with water, formed and allowed to dry.

Clay Kiva Floor. Mesa Verde National Park, Montezuma County, near Cortez, Colorado.

Cliff Palace

In this wall the poles rotted and crumbled, leaving behind these characteristic holes.

These architects excelled with adapting to the materials at hand.

The walls demonstrate an enormous variety around basic patterns.

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Two-Sided Story

Sea Oats and Sand

March 14, 2022March 6, 2022 MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

At first glance, Northerners may mistake this for fine snow blown on a bitter wind; but no, this is indeed a north wind, the temperature is above freezing, the material is beach sand. Keeping the sand in place is a concern for Brevard County.

A gull walked through wind textured beach sand, see here in early morning light.

Golden brown infructescences (seed heads) of Sea Oats grass on stalks growing from dunes, seen here in early morning light, are one element of this plant beneficial to the goal of keeping beach sands in place. Tall stalks and broad leaves catch blowing sand. Deep roots hold the plants in place, shallow root systems hold sand in place to form dunes.

Returning after staying away for COVID-19, we found new plantings of Sea Oats by the county.

Willets Feeding As Group

Ocean Bounty Brings Solitary Birds Together

March 13, 2022March 6, 2022 MichaelStephenWills

Walking mornings along the beach I encounter, one after the other, solitary sandpipers, called Willets. Before encountering this group, I noticed massed Black Skimmers feeding in the surf and, on the beach, a single, tiny (1/8th of an inch) fish that I scooped up and returned to the surf. My surmise is these several days around the full moon, fish were being birthed and swarming to provide a bounty that brough these solitary Willets together.

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