Friday, September 4, 2009

Prairie Skies in South Dakota

A couple of weeks ago we were in South Dakota. This photo was taken near Wall, in the national grasslands.

I grew up on the prairie. The skies of the West fill me with a peace that is impossible to find east of the Missouri.

When I think of my great-grandparents, I wonder what they thought of the Dakota skies. Of course, they had to keep an eye on the weather--no Doppler radar in those days. But I imagine they also were attuned to the colors and nuances of the clouds, the shifts in light marking the seasons.

I would love to spend an evening with them, watching the sun sink, seeing geese fly overhead, and hearing frogs begin the night shift.

2 comments:

athomethinkingwoman said...

The prairie skies of the Dakotas is unequaled. Stand in a field in North Dakota on a clear night, and you begin to understand how the poets could describe the sky as a blanket of stars. From horizon to horizon, as far as you can see, stars cover the blue-black sky. It brings the sky closer, so that it feels almost as if you can reach up and touch the stars. Only on the prairie.

magnusmog said...

The sound of the overwintering Geese flying in our skies is one of my most loved sounds :)

 
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Live Well Letters by Kristie Nelson-Neuhaus is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.