Don't go chasing waterfalls by Rob Fleming

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Mammoth Hot Springs • August, 2008

Travertine terraces; formed over thousands of years as dissolved calcium carbonate found in geothermal spring water has cascaded downhill, creating a "frozen waterfall."

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA

[To keep those “stuck-at-home” blues at bay, I’ve decided to comb through 4TB of travel photos from the past 15 years and upload a couple of shots each week.]

A bird in the hand... by Rob Fleming

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La Catrina | Capula, Michoacán, Mexico • November, 2018

Día de Muertos

[To keep those “stuck-at-home” blues at bay, I’ve decided to comb through 4TB of travel photos from the past 15 years and upload a couple of shots each week.]

Dem Bones, Dem Bones, Dem Dry Bones by Rob Fleming

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My adopted hometown of Guanajuato, Mexico is known for its high-yielding silver mines and impressive colonial architecture. Colorfully-painted homes cling to steep slopes along narrow alleyways. The city hosts a world-renown arts festival and was the site of the first battle of Mexican independence from Spain.

And, famously, there are the mummies.

In such a craggy and mountainous environment, flat land is reserved for the most important of civic functions. There is little space for burying the dead, and cemetery space is valuable property. For almost 100 years, the city imposed an annual “grave tax” on all burial plots to offset costs. If you missed paying your relatives’ “grave tax” for three years, your loved one was exhumed and moved to the cemetery’s ossuary, making room for another burial on the invaluable land.

Once disinterred, cemetery diggers discovered that Guanajuato’s volcanic-ash soil and dry air had naturally mummified the buried corpses. Over time, hundreds of these clothed, mummified bodies were unearthed.

Beginning at the turn of the 20th century, locals began paying the cemetery’s groundskeepers a few pesos to peek at the oddities. Eventually, the bodies were moved into an on-site museum for public viewing (with some traveling to natural history museums around the world.)

Happy Halloween.

Photo: November, 2018.

Gnarly, Dude by Rob Fleming

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To keep those “stuck-at-home” blues at bay, I’ve decided to comb through 4TB of travel photos from the past 15 years and upload a couple of shots each week.

Today’s beaut: The exuberant foliage of a gnarled Japanese maple, taken three years ago today in Portland, Oregon’s Japanese Garden. With BF @ancelularpdx.

Red Brocade by Rob Fleming

The Arabs used to say,
When a stranger appears at your door,
feed him for three days
before asking who he is,
where he’s come from,
where he’s headed.
That way, he’ll have strength
enough to answer.
Or, by then you’ll be
such good friends
you don’t care.
 
Let’s go back to that.
Rice? Pine nuts?
Here, take the red brocade pillow.
My child will serve water
to your horse.
 
No, I was not busy when you came!
I was not preparing to be busy.
That’s the armor everyone put on
to pretend they had a purpose
in the world.
 
I refuse to be claimed.
Your plate is waiting.
We will snip fresh mint
into your tea.

Naomi Shihab Nye, 1952
Via poets.org