Gerlach, Nevada - Dusk at the end of the road

At West Point on Saturday, the band played the Star-Spangled banner at a brisk tempo, not like a dirge. I absolutely despise "treatments" by rock stars, etc. that to me, deface the anthem.

Here the banner waves against the darkening sky, with a big propane tank in the foreground and the little trailers in the distance, and of course the dark hills jutting into the blue. Americana, one could say. The old fashioned values of neighborliness are still honored. The historic wooden water tower by the railroad tracks has been restored.

Today I watched a monarch butterly feed on the marigolds, the most prosaic of flowers, for almost an hour. I wanted to tell her to hie off to Mexico with the flock. This is the 2nd time I've noticed that the marigolds are magnetic to the monarchs in the fall. When I was working, I never got to observe such phenomena, not the frog in the garden or the little black salamanders under the bucket of potting soil. Not the monarch or the hummingbird or the bull frogs by the slough.

The colors are turning in our neck of the woods. Blotches of red everywhere. I wish the monarchs would hurry south.

Photo by Chiefmegashear.


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