street

Flood Watch

These days we’re seeing a whole lot of this:

IMG_863411The typical June brings about 5 inches of rain around here; so far we’ve gotten almost 3 inches and more are on the way, thanks to a Caribbean visitor named Bill. May was so wet that not even two weeks of sunshine was enough to dry out the earth, so keep your eyes peeled for flash flooding today and tomorrow, especially around rivers and streams.

Here in town, the rain’s effects have been beautiful, nerve-wracking and occasionally weird.

_C1_1713

_C1_1701

_C1_1704

_C1_1707This past Saturday, a woman named Meredith and her bridesmaids, family and imminent family-in-law crowded into Fayetteville’s Salon on the Square to get gussied up for an evening wedding. The place is in a beautiful old building with tin ceiling panels and honey-colored wood — I’ve wanted to get some images in there for a while. The energy of weddings (and wedding prep) is always good photo material, too. Lots of laughing, lots of color and lots of hairspray.

_C1_1522

_C1_1532

_C1_1595

_C1_1446Every few minutes one of us would glance out the front door to see what kind of rain was falling at the moment. Weather wasn’t their friend this day; 12 dry days would break Saturday with two or three fast and heavy downpours. The wedding was supposed to be outside.

_C1_1636

_C1_1672

_C1_1585

_C1_1690I don’t know where the wedding wound up, but I imagine (and hope), after agitated phone calls, a few quick changes of plans and other hallmarks of every wedding day, it turned out OK.

The rain let up the next day, so I spent some time exploring parts of Fayetteville I hadn’t seen before.

IMG_85843

IMG_85986

IMG_86097

IMG_85761That brings me to the weird. Each night, a herd of small animals ambles onto the patios and sidewalks of my apartment complex. They’ve been around all summer, but all of the water seems to have helped their numbers.

_C1_8746When I first saw them, I nicknamed them leopard slugs because of those spots; turns out that’s their real name. Anywhere from less than an inch to 6 inches long, they trundle across the pavement all night at a few inches per minute, munching on whatever organic material they encounter. Slugs seem like absurd creatures to me — they’re not going to outrun anything, and they’re nothing but soft morsels for anything large enough to try. But still they mosey through their quiet lives every night as the rain falls.

IMG_866912(I didn’t make it do this, and I really wonder why it was twisting and rearing up. It seemed fine a minute later.)

IMG_869115Stay dry out there, and thanks for looking.

Dan

Restless

_C1_8146Since the Great Sand Dunes, I’ve been restless. The spring in the air and on the trees isn’t helping. I want to see new things, to soak in as much of the world as I can, come across different people and places and record them from a fresh angle.

_C1_8141

_C1_8088

_C1_8166I know two ways to do this: go to an unfamiliar place, and sink a bit further into the familiar until I see something different. I don’t know how good I am at either, but they seem like a solid plan. I tried both this past weekend — first at the farmers’ market in Fayetteville’s square, where I’ve been a hundred times, and at Pedestal Rocks Scenic Area, a section of the Ozark National Forest that was new to me.

_C1_8094

_C1_8149This is Alex. She had a great smile and a great headscarf and a great plant that she walked with around and around the square — I kept seeing its branches poking above the crowd. She seemed like one of those people who are friends of everyone who passes by. I obviously had to ask for her photo.

_C1_8136

_C1_8128

IMG_8004

_C1_8153

_C1_8189Caves, limestone mushroom-rock columns and sandstone bluffs puncture the forest canopy in the Pedestal Rock Scenic Area, a little section of the national forest where spring has dyed the mountains yellow and light green. Its two loop trails together offer a three- or four-hour trek, which seems like the minimum for a hike after the dunes. The weather was perfect, room temperature and breezy. My trusty hiking partner Ryan came, too.

IMG_8019

IMG_8027

IMG_8013

IMG_8042The pedestals are often at least 10 feet from the nearest bluff; I wonder if anyone has ever stood on them. One of the columns looked just like a chemistry flask. Meanwhile trees grow straight out of the bluffs’ lumpy rock.

IMG_8038

IMG_8056

IMG_8039

IMG_8093

IMG_8023

IMG_8072Keep an eye out for the new, and thanks for looking.

IMG_8078

IMG_8070

IMG_8068

TIL

C1_7665Out of the Internet’s entire encyclopedic array of acronyms, TIL strikes me as one of the most pleasant: Today I Learned. For example, today I learned construction companies keep blueprints and other documents inside a PVC tube that’s capped at both ends, an object that looks a lot like a pipe bomb when it inadvertently falls off of a truck near a public building. I also learned Bentonville has a bomb squad, one of six in the state. It deploys a fun robot that reminds me of a Mars rover. This minor bomb scare took place today across the street from my office.

C1_7651

C1_7666Today I learned my office has a pull-down ladder that leads to the roof, which is a challenge to climb with a camera, a notebook and an umbrella. Watch out for the big old cellar spider on the way up.

I walked around the square for a bit after the lunch-time excitement. The all-day rain was crappy, but temperatures in the 50s, 60s and maybe even 70s this week will be worth it. Plants are already reacting to the warmth.

C1_7691

C1_7685

C1_7671Finally, today I learned the texture of water under rainfall is beautiful and elegant when frozen in a photograph. I learned those little water droplets that plop up from the center of a splash move really fast — they were blurry with a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second.

C1_7804

C1_7722

C1_7790I hope to say TIL forever. Thanks for looking.

Dan

Flu Season

_C1_7348---CopyThis window display has the right idea. Who else is ready for winter to end? I got hit with the flu last week, and water keeps falling from the sky in one form or another. That’s about all I have to say about that. (This blog can always use more movie references.)

_C1_7343---Copy

_C1_7331---Copy

_C1_7341---Copy

_C1_7366---CopyThen again, there’s no matching the quiet of a calm snowfall, even in the middle of a city. Everything slows down, even the precipitation. Earlier this week, when I took these photos, the air was still. The noiselessness of snow is practically a cliche; I posted about it almost as soon as I got here. Still, I notice it every time. That counts for something.

_C1_7362---Copy

_C1_7336---CopyThe pigeons are always watching.

_C1_7374---CopyKeep an ear out for the quiet between the noise. Thanks for looking,

Dan