Sandia Peak

Late in the afternoon on June 12, 2017, we wound our way up to the top of Sandia Peak, a mountain that overlooks Albuquerque, New Mexico. At the top I couldn’t help noticing this deformed tree, perhaps a limber pine (Pinus flexilis). Years of prevailing winds had left the tree as a whole leaning away from the void and toward the ridge of the mountain. At the same time, one resistant branch somehow ended up bent in the opposite direction.

© 2018 Steven Schwartzman

Inside Carlsbad Caverns

On June 14th last year we visited Carlsbad Caverns National Park in New Mexico.

© 2018 Steven Schwartzman

East from Los Alamos

A year ago today we drove east from Los Alamos on New Mexico Highway 502 across part of the Pajarito Plateau. In the distance were the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

© 2018 Steven Schwartzman

Paintbrush in northern New Mexico

Driving south from Colorado a year ago today, we couldn’t help noticing the rich red of some paintbrushes flowering healthily on the dry ground of northern New Mexico. I can’t tell what species of Castilleja this one was because several grow in the area.

© 2018 Steven Schwartzman

Sunday sunset 4

On each of the four Sundays in January you’ve seen sunset pictures from the state whose license plates proclaim it the Land of Enchantment. Now that today’s post concludes the series, you’re welcome to look back at the other photographs that have appeared here from June 10, 2017, at Camel Rock, 11 miles north of downtown Santa Fe.

Because the first Sunday sunset picture this month appeared on January 7, and because there are 7 days in a week, all of the January pictures in this sequence came on dates divisible by 7:  7, 14, 21, 28. Speaking of divisibility, if you divide 1 by 7, and then 2 by 7, etc., to convert the fractions to decimals, you’ll find that the sevenths give the following infinitely repeating six-digit cycles:

Do you see the cyclical nature of those decimal expansions, with each one consisting of the same digits in the same order, only starting at a different place in the cycle?

But wait! The columns want some attention, too. Notice that reading down the first column of decimal digits is the same as reading up the fourth column? Likewise for the second and fifth columns, and also for the third and sixth columns.

There’s more that could be said, but for now I’ll let the sun set on these mathematical pleasures and not take you further into seventh heaven.

© 2018 Steven Schwartzman

Sunday sunset 3

On each of the four Sundays in January you’re seeing sunset pictures from the state whose license plates praise it as the Land of Enchantment. This photograph of a silhouetted dead tree is from June 10, 2017, at Camel Rock, 11 miles north of Santa Fe.

© 2018 Steven Schwartzman

Sunday sunset 2

8:10 PM

On each of the four Sundays in January you’re seeing sunset pictures from the state whose license plates proclaim it the Land of Enchantment.

8:18 PM

These three photographs date back to June 10, 2017, at Camel Rock, 11 miles north of downtown Santa Fe. I don’t notice any overlap between the first two pictures. The third, however, zooms in on an area recognizable near the bottom of the second photograph, so you can see how cloud shapes and colors had changed in five minutes.

8:23 PM

© 2018 Steven Schwartzman

Sunday sunset 1

As it would be hard to find anything more appropriate for a Sunday than a sunset, on the four Sundays in January you’ll be seeing sunset pictures. Today’s are from June 10, 2017, at Camel Rock, 11 miles north of downtown Santa Fe. Speaking of 11, that’s how many minutes elapsed between the first photograph and the second.

© 2018 Steven Schwartzman

Camel Rock

Here’s a view from June 10th showing Camel Rock, a landmark on the main highway some 11 miles north of downtown Santa Fe. When I first visited Camel Rock nearly half a century ago, anyone could walk up to it and even onto it. Now I found the structure ringed by a fence. While I appreciate the protection, the fence made it hard to take pictures because I couldn’t get close enough to stand or sit where I wanted to. Oh well, I did what I could, aided by one of those famous New Mexico sunsets.

Do you see the rocky outline of the camel, complete with a hoodoo for a head and neck? If you’d like a look back at other pareidolic images that have appeared here in 2016 and 2017, click “pareidolia” in the “Tagged with” section at the bottom of this post and scroll down through the results. (There are bound to be instances in older posts as well, but I learned the term pareidolia only last year.)

© 2017 Steven Schwartzman

More of the world below

More visual notes from the underground in New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park on June 14th.

It took aeons for an inorganic process, dripping water, to deposit the minerals that built up these intricate formations. Nevertheless, don’t their tops remind you of the branching growth patterns seen in a living organism like broccoli?

© 2017 Steven Schwartzman