Monday, August 6, 2012

Great Blue Heron

We saw this guy the last time we went fishing...he was up the stream from us, and across on the other side. He stayed there the whole time we were there which was probably 45 minutes or so.
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We have been out and gone most of the day...running some errands and to Best Buy...and we stopped and ate. It has just been one of those days where I did not accomplish a single thing. At least in the work department.

I have been reading a book called The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan. It is about the Dust Bowl, concentrating on the Texas/Oklahoma panhandle area. This happened during the Great Depression, for those of you who aren't familiar with it. I have enjoyed reading it...have wondered how I would have handled the living situation then.

It was horrible living conditions. No one could get away from the dust. Even though people tried to cover up any little opening...dust found its way inside their homes. Inside their bodies even. So many people died with dust pneumonia. Babies as well as adults.

In that area, tons and tons and tons of top soil was blown away. Some of it even made it to the east coast and even on out into the Atlantic Ocean. If you want to see probably the worst dust storm of it all, click Black Sunday. That is a page of images I got by googling Black Sunday dust bowl, and then clicking on images.

As I read it I came across the name Arthur Rothstein....a photographer. I first googled his name and then clicked images...which showed enough till I knew I wanted to find a collection of them. And HERE is where I ended up at...have wasted a lot of time today just looking at the photos there and still not through them.

Anyway, if you like B&W photography and old photos, it is a good place to go...it has more than just the Rothstein collection...but that was what I spent my spare minutes on.

9 comments:

  1. Those old b&w photos are really neat!

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  2. I took a quick look at the B&W photographs; very nice collection!

    We saw a great blue heron, too, this past weekend. I will be posting pictures later this week.

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  3. Thank you, that is the history I enjoy reading. The photography is amazing, isn't it? I am sure I would be one of the ones who could not bear it. Can you imagine the grit in your teeth, your eyes...

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  4. A fine heron shot. I'm glad he was so comfortable with visitors for such a long time. I'll have to check out the Rothstein collection. I grew up in central Kansas where they also had lots of dust blowing problems.

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  5. the scary thing is, 2/3 of the USA is in a bad drought and this could happen again. the dust bowl i mean. i did not know about the deaths from the dust.

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  6. Boy! His photos show a lot about what it must have been like back then!

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  7. I love herons....they are so stately!...:)JP

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  8. I love looking through old pictures - especially b/w. These are quite fascinating to look through.
    Your book sounds like it might be a difficult book to read. Interesting though!!!

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  9. With the drought we have been having, I'm surprised you would want to read that particular book right now! I would have gotten so depressed and worried that it was happening again! Love the heron shot!

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