Some eye candy from Mother Nature to tide you over

Quick check-in to apologize for the long absence; there was a nasty, nasty manuscript I edited that was due in the wee hours this morning. Now that's done, I expect I'll have one if not two new posts for you over the weekend.

In the meantime, some visual distractions!

If you've never heard of TreeHugger.com, they're lovely, and they have a photo pool over on Flickr that's really gorgeous. I have a few photos up there, and hope to add more soon.

These two are the scenery I wish I'd be seeing on Monday, if I really must endure more snow:

- A blustery crimson-and-alabaster morning near Monument Valley proves this area is amazingly haunting even in the vilest weather;

- Bryce Canyon shows off its white coat with its usual grace.

And these, by contrast, recall much more pleasant, warm memories. Enjoy! :-)

- At somewhere over 100 degrees in the sun, it was profoundly pleasing to take a dip into this huge, bracing pool underneath one of the Southwest's most stunning waterfalls, in the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument'

- the humbling grandeur of my current all-time favorite park, Zion National Park (I think that peak is Angel's Landing);

- Sedona, Arizona, never camera shy, showing off its famed "Snoopy" and other lovely sunset sights from the well-trodden airport overlook -- and others from near the beautiful steel-truss bridge on US-89A.