Closer and Closer ...
AAACCCKKKK!!!!
ATTACK OF THE KILLER SHEEP !!!
... with mystical blue markings on their backs whose significance is known only to their steely-eyed Centaur Escorts.IN OTHER DISTURBING NEWS:
Contented cows peacefully grazing in open meadows with streams and shade, blissfully unaware of their less fortunate feedlot cousins...
Herds of horses running free as horses were intended to run, unlike their race track cousins who risk broken legs & death in their quest for speed assisted by little humans attached to their backs whipping them on so other humans can win (or lose) great quantities of worthless money ... note: these are not miniature horses; click to enlarge as this pic was taken from a great distance; the rear horses kicking up dust was how I even noticed them ...
Fields of Alpine Wildflowersat 8100-ft elevation ...
Unusual views of Zion from the plateau ABOVE the canyons, rather than the usual views seen from the bottom of the canyons (in the center is "The White Throne") ...
THESE PASTORAL SCENES BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
... where we spent a nice day escaping the desert heat. Nature is the only reward for this drive. We spotted many trails along the rim & look forward to hiking a few in the early fall before the winter snows begin. The area is known as The Kolob Reservoir.The concept of "Kolob" is a bit strange. The Mormons think it is a very bright star near the center of the Milky Way Galaxy, which they feel is near the throne of God. That would put it near Sagittarius A, rotating closely around our densely packed galactic center, a very bright (and a very compact) source of radio waves. Residing at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy is thought to be a massive black hole. In fact, black holes are thought to be at the center of all spiral arm galaxies. Kind of gives black holes a divinity, eh?
The word "Kolob" might be derived from the common Semitic root QLB, which has the basic meaning of "heart, center, middle" (Arabic qalb "heart, center"; Hebrew qereb "middle, midst", qarab "to draw near"; Egyptian m-q3b "in the midst of"). In fact, qalb forms part of the Arabic names of several of the brightest stars in the sky. The plural of "qalb" is "qulob".
It has also been suggested that Kolob derives from the Hebrew word for "dog", thus "The Dog Star," i.e., Sirius, the brightest star visible to the naked eye (which makes sense to the DOG vs GOD crowd)!
The word "Kolob" might be derived from the common Semitic root QLB, which has the basic meaning of "heart, center, middle" (Arabic qalb "heart, center"; Hebrew qereb "middle, midst", qarab "to draw near"; Egyptian m-q3b "in the midst of"). In fact, qalb forms part of the Arabic names of several of the brightest stars in the sky. The plural of "qalb" is "qulob".
It has also been suggested that Kolob derives from the Hebrew word for "dog", thus "The Dog Star," i.e., Sirius, the brightest star visible to the naked eye (which makes sense to the DOG vs GOD crowd)!
There are some very odd websites which address the weird UFO aspect of Kolob which you can google search if you're interested. I'm not linking them as they seem conspiracy-oriented (to say the least).
Or click here for the much saner, but no less weird, Wikipedia link.
ps, Blogger says this is my 101st post. I never thought I'd make it this far!
19 comments:
Nice photos and post on your day of cruising through nature. Very enjoyable.
Wonderfully evocative pics - particularly that lamb on the hoof. I'm thinking of all my favourite lamb recipes now (using the term lamb loosely of course). A good load of garlic, rosemary and lemon even makes an bit of hogget edible, and an Irish stew is wonderful with a tough old bit of mutton.
Mouth watering...
Great pictures, thanks for sharing! Love the sheep traffic jam. We've come across those in Ireland and Scotland too! Also cow traffic jams!
I love the pictures, and also the language derivation. But I have to tell you a little story about Welsh sheep: I saw this with my own eyes, so I know it is true.
In Wales, farmers put "raincoats" on newborn lambs because they don't have their lanonlin yet. It is less expensive to put sheep in the field than to house them in a barn. So, if this lamb is in the field, without lanolin, and it rains, or if there is a heavy dew, the wool gets too heavy, the lamb collapses and drowns. Hence, some smart guy farmer began to make little rain-slickers for lambs - really.
EProf:
thanks, glad you liked it. it was cool break for us.
Cart:
I'm not a big fan of lamb for dinner, but the garlic & rosemary sound wonderful. Our landscaping incorporated much rosemary, so we always have a fresh supply.
MauiGirl:
It was only a 5-minute delay & actually kind of fun to watch the sheep coming toward us. The vehicles on the other side would've had a much longer wait since the sheep were being funneled down the narrow road in that direction. Not much car traffic up there, so a sheep traffic jam was perfect!
DivaJ:
It just goes to show that where there is a need, someone will find a way to fill it. I had no idea the dew could get so heavy it could drown a lamb!
I noticed that the "head sheep" was wearing a dog collar in my final sheep pic. He was one that made direct eye contact with us. This flock was being herded by cowboys, not dogs. I wish we'd brought our australian shepherd with us just for the sheep moment. He's a herder who herds everything he can, including me! Seeing so many herdable objects would have made his day.
Great post. Love especially the sheep and centaurs, I had the ambition to be a sheep herder, but in those days, though I was a mighty fine horse woman, no one would hire a girl to herd sheep. So I did the next best thing and became a model. I'd have been happier as a sheep herder. And I was a crack shot with a .22. I had a dog, but she was a mere beagle mix. Not the best type dog for herding.
Stupid me-- I clicked on the cow picture, looking for horses! For a brief moment I am baffled- NO! These are COWS! what is DK talking about????.....Einstein that I am, then scrolled down & went..... oh-- there's the horses. Doh!
Perhaps I am a wee bit tired????
Nice pics of pretty places
UT Savage:
You would've made one ELEGANT sheepherder (thinking of your Audrey Hepburnish look)! But I'm trying to picture big old scaredy Cyrus out helping you herd the sheep. He'd probably go nuts if you had to use the .22, poor guy. I tried to catch up on blogs today. No luck. I've been thinking of you & wanting to know how you are doing.
Fran:
That's because you are used to captions BELOW pictures, like normal readers read! I don't know why, but I always prefer to read the caption first. Might be related to why I read magazines & newspapers back to front. I've even been known to read novels backwards. no einstein, me!
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OMG, HUGE MONSOONS HAPPENING HERE RIGHT NOW! WIND, RAIN, THUNDER, LIGHTNING! THE LIGHTS JUST FLICKERED, SO I'M TURNING OFF THE COMPUTER "just in case"!
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D.K. Great blog. I loved 67% of the photos. (That's the % the PC would allow me to see ... will have to skip over to the Mac to see the rest, so I still have something to anticipate with some excitement.)
BTW, are you SURE those weren't miniature horses -- they sure looked pretty small, even enlarged to life size. But I loved your comparisons between those and their Kentucky Kousins. (As well as other grazers vs. feedlotters.)
Some of these photos take on a painterly quality when enlarged to their orig. size. Nice countryside! And I got a kick out of Cart's comment that, upon seeing these, took on an appetite desirous of devouring the *pastorality* of it all.
OK, from the Mac I was able to see the cows grazing and the blue back sheep. In that all markings appear the same on each sheep, I suspect it's a warning to some Dog Star alien spacecraft (hence, painted on their backs for better aerial viewing) to keep their frigging transporter beams off the sheep; to go transport a cow from, say, your nice photo of same; to neatly cut out their tongues, organs and rectums sans blood and drop back in their pastures from several thousand feet for puzzled ranchers and pseudo scientists and really, REALLY curious and *far-out-there* reporters bold enough to write about it to ponder, to wonder, "Why?"
As for that nice Kolob sign: Is that some sort of not-so-subtle statement on the state of nation? ~Da
Okay, Fran's comment reminded me of an occurance in Holland years ago. While I was still drinking. So, we were driving in Holland, and stopped for lunch where I had quite a few to drink. The kids were about 14 and 12, I think, it was probably 3 years before I finally got sober. But, the four of us piled into the car, and I saw these animals grazing in the field. They looked like dogs, funny, furry dogs, and they also looked like pigs, cute little tails - so I told my kids to quick look at the "pig dogs", aren't they cute?
My son rolled his eyes and said "They're sheep."
red
That was all beautiful! You live in a beautiful part of the country unique in its own splendor. Hope you had and have a blast!
Dada:
The horses weren't miniature, but my camera is! Someday I'll get a nice 10X like yours. Maybe by then, there'll be a 20X to aspire to. I expect soon we'll be zooming in on platmaps of mars to plan out our biocolony ... all with our very own digital cams.
Now about those kosher (bloodless) cow tongues & rectums, I doubt even Cart's recipe with garlic & rosemary will be able to make those palatable. But just to be clear, there is a lot google info about Kolob UFO, and it has nothing to do with the normal x-file stuff.
But oh yeah, that deteriorated Kolob sign ... it was pretty beat up, looks like the last time anyone was out there was 1937? We had to crossover an old rotting RR bridge with iron beams bearing the painted logo of 'Rio Grande' & dated 1957. It did occur to me that our 12,000-lb vehicle might be the last vehicle to cross it, and that it would take another 50-yrs before some future lost soul would find it & us at the bottom of the gorge. With still intact photos of killer sheep on the digital cam, they might assume some strange alien activity had occured.
DivaJood:
LOL! Were those pig dogs PINK (as in pink elephants) by any chance? BTW, I'm not buying the drunk in Holland story as I hear it is far more likely another substance readily available there might account for your "misperceptions" ... or maybe some combination thereof.
Avg Patriot:
Thanks, I don't know about unique, but it was a beautiful little day trip. Nice to escape the heat for an afternoon.
Speaking of which, another evening monsoon is threatening ... guess we are in that pattern for a few days. We lost power last night for long enough to be scared about lightning strikes (i.e. wildfire in the backcountry). On our Kolob drive, we passed through large sections of previously burnt-out areas, so we know it has happened before.
"kosher (bloodless) cow tongues & rectums" Before you take my name in vain, let me assure you I could cook up a feast with that lot.
Garlic? yes of course. But lashings of veg, particularly celery and onion. Then a very slow long cook - just like cooking up a good pot of beans.
Then I would probably sever it with a side dish of cauliflower and broccoli cheese.
For someone who doesn't eat the menu sure gets me stirred up...
well, Cart, you may cook tongues & rectums if you wish, but don't count on my sampling them. Though with various herbs/etc, I am sure it would all smell great! I saw some travel show the other day where they were sampling deepfried mammal uteruses (uteri?) in asia somewhere. When they started describing the "texture", I quickly flipped the channel. I used the word "mammal" because it honestly escapes me which kind of animal's uterus was being deepfried. In fact, now that I think about it, it could've been foul (misspell intended)...
No, no, DK, really, it was young gin, lots of it.
Diva, look I don't know young from old gin. You sure it was not ganja gin?
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