Posts Tagged ‘Palm Springs’

Alternative Energy: Palm Springs Wind Farms


2010
03.15


I promised photos of the windmills just outside Palm Springs.  And I just remembered – got so caught up in the buying and selling of houses, neither of which is fully accomplished yet, that I forgot about it.  And I know that every single person reading this has been holding his or her breath waiting for these photos.  Now you can get excited, jump up and down, or run around the block, because the photos are here!

Remember how fun it was to run around with those little pinwheels when we were little? Obviously, had we been thinking about anything other than the colors swirling around, we would have seen that we were making energy.  If we were of a scientific inclination, we might even have thought about harvesting that energy to power something else.  How about running around with this pinwheel?

When I was leaving Palm Springs after the Glamtastic weekend with my twitter friend Nita from Oklahoma, I took a few side roads to see how close I could get to the windmills.  It was fun.  Oh – for the uninitiated, glamtastic describes the Adam Lambert concert we were at.

What I always see is patterns – the patterns of the blades, of the windmills, how the pattern changes depending upon where you are.  I tend to photograph patterns frequently.  In fact, in the Nature gallery on my web site, I have a river bottom, cactus, cactus garden, G4-222 of the sand at Pismo, G4-223, the pattern of the aspens in Ouray, Colorado, some sunsets, sand dunes, orchards – all of which caught my eye because of the patterns they created.

I like symmetry also.  In these two lines my mind saw palm trees.  After all, I was in Palm Springs and Indio, home of the date palms and date shakes.  Dang it, I forgot to get a date shake!  Phooey.

It was pretty cool that a train went by.  A long train of containers stacked double.  Making energy, using energy.

I like the tire in the foreground.  The only other thing out there that didn’t belong was a toilet!  No photo though; too much sun and that white porcelain was blinding.

The train is smiling at me. Like a smile missing a tooth.

Ooh I love these two rows of different types of windmills.  I know people complain about these things, but I actually find them quite beautiful – and interesting.  And in places where we have plenty of wind – why let it go to waste?  That’s what kills me about Bakersfield.  We should all have solar panels on our roofs – this is the land of almost constant sun.  We need to be moving faster toward utilizing what’s already there.  We need to “pick” the sun just as we pick the oranges off our trees.

Just a beautiful photo.  In my opinion.  And there were patches of snow on the mountains still.

Now it’s time to get out there looking for wildflowers.  I’m going to try to get out for a few hours tomorrow.  I know I should stay home in case someone calls about the house – but I can return calls.  Gotta see what’s out there and tomorrow’s weather will be gorgeous.  Gotta get while the getting is good.


Two days until G-day/American Idol is ruined


2010
02.25

That would be Glambert day.  Two days to go until the big Palm Springs adventure.  (the Adam Lambert concert that I’m going to with my twitter friend from Oklahoma) Didn’t realize quite how long the drive was – four plus hours.  I’ll be fine if I sleep.  Last couple of nights I’ve been getting up at midnight or 1:00 am and going down to the studio to do a couple of journal pages.  Been too long since I’ve been in the studio and it’s bottling up.  Too much happening too, what with our unexpected purchase of a house.

Who watched Idol Tues. and Wed?  I had a feeling that the season would be flat without Adam.  He was so exciting that we can’t expect anyone else like that to show up.  But really – the song choices were so drippy and boring.  Out of the thousands of choices available, this is the best they could do?  Casey is the boy standout, and not just because he’s so darn cute.  He puts his soul in his work and his image fits his song choice.  Other than him, where’s the stage presence?

Girls – Crystal and Lilly were the only stand-outs as far as I’m concerned.

And yes, I miss Paula; and no, I can’t get used to Kara.  I keep trying but just can’t warm up to her.

So here are the journal pages I did the last two nights.  They don’t mean anything in particular: my constraint for journaling still is watercolor background and collage material from a few National Geographics I have laying around.

This is The Blues.  The next one is Electro Pop.

Full report with photos coming after Palm Springs.  However – the Casino says we cannot take cameras into the concert.  And how is this stopped, what with cell phones and all?  We’ll see.