Since this year has a George R. Stewart connection (see photo of Ed Stewart near the end of the page), I’m posting the 2020 annual Christmas photos on the weblog. Family and friends will enjoy seeing these online. And I believe that many of you who are faithful followers of the weblog will enjoy seeing some of the place where the posts are composed.
The area around Carson City, Nevada, sits at the boundary of two of Earth’s great landform provinces – the Sierra Nevada and the Basin and Range Country. It’s also George R. Stewart country. Many of his better-known works are set nearby, including Ordeal By Hunger, Fire, Storm, and Sheep Rock. US 40 and The California Trail have large sections about the Northern Nevada and Sierra Nevada regions. Some of the country in these photos was likely seen by George R. Stewart himself.
It’s also Mark Twain country. Sam Clemens adopted the pen name “Mark Twain” while he was living in Carson City. Roughing It is set partly in the area. The photos may help readers of Twain visualize this area and its people.
The photos begin with images from the Pandemic Era – a much gentler pandemic so far than the Earth Abides pandemic; following those are images from the Basin-and-Range/sagebrush country in spring and summer images of a park set in a small eastern extension of the Sierra Nevada. The album ends with photos of hiking friends (the Rocks), Ed Stewart, (GRS’s grandson and Keeper of the Legacy), Ranger Phil of the Bureau of Land Management at beautiful 8100 feet (2470 meters) high Burnside Lake, and the first winter’s snow.
Let me know what you think. If this seems to be of interest, I can post the end-of-year/Christmas photos here next year.
“Sheep May Safely Graze”
The annual ‘mowing’ of the cheat grass by Borda Ranch sheep
A Pandemic Gift From Paul Schats Bakery
Reminder on the trail
Path into spring
Spring impressions – new life along the trail
The Harbinger Sings
Wild Horses – mare and her colt
The Local Outback
Washoe Lake Gazebo
White Pelicans, Washoe Lake, Slide Mountain
Davis Creek Regional Park Pond
Cheeky Steller Jay at Davis Creek
The Good Chinook William Clark at Davis Creek Regional Park
Rockin’ friends on the Discovery Trail, Davis Creek Regional Park
Smokey Sun in a year of fire (Stewart’s Fire is set not far from here)
The Monarch of Our Glen has passed. Requiescant in Pace, old fellow. And thanks.
Hollywood at the St. Charles: Director Melissa Joan Harte with child actors and camera crew, working on “Feliz Navi-Dad” for Lifetime TV. (Premiere 11-21)
Birthday Balloon 9-26-2020
Edward Stewart at the “Church of Mark Twain” (The Orion Clemens House, Carson City)
The Chinook at Burnside Lake
Ranger Phil at Burnside Lake
Sierra stream in Autumn
Washoe Valley ranch
First Snow 2020 (Earliest snow in 100 years.) (Carson City is the only State Capitol with a deer crossing – and the deer use it.)
the EARTH ABIDES project 
I didn’t know that deer every crossed at their official crossings. Beautiful pictures and fantastic backstory.
The Carson City herd is pretty savvy – probably part human. When the stag was with his herd, it was a glorious site. My favorite memory is seeing he and the herd in a small glade between the Capitol building and the Nevada Supreme Court. Humans were walking within a few feet, no problem. He passed, but there’s already a new Monarch of the Glen.