Late winter on the ranch

Spring is almost here on the ranch and we've just had what will probably be our last snowfall of the year. I've been walking a lot lately, exploring off the main roads. I found a small pond we didn't know existed on one trek. Found some quartz on the top of one of the hills around here, which was odd. Most of the beautiful white quartz seems to wind up in the creek eventually. In this section of Oregon we live on what remains of an ancient sandstone plateau, badly eroded. The creeks cut down deep through the frangible, porous sandstone and find the basalt underneath it all. Quartz is hard and durable -- it lasts while all the sandstone is eroded away under it.

Here are a few photos of the views. The air has been very clean and clear after the storms go through. I tend to walk outside near dusk, so the light is spooky and fun to play with. None of these photos has had anything done to tweak the colors or light. I have only shrunk them down to fit - otherwise they are exactly as they came out of the camera.