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May 26-27, 2023
Ruth and i go to
approx. location
...for Ritzville's pop-up in the park! the furthest i've gone from home to have a booth at a market. the endless rolling hills of wheat and grasses, big sky and little homesteads and barns dotted throughout the landscape keep us coming back to this region. when you live in a large city, you're constantly surrounded by stimuli. when i'm out, i cannot get away from crowds of people, businesses, parking lots, flashing lights... even when i get home to my apartment i hear loud engines of cars racing down the street, police and fire sirens, loud music and planes. i think living on top of a really big hill makes the noises louder. so, sometimes, i just have to go out and see a bunch of nothing to clear it all out of my head. it's also nice to be able to see the stars - a rare sight under Tacoma's cloud cover and smog. in the palouse there is nearly dead silence at night besides the crickets. no lights besides the stars and every once in a while, a house. it's very alien to me, as someone who's lived surrounded by giant trees their whole life. it feels like a place so impossibly big, somewhere you can see what the weather is like miles and miles away across the plain, and when the sun has set it's still not dark yet somehow??
we've now driven this way too many times to count. when ruth is the one driving i research all i can about the things i can see, the history, "hey what's that building wayyy over there?"... noting the ways people act similarly and differently from what i am used to. we've visited nearly every season, minus winter - which has allowed me to see the hills in nearly every color available. the rotating of the crops. everything's brown in the fall, but bright green windows desktop background in the summer. golden wheat, alfalfa, various other vegetables and things. the passing of the seasons is marked by the color of the ground in this treeless land and it's really interesting to watch places you're familiar with look completely different from the last time you've been there.
putting aside my infatuation for this place and its geography (geology too), it's a popular place for photographers. i'm not a professional, but following this text is a collection of all the photos i got from our few days out there in may. (hi to anyone from ritzville who met me at the pop-up in the park! ritzville is lovely and i had fun exploring the town's historical buildings and the railroad/farm tools museum!!! super cool! i hope to return next year :) )
content warning:
dead deer pic!!!
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content warning:
dead deer pic!!!
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