so loved the world

Have you ever thought about how food tastes good? But it's a necessary part of life - we HAVE to eat it. It didn't HAVE to taste so good. It didn't HAVE to be enjoyable. But God loved us enough to make it so.

It's the same way with the great outdoors. God so loved the world that he made it beautiful. I mean REALLY beautiful! He didn't have to do that! He just loves us so much that he gave us this gift.

I think about that a lot.

Probably because each morning I go to work I'm overwhelmed with the AWESOMENESS of our earthly diggs. Yes, I live in a gorgeous area - but don't you???

It takes me 6 whole minutes to drive to work each morning, and during that time, I see dramatic cloudscapes, mountains, windmills, birds of all varieties, mountains, a girl with red gloves, silos, horses, mountains, and MOUNTAINS!

Take a tour with me...

We leave the house - probably somewhere between 6:30 and 7:30 AM. We look to our right, and can tell that we are in for a treat. Yes, those are mountains hiding beneath those clouds in the distance.

We buckle up and head out - pass the school zone and the more modern developments on our right - into cowboy country.

I love this road. On our left, there are silos and dilapidated barn houses...

...while on our right (the last of the large modern houses falls behind us, and) we are in snow striped fields.

I love these mountains. OH how I love these mountains.

Often times I catch sight of a hawk hunting. More often, I see crows (like this fellow) - and sometimes a swarm of pigeons!

I make my turn - and now I'm on the back roads. Nothing but fields, railroads, and - of course, MOUNTAINS!

This is one of my favorite shots of one of my favorite mountains:

Almost to the end of my road, and there are pigs in a field. They're not really pigs, they're haybales. But my aunt Kris told me once that she thought that hay bales sitting in a field looked to her like pigs, and I've never been able to see anything else, since.

This pigs are BIG!

Round the corner...startle a swarm of pigeons...
Hello, brown tree.
These horses come with the territory. They're the horses the girls ride - and they're always hanging out in the trees accross the street from campus. One of them today was stomping around in the snow - and I thought he was probably trying to get dirty on purpose as a sort of practical joke. That's the sort of people these horses are.

Hello, Black tree.

This close to the school, you can see the windmills. See them there at the mouth of the canyon? White giants with big teeth. Seriously. One of those windmill arms is the size of three semi trucks.

And...we have arrived.

Notice the flag showcasing the strength of the wind? It's a tough wind - knocks you back inside your car when you try to get out. It's also a freezing cold wind, able to numb your nose from your car to the door. That's the weird thing about this part of cowboy country. It has it's own weather patterns. Lots of times it's snowing, here, but dry and sunny at my house (6 minutes away, recall!)

Yes, folks. God is good. There's no entrance fee to look at his work, either.