DAILY PHOTO: Craggy Dome Overlook, Appalachia

Taken in November of 2021 at the Craggy Dome Overlook, Blue Ridge Parkway

DAILY PHOTO: Kaindy Lake, Kazakhstan

Taken in the Summer of 2019 at Kaindy Lake

The submerged trees [below] for which Kaindy Lake is famed came about when part of the mountain sloughed off to create a natural dam and reservoir [above.]

DAILY PHOTO: Mount Pandim

Taken in May of 2022 in Sikkim on the Goechala Trail

DAILY PHOTO: Thangsing Camp, Sikkim

Taken on the Goechala Trail at Thangsing Camp in May of 2022

Wild Strawberries [Tanka]

wild strawberries
line the hiking trail;
 red fruits entice,
such that even rain clouds
can't deter the foragers

DAILY PHOTO: Dzongri Overlook Trail

Taken in May of 2022 near Camp Dzongri on the Goechala Trail

DAILY PHOTO: Tsoka Gompa from Above

Taken in May of 2022 on the trail to Goechala

DAILY PHOTO: Rhododendron & Khangchendzonga [and Vice Versa]

Taken in May of 2022 near Dzongri

DAILY PHOTO: Foggy, Mossy Forest

Taken in May of 2022 on the trail between Tsoka and Dzongri in Sikkim

Storied Lands [Sonnet / Idyll]

In mountain meadows, bleating sheep abound,
and green grass grows as high as their hunger
allows -- about as high as cricket grounds,
but I am lost in fantastic wonder.

It seems to me this is a storied land,
not merely grazing space, but where dragons
once flew, and one might see giants, firsthand --
a place that's never known a plow 'r wagons. 

It's where magic must once have arisen,
if ever such a place had existed --
where sparkling streams still burble and glisten
whose secret is kept ever tightfisted.

If you stumble into this storied realm
don't let its siren sight overwhelm.