Setting (II)

First drafted August 5. I cleaned it up last night.

Central Oregon is desert. My kids call it "the cold desert" to distinguish it from the deserts one sees on TV and in books, with their cactuses and Gila monsters. Around here people call it the High Desert.

It's empty.

Well, of course it isn't empty. The drier, lower areas are pockmarked by junipers, sagebrush, bitterbrush, rabbitbrush. The ponderosas grow at higher elevations: ponderosas with bunchgrass at their feet or, in a very narrow zone, ponderosas with manzanita. Even higher the ponderosas cede to alpine firs.

At all elevations, however, there's a lot of space. Juniper trees don't form a forest; junipers are individuals. They stand one here, one over there, like ancient oaks in a savannah. Sagebrush and rabbitbrush stand alone, too. They don't form hedges. Between the junipers and the brushes you see dirt, you see rocks. Above you see the sky.

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Photo taken near Silverlake on a very, very smoky day in August (hence the white sky). Fifty points if you recognize the place.