A thick coating of snow is covering the ground and we're locked down at home. I take the camera out and look for textures, but any textures I can find are blurred and blanketed in white; the images aren't even worth downloading. I need to think more flexibly if I'm to make a start. Images of bright blue skies, wide vistas and mountains come to mind - perhaps in Nevada there are textures, and it's warmer there.
We have family who have lived near the Nevada California border for nearly twenty years and we have visited many times. Days there start with a pink blush on the mountains and shadows on the wall. Journeys are long and the landscape expansive. We've driven along wide valleys, fast flowing rivers, the sheer rock rising high above us; the colours are warm. Watching the premier of "News of the World" last night I am reminded of the illusion such a landscape can be. How to the uninitiated eye wide and cultivated-looking valleys are in fact high desert, bands of water resistant plants are all that will grow.
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| Osgood Mountains |
The mindset necessary here is not that of the tourist wanting to find ponderosa but of the pioneer choosing between the Oregon trail or the one leading south into California and two very different lives. The ruts caused by wagons are there in the rocks.
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| Petroglyphs |
And on the rocks is evidence too of other lives: petroglyphs, scratched or carved, signalling the presence of Paiute Indians, also the makers of intricate baskets seen in the local museum. There are rich pickings here -- I have mined them before.
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| 5:1:1 |
Above a silk patchwork cushion cover suffering from sun damage. It's been repaired using kantha stitch, then further stitched at right angles in kantha to indicate mountain ranges. Sage brush, the Nevada state flower, is embroidered in thick brown thread.
Below, a second cushion, this time made from velvet scraps I was given. I chose colours reflecting the rock formations, the light and desert heat.
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| 5:1:2 |
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