Field Notes: Where the Light Settles

I've started to think Wyoming has its own way of introducing itself.

Not all at once.

You can drive the same road in June and again in August and wonder if you've somehow ended up somewhere new. The fence posts haven't moved. The hills are still exactly where they were. But somewhere between the long summer days and the first cool evenings, the prairie has quietly changed its clothes.

I never seem to notice it happening.

Only that it has happened.

A few days ago I was winding a skein of Prairie Gold from Wicked Tint Yarns when that same feeling found me again.

Before I even looked at the color name, I knew where my thoughts had wandered.

Out to a county road with the windows down.

To rabbitbrush blooming along the shoulder.

To grasses that seemed to catch every bit of the evening light.

It struck me that this wasn't really the color of sunshine.

It was the color sunshine leaves behind.

Maybe that's why certain places stay with us.

Not because we remember every detail, but because we remember how the light felt when we were there.

Somehow, that finds its way into the things we make, too.

Crow Note

Some light never really disappears.

It simply finds a quieter place to rest.