Snaps and Strokes

What? More mountains.

Warning : If you are bored by scenic splendor, then exit from this blog now.

This is Mount Baker. It is a volcano in North West Washington State. Just a few miles south of the Canada/US border. This mountain can be seen from all over the lower mainland of B.C. It is snow covered year round. My childhood home looked out onto this view. I used to love to watch the sun rise over this enormous hill. Clocking the time of year by how close or far along the horizon the sun rose over Mt Baker was almost like a natural Stonehenge .

In the fall, the morning fog would rise from the river and we could look over to Mt.Baker rising above the mist like a lone sentry. That was the feeling I tried to capture in this painting which I did in high school.

In August, people go up to sunbathe on the glacial ice. Bikinis in the snow. Though relatively dormant, It does send up a steam plume now and then, which gets everyone all excited. You would think that after the Mount St.Helen's disaster, that people would run the other way at the site of a possible volcanic awakening. But actually, folks were going up the mountain with their lawn chairs and picnics, to spend the day seeing the excitement for themselves! I'm sure it must have been safe or the authorities would have shut the road. There are volcanoes all along the San Andreas Fault, under the ocean floor , and along the Asian coast of the Pacific. This phenomenon is known as the Ring Of Fire.