There’s really nothing like a sweet potato roasted in the heart of a wood fire. A wood fire lit out under a clear big sky with a full moon. After a long day of hiking. A day of hiking in the desert on a super hot day of vivid blue, brown, and gold. Delicious flavours, textures and colours.
I spent most of last week on retreat in Death Valley. It was Spring break, and I was 
tired, a bit worn down, and somewhat adrift, focus-wise, so this was good to do, camping out under the stars for a while. I hope that this explains the previous two posts, and their images (here and here). They are of patterns in the sand that I saw one evening as the sun was setting. It’s quite marvelous to notice the patterns that exist out there in nature, and it’s always wonderful to think about the lovely physics that shapes those patterns, adding so much texture and beauty to the world around us.
The semester started again today, and it is time to write a lecture on rotating black holes for my class. I’ll mention a little more on the physics of sand in the next post.
-cvj
Sounds lovely…oh, how I long for a vacation!
My daughter studied invasives at several forest fire spots in Death Valley last year at this time (April to July), so I checked out the Morning Report http://www.dvnha.org/morning_report/Morning.pdf most days to see how much she was roasting.
The sand dunes I worked at decades ago, Great Sand Dunes in Colorado, has an intermittent stream, Medano Creek, with interesting physics because of the surge flow. http://www.nps.gov/grsa/planyourvisit/hiking.htm
If you’re ever in southern Colorado in May or June, you should check it out. Back in the 1980s, we used a 1966 topographic map to plot the best route to the highest dune. Although the dunes are constantly changing, the basic structure remains the same decade after decade, so you can use an ancient topo map to find the best ridgeline to scale.
Oooh you made me hungry for yams and hiking just thinking about it. Sounds lovely. Hope you had a good spring break.
–IP