God is in the Details

Those wide open spaces are full of small, beautiful detail.

Wide Open Spaces

Living in Boston I often forget how beautiful, vast, and full of  stars the skies can be.  Open fields, hills, valleys, and roads uninhibited by dense impenetrable forests or three story buildings are a true and breathtaking delight.  Please forgive any blurriness or spots - I forgot my tripod (and was forced to get into strange and upside down positions trying to focus while balancing around boulders) and many photos were taken through the car window...

Those roads provided breath-taking views.  There's something special about an empty road going on and on to the horizon where the sun burns the world away into a dancing, shimmering heat haze that reflects the crystal blue sky, literally blurring the line between heaven and earth.

-Dave Gorman

Hometown Homage

Main Street, Manti, UT

We all have hometown appetites. Every other person is a bundle of longing for the simplicities of good taste once enjoyed on the farm or in the hometown left behind. 

-Clementine Paddleford

You'll have to excuse the short absence, I've been visiting my family for the last week or so, most of which was spent in small town middle of nowhere Utah. My cell phone didn't work, and I didn't take my computer with me - It was great! Of course, my phone nearly had a seizure on the way back, once I reached a service area and the messages and missed calls started flooding in. So, if you were worried I was ignoring you don't worry, I wasn't - at least not intentionally.

I grew up in Manti: population 3,000.  My mother now lives in the small town where she grew up a mere 5 miles away from Manti and a 5 minute walk from my grandparents home - Sterling: population 300 (well, almost).  I didn't take my computer with me, but I did take my camera and was able to spend some time walking around taking photos of the places and things I love.  

Spring hasn't quite come, so there's lot's of patchy snow, and mud, but I still think it looks beautiful.  When I was younger I couldn't wait to move away, but time, distance, and the reduction of my annual number of visits to one has made me miss it more than usual.  I'll never move back full time - I've become too much of a vibrant city girl - but I do love to visit and be reminded of what's really important in life: family, friends, beauty, love, mud puddles...and slowing down enough to enjoy them.

I've created a series of photos from my trip, which I'll be posting every few days, so check back for more glimpses and some heartfelt hometown homage.

You know you're in a small town when the first thing listed
on a prohibited sign is 'horses.'

Road Department = bumpy dirt roads. I love the irony. :)

No art here - I just happened to drive past my old elementary school and saw the bookmobile.
 I don't know where else they have mobile libraries, but I LOVED it when Mr. Perry and the Bookmobile came to school.
(This one is twice the size of the one I remember, and the internet is definitely new....)

The Sanpete County Fairgrounds.
I haven't been to a county fair in about 8 years....I need to plan a visit in August.

Manti, as viewed from the temple.