Category: Isak Dineson

“Up in this high air”

Karen

What’s this? Me pulling out this Out of Africa quote again after our solstice evening at the lake? Of course.

The chief feature of the landscape, and of your life in it, was the air…
Up in this high air, you breathed easily, drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart. In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be.

In The Highlands

Karen


“The chief feature of the landscape, and of your life in it, was the air. […] The sky was rarely more than pale blue or violet, with a profusion of mighty, weightless, ever-changing clouds towering up and sailing on it, but it has a blue vigor to it, and at a short distance it painted the ranges of hills and the woods a fresh deep blue. […] Up in this high air, you breathed easily, drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart. In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be.”

(It must be June if I’m quoting Out of Africa again.)

Out of Africa Weather

Karen

Late spring and early summer here in the foothills is just lovely. The mountains are still green, with snow higher up, and the light is still clear–not the long gold light of July and August. The cloud shadows on the mountains always, always make me think of the opening of Out of Africa:

The chief feature of the landscape, and of your life in it, was the air. […] The sky was rarely more than pale blue or violet, with a profusion of mighty, weightless, ever-changing clouds towering up and sailing on it, but it has a blue vigor to it, and at a short distance it painted the ranges of hills and the woods a fresh deep blue. […] Up in this high air, you breathed easily, drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart. In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be.

Moon

Karen

It’s a full moon tonight, but it was pretty amazing last night, too. Make sure you see it tonight if you can and think of this quote from Out of Africa:

It was a full moon while I was down at Takaunga, and the beauty of the radiant, still nights was so perfect that the heart bent under it.

And if you want to see what the full moon holds for your inner hippie, you can read about it right here. Just don’t tell Carl Sagan.

That Time of Year

Karen
The light in June leading up to the solstice is so lovely in the foothills. Predictably, I think of this part in Out of Africa:
The sky was rarely more than pale blue or violet, with a profusion of mighty, weightless, ever-changing clouds towering up and sailing on it, but it has a blue vigor to it, and at a short distance it painted the ranges of hills and the woods a fresh deep blue. […] Up in this high air, you breathed easily, drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart. In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be.