As I was drawing close

to being ready to exhibit my collection of these images I still wanted to find a few iconic photographs that had eluded me. I only had a single decent image with snow. The years had been dry and I had missed a few opportunities. When, in the last days of winter in 2019, Nebraska had a deep coating of snow on the ground in March I found a day to spend in the Alps.

It drizzled and rained off and on all that day. The sky was low and the weather not conducive to easy photography. I spent the day waiting for the conditions to break open. I made a few exposures and finally drove home. Later that night Nebraska experienced a natural disaster that shook its foundations, particularly in the rural areas where rivers flooded farm ground, broke open dams and washed away bridges, buildings and local histories.

But after the shock wore off and we reached April the plum bush bloomed once again signalling the hope of a new spring, and the resilience of those old immigrant settlers surfaced in their descendants.

It is hard to think of a Nature that can deal a blow that undoes generations of work in one night as a friend. But the oldtimers always said “if we take care of the land, the land will take care of us…”