A Very Peaceful, Nature-Filled, Astronomical Look At 2017

Look to the sky to find peace and beauty. A 2017 shot of
northern lights and the big dipper viewed
from Alberta, Canada.

Like most of us, I'm still trying to recover from a chaotic, angry, scary, mean, corrupt, despicable 2017.  

Plus, I'm afraid 2018 isn't looking much better.

Which means we need to look at the bright side. The peaceful side. Nature usually helps.

Nature gets an assist here from Adrien Manduit, who gives us some of his best and favorite time lapses from 2017. You can watch and breathe easy and relax with his video at the bottom of this post.

Most of the images in this video were shot in Iceland, Malawi and Canada. The time lapses go heavy on mesmerizing views of northern lights and intense views of skies filled with millions of stars.

The video closes with this message: "All you have to do is look up."

I guess that will be my talisman going forward. Whenever the world gets to be too much, when people and leaders and the news get to be too much, all I have to do is look up. I already do this, given my fascination with cloud photography.

I guess I was on to something. Manduit proved it. And you should try his recipe. If only to stay sane.

This video proved surprisingly moving for me. I hope it does for you. (H/T BoingBoing)

Starving For Spring, So Here's A Time Lapse Of Flowers Blooming

As I look out my window in St. Albans, Vermont, I see it's snowing a little on this cold, gray March morning.

We can dream of spring, can't we?  

A lot more snow is in the forecast this week. Much of the northern part of the nation is still locked in a winter that just won't quit, and forecasters say the cold, January-like regime will last into April.

It's enough to make you want to go to Siberia to warm up, as it's probably mild there.

To help a little, here's a video showing time lapses of flowers blooming. It's bound to help a bit.

Burning Man Time Lapse Is Awesome

Burning Man is quite the event.

Aerial view of the crowd at this year's Burning Man  

For the uninitiated, it's a week long festival deep in the Nevada desert that attracts about 50,000 people for art, exhibitions, avant garde events and just a generally alternative-type good time.

Burning Man culminates when a huge wooden statue is set ablaze, hence the name Burning Man.

Some day, I want to go to this.

After this year's Burning Man, someone posted a time lapse video of the entire Burning Man event, taken from a distant mountain. It really shows how a remote desert is converted into an odd city. It also is a very beautiful video.

Here's the time lapse from Burning Man: