Category: Nebraska

On the Prairie

I came across an Ecotourism booklet.I read that 93% of the land in Nebraska is privately owned and that means what is left of the Great Plains grasslands. All the plains in the world from Mongolia to the African savannah are areas of huge biodiversity. Most of the prairie here as disappeared ploughed and planted with soy, wheat and around locally I see corn fields everywhere. I wondered what so much corn could be used for and could only think of corn syrup, but it is  also used for ethanol and I notice that the regular petrol contains 15% ethanol.

What you see from the air is mostly this.

 

 

 

Cather Prairie

In Catherland just south of Red Cloud is patch of original prairie that somehow never got plowed up. It is now a 612 nature reserve now known as the Willa Cather Memorial Prairie acquired by the Foundation and is being managed to restore it to its pre 1900 condition. It is full of diverse plants, insects and birds.

 

Me in the prairie

Nebraska Weather

They have had a lot of rain in these parts of the US and after the first day I was here we  have had torrential downpours and hailstorms. The electricity cut off for two hours last night. I keep on thinking of tornados.

 

Red Cloud, Nebraska – First Impressions

My first visit to Red Cloud in 2018 with just half  day to take some photographs gave me an impression of the area.

” The only thing very noticeable about Nebraska was that is was still, all day long, Nebraska.”

~ Willa Cather – My Antonia

One’s  pre-conceived vision is that of flat endless plains. However, as always with preconceptions, the reality is different, certainly in the south central part I visisted.

Here land is gently rolling with long sloping hills, with rivers , fields and  clumps of trees so the scenery is broken. Just south of Red Cloud there is a preserved area of the the original prairie, full of wild flowers and birds, and grasses. https://www.willacather.org/learn/cather-prairie

 

“The light air about me told me that the world ended here: only the ground and sun and sky were left, and if one went a little farther there would be only sun and sky….” ~ Willa Cather

 

 

From Winter to Spring 2018