This being the last morning before I start back teaching English 12 for the 2012-13 school year, I thought I would catch the sunrise over the Tallgrass Prairie and see how the record heat had impacted the ecosystem. Matched only by the tempertures and drought conditions during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, the summer has been dramatic in many ways. This morning, however, it was cool. It's a new moon, but dark clouds obscurred any stars and kept the prairie black as ink. Only sounds coming from far away (maybe a coyote) cut through the darkness as I waited for the sun. Then the dawn came, sandwiched between the dome of black clouds and the silhouette of the rolling hills, slowly illuminating the details that my camera would capture.
