Well I left the beef fat and downstream petro behind, and took a plane to Midland TX. The earth looks scraped clean – and it kind of is, at least in patches (scraped and then bored down down through strata of hard and soft, old and older. Lots of oil pump jacks – the term I like best for them is Thirsty Bird… but more on that soon.

The Sibley Nature Center in Midland, whose director Burr Williams is my new naturalist hero,  has a good essay on the ecology of oil pads…

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Then I hopped in a rental that looks like a cop car (black 4 door, maybe the FBI will forgive me now) and drove to Marfa. Nice clouds, look scribbled and placed.

Lots more pictures on flickr.