A Beautiful Ending
I once lived in the shadow of the Helderberg Escarpment—a great sweep of limestone cliffs and slopes that rise west of Albany, New York. I hiked its trails, crawled inside its caves, rode my bike along its base, felt the fierceness of its winter winds, and ate the fruit of farms and orchards that spread out in the valley below. Needless-to-say, I miss it.
This page was inspired by my affection for the Helderberg landscape and a photo taken from a high altitude balloon. The balloon was launched last June by my son’s high school physics class, but due to GPS failure was retrieved only last week when landowners 25 miles away discovered the payload hung up in their woodlot. They contacted the school and reunited students– now in college and quite dispersed themselves– with the results of their grand experiment. And so, a beautiful ending.
Drawn In 
Wow! I thought I was done being choked up about change and moving on…. That was an amazing picture and story. Thank you for sharing!
Always good for a tear, Michelle. Glad you liked it. Miss you!
This is lovely Jean, both story and painting. Thank you for sharing this journey. This email has been sent from a virus-free computer protected by Avast. http://www.avast.com
Thank you Catherine! We’ve had a great week looking at the photos and video from on high!
Beautiful art. Thank you Jean. I relate to the cave exploring, farm fresh fruit story. loved it!
Thanks Dale–once you crawl around in caves, it’s always in you. I appreciate your comment!
Wow Jean. Just wow.
Thanks Dari! So glad you like it…nice to have this in your backyard, eh?
What a great story, and a great sketch!
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Beautiful painting, love the perspective. Delightful back story, wonderful that the balloon and information was retrieved. Thank you for sharing.
Thanks– yes, the kids were thrilled to retrieve the balloon after so many months, and the footage is terrific!
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