Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwsmidwest/6165766475/sizes/l/in/photostream/

It’s been cold and rainy in the Driftless Area the past few days, so during a brief hiatus in the building of Underhill House, I ‘d like to pull the camera back, take a big picture view  and share a couple of cool blog sites  about this amazing area.

I have just learned that a documentary is being created right now called Mysteries of the Driftless.    You can check out a sneak peak here.

It looks like it is going to be visually stimulating as well as chock-a-block with details about the vast diversity thriving in this area that somehow managed to escape from being pulverized by the last three glaciers.  Because the universe cut us some slack in the Ice Age,  the Driftless is a stunning landscape, and quite unlike the surrounding area. It is dotted with rare species that have survived here for over a million years.

Dan Bertalan, one of the co-producers and on-camera scientists, has spent  the better part of a year kayaking down deeply cut tributary valleys, flying in ultralights, and climbing rocky bluffs to capture the character of this part of the world.  He told me the film shoot is now almost complete.

If you want to learn more about the Driftless Area, check out The Driftless Area: Wisconsin’s Strange Geology  by Maggie Koerth-Baker, author of Before the Lights Go Out.    She recently got her first taste of the Driftless Area and created this beautifully written  post laced with gorgeous photos.  I’m in awe.

All this makes me more grateful than ever to live in an area of such dramatic terrain, engulfed but not ground down by ages of ice.