It’s not yet a new year, but I have a new home, this blog has a new life, and I’ve begun work on a new — though long overdue — project. The project is the realization of Hypsography, my field guide. This blog was given new form based on the beautiful typography of Cities of the Plain. And I’ve moved back across the country, to a valley limited by the Cascade and Siskiyou mountain ranges.

Let’s begin with the mountains. They call this valley the Rogue, but the Rogue River is north of here. The Klamath is to the south. Both rivers run from the Cascades to the Pacific, along vaguely parallel courses. Between the two lies a range of mountains called the Siskiyous, which are the northernmost of the Klamath ranges. The Klamath ranges extend inland from the Coast, covering the territory of what are — to the north and south, that is — the Coast ranges, though they are not two parts of the same system of mountains in geological or historical terms. Just south of here, around the border, the Siskiyous finish their eastern push where they collide with the Cascades. Ashland, the town where I now live, sits in the valley of a creek that flows into the Rogue, just north of that Siskiyou-Cascade intersection.

And, as you can see, the Hypsometry blog is back, for yet another go round. I’ve lost count of what incarnation this is — perhaps the sixth? The driving force here, this time, is simplicity.

The design was inspired by the gorgeous work done on Cormac McCarthy’s border trilogy; in particular, the title page of the first edition of Cities of the Plain, the concluding volume of the three.

In technical terms also, this site is as simple as it has ever been. Since I began designing and building websites — five years ago now — I’ve worked with a wide array of techniques for producing blogs. None has ever been quite right for my needs, so I’m trying yet another. With luck, this new system will have a little more sticking power. Whether it does or does not, expect my notes on the subject sometime soon.

Hypsography is my newest project, though I’ve been planning it for a couple years now. I have a hard time summarizing exactly what it is that I’m working on, in part because there’s so much to come and — so far — so little to show. I’ve written a few words about it on the site itself. But really, it’d be better if you just took a look yourself.