Night Moves...

We had waves of storms come through after over the weekend. The hail storm sounded absolutely wicked and put holes in the leaves in my remaining flowers around my porch. 

The sky cleared up, the temperatures rose quickly and then another wave came in, thankfully without any hail.

I caught this sky looking southwest late in the afternoon. They are called Crepuscular Rays. I used to call them just Rays. Grandma called them God's Rays. All cool names.

It was a good afternoon to do a deep cleaning of the little house. That was pretty boring, but necessary since I really hadn't made an effort while I was sick.

Between storms I had a chance to take Charlie out for a nice walk and let him inspect the forest floor and scents. When we came out of the woods, the sun was shining, but I could hear what sounded like a Herd of Trucks in the distance. To the northwest was another storm front heading in.

Just before I went to bed I stepped out on the porch to watch Charlie do his night time thing and saw lightening in the distance along with stars.

What was even more amazing was the fact I could see the Milky Way. By October the Milky Way will 'set' and I won't be able to see it again until late February or later. In the shots below, it is faint, but still can be seen despite the light in the clouds. I was pretty excited to catch so much action.

Lucky for me, we have dark skies here. Only one neighbor who is 1/2 mile off uses a yard light. My immediate neighbor shuts off their outdoor light at night so they can enjoy the stars.

The next morning was fresh and wonderful. I put Little Richard out for his last few days of fresh grass on the hillsides were it is difficult to mow.

He has been with us for 26 year and has had a job doing yard work each summer. He is probably the most handled animal I have on our land. At least twice a day I am leading him either to a new spot or over to the hydrant for some water.

He is a good boy who is getting quite grey in the face. However, the way he still acts, you'd never know he was 30 years old.

Lessons from a Teddy Bear

We had a great thunder boomer and downpour on Thursday night/Friday morning. Some areas had hail. Luckily we had no hail.

Well before the storm arrived, I walked out to the meadow and thought I'd take a 'gander' at things. If it was moving in swiftly, I'd vacate the area. 

When I saw lightening, I packed up and hustled back to the house. I have a pal that is a storm chaser. He goes out to bluffs and gets the most amazing time lapse photography along with some fantastic lightening shots.

I'm a wuss. I'll photograph a storm from my porch but never out in the open.

2 years ago lightening struck a tree in our donkey's pen and literally blew a tree up. The hot wire fence was fused part of the way around the pen. I lost Thor about a month later, his donkey 'tude just went away. The Vet said he probably got electrocuted. 

Any...way.... so yeah, I fear lightening. 

The thunder was so intense later that Charlie become a quivering mess. I snuggled  with him on the couch. 

Well fast forward to Saturday. I had Big Plans. I wuz gonna go to KVR for a morning hike and rock climb.  I looked out the window to see a thunderstorm brewing to the Northeast. 

Instead I grabbed Bear, coffee, and camera and took off up the road. Maybe the clouds would produce something interesting and maybe they wouldn't.

The skies were mostly bleh. Bluish greyish, and a bit of color tossed in. I decided to be like Bear and sit down and be patient. The sunrise itself was hidden from view.

It was a flop. So I grabbed Bear and headed towards the car. I forgot my coffee and walked back when something interesting started to happen.

So, I decided to watch a bit more. Bear hollered from the car:

I TOLD you to be patient!

Bears!

Then this happened...

"Wow! Would you look at that!" I exclaimed.

Told you so.

[See, it is like this. Bear goes with me so I can have a conversation with him. Otherwise I just have to talk to myself and that surely would be very weird, right?]

Finally I looked at the time and decided to start home.

Uh. Ummm.

Bear was right. 

Be patient.