Pets, Photography

Another Brief Respite

I’ve been out mowing and got a couple of shots of Elliott while I was taking a break. This one–he’s hunting moles–was framed particularly nicely, so I thought I’d upload it. The photo on the right was taken a week ago. Even though it was hot and yucky out, the shade from the tangled tree branches looked cool and inviting. I wasn’t able to get a picture of him, but there was a male cardinal cheeking up a storm in the sassafras tree. Every time I’d get the camera focused on him, he’d hop to a different branch.

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I know it’s cooler out today than it has been in ages, but it’s still too bloody hot for yard work. Yuck! Frequent breaks are, I think, the ticket.

Photography

A Brief Reprieve

We (along with folks all over the northern hemisphere, it seems) have been in the midst of a heat wave. It’s been hot and humid and generally too disgusting to do much of anything. Last night, though, a cold front moved through. Right before the accompanying storm hit us, the temperature started to drop and the dogs decided–at long last!–that it was cool enough to play. I was too transfixed by watching them to get any pictures, but there was lots of biteyface and Olympic level zooming.

After the dogs had taken the edge on their pent up energy, I went in to get my camera. A hole had opened up in the thick cloud cover, with the setting sun reflecting off a small crescent of cloud tops at the edge of the opening.

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I had no sooner come inside from taking the above photos than I noticed that the sky to the east had turned dark blue, the sky above had turned dirty dark grey, and the sky to the west had turned a glowing brown color. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. I wish I’d gotten photos, but we were getting so many lightning strikes that I decided going outside would be tempting fate. Storms scare the living hell out of me, but I’m also fascinated by them. I stood in the front door and watched the lightning repeatedly strike the ridge across from me.

Thankfully, the storm moved through quickly. The lightning, while nerve wracking, cleaned the air. The smell was heavenly. We got a little bit of M&M sized hail, but nothing too worrisome. Unfortunately, we also didn’t get much rain out of it. It poured for about 15 minutes, but then it slacked off and soon quit entirely. We need a slow, soaking rain, but it doesn’t look like we’re going to get one anytime soon.

The cooler weather should last through the weekend, so as soon as the grass dries I can actually get some yard work done. Um, yay?