The Tide Goes Out

As I sit in a train, feeling the bumpity, bumpity, bump, as it goes over the rails, my lens captures the receding waters of a river as the tide slowly pulls the water back and away. It is raining and the the clouds are low, obscuring the mountain range behind. These are the photos that I captured of the adventure I am on…

The water recedes

I notice that was once an island is really land connected!

Water slips away

A lone bird takes advantage of the outgoing tide. Table for one!

A bird feeds

What appears to be a river is just more land exposed and water slipping away!

Not a river

Patterns emerge as the bottom is exposed.

Patterns emerge

Imagine my surprise to catch these two birds sharing a table!

A seagull and a bald eagle

Finally the bottom is revealed…

The bottom revealed

Isn’t it amazing what time and tides reveal?

Have a great Tuesday and thank you for dropping by! Be well! ^..^

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Nighttime – A WordPress Photo Challenge

I was excited when I saw the subject of this week’s WordPress Photo Challenge! The subject is “Nighttime.” Ben Huberman asks that we share nighttime photos…Ready? OK – Let’s go!

Imagine yourself on a ship and you wake up in the middle of the night. Imagine that under the curtain of your room you see light. Imagine that you think it might be morning, but it certainly does not feel like it. Imagine pushing the curtain back and you see this! You take a photo…

A ship in the night

Taking another shot you acknowledge that it is the Zuiderdam.

The Zuiderdam

You take a moment and look higher up than the ship, and there in the sky is a perfect full moon shrouded in fog!

The moon in the fog

Looking back down, you see the ship is almost straight across from you. You notice details…

Looking at it straight across

Stepping away for a moment, then returning to the view, you see the ship pulling ahead. You say to yourself, “See you later, maybe.”

Moving on

So, there it is…my take on “Nighttime.” Did I meet this challenge? Please let me know! I am looking forward to your comments!

Be well! ^..^

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Stormy in the Foothills

We have been under a red flag warning since yesterday at 11:00 a.m. for fire. This continues on today until 11:00 a.m. The conditions yesterday and this morning are perfect for fire caused by dry lightning. What is dry lightning? It is lightning without any rain. There was a bit of rain and we could see it coming down in tight areas along with many bolts. I did try to catch some shots of the lightning bolts, which is pretty hard, and was unable to. However I did get some amazing photos yesterday during the storm that hit us, and have a few to share of our skies this morning! Ready?

In the front side of house the skies were clear. Here is what we found looking out back.

Storm clouds

There was a really dark band of clouds and it was between this and the lighter clouds behind where the bolts of lightning were coming down!

The upper dark band produced lightning

Rain came down in a column from one point in the clouds! It was pouring where ever this was falling!

A column of rain

I really enjoyed the contrast in colors of the clouds!

Contrasts

Here is another shot that shows an area of rain!

Rain

This next photo: Check out the clouds. There appears to be ripples in the clouds. You might want to click on the photo to see the details!

A pool in the clouds

This morning, here is what the sky looked like looking in the same direction of the previous shots.

The moon in the morning

Looking towards the east, the sun is starting to come up!

Good morning sunshine!

One final shot returning to the back and looking west…

Hiding behind the clouds

We are hoping that we do not have any lightning today! What you need to do to be safe in a storm:

* If there is a storm with lightning, do not take a shower! Lightning can travel through the metal pipes!
* If you hear thunder, move inside. You can be struck from lightning!
* If in your car during a lightning storm, do not touch any metal in the vehicle.
* Do not use a telephone with a cord during a storm. The lightning can travel through the lines.
* Do not use appliances during a lightning storm.
* Unplug your computers!

Have a terrific Tuesday! Thanks for stopping by today! See you tomorrow? I hope so! Be well! ^..^

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Flight 13 Missing – Sunday Photo Fiction

Flight 13 – Photo by Alastair Forbes

The four flew in formation. They had been searching for a downed plane when all of a sudden a fog came up obscuring their view of the ground below. They were now flying following instrument flight rules. This meant using their instrument panels only.

Then the trouble began. All at once, all compasses failed, including the backup compasses. The needles were going haywire, bouncing all over.

“Tommy Fox 13 to Ground control, we are experiencing trouble. The ground: Obscured by fog. Compasses no longer work.”

“Ground control to Tommy Fox 13, we show no evidence of fog.”

“Tommy Fox 13 to ground control, can you give us our location?”

“Ground control to Tommy Fox 13, you are breaking up. Please repeat.”

“Tommy Fox 13 to ground control, can you give us our location?”

All the pilots heard in response was static. Then they all saw the lights in the skies above them. Flashing green and blue lights the disks came into view. A humming sound began. Next thing they knew they were on the flight deck of an alien craft surrounded by little gray beings with huge eyes. They were the fourth crew to disappear over the Sierra Triangle.
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Thank you to Alastair Forbes for hosting Sunday Photo Fiction! This was a very inspiring photo Al!

Thank you dear reader for taking the time to stop by today! I hope that you have a spectacular Sunday!

Be well! ^..^

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The Dust Devil – Sunday Photo Fiction

It Points South – Photo by Alastair Forbes

The day started out like any other. He went about his chores around the farm. His first stop was the hay barn to get hay for the horses. That done, he went and milked the cow. From there he retrieved eggs from the hen house, and got them fed.

He was on his way to the farmhouse with the eggs and milk when off in the distance he saw a dust devil forming. Normally this is nothing unusual. But this one looked a bit off. It was moving towards him. He moved to the right. The dust devil moved to the right. He moved left. It did too! Then it rapidly moved towards him.

Dropping the milk and the eggs, he began to run. The dust devil followed. He ran to the left, then to the right, then left again. He stopped bending down, hands on his knees trying to catch his breath! He heard it coming!

The wind whipped at his legs, grabbing him and sucking him up in its grip. It held him there. It was then that he noticed the weather vane. It never moved. With a sudden flash he found himself in the land of Oz.
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Thank you Al for hosting Sunday Photo Fiction!

I hope that you enjoyed this bit of flash! Have a splendid Sunday! Thanks for dropping in! Be well!

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Teaser Tuesday!

Teaser Tuesday!

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser for today:

“I’m thinking of going with a Tropical Itch,” he said.
I stared at him. “Is that a drink or a disease?”

Chapter 2 of Dying for a Daiquiri written by Cindy Sample

Dying for a Daiquiri

Thank you to Should be Reading for hosting this! Have a lovely day, and do pick up Cindy’s book! It is full of humor and murder!

Be well – B

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Leaves of Three, Let it Be!

Try as we might to get rid of poison oak, it keeps coming back every year! This year is not exception! As I wander through my yard, I can see bits of it popping up and so, for today, I thought I would share what I discovered with you!

The saying goes, “Leaves of three, let it be!”

Leaves of three, let it be!

This plant springs up in spring!

Emerging in the spring

Brush up against this plant, and the sticky oils transfer to your skin or clothing! If you are not looking for it you might miss it!

Poking up through the duff

This plant can cause a rash that itches like crazy! And you can spread the oils by scratching! I was very allergic to the pretty plant when I was younger!

Pretty colors!

You can become sensitized over time as I now am!

Shades of red

The native critters here in the foothills actually feed on this plant as it is full of phosphorus, calcium and sulfur. Birds will eat the berries from this plant…

An artistic shot!

Later on as the plant matures it will turn to a solid green. In the fall it will turn a lovely shade of red, similar to that in these photos!

Well, I did get my wish for snow. Looking out my window I am watching the snow fall. It is not enough to keep me home, and I will take the camera with me today so that I can catch some snow photos to feature later!

As usual, thanks for dropping by! I hope that you have a great Tuesday, and if you live in the foothills, drive carefully!

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A Monday Good Morning!

Well, it is the beginning of the work week once again! So, I thought this morning I would share a bit of sunshine with you all found in the faces of some flowers in my spring garden! The flower: Calendula!

Welcoming in the day

Rays of sunshine

I wanted to share more than these two photos but I need to get ready for work and WordPress is having issues as I keep getting HTTP errors when I try to upload photos!

NEWS FLASH: Low snow is expected in the Sierra Foothills this afternoon, with a winter weather advisory! Here is what the National Weather service has to say: “WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 8 PM THIS EVENING TO 11 AM PDT TUESDAY ABOVE 2500 FEET… * SNOW ACCUMULATIONS: 1 TO 3 INCHES.”

I wish you a great Monday! Thanks for dropping by!

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Patterns in the Clouds

In case you do not know, I love textures and patterns. They make for some pretty interesting photos. For today I wanted to share some photos of amazing patterns in the clouds. These were all taken in one day, and I find it amazing that each is so different! Ready to look up?

Here is the first shot looking up. The tree is one of the digger pines.

Looking up

Amongst all the bumpy clouds, here is one that is all fanned out.

Fanned out

Bumpy and cottony…

Cottony

There is a lot of contrast!

Contrasts

Here you can see that there are layers and depth.

Depth in the clouds

Clouds sure can be amazing! If you have some amazing cloud photos, please leave a comment with a link to your post!

Have a wonderful Wednesday and thank you for taking the time today to drop in!

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Photos in the Rain

I wanted to feature some of the other photos that I took last Sunday when I ventured out in the rain! What is amazing to me is how the colors come up after getting wet! So let’s go check it out, shall we?

There was just something really lovely about the rainwater dripping off of this oak tree. The background is one of the many ponds in the area.

Rain drips off an oak

As you know I see faces in nature where ever I go! Here is another face!

Do you see the bear?

One of my new projects here at the house involves used wine barrels. Using my 55-250mm lens I tried to capture the rain drops bouncing up from the surface of these barrels!

Wet barrels

Here is a photo of one of the local streams. This area has been dry since last April.

Water where there was none

Patterns, patterns, patterns! I just love them! Check out the patterns in this water shot! I see a face in the water. Do you?

The patterns in rushing water

One last shot. This bowl filled up from the rain. I like the ripples…

Water filled up a bowl

The storm just past was the biggest storm that we have had in the last 14 months! This week we are drying out, but the good news is that we have another storm coming this weekend! Maybe the temperatures will drop and I will get the snow that I miss so much! 🙂

Holy cow! It is Wednesday! Where did this week go? Well, thanks for dropping in and have a wonderful day!

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