Where are the April Showers?

It's spring, right? There should be gentle rain and green pastures, not these spiky, dry trees with no energy for opening their green umbrellas

We are in the middle of a drought...a serious prairie fire-hazard that rivals that of the old dust bowl days when acres of farmland simply blew away and deposited themselves in the jungles of Arkansas and Alabama.

I chanced upon this little dugout today--an old house once used by a tough, persistent pioneer.
If he were around, he'd just call this a dry spell.

High up there, the sky is blue and it spawns fast clouds that fluff around empty--clouds without water, like St. Jude's apostate teachers, just great puffs of promise that never satisfy a thirst for life.

Everybody here is praying for rain.

September Sky

It didn't take much to get me out of the house
for a serious walk this evening. There were
clouds but no thunderous grumbles or lightning
threats. So I asked Clay, my faithful walking companion and somebody who doesn't mind my stopping occasionally, ahem, well, every few minutes to take a picture.The sun was setting quickly so we headed out of town where the fields are full of views. After four or five blocks, my camera gave me the dreaded "low battery" message, and promptly refused to come back on. There was a brief debate over whether we should go home for more batteries or keep walking so we could see what we would have been able to take pictures of. I was all for going home, but Clay pointed out that by the time we got back it would be too dark for pictures. We trudged on.
At the edge of town, we turned around and saw the sky lit up--like this but a whole sky hemisphere more impressive. I reached for the camera and turned it on. Nice. It came on...and stayed on for this picture and about eight more. Then it died again, but I didn't care. I had captured a little slice of golden September sky.