Morning on the Prairie

I got a couple of hours off from classes this morning because the history teacher had taken my students to watch a town hall meeting and see their state representative in action; it gave me a chance to go have the oil changed on my car before it disowned me. Anyway. I really can't go anywhere without taking a picture or two. Here's a sunrise from the drive into town and the windmills from the trip back. The tree--well, I really can't resist a tree that's brave enough to try to grow out here in this drought.


                                                                           
                                                                             And, lest you think those clouds mean we got a break from the weather, I sadly report that we got no rain...and my car thermometer was at 110 when I left school this afternoon. I know that's hard to believe. Blue clouds mean cool weather. Right?

Sky Scenery

Since January we've only had seven tenths of an inch of rain.
Everything green is in shock. No lawn mowers. No harvest.

Black cattle graze parched, yellow fields.

This morning the air was still and heavy--humid, gray and promising, but it wasn't until afternoon that rain came, a splashing and pouring, straight-down drench. Not much moisture, just a tiny taste, but rain, nonetheless.

I attended a function thirty miles out of town, and as I drove back in around seven o'clock, I pulled over to take some pictures of an unusual sky.

To the East there was a fan-shaped light in the clouds. That seemed odd because the sun was in the West.

Above and to the South large puff-ball cloud shapes hung lazily and shone as if full of light.

Toward the Southwest, a calm sunset quietly took place as if there weren't large hail and tornado spins an hour away from here.

Weather and Windmills

Two great things to take pictures of...
Sarah Lee and I went to the college to collect Claye for the weekend. On the way home, it was threatening rain, and the sky was lovely. I kept stopping, so Claye and I could take these pictures.
Spring skies are simply too beautiful to resist.
After we downloaded them, I spent an hour tweaking, taking out telephone lines and cropping etc. , but the subject matter is just that beautiful by itself. God is an amazing artist!

It Snowed; It Really Snowed!

Not a gently drifting, lots of white flakes parachuting down to snuggle midst the tulips kind of snow either. It was a blustery, blizzardy, slap in your face kind of snow with a real attitude, and it followed a few hours of weather vacillation:


I think I'll be fog today, no wait, maybe gently blowing rain, or pounding rain with clouds of thunder and lightening above. Yes, hail would be good too. I'll cover the ground with so much hail that it looks like snow and then freeze it to the ground with a good layer of sleet. Yah! There's the ticket! But...oh I'll just empty the whole lot. They shall have snow too. Hours and hours of sideways flying, drifting in the pauses, clouding in gusts off the rooftops snow!


And in the morning. Quiet. Cold.
Buried tulips. Shrouded cedars. Beautiful spring snow.

Now maybe the sun will come out.