How about a sky show?

These are all shot within a few minutes...probably less than five.  I suggest that you click to expand the view! 

They are very close to the same but I just couldn't pic which one I liked best.

Notice the area between the two wires over the tree abut the middle of the photo.

I tried to film it but it just didn't turn out any good...but it was like a bloom opening and then it blended right back in with the rest of the clouds.

And then it started to rain and blow in on us so we had to go in...otherwise I would have set out there till it ended.  I love to watch a storm...it was such a glorious storm.

A bit of this and that...

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This blog post may jump around a bit...but will start out with this shot of how far along my lilac is!  Even though I have looked out at it and noticed it was budding out, it surprised me that it is actually this far along.

It is this late in the spring, and I have still not cleaned off my flower bed...it is the same bed that Mabel lived in all summer.

This is Mabel.  I don't think I told you that this was her name...she is Charlotte's cousin.  Instead of staying on the farm she ran off with a traveling salesman and moved to the city.  At least that is part of the tale that I told Lorelei.

Anyway, somewhere I read that the spiders might survive the winter if it was mild, so I have hesitated to clean off the mess.  But I doubt she survive, but I sure hope some of her offspring are out there this year.
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Around front I do have a very few hyacinths that have bloomed...

The clouds were awesome the same day I took the other pictures.  Notice the Turkey Vulture in the upper right corner.  They are always around...at least some of every day.

Just have to show this pic of the house sparrow...it was in a tree across the road.  I am still amazed that my little Canon SX 700 HS will take a picture even half this good...handheld.  I have issues with it sometimes, but still, I have got a lot of bang for the buck in this little camera.

That is all from my corner...Lorelei is sitting here with me

The skies, the skies!

This was taking yesterday, but as I sit and look out my window, the sky is just absolutely gorgeous this day, too.  They have been this way for at least the past three days...I posted some taken day before yesterday on my Time Stand Still blog.I am so tempted to grab my camera and go.  On the other hand, my bottom is almost glued to this chair with super glue.

The stress of getting one room painted, plus then switching rooms has left me worn to a frazzle.  I could climb into bed right now and think I could go to sleep for the rest of the evening.  However I have a load of clothes to put away that I just brought in from off the line.  I should be busy with other things, but may end up taking the camera and leaving.  Or I might sew a bit.  Or even blog a while...I don't think I have visited a single blog today!

There is always so much I want to do that it is hard to choose.   I guess that is better than being bored.

Days like this....

All I can say is get ready for photo overload...at least from my corner. I don't normally put this many photos in one post.  I suggest you click to expand the view.

We were heading the a trader's fair...but got detoured into going to Marshall, Illinois.  Someone told us there were supposed to be yard sales all over town.  The clouds were just glorious the entire time we were out. The one above was taken on the way...

This is from Route 1 in Illinois, on the way home.

Another photo from Route 1...I am not sure what that is between the two sections of clouds directly aboe the green barn.  I am pretty sure it was not cloud, so must have been on the windshield.

This one is heading east on State Rd 150

and this is on farther east.

Here we are getting closer to home, on State Rd 163

Sorry I could not limit myself to just one or two.  I just go crazy taking photos when I have the chance and the clouds are like these.  These were all taken through the windows...I really hope you will click on them and enjoy the cloud picture show.

East of the Sun and West of the moon...

We ran around this morn in Terre Haute...at the time we came home, I just did not want to go in another store...much less a Super Walmart.  Yet, this evening, I got to thinking I would like to go and get it done and not have to go tomorrow or the next day...so Roger said he was willing...

The sky was wonderful....so we decided to do a little cloud/sunset chasing on the way.

You might have to enlarge this to see the moon peeping out.

so this was in the east....(and it is East of the sun)

And there was the wonderful sunset, that is West of the moon...

but not until I was going through the pictures and seen this particular shot of the awesome cloud did I think of that old fairytale, East of the Sun and West of the Moon.

That was my favorite fairytale of all time when I was a child.  I read it more than any other.  And a couple years ago, my sister-in-law/BFF got me a copy of it.  Now I read it to Lorelei sometimes when she is here.

Just wondering, what is the childhood story that sticks in your mind.  This is not the only one for me...I just happened to have an old schoolbook that had it in it.

I loved The Little Red Hen, The Little Engine that Could, plus one or two that I don't recall  their title.  And my favorite poem of all time when I was little was Little Boy Blue! 

We survived the wind...

Yesterday afternoon, a storm moved through our area...the worst of it missed us.  The wind was some of the worst I have seen...I have never seen a storm move through as fast.  But we were on the tail end of it.  Our local weatherman said that the wind was reaching 75 mph at ground level.  North of us about 20 miles, two trailers were turned over.  And two or three counties south of us had a tornado touch down.

When it cleared out the first time, I jumped in the Rav to head north to capture a few pics.  The storm was still happening about 3 or 4 miles north of us.  As up you can see by the above pic, I got in the edge of it.

Then I take a few more pics as I begin to look south.

I know it has not been long ago that I gave a cloud show over on my Time Stand Still blog, but I just cannot resist when they are like this.

I will leave you with this final one...

It was starting to move in on me by this one...I grabbed a couple shots and headed for home.  The wind was fierce by then and raining hard....but by the time I got south just a couple miles, I had driven out of the worst of it.

Be sure to click and enlarge to get the expanded view.

Out the rear window

We had to hurry home yesterday evening...storms with the possibility of golf ball sized hail was predicted for the county we were in.
We actually noticed the sky and started home before we heard the forecast, but once we heard it, we were a bit more serious about getting home.
We noticed this cloud start forming, but we were in too big of a hurry for me to stop and get a good photo of it...so I was trying to snap shots of it as it changed. We never did get any real bad weather, though we did have some storms after we got home.

We have been planning on getting a GPS for a while now....the past two or three times we have been out we have wished we had one for one reason or another. Last night we really needed one...we were in an area we had never been before, and even though I have an Indiana atlas, for the most part it gives county road numbers, but they have since been given names such as Arney Rd, and other names I don't remember how to spell.

Anyway, I ordered a GPS last night...next I need one of those things my brother talks about that gives the GPS coordinates of each picture taken. I started out with the intention of trying to retrace the roads we took on a drive this past winter but did not succeed.

The skies again

Sarah and Lorelei came up and spend the afternoon/evening with us. Lorelei put on a show for us, as usual. I think she is going to be a noisy little thing. She tries so hard to talk. If she isn't trying to talk to us, she is sticking her hand in her mouth. Sometimes she sticks it so far that she gags herself....and then she looks at us as if we are the ones doing something to her.

Anyway, Sarah had no more than left till she called me and told me to get my camera and go to where I could get a good view of the east. She said the clouds were amazing. After a short conversation, we hung up and I went and glanced eastward. Peaking above the trees I could see the white clouds. They just had that look that I knew I had to go.

I grabbed my camera, told Roger what I was doing and took off. These are just a sample of what I seen. I hope you will click on them to enlarge them. They are awesome.

Clouds coming in....

These were taken the day after the pictures in the post below...what a difference!
I was messing around in here and happened to go look our the front door and seen the clouds coming in...I told Roger I have to go.
So grabbed my camera bag and headed out...trying to think where to go to get a good view before they were gone. Lots of times clouds like this come and go in short order. I would have preferred to go to the strip pits but was afraid they would be gone before I could get there.
So I headed north out of town to this one road...doesn't have a very interesting foreground but had a great view of the clouds.

The wind was howling like a banshee the time I was there, and I declare, if you were off balance, it could almost knock you over. Notice I say 'almost'...it hit with such a force that it was sort of surprising and made me feel like it could knock me over. I doubt that it really could have.

Today is another windy day, and though it is late I am going to hang out sheets here in a few minutes and hope the wind doesn't blow them away. One thing for sure, they will be dry in short order.

I have a pair of Roger's jeans to patch and have the baby quilt pin basted and need to quilt on it....so thought I best get something posted before I got involved in anything else.

I do hope you will click and enlarge some of these to get the full effect.

Something old, something new

The top picture was taken July 22--just a little less than a month ago. Late in the evening. The bottom one was taken yesterday late afternoon--early evening. At the same place. I was looking to the right of the road for the top photo. I think I could go out to this road, take a chair and just sit and sky watch for an entire evening...till dark. And I sure wouldn't mind being out there now with the moon that is out.

I have spent every spare minute today almost looking at laptops...about the time I think I am close to a decision something happens to change my mind. I just hope I make a sensible decision when I do get one.

Photos from the road less photographed...

I am not sure how often I will post for the next bit...but I find myself with a little bit of time here and there. I am in the process of trying to decide on what kind of laptop to purchase so if you have one that you are really pleased with, feel free to tell me in the comment section. Or if you know a good graphics card, I wuld be happy to know that. This computer slows down soooo much when I am in the mood to play with my photos--trying different filters, etc.

I have had some kind of flu or allergies that have really had me down physically--just slowed me down so bad. Then there are three of us trying to use one computer so I am either going to just post when I find a minute or else try to develope some new habbits.

Anyway, some of you may recognize these photos from my other blog...I am going to put my favorites from it on here because I think they are worthy of a bigger audience than it had. So click and enlarge and I hope you enjoy them.

On keeping computer unplugged

These photos are through a dirty windshield--I haven't had time to clean them up but wanted to post them. We had been down to my daughter's house day before yesterday and this is some of the sky that we saw on the way home.

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Yesterday this computer was unplugged a big part of the day, so couldn't work on photos even when I was home. A round of storms would go through, then clear up. I would plug it back in...only for another round to go through. I finally just left it unplugged. I do have everything on a surge protector, but I just don't always trust them. I have had a couple friends end up with their computers down because of lightening, so while I am sort of lost without it while it is storming, at least when the storms are over with, I can get back on.

Other than that we went to my daughter's house in Terre Haute and helped a little in getting ready to paint yesterday. We did a little bit of the priming...she is going to paint the trim white. When they bought the house it was painted dark, dark green so she wants to prime it before she paints it. And the windows each have several different panes of glass, so they are time consuming to do. But they are all primed and all the woodwork is primed now so they should be ready to paint.

Cloud chasing again...

Roger asked me if I wanted to go for a drive...of course I said yes.
It had been overcast part of the day and bright and sunny part of the day, so thought we might get some interesting skies before the day was done.
So we headed south, to a place called Merom Bluffs. I was hoping with the air being clear that I might get some photos I liked.
Merom Bluffs is approximately 20 miles south of Terre Haute and are high above the Wabash River. These photos below does not really do it justice, but I got to concentrating on the clouds so much I forgot the original intent of going there.

I am not how far we can actually see from up there, but I am sure it is miles. Probably 5-10 miles at the least. And you look down on the Wabash...thinking about how it was a major route of travel for pioneers.
Then on the way home, I photographed these clouds as we were heading north. I thought sure we were going to get a major storm but it cleared up without anything but a few big drops of rain.