Hope you're not tired of weather photos ... but I thought I would share this shot of last night's sky, taken after the afternoon thunderstorm passed through. We got a wonderful bit of rain, and it dropped the air temperature down over 20 degrees. Perfect!
And if you're wondering about the view in the direction of the setting sun..
...you're in luck! I took this shot as well.
Happy Wednesday!
Sunsets are one of the, umm, two things I like about Texas. *grin* And last night the sunset was another beauty. It was very cloudy and grey early in the evening, and I didn't think we'd see any sunset at all. Alan and I were sitting in the living room, when out the window I saw the light had changed and was completely different. Everything was gold and glowing! The sun had dropped beneath the storm clouds and was casting beautiful gold light on everything around us. Outside I went, camera in hand.
We could see the storm to the north, and the VERY black clounds of the storm that was to the southwest of us that promised to come our way. And between the two storms was the setting sun.
The last photo I took of the sunset.
When I first started taking photos, when the sun was well above the horizon, the air was completely still. Our own moment of silence for those effected by this week's weather.
We had kind of an usual sunset last night. Thankfully, I was outside at the time and was able to run in and grab the camera before the color was gone. Everything was pink -- it was the strangest color cast!
We had some storms to the west of us but the clouds weren't high enough to block the setting sun. The humidity did block much of the sun's light though, which made it possible to look at the sun without being blinded from sunlight.
I thought the coral color was so pretty, how it faded to pink. Not too much longer and the sun was mostly obscured by the distant storm clouds. It was sure pretty while it lasted!
Yesterday I mentioned that our forecast for today was supposed to be 80*. Well, I take it back.
How about 85* instead.
Seriously!?
Wow ... tomorrow's expected high is 80*. Of course, the low is expected to be 45* so it's not like it will be warm for long. But, I might be able to turn the heat lamp off of the baby chicks for a couple hours, anyway!
Wacky, wacky weather.
I took some photos of a sunset we had earlier this week that was truly amazing. The clouds were interesting, the colors were vibrant, and I was happy to have been outside at the right time to see it.
I thought you might enjoy it as well! Click on the photos for a larger view.
And it's almost time for Happy FRIDAY!! I can't tell you how glad I will be when 5:00pm Friday rolls around. I don't know why, but this week feels like it's been soooooo long. I actually thought today was Friday until about 10:30am. Talk about a rude awakening when I realized that today was only Thursday! Ughhhhh! But I got through the day, and look forward to the weekend.
Happy Friday, happy WEEKEND!
I thought I'd pop out to the barnyard and see what Sweet Potato was up to this afternoon. It's been a month or so since her last update.
Just as I suspected.... she was eating hay. Pretty exciting. You can barely see Princess Leia behind her.
And she's filthy from the rain and mud. Not really looking like a baby anymore, is she? She's a very quiet calf. Hardly ever makes a peep. She has been sneaking milk off of Princess, so she's not really into bottle feeding any longer. And finally she's interested in hay! Took her long enough!
Looks like it's going to get chilly up north of us tonight! We're expecting a high of 71 tomorrow, but then it's supposed to drop down into the low 30's and 40's starting Sunday, after a bit of rain on Saturday. Damp And Cold = Brrrrrrr!
I can't tell you how thankful I am that today is Friday! It's been a very long week. It started out fine on Monday, but Tuesday morning at 2am I woke with a flu bug that kept me up the rest of the morning, and in bed all day and night on January 1st. Not such a fun way to start the new year. But, Wednesday rolled around and I was starting to feel better. I was still moving slow with the achy flu-body feeling, but was feeling better regardless. Alan is a good nurse when I'm sick and he made sure I was taken care of.
This morning we were supposed to get SNOW for about 8 hours, but we got NONE! I was very disappointed, as it's so pretty and quiet here when we have snow. We didn't even get any rain! Bother!
Twiggy has the right idea though ... all wrapped up in her snowflake blanket, keepin' cozy.
I have lots of crafty projects to share with you soon, so look forward to that!
Hope you have a delightful Friday, and even better weekend!!
In just a few hours I will be flying to Washington state to spend Christmas with my family. I always wish for a white Christmas, and it looks like this year my wish will come true! Today in Texas was 80*. Unusually warm, but 80* just the same. It's quite a bit cooler where I'll be for the next 10 days!
Wherever you find yourself this Christmas, here's to keepin' cozy!
Tonight's sunset was amazing... hope you enjoy! As always, click on the images for a larger view.
We had a very pretty sunset this evening, and I got outside just in time to snap a photo of the last bit of color. Sorry, but I think I missed the most dramatic part while I was in grabbing the camera. The rays of the sun were shooting so high and were a brilliant pink color. Amazing! This photo is nice, but oooooh, what it could have been!
While we were out, Moose took Alan for a drag. *grin*
Moose is getting so BIG! And such a ham!
Another storm is moving across North Central Texas, and while we don't get any rain from those storms, we do get pretty sunsets!
How about this evening's sunset for a winner!
A small storm cell moved through, just northeast of the farm last night, so I popped out to take some photos. The lightening show was great! BIG bummer though, I didn't realize that the powerlines were still in the camera frame, and were for almost every shot. ARRRGGGHHHH!!!
Anyway, enjoy the show -- we sure did! You can click on the images for a larger, clearer view.
Want to see more weather related photos, including last fall's spectacular thunderstorm? View the Weather category. Cheers!
Thought I'd share a few mobile phone photos I've taken while visiting Mom and Dad in northeastern Washington.
Boating on Davis Lake, trees in the front yard, and last night's full moon over the Pend Oreille river.
Such a great visit, and place to be.
We usually have pretty sunsets here on the farm, but night before last the sunset was pretty spectacular!
A storm cloud was moving off to the southeast, opening up the sky at just the right time for sunset. The dark portion at the top of the photos is the tailend of the storm.
It would have been nice to get RAIN with the passing clouds, but we didn't ... bummer.
At least we had a pretty end to the day.
Looks like tomorrow is going to be a dreadful day... ugh.
Happy FRIDAY!! We got a bit of rain last night ... about 1/2" ... and are hoping for a bit more this afternoon/evening. Cross your fingers for us! We can use all the rain we can get!
Big plans for the weekend!?
Hope you have a wonderful day today, and take at least a moment to appreciate Earth. Yesterday evening, Alan helped me "refresh" the garden bed where I had spring peas planted, so today I get to plant some new seeds, water them in, and watch them GROW! Also in celebration of Earth Day, I did some video clips of the garden, and will post the video shortly.
Promises to be a gorgeous day here today ... a Sunny 81* ... a perfect day for a sundress, sun tea, and relaxation.
A rather large spring storm passed through today, and I stepped outside to take some photos. The clouds were dark, and active. Areas in and around Dallas experienced tornado damage, but we got by with just some heavy rains (not quite 2" of rain fell), a bit of hail, and lots of wind. The only casualties on the farm were in the garden. A banana pepper plant was snapped in two, two newly planted Juliet tomato plants were demolished, and the larger leaves on the zucchini plants are torn and filled with holes. Aside from the pepper and tomato plants, everything else will survive. My next trip to town will require a visit to the garden center to pick up some replacement plants. Here are some photos from this afternoon, as the storm rolled in.
First, here's wishing Mom and Dad a wonderful, happy anniversary! 42 years, if my math is correct! Wish we could be with you to help celebrate ... or, at least have some cake!
And, what a lovely sunset we had this evening as the last of the big storm moved off to the west of us. Thought I'd share it with you! Going....
Going.....
Gone.
Thanks for checkin' in!
Here's what got planted today:
Zinnias
Sunflowers
Onions (two types)
Spinach
Carrots
Radishes (two types)
A little bit of lettuce
A few broccoli (never grown here -- just a test)
A few cauliflower (never grown here -- just a test)
Peas
Garlic Chives
I didn't get tomato seeds started yet (I had hoped to get them started a month or more ago), so I will most likely just pick up a few plants at the store one of these days.
What's left?
Zuccihini
Cucumbers (several types)
Tomatoes
Beans
Squash
More Spinach!
More Radishes!
...what else? ... I'm sure I'm forgetting something...
Pop on over to the High Hopes blog for all the details.
I'm finding it difficult to move into Valentine and spring themed projects for some reason, wanting to hold onto snowmen and snowflakes and cocoa and woolies. I don't want spring to come just yet, even though I think it is the best season in Texas. We haven't had enough winter, and we desperately need more rain before the onset of summer 2012. Lately the weather has been very spring-like, minus all the lovely wildflowers that bloom in Texas. Hopefully the weather gets a bit colder, and we get some of the rain that the weather-people say is coming our way tomorrow.
If I MUST think about spring, let it be of baby chickens. That I can handle.
Several years ago at a local auction house, I bought several photo albums (5 to be exact), each one of them FULL of vintage postcards - someone's collection. One of the folders is all Easter cards, and soooo many of them feature chickens or chicks. The above image is from one of the postcards I bought that day. Maybe flipping through those old cute postcards will put me into the mood to work on spring projects...?
I'll sip hot cocoa while I do. *grin*
I found images of a project I created in October using the Lifetime of Happiness cling set, and thought I would share them with you.
It's kind of timely that I came across these photos tonight, because we've got quite a windstorm happening and I'm hoping that some of the garden debris finds it's own way out of the garden and into the pasture with the donkeys and cows. Nothing like a little helping hand from Mother Nature when it comes to getting some of the farm chores done!
I really like how this project came together. The peachy colored paper I hand dyed using various distress inks and pearl colored Glimmer Mist. It really is quite pretty being slightly shimmery under the image, which as you can see also happens to be dressed up with even more glitter.
To add the top sprinkling of glitter, I gave the card a light spray of adhesive (spray adhesive comes in a can, like spray paint) after the card was all assembled. While the adhesive was still tacky, I lightly sprinkled crystal glitter here and there. A light hand is best for this technique ... it's easy to get carried away and add too much adhesive, and glitter! (Do you believe me?) *grin*
After the adhesive dries it's no longer tacky, so you don't have to worry about random things sticking to your project after the adhesive is dry.
I dressed up the inside of the card too, using a sentiment from the same set. I chose to add faint butterfly stampings, as well. And more glitter!
... I do believe we're sneaking up on a Friday! ...
Thanks for checkin' in on me today!
Alan has a rain gauge hung on a fence post out at the barnyard. It actually came in handy today! Even though I was gone all day, Alan left the rain water in the gauge so I could see just how much rain we got today while I was gone. Yahoooo!!! I just had to get a photo!
And would you look at that pretty sunset in the background, too!
A storm brewed up north of us this evening, and put on quite a light show! I put the camera up on the tripod and took some photos. I couldn't decide on a favorite photo, so I'm sharing a BUNCH of photos! I am posting them in the order they were taken. And, I encourage you to click on the photos to get a larger, clearer view. Pretty cool!
You can see our neighbor's house in the distance. I did move the camera a few times because sometimes there were just more bolts in different parts of the sky, but I kept the neighbor's house in every photo.
What was strange was for the longest time we couldn't even hear the thunder. In fact, it wasn't until the last few frames that it became a distant rumble we could actually hear.
Once the storm got closer to us (it was moving very fast!) the thunder proved to be quite loud. Mister Farley had to get all nervous and scared, but eventually decided that his "safe place" under the coffee table was OK.
To take these photos, I put the camera on the bulb setting and manually held the shutter open for between 15-25 seconds. I had planned to use my wireless shutter release, but the batteries were kaput. So, all of these photos were taken with my finger holding the shutter open. I'm sure they're a bit "wiggly" if I inspect them at great detail, but they're not too bad considering!
In this photo, you can actually see how fast the clouds were moving ... the lightening made the storm clouds look double exposed in the upper right corner (right in front of that nice glow).
We even got a bit of rain once the storm made it over to us. Not quite a quarter inch. Better than nothing -- we'll take every last drop!
Enjoy the rest of the photos...
You can really see the rain coming down in this photo.
Something was getting hit! Zoweeee!!
This one might actually be my favorite. I love the curved arches of light in the center.
Hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did!
Thank you for all of the emails and comments you've left wanting to know if the Texas wildfires are burning near us or putting us in danger. I'm happy to say that no, they are not near us, and we are fine.
Our farm is located in central Texas. There are fires south of us near Austin, northwest of us west of Fort Worth, and northeast of us east of Dallas. The sky is filled with smoke, but thankfully none of the current fires pose any threat to us or our farm.
We've had a hard enough summer without the threat of wildfire, too. Not everyone is so lucky though, and we hope the fires are contained quickly, and safely for all involved.
Thank you for your expressed concern. {{hugs!}}
Today calls for a little celebration! Today will be our first day below 100* since MAY! And by the looks of the forecast, it might stay that way for the week. We get CLOSE to 100* towards the end of the 10-day forecast, but as long as we don't see triple digits on the thermometer I'll be grateful.
Enjoy the rest of your fun-filled, holiday weekend!
There's a challenge on the High Hopes blog today and the topic is "Autumn Colors". The challenge runs for two weeks, so I encourage you to play along! Get the details on the High Hopes blog. For my project I chose to use the "Angel Bear Jumping Out Pumpkin" image. I didn't want the angel wings on my project, so I quickly and easily snipped them right off. Sinful? Probably... *grin* The sentiment on this card is from my Whipper Snapper cling set called All Things with Love.
I got this pretty sunflower Scentsy warmer in the mail from my long-time friend Tricia, who knows I'm a craft/stamp/paper junkie. THANK YOU, Tricia!! A small 25W light bulb sits in the base of the warmer and heats the wax just enough to melt it, and the wax scents the room. She sent along a few wax blocks too: Cinnamon & Vanilla, Clove & Cinnamon, and Black Raspberry Vanilla. No matches, no fire! Perfect for my craft room. To get me in the fall spirit I put Clove & Cinnamon wax in the pot and got busy stamping.
Mmmm! The room was filled with yummy goodness and I couldn't help but want to dig out all of my fall and halloween themed stuff!! I had a ball coloring up this image, wishing for cool Autumn days, which are hopefully coming our way sooooonnnnnn.......
Speaking of "cool", let's check in on the weather forecast for the farm, shall we?
UNCLE, already... UNCLE!!!
It's still blazing hot here on the farm. 107 as I write this. Looks like another 107 day tomorrow. Followed by 105, and then day after day of more miserable heat. We *might* get below 100 on August 26th. Forecast for that day is 99. I'd better get out the scarves and mittens!
Last year in August I had beautiful zinnias and sunflowers blooming in the garden, and loads of cucumbers and zucchini to pick.
This August is quite different. No butterflies in the garden, and certainly no beautiful zinnias or sunflowers!
How dreadful.
...of looking at our 10-day forecast. Ugh.
Thought I'd share a sneak peek with you today of one of my upcoming new releases with Whipper Snapper. They're gearing up for the Fall/Winter release; you'll find details on their Facebook page where they've been sharing more sneak peeks of images in the release. How exciting!!
There are 166 full days remaining in the year (off topic, do you count down to Christmas?), and it looks like what's about left of July is going to be nothing but HOT. Unfortunately for us, August promises to be just as hot, or hotter. Maybe September will show us some mercy...
It's been difficult to keep the garden alive in this drought. In fact, I'm failing. I've got tomatoes still hanging on, but it's so hot that even though they are flowering, they aren't producing any tomatoes and they're starting to look rather tired. The okra is trying to produce, but even it wilts down in the sun (even with daily waterings). Then there are the ants, the aphids, the cucumber beetles, and the grasshoppers ... all doing their part in causing problems. I tell ya, it's exhausting. I'm planning on putting in a "fall" garden, and if I stick to schedule I should be starting tomato plant seeds about now, and getting ready to plant other seeds around August 1. But I'm not sure it will be possible to keep anything alive then, either!
How's the weather where you live?
Today and tomorrow's forecast is calling for highs of 94*. I can't tell you how REFRESHING that sounds! 10* cooler than it has been, and we're even seeing some clouds! Today is Summer Solstice, but I can't help dreaming of Autumn!! Of course, there are storms all around us and we aren't getting any rain, but at least the clouds are knocking the blister out of the temps.
Whipper Snapper is gearing up for the Fall/Winter release; you'll find details on their Facebook page where they've been sharing sneak peeks of images in the release. How exciting!!
By my calculations, looks like it's shaping up to be 991* for the next 10 days.
991*.
Today's forecast is promising a high of 99*. Tomorrow's forecast is promising a high of 99*, too. Jeepers... Time to get the frozen water bottles in the chicken waterers. I'd best gather eggs early in the day, too! Don't want those chickens brewing up any deviled eggs when I'm not lookin'!
The purple pole beans are putting on blooms, but no beans just yet. I think they're so pretty as they grow up the wire trellis.
We've got a wild mama cat who has 5 kittens under our shed. They stay out of the heat, and lay in the shade. Oddly enough, the girl kittens are the friendliest of the bunch. Usually the boys are. When they're old enough they'll go to the vet for a little snippity snip! Alan thinks he might be able to catch the wild mama next week now that the kittens are old enough to eat kitty food and spend the night away from their mama while she's at the vet's office for snipping! This little gal is a cutie, isn't she! I think I'll tell Alan her name is Tangerine. Unless you want to ADOPT her, and then you can name her anything you'd like! *grin*
There's a sweet little torty-grey female, too. She has the cutest nose and broken stripes.
But don't let these sweet faces fool you ...
ROAR!!
ROOOOOAAAAAARRRRRR!!!
The rattlesnake pole beans have almost all sprouted around the tee-pee trellis, and I can't wait to see them start vining up the poles! I took this photo two days ago, and already the plants look noticably different, now that they're starting to get more leaves. It's amazing how quickly things change.
Here was the garden on May 1...
And here is the garden as of June 1! BIG difference! (Click image for a larger view...)
Remember our little house chick, Dolly? Well, seems that Dolly thinks SHE is a HE, and is practicing crowing. Yes, yes it's true. Just little squeaks, but that's CROW enough for me! Dolly lives outside now, in a fancy new brooder with two chick-sized friends. Happy as can BE, wild frizzled feathers, and all!
Dolly, looking down into the brooder at his friends, who are cheeping wildly, apparently lost without him.
So, speaking of summer ... did you see this image predicting how summer weather is going to progress? UNCLE!!!
I think that calls for daily dips in the pool. Bottom's Up!
Whipper Snapper Designs: Poolside Chicken - #CT954
Our weather forecast for today suggested 40% chance of rain, but when you looked at the future radar, the clouds did their usual petering out routine just before they got to us, and faded to nothing. The wind kept the storm just to the west of us ALL DAY, and we weren't getting a drop!
Then at about 4:30, the wind shifted just a bit and the clouds moved slightly to the east, and right on in! We're actually getting RAINDROPS!! It's a fast moving storm so we won't get much rain, but we will take every last drop we can get!!
Rain, clouds, RAIN!!
We've been watching storms in the area on the radar, and almost ALL of them have missed us. We soooo very badly need rain, that we welcome even serious storms! We thought today's storm might miss us, but it looped around and we caught the edge of it at least. The tornado siren in town was enabled twice today. Once before and during the first storm, and again for a second storm that soon followed the first. We saw rotation in the clouds, but nothing officially touched down that we could see.
These photos are presented in order that they were taken, starting with the one shown above.
Our neighbors are just finishing a new house ... last thing they wanted was a tornado to come through!
...then it started raining...and blowing...and hailing!
I did take some video, and I'll share that when it finishes uploading to YouTube.
We're about 125 or so miles from the closest wildfire in Texas, but the smoke is all around us. I took this photo this evening, well before sunset. There's not a cloud in the sky ... no fog either. Just smoke. You can see the sun, well above the horizon.
The smoke blew in thick and heavy late last night, and continues to linger. The smell of smoke was so strong (and so sudden) last night, we thought perhaps a nearby pasture had caught fire during the lightning storm we were having. We got a bit of rain with last night's brief storm, but it wasn't even enough to make the chicken yard muddy.
According to weather reports, March 2011 was the driest March on record since 1895...
I'm not kidding when I say we need LOTS of rain. Isn't it about time for a hurricane?
While it seems that everyone else is having chilly weather and even snow, WE ARE NOT! The temp gauge on the porch this afternoon hit 88. And would you look at the expected temps for Saturday! In March!?! We are already almost 5" below average for rainfall this year, and temps are 15-20 degrees above average...
I THINK I MIGHT MELT!
We need RAIN! Please send rain...
Really, really lovely!
While the sun was low on the horizon this evening, I took my camera out to the hen house to see what I could see. What do you know, I saw CHICKENS (and ducks)! Shorty tried to show me where a good place to nest would be, "right here, in the tall grass!"
Laffy Taffy told me all about how they would really like more water in the duck pool. "The mud on my legs is soooo unsightly!"
Inside the hen house, some of the ladies enjoyed perching in the rays of sunshine that were coming through the windows. Ruby had the best spot! (And is it just me, or does she look a little bit like Conan o'Brien?)
The winter molt was a little rough for some of the ladies, but finally Curly Que is looking good! Nothing like new feathers to make a girl beautiful!
And of course there's the always dainty, always beautiful Dee. What a sweet little pint-sized chicken!
Chainsaw was looking lovely today, too!
I had to keep my eye on this Golden Comet... she was very interested in my camera lens. Just what I need, a chicken beak through the lens on my camera! Yikes!
Like most areas around the country, the weather here is supposed to get cold this week. Yesterday and today it was in the mid 70's ... Take a look at Tuesday and Wednesday in the above chart ... a low of 14* on Wednesday!? Ice and Snow!? JEEEEPERS!! Best plan on keepin' cozy!
It started snowing at 11am, and hasn't stopped yet. The flakes are HUGE, and full of moisture. They hit with a "splat". I took this photo through the kitchen window about 40 minutes after it started snowing, and it just keeps coming down! Cool!
The goats are hiding in the goat house. The barn cats are all tucked in, snuggled up. The cows and donkeys were munching on a hay bale, but have since moved into the barn. And the chickens ... well, some are out in the snow, others are snug in the hen house. They're not used to this kind of weather! As for me, I dig it!
Well... this should be fun. It's supposed to start raining this evening, and they're projecting that tomorrow afternoon/evening we'll get 2 to 4 inches of snow. Alan added more hay to the outside dog houses, and the goat house. Lollie (the rabbit) got more hay, and the chicken house will need to be closed up. Time to pull out the hot cocoa! *grin*
Last night's sunset was nothing short of spectacular! I'm glad I was paying attention, and could snap some photos! This long narrow image was created by mashing together three different photos to create a panoramic. Click on the images to view them larger. Enjoy!
