Snow!

I shared some of these photos on my other blog, Leaf and Line, but I will add them here, too.

The weather conditions were just right this morning for beautiful types of snow crystals. According to a chart I found in Ken Libbrecht's Field Guide to Snowflakes, our temperature and humidity were perfect.

This is a sectored plate:

And this is a stellar dendrite:

When I pushed the snow back to photograph these, I think I saw fernlike dendrites in the mix, but they broke apart and I could not tell for sure. Even with these photos, I was essentially photographing blind. I could not tell what the finished image would look like, because I was not using a DSLR. I probably took at least a hundred photos, and these are the best. Looking through them all, though, was like being on a treasure hunt.

Cicadas!!!

There was a familiar sound in the maple trees last week, as temperatures were beastly hot... cicadas!

To hear them is to dive deep into the water of summer. Cicadas, fireflies, heat, humidity, and flowers... they are all claiming their place again in the cycle of the year.

Yesterday, we had a spectacular thunderstorm. I am glad we did not see the tornadoes that others saw. Here, we had constant rumbles of thunder and flashes of lightning. Afterward, the sky continued to put on a show, as I looked out and saw a rainbow arching across the sky, all of the colors clearly visible.

I'm working on getting a photo of that rainbow on here. Stay tuned!

HOT

100 degrees tomorrow. In June.

Everything seems to be wilting: I'm not seeing as many wildflowers this month as I did last year, except thistle. Nothing can defeat thistle.

This picture is from a previous year: it's too hot to venture out for wildflower photography. I'd prefer a closeup, but this was all I had in my files.

We did have a bit of rain last night, though, and waking to that sound was comforting. Next week looks better, temperature-wise. I'm hoping to add to my wildflower photo files then.

Spectacular Moon

If you haven't already seen it, go outside and see the moon tonight! The technical term is a waxing crescent, with 6% of the disk illuminated, according to the USNO website. I tried to get a photo, but am having trouble. Maybe I will have one by tomorrow!

Also saw an Eastern Bluebird at Fontenelle Forest today. That always makes my day!

Turkey Tracks and an Expected Storm

We went walking last weekend, while the sun was shining. There were a lot of tracks visible in the snow, but these were big enough to photograph:

Turkeys! Interestingly, one of my fellow walkers observed that there is a passing resemblance to the dinosaur footprints we saw in Colorado.

My mind is slipping into hibernation mode this evening. A big storm is predicted to come through tonight and tomorrow. It is overcast, and my dog has not shown any interest in moving around this afternoon.

At least fresh snow will mean fresh tracks to identify.

Snow and sunshine

After four inches of snow last week, and a bit more yesterday, the sun coming out this afternoon was lovely.

I want to stand outside and soak up the rays, even though it is still very cold.

Until it warms up again, I am enjoying the play of sunlight across the walls inside the house.

Later this week looks better, at least to my Nebraska-adjusted vision. Back in Louisiana, 49 degrees is too cold to go outside! The humidity would make that temperature bitterly cold. Here, it sounds like a warmup!

Winter!

After dealing with a foot sprain for the better part of a month, I was finally able to get back outside this weekend. This is the kind of thing that entices me!

And this is the beautiful play of shadows on the snow that met me as I went a little way down the trail:

 This was at Schramm State Park. The lovely blue shadows remind me of Pissaro's snow paintings. He is still my favorite artist.





And this reminded me that spring will come soon.