blue dream of sky

One of my favorite quotes from e.e. cummings says it all:

"I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes."

It's been a long time since I participated in Skywatch Friday but I've never stopped looking to the sky.

Fall light

The light is waning and the trees are changing.  Soon it will be winter.

The sky is always beautiful.

Dinosaur National Monument

After five years of being closed, the Monument has re-opened the Dinosaur Quarry Exhibit Hall!  Tourism suffered when it was closed but hopefully now we will experience a revival.  The building, built on bentonite soil, shifted to the point where it was condemned because it was unsafe.  Ken Salazar came out last week for the opening, but unfortunately, I missed his speech.  Apparently it was a good one.

My daughter and I went out with some friends to visit the area.  There were at least a thousand sandhill cranes down by the Green River.

See all those little dots?  Makes me wish I had a bigger zoom lens!

I did manage to catch a pair of sandcranes flying by.  They live for up to 23 years in the wild and mate for life.

The building and the site looks the same, but different.  We were pleased to see the improvements didn't detract from our memories of the place.

Twelve different species are represented in the wall.

Here's a view of Split Mountain.  The Green River "split" the mountain. It's a great float trip on a raft!

There's nothing quite like a beautiful fall day.  Visit skies from around the world here.

Late summer sky

"In summer, the song sings itself." - William Carlos Williams

Visit SkyWatch Friday to hear more songs.

Sunrise Skywatch

I woke up to this dazzling sunrise this morning!

I'm so grateful for where I live, that I have a camera and a computer so I can share my photos, and for my friends and family!

There is something splendid in each moment if we just look for it.

SkyWatch Friday is full of exquisite sky shots from all over the world.

A New Greenhouse: Chapter Three

There was still one panel left to be installed but the greenhouse needed plants!  Lulu came to check it out inside.

The finished house!  Obviously some landscaping needs to be done around the outside.

More has been planted:  flowers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, beans and carrots.  Herbs include:  basil, oregano, thyme, and cilantro.  Can't wait to harvest everything and eat some fresh, homegrown veggies!

This is where the greenhouse is sitting in relationship to the house.  It doesn't actually have a chimney on it.  Hopefully this house will shelter our garden from hail, wind and snow so we can eat lots of fresh goodness in a couple of months!

See more skies at SkyWatchFriday!

Stop the car!

I was driving home from Salt Lake when the sunset became so dramatic that I had to stop the car.  I forgot my window was broken, I couldn't roll it down.  Even though I wanted to get home I got out of the car to take some pictures.  Some skies are worth stopping for.

You can visit other spectacular skies at SkyWatchFriday.

Life has been so busy I haven't been able to find myself!  I've been in high gear putting in a greenhouse, going to a wedding in Aspen, scheduling and attending all manner of work-related events, and planning for a camping trip in Wyoming if the snow melts.  This weekend it might be nice enough to plant flowers in the yard.

Whew.  Time for bed.

Sunset and leaves, spring at dusk

In beauty I walk.

With beauty before me, I walk.

With beauty behind me, I walk.

With beauty above me, I walk.

With beauty below me, I walk.

With beauty all around me, I walk.

It is finished in beauty.

It is finished in beauty.

It is finished in beauty.

It is finished in beauty.

Traditional Navaho prayer 

It's SkyWatch Friday!  May you walk in beauty today.

April Showers

Eventually bring May flowers, right?  May 5 and we have one tulip blooming!

The last day of April looked like this:

Spring snowstorms are not always welcome but they are not unusual.  They do provide moisture so this week things are greening up and looking less brown.

This time of year the days are longer, the energy is increasing in the natural world,  and the earth is stirring again after a long winter's sleep.

Likewise, we start becoming more active and spend increasing amounts of time outside.  The pace of life picks up.

Best of all, kids come home from college!  Our oldest daughter is home now and I'm going to help my youngest daughter move home tomorrow.  We will be reunited as a family for the summer.  It's another kind of change, a welcome one.

Every day, every moment, our lives change.

Just like the skies at SkyWatch Friday.

No leaves, yet

This could almost be a fall picture except that I took it this afternoon.  It's the end of April.  We are having a very late spring but no tornadoes or violent storms, thank goodness. My heart goes out to those experiencing enormous loss and devastation.  The fact of the matter is that we never know when tragedy might strike.  We tend to believe that it will happen to someone else but in the blink of an eye it can happen to us.

Practicing gratitude helps us through our darker days.

Dr. Tom Costa says, "You cannot be grateful and unhappy at the same time!"  Try it and see if it's true.

I'm grateful for all the beautiful skies that show up around the world on SkyWatch Friday.

Nature's Frames

George Eliot said, "If we had a keen vision and feeling of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heartbeat, and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence."

Wouldn't it be something to experience the natural world so intensely that we could hear the roar on the other side of silence?

I love walking around my neighborhood, especially now that most of the snow is gone.  Little green shoots are sprouting out of the ground, the birds are singing and life is beginning anew.  Spring energy is hopeful, gentle at times, joyful, and a welcome relief after a long winter.  Always.

SkyWatch Friday!

First there is a mountain

Then there is no mountain
Then there is.

Skywatch Friday!

What sky?

This is the view out my window through a piece of stained glass because there is no sky to be seen today.

SkyWatch Friday has the colors of the rainbow in it every week.

Driving home on a winter afternoon

Rock formation

 Cloud formation

Turn right or left?

The scenery here is never boring, neither are the skies featured in SkyWatch Fridays.

Playing with a new toy

We had foggy skies mixed with sun, creating some special effects today.

I used Christmas money to buy myself a Canon Powershot A3100 and was out experimenting.  These are basically "blind" shots taken with automatic focus.  My glasses darken with polaroid in sunshine and I could not see the LCD screen at all.

Not a bad little camera!  What I like about it is that I can take it with me because it's little and light.  It's time to have fun and experiment this year.

See spectacular sky shots from around the world at Skywatch Friday.

Sunrise Skywatch

It's still winter.

Maybe somewhere else it's not so check out Skywatch Friday.

From one week to another

Last weekend was beautiful, sunny and pretty warm.  Both of my favorite girls were home for the weekend.  Alyson had a photography project to do.  She used her sister, Amber, and her boyfriend, Eric as models.  I took the opportunity for photos as well.

Here they are goofing around but it makes ME happy to look at them being happy.

 

And then they are just being seriously good looking.

Two days later it was cold and snowing!

Temperatures at night have been down in the 20's and it feels so cold.  It's a good thing we have a lot of wood stacked for winter.

Skies in all their infinite variety can be found at Skywatch Friday.

Blue sky in fall clothes

How long will the beautiful fall weather last?

Visit the ever-changing sky at Sky Watch Friday.

The magical northwest

Last week my husband and I took a trip to Seattle, Victoria, British Columbia and the Pacific Rim Forest on Vancouver Island.  It was a trip without children so I called it Celebrating the Empty Nest trip to lessen the blow of both my girls being away at college.  I miss them but I'm excited that they are getting an education.

Anyway, I'm having a hard time keeping up with myself and catching up on everything.  I do have a minute to post some of the beautiful skies we saw in Tofino on a bear watching trip.  More details about this wonderful trip will be posted later but for now, enjoy the play of light in the clouds!

Don't forget to visit Skywatch Friday!

Empyrean

It means heavenly.  I needed a new word for these dramatic skies.

Sky Watch Friday, for all celestial gazers, meets here.