Wordless Wednesday: Twilight Walk

 

Waiting for Clouds

The day after the rain, last week, I went to town. I shop at WalMart. I don't have the luxury of "boycotting" WalMart because I would have to drive 60 miles to find another store that has as good prices. So please don't ask me why I was in this store. I'm ALWAYS in this store... at least once a week.
When I finished shopping I drove up to the end of the road that dead ends in a field above the store. Someday this road will probably have more stores...hopefully a Target or a Kaiser clinic. We need more population and we need an improved economy. It will happen... some day.
The clouds were beautiful. I had to get out and take some pictures. The sky was so blue and filled with the most amazing clouds.
This was looking from the dead end road above WalMart...

 north, toward Sutter Creek. The clouds went on for miles. It was like a painting.

I turned around and took this one toward the south.

There were still dark areas of rain waiting to be released. I think that one on the left was  sitting over my house to the southeast of town. I love the dark ones. Such potential for mother nature to show us her power. I'm sure a good therapist would have something to say about my love of storms. I feel so alive when we have something besides the clear and sunny atmosphere that is so common in these parts.
I love nasty, windy, stormy weather. I love to be out in it. Standing in it. Breathing in its strength and anger. Yep! I'm sure I need a good psychotherapist to help me explain this appetite for storms.

Then I turned to the west, toward the Central Valley of California, where most of our storms come from.

More rain was coming...rolling in on the thermals. Thermals are one of the many sources of lift used by birds  to soar or float up into the sky. Maybe that's what I wish for... to fly with the red tail hawks and the turkey vultures.
I wrote a poem about dreaming that I could fly once. I wrote it in a post about four years ago.
I don't want to be in an airplane up there. I want to fly like a bird... free of the trappings of earth.
A little more about me that you didn't know...

That night the sky reflected the sunset as most of the clouds blew east.

All the clouds were reflecting the last rays of the sunset.

 The TV news was talking about SNOW in the mountains for the first time this year.

The clouds are gone now. The sky is clear. The sun was hot as I sat on the porch a while ago. The snakes must be confused, feeling the warmth in their underground holes. Maybe the cold nights will keep them down there. Hope so.
The clouds will return and the wind will blow again. So I wait, with as much patience I can muster, for Winter to arrive.
 It will be worth waiting for, like the joy of Christmas morning when I were a kid.
It gives me hope and restores my faith in something tangible and new. Winter is the present under my tree... the long waited for gift of Nature.

A summer storm comes.

Today it was 103 and kind of humid. Awful weather. These are the "dog days of summer" and not pleasant at all.
Tonight I'm sitting here writing a post and there is a storm passing overhead. This is one of the rare storms of summer here in the California Foothills.  First there was a quick downfall of rain, huge heavy drops, and now... thunder and lightening. It's noisy and dramatic. I'm glad I have a roof over my head.
Now the rain stopped. The thunder is more distant, but still the lightening lights up the dark windows.
I ran outside a while ago and grabbed the pillows from the chairs, thinking we were going to have a lot of rain, but the quick downpour was it... for now. Maybe we will get more later.
When I was feeding the chickens earlier and putting Annie in the garage for the night, I took these photos of the clouds . Enjoy!

The evening sky was so beautiful.

These were sun rays coming from the west.

This was looking down our road toward the south.

There was a dark streak in the sky that stood out against the white billowy clouds.

It looked strange and mysterious, like a huge bird or a alien spaceship cloaked in darkness.

The sun was setting into the huge clouds. The quick rain didn't cool the intense heat of the day.
Maybe tomorrow morning will be cooler.
I hope so. This is too hot and humid for California.

Stratus Angelicus: no more smoke in the air!

"Blue skies smilin' at me
Nothin' but blue skies do I see.
Bluebirds singin' a song
Nothin' but bluebirds all day long." (lyrics by Irving Berlin)

I don't know much about clouds so I can't tell you, scientifically, what these are. I was taking an evening walk and these clouds where overhead. There must be a beautiful name for them because they are so lovely.
The prospector would call them "Cumulus Acillus". (That's pronounced with a hard C like aKillus). He'll say "Look, those are Cumulus Acillus clouds." But then I realized that he called all cloud formations "Cumulus Acillus". He acts like he know what he's talking about, until I say "Acillus?" , and then he gets a big grin on his face.
I think they should be called "Clouds being scattered by high unseen wind or "Stratus Angelicus. Yep, I like that. If the prospector can make up names..., so can I.

TUNDRA SWANS?, going back to B.C. Canada. What an amazing sound they make.