Thursday, August 8, 2013

Gathering Storm


Click on photo for a larger view.


























This isn't a typical Ozark August scene.  Last summer, under the sky's blank blue canvas, arid ground crunched underfoot, and weeds wilted from lack of moisture.  Now the days are enlivened with thunder and lightning and rain pouring from the clouds.

It's said that the Eskimos have a dozen different terms for snow.  We already have a couple for rain: gully-washer and toad-choaker, but if this stretch continues, our vocabulary may sprout a few more.  

Any suggestions?


Linking with
Weekly Top Shot
and Skywatch Friday

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Nine O'Clock Hero































Yesterday, as Don was leaving for work, he called to me from outside.  "What do you make of this noise?" he asked.  That was a fair question, since he left some of his hearing in VietNam.

Close by, overhead, there was a loud rhythmic sound, not quite like anything we'd heard before.  At first I suspected that something was going wrong with the garage door mechanism, but we soon realized that the sound was coming from the gutter in front of the garage.  By the time we were able to set up a ladder, the cadence of the sound had slowed, and then stopped altogether.

Don let me go first, as he held the ladder.  One glance filled in the blanks.  Inside the gutter, in a little water, a cicada was laying upside down.  The gutter had served as a sound chamber, amplifying its struggles.  I picked it up carefully and, righting it, set it free.  It flew without a backward glance.

My delight was undiminished by the lack of a thank you.  After all, how often does one get to be a hero before nine?




Note: The photo above was taken on another day, when a cicada was drying its dew-laden wings. The little thing yesterday didn't hang around long enough for a portrait.







Friday, July 26, 2013

The Sky is Not the Limit




He wraps up the waters in His clouds,

yet the clouds do not burst under their weight.


























He covers the face of the full moon,

 spreading His clouds over it...



And these are but the outer fringe of His works;

How faint the whisper we hear of Him!

Who then can understand the thunder of His power?


Job 26:8,9,14






Linking with Skywatch Friday




Saturday, July 20, 2013

Swing Shift
























The sun's almost up over the hill, 

and four young raccoons, their shift nearly over, forage under the bird feeder, 

their busy legs still wet from a romp in the birdbath. 





They look straight ahead, 

their small hands in constant motion as they grope for another morsel, 

a black oil sunflower seed that the birds left behind.




A slight disturbance sends them scrambling up the nearest tree, 

before they reverse their direction and run for the shelter of the woods.
































The sun is up, the night crew gone, and the day crew has started their shift.





Linking with Camera Critters
and Weekly Top Shot