Clouds Take Over Again

Yesterday was sunny, finding me taking full advantage of that fact by spending as much time outdoors as possible. In the morning after chores I went rock-hunting in the field for awhile. After lunch, picking up sticks in the yard occupied my time. We have those tall, towering soft maple trees which drop scads of sticks on a regular basis. We had those on the farm I grew up on, too........I wonder how many hundreds of times I heard my mother say to us kids, "Get outdoors and pick up sticks!!"

By 4 p.m. yesterday a bank of dark gray clouds was crawling upwards from the western horizon. Soon the sun was swallowed up by the encroaching leaden mass, as you can see in the photo below......the sun sending out its last gasping rays before disappearing.

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Making an about face and looking east, this was the sight........the leading finger of the invading army of gloomy clouds projects itself across the late afternoon sky:

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The clouds brought thunderstorms and heavy rains throughout today's early morning hours. The first booming burst of thunder awakened me at around 4 a.m. At 5:30, it was raining cats and dogs.......very heavy. We don't have our rain gauge tube set out yet, but I'm guessing we received an inch or more.

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This is discouraging weather for the crop farmers, who have their tillage implements and planters readied for action; there they sit, still and silent, in the sheds, watching the rain come down.