Skywatch

Taken a couple days ago...

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Waiting

Yesterday it rained all day and today its supposed to do the same.  

The fields wait patiently for spring tillage. 

These zoomed shots were taken a couple days ago.

The zooming results in some blurriness, but I think its kind of cool. 

  

Light and Dark

The evening before last there was a few minutes of unusual lighting---bright landscape backed up by dark sky.

Barn Charm

Here's a drive-by shot from last fall.  I was aiming for the barn so the old-fashioned corn cribs and new-fangled cell phone tower are a bonus.

Visit Bluff Area Daily for this week's Barn Charm.

Robin

The blogosphere probably doesn't need another robin photo, but here's one anyway...

Abstract Barns

     Just now I was sorting through barn photos while waiting for my husband to come in for lunch.  I found this rather poor quality drive-by shot from last year that I couldn't bear to part with and tried out several effects on it.  I kind of like this sort of abstract one...

Yesterday

     Our weather remains cold and rainy.  This photo was taken yesterday, could have been today, hopefully not tomorrow.  I almost deleted it but then decided I liked the way the raindrops are in focus.  They look like they're right there on the computer screen.

Skywatch

Photo taken several days ago...

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Yesterday

     Yesterday I had to run an errand which required a road trip of several hours. Before tossing them in the trash I decided to first submit some colorful evidence of the day.  I had to leave early in the morning and it was cold out so of course I needed some hot mocha.  Yum!  At lunchtime, I was hungry, so a fast food meal was consumed.  Yum!   Later in the afternoon, on the way home, I couldn't resist stopping for an ice cream treat.  Yum!  

     Rain fell most of the day, sometimes heavy and with thunder and lightning.  

The windshield wipers got a good workout.  

Many farm fields looked very waterlogged.*

*No motorists were put in danger by the shooting of this drive-by shot by a driver.  There was no oncoming traffic and I aimed the camera out the window without looking.

(I would like to always blog about yesterday, that way I can use the title "Yesterday" and avoid spending time fretting over what title to choose.  That really perplexes me sometimes.)

  

Yesterday

     Yesterday I rode along with my husband to get some machinery parts.  I didn't snap too many drive-by shots because the landscape isn't very scenic right now and most of the barns along the way are ones I've already photographed.  It was nice to see some green in the form of this rye field beginning to grow.  I didn't even realize the photo had also caught the snow still there in the road ditch.

Barn Charm

This drive-by photo was taken a couple months ago.

Visit Bluff Area Daily for this week's Barn Charm.

Crocuses

     We had a nice rain last night 

and in the morning before the raindrops dried 

I quick took some crocus shots 

before the cats wandered through.  

I'm happy with this photo because

 it shows the true color of the crocuses. 

In order to do that, I changed a setting on my camera 

because the crocuses were turning out blue

 when I used the automatic setting.  

Unfortunately, though, the color of the surrounding dirt 

turned out untrue, having orangish highlights 

which are not really there. 

     Don't you hate it when you spend time taking photos and then you open the memory card on the computer and somehow something happens and the photos disappear forever.  That happened to me last evening and I was so sad.  Thank goodness they were only photos I had taken here around the farmyard and not from some special place I had traveled to.  They were simply crocuses and maple buds in the evening light, all of which can probably be photographed again tomorrow, though the cats like to sit on the crocuses and who knows if the evening sunlight and cloud configurations will ever be quite the same.  That's why we bloggers take so many photos and so often.   

     In consolation, I'm posting this shot of wild phlox from early summer 2011.  Its from a wildflower photo album I have on Facebook.  Its possible to upload Facebook photos onto BeFunky for editing, so that's what I did with this one.

Miscellaneous Birds

Here's some recent miscellaneous bird photos.  

This first one is the only time I've ever managed

 to get a half-way decent shot of a female cardinal

 so I put her in the spotlight...

Here's two unidentified gray birds 

being shadowed by a spooky-looking blackbird...

And, lastly, here's an eagle in flight given the cinerama effect

 which is apparently supposed to 

make it look like a scene from a movie... 

Birds in the Treetops

Grackles and blackbirds were in the treetops the other day...

Robins

      Here's some photos taken a couple days ago.  There was a robin get-together going on in the hayfield...

...and in the tree branches...

Killdeer were there, too...

Temperatures remain on the chilly side, but the birds assure us that spring is here.

Skywatch

Photo taken this afternoon...

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Red-Wing Flock

     This afternoon I managed to get a shot of a flying flock of blackbirds, not realizing they were red-wings until seeing the photo on the computer screen.

Barn Charm

An evening drive-by shot from last fall...

Visit Bluff Area Daily for this week's Barn Charm.

I had an awful, horrible, unpleasant Easter.  April fool!

     Actually, Easter was great, though the weather was dismal as evidenced by this photo.  The kids and grandkids were here and fun was had by all.  Last evening, after everyone went home I had a chance to watch the movie Lincoln and enjoyed the history lesson therein.