May 4th, 2007
summer skies
We’re finally having some great weather here – sunny skies and temperatures around 18C (64F) and it’s supposed to become much warmer next week. No doubt, the mosquitoes will be making their appearance en masse any time now! We’re planning a weekend of hiking, so I’m not sure how much I’ll be posting over the next couple of days, but no doubt, I’ll be back with some interesting photos after the weekend.
Just a short post today as I have quite a bit too do around here. Our tree order was ready for pickup at the Ferguson Forestry Centre, so Don brought it home yesterday. I’m planning to plant everything today if my back holds out. It’s just a very small order this year: 20 Hemlock, 10 Silver Maple, 10 Bitternut Hickory, and 10 Red Oaks. The trees are fairly small – usually 2 or 3 year old stock – so not too difficult to plant. It’s always more a case of figuring out the best spot for each. I’ve wanted to plant Hemlock for several years, but the available stock changes from year to year, and Hemlock seemed to be in short supply. It’s nice to finally get some, but the amusing part is that they won’t really grow to be much in what remains of our lifetimes.
Anyhow, I must get to work, but here are a couple of “sky shots” taken over the past couple of days (click on each for a larger view). In the top one, we’re just leaving the poplar woods and Sabrina is looking across the field in the direction of our house. It’s in the pine trees in the distance. I thought it was such as great sky that day – so blue and with wispy white clouds along the horizon. The photo below was taken out the bedroom window at sunset. That’s been the view the past three nights — the sky has been almost the same each night — a wonderful deep indigo shading down to a golden glow along the horizon. The butternut and poplar trees on the north side of the house are silhouetted in such a way that the scene reminds me of a leaded glass window or lampshade. The past two nights, the huge flock of geese that are hanging out in the nearby fields have flown over the house at sunset — just above roof height. Both times, I’ve been too slow to grab the camera and get to the window, but take my word for it…. it has been an awesome sight. The birds are so low that, with the window open, I can hear the whoosh of their wings as they barely clear the roof top and fly in a “V” onwards over the tops of the trees in this photo – the geese all silhouetted black against the indigo sky. If we continue to get these great sunsets, I’ll keep trying for a photo to share with you.
May 4th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
It’s hard for me to think about 54 degF as warm, Bev! It’s certainly comfortable – close to my own happy temperature, but I will agree with you about summer skies!
There is something really neat about your open skies. There are places around here, very large pastures and fields, and of course the land around interstates and large highways, that allow you a view of open skies. Nothing like the western NA continent, of course, but a reasonable facsimile. WVFD is situated on the roadside of such an area and I was ecstatic to watch the thunderstorms roll in last night.
Our humble house is “down in a hole”, as the construction boss told us, in 1991. Not so, but it is nestled within a forest, and at least 30 degrees above the horizon is cut off except for the occasional glimpse of something lower. Sometimes it feels like we only see the sky through tunnel vision!
May 4th, 2007 at 4:35 pm
Wayne – Believe me when I say that a sunny 54F degree day feels practically toasty warm by the time winter is over and done with. Anything above 60 is pretty much t-shirt weather. I’ve been wearing shorts most of the time for 3 or 4 weeks now, even when the temperature is in the 30s and 40s. Our summers seem so short that we have to make hay while the sun shines! (-:
Actually, I like open skies too. I’ve been in plenty of places where the skies are, as you describe, reduced by about 30 degrees, and it’s okay for awhile, but I like being able to see the sky in every direction. That was one of the things I absolutely loved about being in the really open high desert regions in south-central Oregon. The same for places I’ve been in Arizona. Some of the vistas were mind-blowing.
And yes, wow, you really see storms coming. We’ve had friends and family stay here and be pretty terrified when we get a truly crazy thunderstorm coming through. You can see them approaching for miles.
May 4th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
I always like the pix of your pup. Some of my sky shots are okay, but that’s generally because the sky looks great, not cuz of my photography skills.
May 5th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Beautiful skies there, bev. Yes, for those of us who have spent the past several months with temps hovering in the 20s 30s and 40s, a 60F day seems like summertime.
I hope you get a shot of those geese. I love when they fly over in the evening. I am always reminded of the song, Who Knows Where the Time Goes, that begins:
Across the evening sky
All the birds are leaving
But how can they know
It’s time for them to go?
May 5th, 2007 at 6:06 pm
pablo – I think you sell your photography skills short. (-:
–
robin – I tried for a shot of the geese last night, but for some reason, the flew in two V’s from different directions and didn’t pass over the house as on previous evenings. I’ll try again tonight. I love watching geese flying over at sunset, or even during the night when there’s a bright moon. They’re usually more silent then, and I just hear the whoosh of their wingbeats. Nice lyrics that express some of the wistfulness that I’m sure most of us feel as our summer season draws to an end. I’m certainly glad that the geese are just arriving and not on their way south right now!