A Few Things to be Thankful For

Just a few things to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving.......brilliant sunsets......

 

...pastel sunsets.....

 

...breath-taking sunrises....

 

.....sunrises from bed.....

 

 

Enjoy!

What aSshow Nature Put On!

On Friday night, we had a spectacular show. Monsoon season is here in full swing. The layers of clouds (above) is just so cool. Some darker storm clouds, with white clouds and blue sky above them. Kind of an amazing sight....

The above image was really sort of surreal - the downward rays are rain, but the sky was rose-pink from the sun that managed to peek between the clouds.....

And, the coolest sight was just looking straight up, and seeing the sort of calm eye of the storm looking down on the other darker clouds. What a wonderful show we had!

Enjoy!

Breathtaking Sunset Tonight

"Clouds came floating into my life..."

"....no longer to carry rain and usher storm....."

"....but to add colour to my sunset sky." (Rabindranath Tagore)

Enjoy....

Supermoon Rising

Tonight is the night of the supermoon rising! I'm not an astrologist or astronomer, but as I understand it, the moon looks very, very large during the moon rise because this is the night when the moon and the earth are as close to each other as they get. Jeff & I went outside with my camera and tripod and captured these shots. Isn't it beautiful?

Many folks believe that a supermoon is an indicator of bad things to come, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. I don't believe that. It's just too beautiful for that to occur. This second shot is a bit darker, but shows off the moon pretty well.

Enjoy!

Tonight's Sunset

Here are a couple of sunset photos from tonight. The above shot was early on in the process, and the one below was taken just a minute or two before the gloriousness (is that a word?) was over. I took the above one from our front courtyard, and then wandered around out back of our house & our next door neighbor's.

What a beautiful area we live in! Enjoy!!

December in the High Desert

I took these images just before Christmas. The sky here never ceases to amaze me! The above photo was taken as the moon was rising, and while the last little wisp of color from the sunset was still in the sky. This is looking out from our back patio.

This image was of an incredible sunrise this month. Our little airport windsock is in the lower left hand corner. I left it in there just to give you some perspective as to how big the sky is. I just love the warm colors of the sunrise slowly warming up the cool, dark sky of night.

Not all of the cool sights are in the sky, tho! We had a little snow the other day, and I thought this banana yucca plant in front of a rock in our front courtyard made a nice little snowy cactus still life portrait. For someone who grew up in the Midwest, it seems a bit odd to see snow on cactus, but it really is fairly common here in the high desert during the winter!

Enjoy!

August Sunrise

What a glorious sunrise we had this morning! And, I was so glad the New Mexico sky decided to show off! We have had visitors for the weekend, and today is the day they leave, so this was a wonderful send off for them! I love the rays in the above shot - the sun is actually pretty high up into the clouds.

And, off to the north, the sunrise created some beautiful pink & purple colors to the clouds over the Sangri de Christo mountains (I think I spelled them correctly!). It's kind of funny to think of a sunrise as being pink and purple, but that's the magic of the New Mexico sky!

This was actually toward the beginning of the sunrise. It seems that there's a little bit of every color going here. Gosh, I just love sunrises here. Enjoy!

Jeff & His Flying Machine

What a beautiful day for flying! Jeff thought so, too! He had been working on his plane, and got it put together, so he took it out on a test flight, just to make sure things were all working the way they should. He did a series of "touch and go's" where he lands and then immediately rev's the engine and takes off again. I didn't have my camera for the first take-off, but ran into the house and got it in time for the second!

I liked the above shot because it looks exactly like what it was out today - the wild blue yonder! What great clouds and sky we had today!

This was the third take-off. He actually turned a bit so that he took off directly over me. I was pretty close to the runway, but not directly on it, which I'd have to be to get this shot otherwise! I like the silhouette look of the plane against that wonderful sky.

I really like the above shot. It just speaks to me of freedom. No wonder Jeff loves to fly.

And, here he is - safe and sound on the ground! What a great morning to fly.....and to photograph it!

Another Fabulous Sky !!

What a show the sky put on yesterday evening! I love the above photo. I call it "Back Yard" because I took it from our back patio, but it's really Patches' (our neighbor's horse, also in the photo) back yard, as well. I think Patches help give one a sense of perspective and appreciate how "big" the sky is here!

The above photo reminds me that there is something much bigger than we are. Whatever you call it, God, Allah, Supreme Being, there's something out there bigger than all of us, and I like to think she's rather a cool being - after all, look at this sky!!

The cloud (above) was just highlighted in the coolest way, sort of like the creme filling in a blue Oreo cookie!

This photo was one I had to include in this collection because there are just so many layers that you can see - the mountain, darker blue clouds, lighter blue sky patch, pale grey clouds, the glowing clouds, the paler whitish clouds and finally, again, a sort of pale grey clouds in the farthest distance, and closest to the mountain in this photo. It is just amazing, and magical (I seem to use that word here a lot when describing the sky). How wonderful.

And, finally, this photo captures the evening sky finally coming in to claim this part of the sky. A peaceful conquest, that will be relinquished the following morning. True balance in life. Enjoy.

This Morning's Sunrise

I know I've been sharing sunset photos with you all lately. Here's a wonderful sunrise photo from this morning. We have a pretty dry climate, so misty, foggy mornings are somewhat rare. It felt somewhat magical, and hopefully that translated into the photo! Enjoy!

Yesterday's Sunset

I just had to share these wonderful images from yesterday's sunset. It was really rose and purple, even though it looks somewhat surreal! The above and below photos were taken with our neighbor's horse corral in the foreground. If you look closely at the image below, you can see Patches, the painted pony (look for the patches of white).
I turned from taking the sunset photos and saw almost the exact opposite effect in the sky toward the north. The sunset over the San Pedro Mountains looks almost pastel by comparison. Same sunset, same time, very different results!

Enjoy!

Sunset View from Back Patio

Tonight, when Jeff put Miki out back for a bit, he said he thought the sunset might be pretty tonight. I grabbed my camera and we sat out back for a bit, and were rewarded with this lovely sight. I feel so incredibly lucky and fortunate to be living the life I have right now.

On a separate note, I got the latest issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors yesterday, and as I was relaxing and enjoying the artwork in it, I turned the page....and there was my art work! Wow! I had submitted something a few months ago in response to a readers' challenge, and mine was one of the (relatively) few they published. I'm still excited!

Enjoy this photo and your life!