Mooned

Since we have had few clouds lately, I had a chance the other night to photograph the moon in the evening sky.

I tried every setting on the dial on my camera (except video) and frankly, except for a couple settings making the sky appear more blue, the focus remained the same. Apparently the trick is to get the photo before it gets dark.

Over at the Resolution Blog, I've posted another moon picture, one I tinkered with a little in Photoshop.

Change of Season

Just as in the Spring, before it is nominally Spring, the season clicks over from Winter to Spring, so too has Autumn arrived, even though the calendar doesn't say so.

The light is different, the air is different, and in spite of the late heat wave, the nights are now suddenly CHILLY, as in You need a comforter, dum-dum. Yes, that chilly.

Tonight's low is supposed to be 56 degrees, but as it is already 59, I think that we may see 40's by daybreak, which is good snuggly-together weather, but will stop tomato production in its tracks.

I feel that I'm seeing too many clouds sweeping through at this time of year, as seen in the photo. Makes me uneasy, though God knows we were too dry last year.

May the Life That Guides the World give us what we need this coming Winter season.

Storm Chasing

There is a spot out the road where the sky is wide, and this is where we go to view weather.

Bernie woke me one night and dragged me here in the car to watch an amazing sight -- a dry lightning storm fracturing the darkness with bolt after bolt onto the distant Altamont Mountain Range. Today we were curious about what the sky would hold, as the early morning forecast was for showers, thundershowers, funnel clouds and possible tornadoes!

There was no doubt at all that the sky was unsettled; we could see isolated showers to the left and to the right. However, the only really freakish thing about the weather was that it was January weather in mid-May.

We went to Mass last night so that we could stay home and watch the craziness. I even declared today a junk food day so that we wouldn't have to be distracted from oohing and aahing at the dangerous clouds, the laundry room ready to shelter us if a tornado did decide to show up.

Well, we had some interesting clouds ... and one soaking rain shower JUST when I had decided to pick some alstromeria and clean up their stems outside, but other than that, we've had sun, and the forecasters are all looking sideways pretending not to have predicted a disaster.

The junk food was delicious -- homemade chicken wings, sliced summer sausage, Irish extra sharp cheddar cheese, cold shrimp, green olives, pizza, strawberries ...

And now the freak weather can take a hike. It's time for us to leave January behind and find California sunshine waiting for us every day until say, the end of October.