This has been quite a week. Frankly a difficult one that leaves me with little I really want to go into detail about. I went out and walked as usual but there was really nothing picture worthy and the gloom persisted for much of the day. It went from forties to nearly the seventies seemingly all at once. I don’t feel much room to brag about the seventies when it takes all day to get there and then is quickly gone as the day passes its zenith. I’m still waiting for enough money to get the car timing belt and water pump changed out…I will be much relieved to have that out of my hair. My daughter will need to use that car to take her test for her driver’s license…oh boy. I will need to make adjustments on the insurance at that point. She graduates next year…I think I’m still in shock over that one.
I thought I’d better head out for some pictures but first I had to show this pathetic shot of our salamander
. The contrast of the black and white really is nice and unique. These are close enough to the deck where we have to keep them trimmed
. Right now I feel a little like that tree. Life can have its moments where it feels one thing after another is being cut off and pruned left and right. The good news is that without this pruning I know I wouldn’t grow the way I’m supposed to. There’s nothing worse than an untamed tree that is left to go wild until it does damage to everything around it now is there? Bless you my friends.
. If you’ve not read it I recommend it…three books…all worth the read. 
. The skies are beautiful, the buds are beginning to show themselves and the sun has that warmth showing through that I’ve so longed for
. The greens of spring have been quite slow to show but it is slowly making itself known
. I love when the buds just start popping wide open…as of today these are much more open then in this photo
. I’m ready for the bleak scene in our backyard to green up, I have to tell you…just look at the dead leaf remnants in our rocks
. The house finches are so pretty to see. I heard some chirping and looked up to see this handsome little fellow
. It won’t be long and I’ll be in this spot taking pictures of the storms that roll by on the plains in the spring
. This little ironwork bird is sitting and waiting for the warmer days to come
…I can hardly wait! The dead leaves in the rocks will give way to our potted garden
. This year we’ve got everything from egg plants to Asian peppers…it will be beautiful and tasty! This is the beginning of every walk I take around here…care to join me
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. It seemed that each second provided a slightly different hue
. There were some golden colors at one point
but as time moved on so did the color spectrum and pinks started to show more and more
. I remember owning an etch a sketch as a kid…this was like a giant one that had far more interesting colors available
. The skies brilliance effected the lighting of the entire prairie at this point
and the blue in the sky was effected as well making it an impossible color
. Our evergreen tree was taking all this in with me…I thought I’d take a picture of it and forgot to disable my flash…still I kind of like how this turned out
. I prefer the pine needle silhouette though
. The light was fading and the trees are still bare so they remind me of black fishbone skeletons against the magnificent sky
. I love the view here from our house on nights like this
. This is the direction that most of our violent storms come from but for now it’s a sailor’s delight
. I crept over to the pond which is dry right now in the hopes of getting some nice angles
. It was worth enduring the smell of stagnant mud to get these shots I think
. I’m surprised water is not around by this time but it has been pretty dry for us
. Evenings like this still do something to me that I can’t quite explain…it’s like in spite of all the trouble in the world it can’t touch me here
. They say it’s always darkest before the dawn…that could well be so. Ultimately it can’t be dawn at all until we’ve gone through the night. There’s promise in rainbows that herald the end to storms but there’s also promise of the dawn to come after a sunset. Bless you my friends.
but it can’t disappear anytime too soon for me. I look forward so much to having our potted garden growing various things…no not pot rather it will be vegetables instead of flowers this year. I want to sit at the table, enjoy the breeze and read with a cup of something nice for now the table only holds the remnants of melting snow
. Today the sky looks inviting…I’d call it a sapphire with cotton sky
. Ice or remnants of snow cling to the shadows to survive the warming temperatures but it can’t hang on much longer
…as of tomorrow we hit the sixties and I’ve got to say I’m way ready! 
. It was really moving! The bright sun belies the cold out there
. I often am amazed at the difference between the wind that we are experiencing versus the upper atmosphere that allows for cotton ball clouds like these
. What has amazed me this year is the variety of pictures and weather conditions people have talked about. There’s everything from full bloom daffodils to several inches of snow…with extremes like that it’s a small wonder there’s tornadoes now. We are somewhere between…mild for winter yet it’s nothing like spring…nothing much in the bird department just yet
. By the time I was heading back home the sun was having quite a struggle to show its shiny face
. The Canadian Geese have been hanging out in the golf course in this area quite a bit lately
. Most of them fly from one end of the area to the next in “V” formation but never seem to go far though there are times when our winter is very bitter indeed. All the cool Geese hang out here near another windmill
. Finally only a couple of blocks from our house I gazed at the magical lighting in the big sky that I know and love so well
. Soon the season of storms will arrive…I wonder just how wild it will be for us this year.