… to see right now …
… such as thriving peaches readily available in the market …
… and hydrangeas blooming while the trees still hug their leaves …
… as the summer-warm lake lazes under a drowsing sun …
… and the creek slowly trickles along , relaxing in the shade …
… while the grapes grow plumper with each passing day.
Happy Sunday.
September lovelies!
Happy Friday.
We’ve recently had some rather spectacular cloud formations. Here’s one, an excellent example of a towering cumulonimbus that’s reflecting the setting sun.
These clouds are known in aviation as “clouds of vertical development” and are extremely dangerous because they can contain hail, lightening, microbursts, wind shear and turbulence severe enough to break an aircraft apart, even a large commercial jet. Pilots are always very careful where vertical cloud development is concerned. These cloud types can also cause very dangerous thunderstorms and are precursors to tornadoes. Basically, a tornado is a towering cumulonimbus cloud gone absolutely wild.
If you see a towering cumulonimbus and it’s headed your way, you should always be cautious, especially if you live on the prairies where the flat topography and lack of obstacles such as hills or mountains allows for unimpeded, potentially destructive development.
Otherwise, you can marvel at these natural constructions and enjoy their visual impact.
Happy Thursday.
Bernie
Wowsers WordlessWednesday
A gorgeous sunset picture from Bernie at 3six5snap2. Please see click the link above to see more of Bernie’s lovely photography.
While out for a ramble I heard a very distinctive sound: that unmistakable rattle of dry leaves in a gust of wind; there they were, swirling on the ground in a sure demonstration of the unstoppable arrival of autumn.
We’re still very green, but even those leaves seem to make that particular rattling sound once September arrives. It’s understandable. By turns it has been hot, dry, smoky, and windy. They’re tired.
But among all that greenery the autumnal colours are slowly creeping in. Everything in life starts small.
Although autumnal yellows are often the first colours to show, I’ve already noticed some reds, too.
The Oregon grape is changing its dress …
… while the matador roses that bloom so beautifully and unceasingly from June through August, are beginning to slump.
Summer officially ends in less than two weeks and while it’s a bit sad to see it go, autumn is a wonderful season with its graceful and stunningly beautiful characteristics. I’m looking forward to it.
Happy Wednesday.
Now that the nights are becoming much cooler, the Butterflies and Blooms exhibit at the Chicago Botanic Gardens has closed for the season, so I was …
Butterfly Beauties
A gorgeous collection of butterfly pictures from Sue at The Nature of Things. Please click the link above to see more of her beautiful nature photography.
Here are some varied summer evening-sky scenes to remember as this lovely season begins to disappear into autumn.
A blue hour with moon …
… a silhouetted mountain …
… an overcast sunset …
… and sunset-reflected clouds …
… together with a lovely view of evening Rocky Mountains …
… are images to take with us as summer unwinds.
Happy Sunday.
We have had extremely smoky conditions since Wednesday with a nearby forest fire contributing a lot of the smoke while more has been heading from those brutal fires 2200 km (1367 miles) to the north of us in the Northwest Territories.
After a hazy evening on Wednesday we soon became absolutely choked with smoke and hit a “10” on the air quality index, which means that people really should stay inside unless wearing a mask.
Looks rather awful, doesn’t it?
We are thankfully expecting several days of rain within the next 24 hours though, so I hope we will soon be looking more like the above picture very soon!
I posted about colour-shifting hydrangeas last week but since they’re so beautiful and in the middle of their annual costume change, I’m visiting the same topic yet again but this time regarding a different type of hydrangea.
An hydrangea that shifts from red to purple, blue or purplish-blue and back to pink or red again is a “Bigleaf” hydrangea that is reacting to soil ph levels. In one of the city parks there’s one of those; it puts on a magnificent colour show all summer long and well into autumn.
This hydrangea is not to be confused with the “Cardinal” hydrangea that blooms red and stays in that colour zone throughout the summer, though. I posted about that type of hydrangea a couple of years back.
Above and below are a series of pictures from this spring and summer showing its beautiful progression. All photos show the same hydrangea shrub.
When it completes its final metamorphosis back to red I’ll post more pictures of this beautifully variable hydrangea.
Happy Friday.
Wordless Wednesday 9/2/25
A lovely capture from Laura at Laura Roettiger Books. Please click the link above to see more of her beautiful photography.
In the Net! - Pictures and Stories of Life 