I Bin Workin' Hard!

    I've been working hard to get some photos of fall colors. Yes, our colors started few weeks ago and the best of it is over.

    Along with colors we had some good sky scenes with cloud build ups. 

     So from time to time I grabbed the camera and took a bunch of shots. Most I deleted. 

    So here are some of the shots I kept.

Excuse the neighbor's eave's trough on the left

There's a lot of power in this one.

Lots of sunlight on the birch

A large poplar that's past it's prime

A mountain ash with red berries to go along with yellow leaves.

Cold Front

     Yesterday was a very pleasant warm September day. I hurried to get some jobs done that didn't get done earlier. The wooden shed got cleaned. Everybody has a wooden shed! Just at the end of the shed cleaning the shop vac told me it was full so I had to replace the bag. Edging got done. It was a busy afternoon. 

     Listening to the forecast I realized that a cold front and showers were on the way.

     It was still nice at 6:30 PM so I did my 20 km(12.5 mi) bike ride. 10 minutes from the end of the bike ride there were a few gusts of wind. By the time I got to the house the gusts were of a higher velocity with a steady wind.

    Light was still good so I thought I'd get  few photos of fall colors. By the time I got out the wind was wild. The cold front was moving through the area.

    So I got some photos but not exactly what I had in mind. I got shots of trees blowing in the wind. Leaves were also blowing above the trees.
   
    By about 10:30 the front had gone through and it was calm again.

    Not all shots showed the front so many were deleted.

This was a throw away shot into the sun. When I looked at it I could see the leaves whirling above the trees. Enlarge it.

Ominous cloud

Clouds building up.

Ragged scowling clouds.

Power in Clouds

I gazed---and gazed---but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought.
       From William Wordsworth's I wandered Lonely as a Cloud

This bank of clouds built up in mid afternoon

More of the same cumulus clouds.

More of this huge bank of clouds

     We can think of clouds in a romantic aspect  or we can think of clouds in a scientific way. 

      Clouds are beautiful but at the same time it takes  tremendous energy to build a cloud and that energy is contained in the cloud.

     These clouds built up the other day and stayed south of me. I could enjoy the beauty but had sunshine all the time and I didn't get wet.

3000 meters(10000 ft) of Clouds Above me Tonight

       About 4:30 PM today it got dark enough  in the house to turn the lights on. Clouds built up steadily all day and it began to rain about 4:30 PM.

       We didn't have cumulus clouds today but layer after layer of clouds.


       Our forecast predicted rain for this afternoon , evening , night and tomorrow. So you know that a major system is moving into the area. The radar map show a large cloud system slowly moving north from Montana and curving in toward the Rocky Mountains. This is when we get a major rainfall. As I said in a post before, the air mass has to rise when it hits the Rockies and when it rises it cools and  dumps the rain on us. This system has come over the mountains of the north western states. Somehow much of the moisture remained in the system and it is released over us.


      When we get west winds we don't get rain. The air moves over the Rockies and all the moisture falls on the west slopes of the Rockies. 


      So you see at 4:30 PM this afternoon we had a huge build up of cloud which was full of moisture and some of it fell on us. With a very thick cloud layer much sunlight is blocked so we have to sit in the dark or turn the lights on.


      Since I like rain I'm fine. I like going out for a long walk in the rain. I think I'll have a good chance to walk in the rain tomorrow.

Monday Morning Clouds.

    This morning there was much activity in the atmosphere. We had rain over night and so the humidity was very high. With a little day time heating there was lots of activity with the formation of clouds. So I thought I'll try some shots of clouds. The title should be something like learning to take pictures of clouds or something.

    The cloud formations were beautiful but the photography was elementary.

       In November of 1958 I missed my bus. My only option was to get out and hitch hike. I had hitch hiked a lot so was very comfortable to be out in the November cold. I had faith that I would be picked up. Sure enough in a few minutes I was picked up by a young family with two young kids. They were travelling from Winnipeg to Edmonton so had been on the road a long time and the kids were bored. I road with them for about 160km (100mi). To keep the kids occupied they had them look at clouds and say what shape they saw in the clouds. So there were bears, horses, lions tigers and many more creatures. They also had my attention as I would be watching to which cloud they were referring.


     So I had a very enjoyable ride with this family and was entertained by all sorts of cloud  shapes the kids saw.


     Today I was entertained by the changing morning clouds.