KORGLEND2

Monday, September 30, 2013

Two inches in two days!


It's raining on Tricky and the pond which is nearly full.

Rain clouds promise even more rain.  

Yesterday's golf ball has opened into a nice little frog umbrella.

Tenkit sniffing a stick. Our red dragonfly likes to perch there but he deserted us when the pond dried up.  Will he be back?


Sunday, September 29, 2013

Pond is filling.

This nice big storm is filling our pond fast!  Over an inch of rain yesterday and today.  More keeps coming!  Big wind too, kind of exciting, I'm glad we have a brand new roof, security!


Below: If you guess golf ball, you are wrong.
If you say golf-ball-sized hail, wrong again, but that's a great guess.
If you guess golf-ball-sized mushroom that grew in just a few hours, you are right! 
 
Mid afternoon: skies are just wild today. It's so windy, these clouds were gone in a few minutes, replaced continuously with new wild clouds. 


Saturday, September 28, 2013

Cats N Dogs

My weather station console tells me "it's raining cats n dogs!" Ha, indeed it is, and nicely filling the pond. Photos tomorrow!  For now, here's a pretty sky photo from earlier today.


Friday, September 27, 2013

Mammata

Lovely clouds fill the sky around noon, promising rain. I am still amazed by the sky here every single day.

We need a little more rain to fill the pond.

Looks like we may get it!



Thursday, September 26, 2013

The Fire Area

The roads through the devastation of the Douglas Complex fires are finally open.  Two miles from our house, the fire has raged since July 26. Today, we took a long hike, and it was incredible.  The carnage of the forest is spotty in some areas, complete obliteration in others. 


 Still some hot spots puff smoke, as in the center of this photo.


Bracken ferns are popping up already after the rains. 

This tree might make it. Many trees were burned from underneath like this.

One tall tree on a burnt hillside is still green. A parent tree for the future.

Desolate horrific landscape goes along the road for 15 miles.

They are pulling a lot of the dead trees out for logs, putting the branches in piles.  They smell incredibly good.

I think this guy was gone way before the fire, but finding this antlered skull was very fitting for the scene.  

Once green and beautiful, a small stand of green firs is all that remains on this hillside.

Trees burned all the way to the ground and some kept burning below the ground, leaving big black holes, they are eerie looking.

A large tree hole with red Oregon grape sprouting up all around.


Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Rainy Wednesday

Nice evening sky!

The frog pond is about a third full, thanks to recent rains.  

Gratuitous Lester picture.



Monday, September 23, 2013

The Big Strawberry Mystery

My big overflowing raised bed full of strawberry plants has produced berries all summer long, except when there was too much smoke from the forest fires, then they slowed down.  Once the air cleared a bit, they started making flowers and green berries again, but where are the ripe ones?  We pondered this mystery.



One day I saw pieces of ripe red strawberries littered all over the back yard.  Birds? Rodents? Anybody's guess.

But then we saw this around the side of the pond, and we knew the answer.....



Raccoons!! How funny. Perfect little hand prints all over the place!

Pretty with a little rain


Fog on the hills to our north around noon.

Pond and pampas grass
 
Pond getting more rain water

Plants look beautiful after a shower




Sunday, September 22, 2013

Tiny little rainbow


The fading rainbow is barely visible in the lower right.

But the rain clouds are quite visible.

Saturday, September 21, 2013

Cloudy and rainy Saturday

I just never get tired of the sky here!








Friday, September 20, 2013

Nice rain!

Today rain was predicted, so we watched the radar and saw it make landfall at the coast about 11:00 am. It arrived here around 3:00 and we got over a third of an inch by 4:00. The air smells incredibly fresh. Take that, smoldering fires! 


Trusty weather station

The view almost obscured by rain to the east...

Thick clouds to the west as the storm keeps coming in.

There are hills back there, we just can't see them!

Rain between us and the hills to the north

Hummingbird photo bomb. 
(Hint, he's in the middle of the lower of three branches.)
It's not a good picture of him, but I was taking CLOUD photos!





Tuesday, September 17, 2013

After a little rain

The view to the east looks like a painting!

The view to the southwest

And south. The hills are not on fire, just bright clouds!

Monday, September 16, 2013

Pretty Cloud Capitol

I'm pretty sure Glendale's topography is some kind of magical cloud factory, every day brings another display of outrageously dramatic ones.


Sunday, September 15, 2013

Pretty clouds but no rain.

It's 8:15 Sunday night and 62 degrees outside. It was nice all day, not hot, not cold, not windy, not rainy. It only got up to 82 for a high, the perfect temperature. 

Below:  trusty weather station hard at work as clouds fly by.



Cloudy Sunday morning

It's 7:30 a.m. and we are not usually up at this hour.  Who knew it would be so pretty!  Our closest hill has a fat cloud sitting on top and our far hills are barely visible.  Will it rain? Naaaahhhhh. The National Weather Service gives it a 30% chance.


Looking north toward the close hill.


Looking northwest


.

Friday, September 13, 2013

Night views in Glendale

It was another beautiful day in Glendale, hot and clear, perfect. 
Tonight, moon and cobalt blue sky that I love so much.