Awake

April Showered Sunset

And this is how we do sunsets in Ashland after an April showery day...

Cloud Invasion

This evening I meant to take a nice sunset stroll in the general direction of downtown. Instead, upon glancing in the opposite direction, I noticed an invasion of Altocumulus lenticularis, also known as UFO clouds, raiding the Southern sky. Turning around, I followed the railroad tracks but became frustrated by the lower ground of the Railroad District and the lack of a clear view of the large lenticularis sweeping up the flank of the Siskiyous. As I walked along the pathway, I looked East and observed another evening sky invader: The Wicked Witch of the West. It was only her head and in cloud form, but evenso, I recognized her immediately.

The brisk cold wind blew hard on my insufficiently covered body, but I pressed southward in search of a clear shot of the invading lenticularis. Finally, I found one.

At this point, I could have turned around, but I thought I might as well get some exercise while I was out and continued down East Main to a rural area. I said hello to this horse, who actually did not seem that happy to see me. But that didn't stop me from taking his picture. Sorry, horsey.

I finally reached GracePoint church and headed onto their property and toward the vacant lot behind the little playground there. It was there I waited for the sun to set, which it did, and when my camera's memory card told me (once again) that it was full, I packed it up and realized that my fingers were freezing cold. A mile and a half from home, I walked back with the bitter cold wind in my face wondering why on earth I didn't have the sense to wear a jacket, hat, and gloves. Oh well.

Happy Saturday.

Waiting for water to boil

Spinach tortellini for (late) lunch today. While I was waiting for the water to boil, I popped out back and shot a few pics of the lovely Spring flowers that are blossoming in abundance around my yard...

...and then there's this one from earlier today:

Hope the Spring is treating you equally as well. Happy Thursday.

Cloud Watching on an April Evening

It was another gorgeously beautiful day in Ashland today. Blue sky all day with a smattering of happy puffy Cumulus popping up here and there. But, at the end of the day, a thunderhead boiled up south of us in the Siskiyous.

I left the Y just before seven and headed straight home to grab the camera. Camera as my co-pilot, I headed over to Emigrant Lake in hopes of a view of our One Big Cloud of the day.

I parked at the lot before the boathouse and scampered up the dam. Ooo! Pretty cloud.

While I was snapping photos of the big cloud, the sun was setting. And lest you think I was exaggerating about there only being one cloud, I turned around and took this picture of The Other Cloud in the sky this evening. (See, I was mostly telling the truth!)

And, now, back to the action! The cumulonimbus continues to grow and happy people get one last waterskiing run before dark. Waterskiing in April. Mwahaha. You wish you were here, don't you.

I was beginning to get hungry for dinner. (Sometimes I forget about dinner and just want to go take pictures of pretty things.) So I headed out. I got to the entrance of Emigrant Lake, looked South and...

The Anvil. Duh duh duuuuhhhhhhhhhh.

I had to get a closer look. I turned south on Hwy 66 and found a turnout.

The Anvil Cometh!

Mmmmmmmmmm. Annnnnnvilllllllll. My favorite. (Sorry, I kept missing the lightning. But it was there!)

Ooo. Watch how it Billows. Billow, Anvil. Billow.

Sadly, it was time to go. I took one last look at the Cumulonimbus and it's Happy Tail.

I'm glad the birdies liked the sunset too.

And that's the story of The One Cloud We Had Today (and The Other One, Too).

Happy Tuesday.

Lithia Park's Playground Overseer

Visited our little Western Screech Owl in Lithia Park again yesterday evening. The original shot was fairly dark since I arrived just after the sunset. But nothing that a little Photoshop couldn't handle.

It's always fun and relaxing to visit The Owl.

Pictures from Morel Hunting (but not Finding) Posted

Went morel hunting today with a friend. We went east on Hwy 66 up and over the summit of Green Springs to this place we called "Red Mountain" due to all the red soil everywhere. Didn't find any mushrooms of any kind until we stopped at Tub Springs on the way back and found a couple of Snowbank False Morels. Even so, it was a gorgeous day, temps in the low 80s, just perfect.

The rest of the photos are in my set on Flickr: Morel Hunting

Hope you are enjoying your Monday.

Spring Wildflowers in Lithia Park

Found a number of wildflowers in bloom in Lithia Park today. If you know the names of them, I'd love to know! The only one I recognized by name was Oregon Grape, but I hadn't seen it in bloom before. Update: The first one Fritillaria. Thanks Carol!

Fritillaria

Oregon Grape

Hope you enjoyed your Sunday. It was beautiful today in Ashland.

Happy Birthday, April!

Just want to wish my sister-in-law, April, a happy birthday!

Rhody Bud

Super-tweaked the exposure and contrast to create this image of a Rhododendron bud in my backyard soaking in the last seconds of sunlight before the sun went behind the hills.

Happy Friday.

Another batch of favorites from Easter weekend

Here's another small batch of favorites from this past weekend. Enjoy!

Zoie gets a first look at her transformation into a tiger.

Sno-Cone in hand, The Dadoo takes in the festivities at Avamere.

One of the treats of staying at Grandma and Grandpa's...morning cartoons on the Big Bed.

Just before the sun set on Friday, I stole away to the backyard for some close-ups of the blossoming trees.

Waiting for Cupcakes

This is one of my favorites from the pictures I took over the weekend.

More to come...in a trickle, instead of all at once this time.

Cross raised at new worship center at Village

DSC00057
Originally uploaded by villageonflickr

Glad to see pictures of the cross-raising at the construction site at Village today. Wish I could have been there! More pictures of construction at villageonflickr's photostream and in the photo pool, Village Baptist Church Construction Photos. (I'm admin of that pool and I invite you to add your photos of the worship center construction to that group! So far it's just me (and I don't even live there!) and Patty (who takes the pictures for Village). The more the merrier!

Spring Walk on Helman St.

Took a very long exploratory walk around Ashland today, kind of following Ashland Creek and ended up going down Helman Street all the way to the dog park. On Helman, I found about 20 or more deer hanging out, some lovely flowering trees, and even some lambs. Put the pictures in this set, Spring Walk on Helman St..

Here are a few favorites:

Find the rest here.

Hope you enjoy. Happy Weekend.

Sunset on Dead Indian Memorial Road

A little after six this evening it was looking like there might be a pretty sunset, so I grabbed the camera and hopped in the car to scope out a good place to take some pictures. I went south and turned on Dead Indian Memorial Road, a road I had not yet explored (and wasn't exactly sure where it would take me). Well, it took me *into* the hills. Not exactly awesome to be surrounded by (albeit very pretty) hills when what I was looking for was a clear vantage point of the valley north with sky and clouds, etc. But, just when I was about to turn around, the road gained a bit of altitude and lo and behold, a turnout, some nice branchy trees, and a sun, setting behind the hills.

And a car wreck.

Later, I stopped off at the Railroad District Park, but none of the pictures turned out the way I wanted, so, it turned out to be more of a learning experience instead of a sharing experience.

The small set of photos that made the cut can be found in my flickr set: Sunset on Dead Indian Memorial Road. Enjoy.

Happy End-Of-Friday.

Spring's Silhouette

After my trip to the bank this afternoon (yay!) I went searching for higher ground to capture Ashland's hills in the midst of a classic April shower afternoon. I found some, but struggled with my beginner's knowledge of exposure and how to balance light in a dramatically lit sky and a shadowed foreground. This one turned out pretty good:

After trying my hand at the hills, on my way down aptly named Mountain Avenue, I stopped in at the nature center for this shot that I spotted on my way up.

After taking this, I walked around the grounds looking for interesting subjects, but it's still a little early in the Spring for an abundance of color and life. Even so, I found this fine tree and admired it's silhouette (a word I just properly learned how to spell, thank you Google) and it is the inspiration for today's post. I hope you enjoy.

Happy Friday.