Early One Morning the Sun Was Shining

I have to wake up very early in the morning.  So far as I have been able to tell, there have been no worms.  I do not see the benefit of being an early bird.  I like night time.  Night time is nice.  I'm productive at night.  In the morning I'm a crabby person.  I HATE waking up early.  I also get the added fun of driving in a Eastward direction for a good portion of my commute.  This is not generally a reality I'm pleased with.  The odds are quite good that I'll be doing a fair amount of squinting in the morning anyway, sun not required.  Sun just exacerbates the situation to the where I feel like I'm trying to drive with, like, half of one eye or something.  

I like cloudy mornings.  They suit my mood in the morning and also make it easier to see while driving.  (I am exaggerating this whole driving tangent at this point, please don't worry about me and those who share the road with me.)  

Once and awhile I break out of my curmudgeon morning mood to appreciate that morning skies can be very pretty.

This is not a picture of my street this morning.  It is a picture of my street some morning about a week ago or so.  (I'm now trying to remember why on earth I would have taken my camera to work with me last week.  I have no answers for myself.  I am now annoyed.  damn.)  I thought it was a very cool mixture of sunny and cloudy.  I also liked the variation of cloud types happening that morning.  This is the kind of morning I don't mind.  It don't make me all squinty, which is nice.

I'd like more of this kind, please.

I did warn you (if you're here via Facebook anyway) that the Bob Dylan references were likely to continue.

Fancy Camera

Somewhat randomly Steve had a very fancy camera in his possession for about 20 hours or so early this week. Some of those hours included our walk at Como Park on Monday so we took it along and I got to play a little bit.  Big fun.  Especially as there were just tons of puppies in the park that day.

If you look closely, there's a big ol' bumblebee on that flower.

 

There is a puppy hiding in those bushes!

Looking down at a bit of the man-made waterfall.

 

Some ivy or something growing on the rocks around the waterfall.

 

Some late afternoon light shining on this absolutely beautiful lily.

Look at how deep that red is.  Just gorgeous.

  

We always seem to see something completely random when we go to Como.  An unicyclist is no guy walking around with a full-grown monkey on his shoulder (oh how I wish I'd had my camera with me last week) but it's random enough for my tastes.

A very happy puppy.  I think I saw this dog "pulled over" about four different times so he could be pet by small children who were clearly in love with him.

 

A nice view of the lake.

 

A shot of a wild rose that was blooming a little way away from the bench where we were.

 

A cool looking plant that I was fascinated by a the time.

 

I liked the way the light was hitting the leaves on this tree.

 

An adorable little puppy that was very, very happy to see every single person that passed.

A cool lakeside house.

The actual waterfall (now that I've posted pictures of the stuff around the waterfall.)

This was such a pain in the butt.  It was still as can be until I decided I wanted to take this picture.  Then the wind started blowing like mad.  It figures.

 

Some cool sort-of back lit thistles.

 

An interesting collections of greens around the edges of the lake.  (Not shown: the disgusting, SMELLY scum/algae that's still covering a good portion of the lake.)

 

A nifty Birch tree.  I always try to take cool pictures of birch bark because I think it's super cool, the pictures usually turn out lame though.

 

Some very deeply veined bark.

This tree had some weird stuff hanging from its trunk.  It kind of looked like old clothes or something.  The sun was shining right on it so it was rather hard to tell.

 

Finally, a happy cloud!

Fun with a fancy camera!  Woo!

After The Storm

We had a right proper thunderstorm last night.  Actually, it was a bit more than that really.  Watching it on radar was like watching a giant purple blob scream toward the Twin Cities.  There were thunderstorms, tornado watches, flash flood warnings, etc., etc., etc.  But here's the thing - I loves me some thunderstorms.  I have ever since I was a little kid.  I remember sitting at the patio door with my brother as a small child watching the lightening illuminate the yard.

My brother likes to say there's nothing better than watching a good thunderstorm; it's better than fireworks.  I must say I disagree.  Fireworks are the shit.  Ain't nothing better than fireworks.  Thunderstorms are close though.

I'm also a big fan of clouds.  I feel like clouds don't really get all the attention they deserve.  They can do so much to change the mood of a scene.  They can convey danger, softness, lightness, or peace with nothing more than slightly different formations.  That's pretty cool.

Anyhow the moral of the story is after the good lightening passed through I was lying in bed watching some TV when I noticed our dark green curtains were turning the strangest color orange I've ever seen.  A quick peak outside revealed some of the most surreal, eerie light I've seen; especially without an actual tornado about to touch down.  Unfortunately I took entirely too long to locate my camera (located, rather logically, in my purse) and what follows does not particularly capture that eerie surrealism.  But much of the cloud cover that remained was still pretty cool.  It just doesn't nearly stand up to what it was about ten minutes beforehand.

This one is probably the closest.  I should point out - it was not sunset.  At all.  There was still a good hour and a half to actual sunset, though it quickly became just plain dark.