Sunday Stills (07-22-12 Up In the Sky)

This week's Sunday Stills challenge is to photograph things we see up in the sky. Around New Mexico, spotting a hot air balloon is a common occurence.

The clouds were unusually heavy on the mountaintops on this day and the moon was still visible in the day-time sky.

This contrail is straight up and down. I wasn't sure if I could get the photo because the sun was right there, but I think it came out pretty cool.

Everyone sees stars in the sky, but stars made of clouds? I don't know if this was caused by one plane playing or what, but it was very cool.

Here are two experimental planes out for a morning soar.

And lastly, it's always a bad thing when one sees smoke in the sky. This was from a recent fire in the bosque (little woods) down by the Rio Grande river and within city limits. It spread quickly, jumping the river and threatening to engulf houses but, fortunately, was put out before causing massive damage (like Colorado Springs) other than a few hundred acres of trees. On my way home from work, I drove under the smoke and it was very eerie, causing everything I saw to take on a golden hue for a few seconds.

For more Sunday Stills, please visit here. 

Sunday Stills (6-17-12 Clouds)

Today's photo challenge is clouds. Ahhh, one of my favorite pastimes is looking at cloud formations, one of God's miracles.

One day, I watched in fascination as this multi-layered cloud

reformed into a UFO.

On this morning, the clouds completely covered the mountains with a white froth.

This particular morning, there were layers and layers of horizontal clouds

or do you prefer vertical layers?

How about an extraterrestrial handprint?

Add a little sunset and you get stunning shades of pinks

and oranges, because, after all, you can't have a spectacular sunset without clouds, can you?

Gosh, I could go on and on, but I'll just let others share their photos instead. Visit here for more Sunday Stills.

blizzards and blue skies...and clouds

I took my son to the doctor and he had to get X-rays for his foot because, in spite of the exam in the emergency room on Sunday, where the Ottawa Rules said that there was no X-ray necessary, the doctor was concerned that the top of his foot was extremely swollen. Fortunately, the results came back negative- no breaks this time. He is doing better each day as long as he keeps it elevated and iced. Considering the weather outside, it shouldn't be hard to do! Sunday, it was almost 80 degrees. This morning- lots of snow and freezing temperatures!

I'm glad I had the foresight to blanket both Annie and Nadia. Annie always gets cold easily and Nadia, being older, does too. 

I love how the snow settled on the fence and gate.

Check out the curvy snow at Yalla's neck and forelegs!

Scout is looking for breakfast.

This afternoon, when I got off from work in town, the snow was almost all gone. Here's a view of the Sandia Mountains near my work. It was blizzarding in the morning and by afternoon, blue skies, with just a touch of snow on the west side of the mountains, in the afternoon. That's New Mexico weather for ya!

I live on the east side of the mountains, at a much higher altitude than the city, so there's a bit more snow around, but not much. I think the best part of the weather around here is the cloudy skies. Check these clouds out. This photo was taken just down the road from the previous mountain photo.

Then I noticed that the moon was up. It's almost dead center in the next photo. There's a little bit of reflection from the window being up.

 So I retook the picture with the window down. Notice how very similar this one is to the previous one.

Check out how the clouds have reformed, into a hand perhaps? You can see the moon better too.

The car window is open in this next photo so there is no reflection. It's all real clouds. Crazy, huh?

And I could go on and on with ever changing cloud pictures...

Always some change in the weather

Not only are we having snows every other day, we are getting fog too! We are having very strange weather patterns that I can't remember ever having before. For the last several nights, I drove from the city through the canyon, and into fog, as I reached the higher elevations of the foothills and plains, east of the city. It makes for very tough driving conditions when it's foggy, and snowing too, at night. And, the other morning, as I drove along the base of the mountain, around the outskirts of town, with clear skies all around, I came down into the fog which was heavy in the valley, along the Rio Grande river. Here are some photos of my drive in on that strange foggy morning. Across the middle of the photo, is the heavy fog bank. It kind of looks like a lake from this angle. That's the lowlands, the Rio Grande valley.

And I got to drive through this the rest of my way to work, on the freeway, not very fun.

Last night, the mountains were spectacular, with thunderheads building up above them.

The sky was gorgeous, partly cloudy with snow white and ominous black intermixed with blue. My photos don't do it justice.

I just love that dark "ribbon" cloud to the left.

This cloud formation looks like a ghost or something, doesn't it? The silver cylinder is a tanker truck, in case anyone is wondering.

Look at the storm I had to drive into!

New Mexico weather varies all through the state. So much so that there are over forty different weather zones. Often, you can cross an invisible line into snow or rain from sunshine. Last night, we had wind and snow and the drifts are piled high in places. 

This is looking out my front door. The snow is deep! If you look further, do you notice the ripples in the snow, caused by the winds?

And this is my bedroom window. Nature is crazy, huh?

Always some change in the weather - song: Stay, artist: David Bowie, album: Stationtostation

Sunday Stills (8-8-10 clouds)

On Wednesday evening I took my little dog with me for a drive to town to get gas. We watched the sun set at a little park and then, as we drove home, the cloud formations kept changing and becoming more and more beautiful. Enjoy.

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Sunday (Clouds 8-16-09)

This was sunrise on my doorstep a few months ago.

The sky is on fire, but thankfully, not the ground. Here are some alien spaceships. This was the moonrise a few nights ago.
Walking in the clouds on top of Wheeler Peak, the tallest mountain in New Mexico.

The sign points to Heaven.

For more Sunday Stills, please visit here.

Sunday - song: Sunday, artist: David Bowie, album: Heathen