Channeling *Chicken Little*

Once upon a time a foolish girl headed out with her camera on a very hot (97 degrees) afternoon, with bleach on her hair, to snag a few photos of flowers.
But she looked up and saw a passing cloud with the sun and thought, "Gee, how pretty!"

(and actually, it was!)
Then she wandered some more and looked up again and thought, "Gee, that doesn't look as nice, but I'll take a photo anyway...."

(and it wasn't as nice...it was a little stormy looking)
So she was smart enough to cut the bleach job short and get it all out before the possibility of loss of power, as the weather had the feel of a storm.
Later, this is what she saw, and should have been in the house, but the bleach had affected her brain, so out she went, camera in hand!

"My, those look like scary fingers reaching across the sky....."
And they did. Only to be followed by;

This.....and.....

This....and....

THIS!!!
(and those last three photos? no, she should NOT have been out at all, as the winds had changed and the storm was bringing in a smell that meant business!)
Everything was black as night and just like Chicken Little, she was running around, though taking photos due to lack of sense, and thinking all the while;
"The sky is falling! The sky is falling!"
AND IT DID.

Happy Sunday from a very foolish girl......


Pax....

August Haze

This is a typical Indiana August morning. The heat and humidity combine to produce colors that the camera cannot capture. Light is gold with a hint of pink, everything takes on a magical glow, even the weeds and far off treeline. It is magic to stand and watch; mesmerizing to the point of being motionless.

Lens flare captures the feel of the coming day better than walking though the heavy air; it seems to part like water while languidly strolling. The heat is upon us early, and the old saying of "Red sky at dawn, Sailor be warned" is exceptionally true. These are the conditions that produce super-cells and occasionally duratios; they pop up in the afternoon as tiny thunderstorms and suddenly become massive, roiling creatures with great speed and vengeance.

After storms of this nature pass, there is occasionally a glow that, though I have tried and tried, I cannot capture. When I stood taking the photo of the corn tassels, they were sparkling as if gilded. Color becomes unreal---you cannot trust your eyes. Something in the water and the light; the dense air and the sun dropping to the horizon......everything is rich with intense hues.

We are a land of big skies; clouds not to be contained within a viewfinder. Cumulus that goes on and on, and bears remnants of the earlier threats. Blues that border on black. Shades of grey that do not cooperate with the photographer.

Striking silhouettes of simple trees against the last remaining puffs and rumbles of the storm. Impressive visions from the common. The feeling of being enveloped at any moment by cloud or dark, should the creature turn and strike again.........

And then, as if a promise to behave better tomorrow, a hint of shell-pink blush and the sun says goodnight. Another setting, intensified by the wrath of mother nature, a moment to linger in the peace of birds singing, water droplets finding the ground and the scent of the world scrubbed clean.

How small and insignificant we really are!

Pax....

What Fun, What Fun......

Let's see..which part did I enjoy most these past few days? Being steam boiled, baked, or having to get my broom and the flying monkeys out last night???
You know, Indiana is the PITS.
I will be back with a *real* post tomorrow or Tuesday, depending if I get done fighting with roofers, AT&T which cannot provide me a phone line that works during wet weather, and oh yes, I have to do a promo video for a local Charity this week too......
Do any of you feel the need to comment? HA!

Pax....

I AM ALIVE!!!!

Hi All,

Just a quick post to let you know I now have internet service again---we were off-line for 2 1/2 days due to the number of storms that kept training through the area, wiping out the towers.
I am exhausted, I am not ashamed to say. I beg forgivness for not answering comments on the last post---I am further behind than I was before! (which actually, is rather laughable!)
I will get a decent something or other on here...hmmmmm...not tomorrow but maybe the next day which I think is Saturday, but I would not bet on it.
I have to admit, previously I was out with camera shooting storm pics and getting some interesting shots. But last night's hum-dinger sent me straight to the cellar.
Imagine, if you will, a HUGE, BLACK, THICK blanket of mean cloud, moving stealthily across the area at a frightening pace. Only a tidbit of light left in the horizon line, so the stuff was low. And I do mean LOW.
Grabbed the hubster and off we went. Frankly, I am glad I did not have a radar image. I think I would have popped the last nerve I had left....which is pretty well frayed today.
I will try and catch up with everyone; thanks for the e-mails about our safety. I have sooooooo had enough! Words do not describe!!!
Take care y'all and see you with something creative next time----I promise!

Pax...

Few Words Necessary.......

.....but let me introduce last evening's excitement.

This was a classic *Duratio*   a C-shaped band of storms that hold their strength over many States and get stronger as they barrel across the country. These can produce damage as severe as an EF-1 tornado with straight line wind gusts and the particular band you are looking at packed 80 MPH wind gusts, which is the same as hurricane wind speeds.

I am a sturdy girl, but when taking the top three photos, I was almost flattened to the ground by wind. I decided that sense was the better route to choose and made it back to the studio in one piece! (and not crawling...)

And then miraculously afterwards, we were blessed with these visions.....a full arc rainbow with hints of the second arc. It was so steep due to the angle of the sun, it was getting close to the shape of the St. Loius Arch.

As the sun set......the sky turned magical with clouds as if picked from a painting and warm gold color everywhere, but only briefly.

.........What a night........!!!!!

Pax.....

More Excitement Than I Needed.....or, The Weekend

(this is waaaay too close to where Hubby works.....)

Sorry to start this off with a crappy photo, but this is an aerial pic I snagged from a local newscast. The red dot is where Gary works (if you enlarge it, you may be able to see). The diagonal is our runway at the Base and the white line crossing it is the path of the tornado that occurred at 1:48 a.m. Sunday morning.

It left a swath of damage for the short time it was on the ground, destroying woods I used to mushroom hunt in as a kid, a farm home that has been there for as long as I have lived in Indiana, there is no sign of a barn that used to stand, a hog containment unit (ripped the roof off) and took out numerous powers lines and did more structural damage as it went on it's rampage.

I did not go out to shoot photos; I refuse to be wandering around when linesmen need to work, neighbors are trying to help others get trees out of the road and figure if it is not my neighborhood, then I'm giving them some privacy. If you live close, know the folks, that's different. (this happened in my friend Vicki's neighborhood--as we say for large sections of country land!--and she did some photo-documentation)

We still don't know how much damage the storm did and NWS teams are coming in to survey and grade the storm and if appropriate, with the Fujita scale. I'm guessing an F-3 at least to do the damage it did.

(wall cloud I was in the yard shooting just before all H*LL broke loose Friday evening.....duh!)

While our house and good trees escaped the severe storm we had here on Friday, I discovered some of the junk poplars at the back of the lot had again come down so was out yesterday with a hatchet, cutting them loose from the old trunks they sprang from. Then I'll drag them up in the yard and get them with a chainsaw. Too hard to get one in safely back there.

It's Monday, and I am exhausted.......and a whole week of work is ahead. Oy.

I will say this; while I am not surprised at the weather we are having (due to how the gulf stream had settled in late winter) I do NOT like it! And I feel sorry for everyone who was caught in the path of these nasty storm-creatures.

I will be trying to carve out some studio time when I can, so bear with me in the art department. Sometimes, life just gets completely crazy, and then Mother Nature throws in her two cents...... >:-[

Okay, hope everyone has a good week and thanks so much for your comment on Gypsy. She was a bright light in life.....

Off to face the Monday tasks!

Have a good one everyone!!!

Pax....

Hey Toto....Was That The Wicked Witch That Just Flew By???

Just in case you were wondering how I spent my evening.......as this monster rolled in, I thought it would be interesting to get photos.

Still not too frightening, though I noticed some VERY COLD AIR was starting to blow.....

.....And it did seem to be coming in at a rapid pace......yikes.......

 

.....And this was when I exited the cover of the porch for the safety of the house! If you notice, the trees are whipping about. I was no more inside before all hell broke loose; thunder, lightening, 60 MPH winds, hail and sheets of rain so intense and white I could not see the field at the side of our yard.

And it had no more passed and calmed to normal rain, then the power went out.

For two hours. (I read to the birds this time, because they are as scared as I was.....)

I had great sympathy and many prayers for the Linemen that have to go out and fix electricity in the WET. Just think about that one for a minute.....

And then later, we were treated to......

.....Pink, lavender and peach clouds, beautiful but.....

.....Those are clouds that still have some serious punch left in them.

Had no internet last evening nor this morning; behind on everything and have some work issues here I am going to have to figure out so I may be off blog or not visiting until I can get them under control. This has to do with paying work.

If any of you use a Janome 10000 and have the software for embroidery and really know how to use it, please--I beg you--e-mail me. If I can't get this to work, I am up a dirty little creek with no paddle and back to square one on one very important element!

Okay kiddies.......I'm off to a day of grunt work and thinking. Oy.

Pax.

Racing The Rain......

In a vain effort to get a post in the can, featuring one of my favorite flowers, I find I am racing storms barreling across the mid-west.
The flowers above are what I LOVE about this time of year.
Dodging the bullets of severe weather is NOT my idea of fun.
As most of you know, I post the day ahead when I can, so it is the birds and I hanging on for dear life while DH teaches. (I'm not sure any of this phases him.....lucky soul!)
The narcissus blossoms sprung up overnight and then bloomed promptly. Spring is compacted into such a small amount of days anymore, it seems. There is little time to leisurely enjoy the entrance of the season. The trees burst forth into bloom and are gone, the flowers pop and fade, I find myself running like a crazed hare around and around the yard to get photos before something is windblown and gone......
Such a life!
Alas, I hear the rumblings of thunder in the distant dark skies, and rain is pelting the studio door.
I shall bid you Adeiu.......there are more days to write and under safer conditions.
Until later (when I have crawled out from under the table!) to all of you.....

Pax.

Quick Peep

Was going to post some lovely photos from the garden but woke to thunderstorms this morning, so nothing but text instead. Pooey!
Off to my last out of house PT session this morning until the Doc reevaluates me, but in the meantime, I have the Marcy home gym uncovered and ready for action. (look out Jan! HA!) Now it is serious muscle rebuilding time, though they were quite surprised at most of my leg strength. There is one area half as strong as the others, so that is where I will be focusing, plus a good upper body work out to get back to being able to bench press something other than wussie-weight.
Gary said he will help me in the sewing studio this weekend to get it back in order and I shot a pic of the two purchases I made at the Quilt Guild show last Saturday, which are bright, glowing and just BEGGING to have something made from them. There might be sewing in the near future.
PLUS!!!! A friend of mine had dropped off two good, old iron skillets for me (seasoned and wonderful!) and I hadn't opened the plastic bag till yesterday. When I did, I found a small bag of the German pressed gold paper ornament (and I can't think of the proper name now to save my soul) and I was estatic! It will work so well for the box canvas pieces! So that is tempting me too.
And I have been delaying a trip to Manto Fev's site for a few things I need......AHEM!
I guess I'd better stop the verbal ramble and get myself cleaned up for therapy, but there is going to be some *art therapy* going on here at Casa Lockard too. I'm tired of posting my wild back yard (although I still have new blossoms on the tulip poplar!) and I am sure you're tired of seeing it!
There is supposed to be art here.......
I'm looking for it........
Hope your day is much more sun-shiney than here and hope your art time is productive and soul soothing! And add a few extra minutes to it for me, would ya? ;)

Passing Storms.....

(Click photo to see this marvelous cloud in detail)

.....in many ways. Last evening we were again under the gun in certain sections of the state, and I inherit from my father the *need* to be on the porch looking at the sky, but usually with camera in hand. All I can say is I'm glad this cloud did not hit us. However, recording these behemoths is something I enjoy, and there is such beauty in the massive, churning thunderheads.
Tomorrow will, most likely, be the last day for working on the circus banner and I intend to do my best to get a decent photograph of her---"Serena, the Snake Charmer". I spent the whole day yesterday painting, through heavy storms and humidity, standing on concrete (and laying on it too for low details), up a ladder and squatted down. One more day and it's over.
It will be most interesting to see what my therapy assessor has to say about my body today---how much of this misbehaviour will show for her to see. And what happens from there.
I am, though, in the process of making some personal decisions that may make others unhappy but I think it is high time I did for myself. Exhaustion, daily, is not good for healing. Frankly, it's not good for anything! So Anne is doing a little soul searching, and when I am finished, the storm clouds in part of my life will have passed.
I know I said I probably wouldn't be posting, but I have found I do love this blog, and the comments---the connections with people far and wide and I realize how lucky I am to have started this AND have followers.
And there needs to be art on here.
So there needs to be some changes made.
Storms pass and we survive, sometimes more refreshed after they are gone. It makes you realize what you have and what is important.
Here's hoping you have a storm-free day, emotionally, weather wise---every way possible! Get out there, grab the moment, and create!