A fierce thunderstorm, smoke from distant wildfires, the setting sun: alchemy that turned the skies to gold...
This post is in honor of my friend and neighbor Pam, whose birthday is today and who missed seeing this particular sunset this week. Happy Birthday, Pam! (Our handsome buddies wanted to join me in wishing you a very happy birthday - and they also wanted to know if there will be carrot cake. LOL)…
Our friendly neighbors pay us a visit over our back fence.
Such beautiful beings… always a pleasure to see them, and a privilege to share their world!
What beautiful sky photos. In the first one in particular it's like liquid gold is pouring from the background into the foreground. It's an interesting group of events that collided to make that happen!
ReplyDeleteI LOVE your backyard neighbors. They are so beautiful and they look pretty freindly. I'm sure you were zooming quite a bit but they still look pretty calm! That was definitely my favorite picture. I wish I had "met" them!!
That sky was just amazing, and you're right that it looks like liquid gold being poured!
DeleteMy buck buddies are quite calm and friendly! I haven't seen them lately, but for a week or two they were around a lot - some days there were as many as half a dozen of them, though usually there were two or three. I'd see them sometimes on walks after dark with the dogs, and one night the girls and I came upon two of them - no doubt these same two - just up the street beside the walking path. The larger of the two was quite unperturbed by us (the smaller stood back a bit and wasn't as sure about the situation), and stood about 10 feet away while the girls stopped to sniff and piddle. I talked to him and he seemed to be listening attentively (perhaps because I kept telling him how handsome and wonderful he was, men of all species love that shit - lol), while the girls ignored them. :-) They were actually quite close in this photo, less than 10 yards from our back fence, I'd say, while I stood on our patio to take it. Not a lot of zoom required! I know you remember that buck who followed us on our walk that day during your visit, posing for photos for you several times - for all I know, he may well have been the bigger of these two! :-) (I really miss my white tail family back in Big Horn, so am very glad to get to enjoy the company of the mule deer down here).
Wow, Laurie, those skies look apocalyptic!! Absolutely gorgeous. Joanne's comparison to liquid gold is spot on. :)
ReplyDeleteI love your visiting neighbors. How cool that they were so close to your fence! I miss seeing deer behind our house. Our cruddy neighbor's dog is scaring them all away. :(
They really do, don't they? Coming less than a week after that strange orange cone sunset, it seems the sky is sending us some sort of message! Hopefully not a warning, though "orange cones" and "yellow light" do signal caution!
DeleteYour neighbor truly sucks. :-(
Happy birthday to Pam.
ReplyDeleteLove those skies - cringe at the fires. And am always amazed (and horrified) at how far the smoke travels. And blown away by the added beauty it gives to the sky.
It is amazing in an awful way how far the smoke travels (and you know if smoke travels that far, so does radiation and toxic pollution!) And yes, it does add a lot of color to the sunrises and sunsets! As thick as the smoke was here for several days, only rarely could we actually smell it, for which we were grateful.
DeleteI thought the deer would be your favorite part of this post! :-)
Here I am and I'm going to make a comment. Beautiful sky pictures, as usual. I do read your blog even if I don't always comment.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jackie! I'm one of those bloggers who do love comments, and it's often the only way I know someone has visited. Now that you're an official blogger you're more aware of how satisfying it can be to read them, and so will likely do less lurking and more commenting! :-)
DeleteI love your neighbors, happy birthday to your Friend, and oh, my goodness, what a glorious sunset! I also adored reading your explanation of a Mehitable Day! I love that.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Beth! I love them too, and while we have some wonderful human neighbors, I could easily and very happily live in a place where all my neighbors were wild ones. :-) Glad you enjoyed those amazing skies, too - and the Mehitable story! :-) Thanks for visiting again!
DeleteLove lovey blog! Thanks for dropping by to see my pictures! (grin)
DeleteThose are indeed magical skies!! Beautiful photos.
ReplyDeleteIt was tough to top that Orange Cone from last week, but I think these skies of gold managed to measure up quite well! Thanks, as always, for your visit and comment!
DeleteBeautiful.
ReplyDeleteYour golden cloud photos are amazing. Thought of you when I spotted them on Google +: http://earthsky.org/earth/amazing-photos-of-mammatus-clouds
ReplyDeletePerhaps you know of this link ? -- barbara
Hi, Barbara! I've actually got the EarthSky web site on my list of "Helpful & Informative Stuff" over there to the right, and am pretty sure I've seen that page you shared. I know I've found several cool mammatus cloud photo sites when I've had mammatus cloud photos of my own to post and wanted to link to info about them. They are incredible, aren't they?
DeleteHope you're really enjoying your new digs and exploring the PNW! I'm sorry I haven't made it by your blog in so long, it's all I can do to keep up with my own these days - such a busy summer!!
We have had record amounts of rain over the past couple of weeks! And, yes--I even caught a "sun dog" or two. (grin)
ReplyDeleteWe don't see sun dogs here very often - glad you managed to catch a couple! (Does that make you a sun dogcatcher?) :-)
DeleteWow that's a beautiful sky!
ReplyDeleteIt sure was.
DeleteGood-looking backyard buddies and skies only thee could summon ;-). xoxo
ReplyDeleteLOL - you give me waaaaaay too much credit! Pretty sure I'm not an actual Summoner of Skies. :-)
Deletethat was a special sunset indeed. And pretty deers.
ReplyDeleteWe've had a couple of really special sunsets lately. This is a good time of year for them here. And special as the skies are, our critter friends are even more special. :-)
DeleteA fantastic sunset! I love your pretty neighbors! :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, Mary! (And we adore our pretty neighbors too!) :-)
DeleteBeautiful sky...and even more beautiful neighbors. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI agree, the beauty of those particular neighbors exceeds even that of the glorious sunset. :-)
DeleteStunning!
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteHey Laurie,
ReplyDeleteThe sky is stunning! What a gorgeous color!
It's good to see that you have some gently four-legged neighbors who visit your place in town. I'm sure you miss sweet Punky and his gang.
Happy Birthday to Pam.
Hey, Rose! Great to "see" you! :-)
DeleteThat sky color was unreal! I'm sure there will be some people who think I used a color filter or some such on these photos, but I touched them not. It was eerie and beautiful and bathed everything in golden light. Didn't last very long, either - like Frost's poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay!"
Yes, I miss Punky and the rest of my white tail family a lot, and think of them all the time. Having to leave them was the hardest part about leaving our place in Big Horn. So while it's not nearly the same, I am grateful to have the mule deer, pheasants, occasional wild turkey, and other familiar friends about me here in the "big city.!" :-)
xoxo
PS Pam is quite the gardener, just like you - do you have a veggie garden in your new digs?
DeleteWow - stunning!
ReplyDeleteThank you - and please blow England a kiss from me!!
DeleteLaloofah, thank you for your kind and thoughtful words in regards to death of my sister. Much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Misty - I wish there were words that could take your grief away, but know there are not. It was so sweet of you to stop back by to thank me!
DeleteI went back and saw what you had written about my Skywatch picture. Thank you. Yes, I have trees that make it easy to frame my pictures in. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's something I lack here most of the time, we live in a new neighborhood with no mature trees, and it sits on a prairie! :-)
DeleteDear sis Laurie,
ReplyDeleteThe pictures of the sky are gorgeous, the colour is really impressive!!! And you are very lucky having such beautiful furry neighbours visiting you, I´m sure they are eager to have some carrot cake for tea time <3.
Hugs and kisses!!!
Hey Sis Sandra! :-)
DeleteThank you - that sky was indeed really something. We get a lot of gold in our sunsets, but to have one that is solid gold was pretty unusual - and such deep colors, too! And I've no doubt our sweet neighbors would have loved some organic vegan carrot cake for their tea - and I would have loved to have joined them! :-) Yesterday at the grocery store, a little girl (about 5 or 6) was standing just inside the doors by the shopping baskets as we entered and grabbed one. She was holding a bag with two big carrots in it, waiting for her mom to finish buying the rest of the groceries. When I said something to her about her carrots, she told me the whole story of the bunny who lives at her grandma's house (the intended recipient of the carrots, obviously). I thought she said, "bunnies," but when I said the bunnies would be grateful, she corrected me by saying, "There's just ONE bunny." To which I replied, "For now!" ;-)
xoxo back to you!!