SkyWatch Friday: "Harvest Moonday" Hike, Early Snow

It's been a week of many seasons - Monday and Tuesday were definitely summer, with highs of 90ºF. Most nights and early mornings recently have had the chill of Autumn to them, and Wednesday was a chilly, rainy, Fallish day. Wednesday night and Thursday we were under a Winter Storm Warning and it snowed several inches (14" in our neighboring, higher elevation town of Story and up to 18" in parts of the Big Horns). Though we didn't get nearly that much (about 4" at our house), by early this morning our temp had dropped to 19ºF.

But let's begin with the summery weather and Harvest Moon of Monday, before the flowers, trees and shrubs were dealt such a cruel blow that also likely annihilated our chances for fall foliage.

Monday morning, before it got too hot, we loaded up the dogs and took them walking on a new extension of the wonderful Sheridan Pathways system (on the attached map, it's the red and black path near the bottom right, running between the yellow and purple signal light symbols). This part of the path leaves very busy Brundage Avenue and as it heads toward Sheridan College it takes you into a different world… one of trees and marshes and birdsong and tranquility. And shade - which was our chief objective on such a warm, sunny morning!

Here are BW, Willow and Josie crossing one of two handsome footbridges that cross the marshy stream meandering through this area...

Once over the footbridge (you can just see it in the bottom right of this next photo) and out of the trees and into the meadows, you get to enjoy this beautiful view of the soon-to-be-snowcapped Big Horn Mountains (if you know where to look, you can even see the road that led to our old house on its way over the mountains!)…

Look at that clear blue cloudless sky!

Oops, I spoke too soon. Startin' to cloud up. :-)

And you thought I was joking about it clouding up, didn't you? ;-)

Here's Willow enjoying a rest in the shade back at the trailhead after our walk. Notice her leg draped elegantly over my foot, her way of keeping me from wandering off! :-) …

She was intently watching BW deploy our wonderful PetLoader, which Tess demonstrates...

That night, of course, unveiled the full Harvest Moon, seen here rising over the dry hills to our east...

Rarely satisfied with how my moon closeups turn out, I decided to have some fun and make this one a little funkadelic….

And now for a too-soon taste of things to come, the wintery scene from our patio yesterday…

We covered our front flowerbed Wednesday night, but could do nothing for our large rose bush except pluck this last beautiful, fragrant bloom and bring it inside to enjoy for a while. The bergamot on the right had already broken off when I went out at 5:30am to knock the snow off the trees and shrubs, so I brought it in, too. I think the rose looks sad, and doubt the reassurance that our temps will return to the 80's early next week offers much consolation…

Wishing you a week of lovely skies! 

We'll be spending it in Big Sky Country (Montana) with our dogs and camper! 

SkyWatch Friday: A Dickens of a Sunset

The sun went down beneath the long dark lines of hill and cloud 

which piled up in the west…; 

the light was all withdrawn…; the birds were silent; 

and the gloom of winter dwelt on everything. 

~Charles Dickens, "Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit"

and have a wonderful weekend!

SkyWatch Friday: November's Farewell Sunrise

Our sunrise on the last day of November made a fitting farewell for the month, as beautiful as the ones that came before it…

But so far December has been the opposite. Mostly leaden, snowy skies and frozen air. Just as well, since it's been too bitterly cold to take outdoor photos. Today the high is only supposed to reach MINUS 10ºF with -25º wind chills. Hasn't been above the single digits all week, and most of the time the wind's been blowing like stink.

From the icy weather blanketing most of the US and Canada and the fierce winter storms in northern Europe, I know that many of you in the northern climes can relate. So here's wishing everyone clearing skies and temps just cold enough to set a festive holiday mood, where appropriate. :-)

And please don't forget...

They may be furry, but they can also suffer and die when left out in the cold too long. Please bring your furbabies inside and enjoy some warm cuddles (and report neglect if you see it). 

SkyWatch Friday: Altas Aftermath: The Beauty

As anyone who visited my last post, "Atlas Aftermath: The Destruction" knows,  we experienced an unusually early, heavy snowstorm last Thursday night and Friday that devastated trees, knocked out power, and was responsible for a fair bit of property damage. (And as anyone who viewed this startling slideshow knows, it was even worse in places just east of here, especially in western South Dakota where they got four FEET of snow and 70mph winds, killing tens of thousands of cows. :'-( And as it continued to travel east this same weather system spawned tornados, record-breaking rains and flooding, and more destructive winds. So our town was relatively lucky!) 

Despite the tragic loss of so many trees (not to mention all the still-blooming flowers), I have to admit the altered scenery wasn't also without its beauty, which I did my best to capture during Friday's storm and Saturday's warm sunshine. It also wasn't without its humor and resourcefulness, as these two photos taken by our friend Jackie illustrate! (Some of you may remember Jackie and Al's beautiful property from my "Accidental Garden" post last summer). They lost a lot of limbs and branches from their many mature trees, and though they're consulting with a tree service to see if a couple of their larger trees can be saved, they took matters into their own hands when it came to the mortally wounded maple by their patio...

Photo by Jackie 

As Jackie said, "We figure duct tape can fix anything!" Especially when it's inventively paired with rebar and twine...

Photo by Jackie 

Jackie also said Al thought her idea was crazy but has been married to her long enough to go along with it (smart man!) :-) And who could argue with her logic that they have nothing to lose by trying? I hope it works! (Thanks for letting me share these, Jackie!)

Meanwhile, back in our neck of the snowy woods, this was the view out our front door early Friday morning before they cancelled school...

Looks like two out of three ghosts were as dismayed by the weather as we were! :-)

Cemetery snowscape

While photographing some of the destruction to Sheridan's trees during the storm Friday afternoon, I drove to the cemetery which has a lot of big old trees (and no traffic or downed power lines to contend with!) Fortunately, most of the trees there are spruces, which are better designed than the poor fully leafed-out deciduous trees to handle the heavy, wet snow and ice...

Snowy cemetery spruce

Early Saturday morning I took photos of the storm's aftermath from our front porch...

One of our garage lights transformed into an avant garde snow and ice sculpture

While photographing the snow from the front porch, this noisy and chaotic flock of Canada geese and smaller birds flew overhead, apparently as disoriented by the early snowstorm as we were - since they were flying north! (They were actually headed to a nearby pond)...

"Screw this crazy American weather, we're heading back to Canada, eh?" :-)

And here are a few shots of the freshly snow-covered foothills and Big Horn Mountains from our porch...

Look closely and you can see the snow blowing off the mountain's upper ridges 

13,000' Black Tooth Mountain is the peak directly beneath the street light 

After I took these, we took the dogs for a walk and saw a lot of the trees that were damaged in some of the nearby neighborhoods. So when we got home I took my camera and car and drove around the surrounding area, photographing them. As I returned home to our own subdivision (which is still new and therefore still lacks large trees), I stopped to photograph this wider perspective of the Big Horns...

And just as I was photographing this kind of interesting thin, horizontal cloud, another flock of Canada geese turned it into a much better photo...

And then obliged and thrilled me by flying right overhead (heading east this time!)...

So beautiful!

There's more beauty to be found overhead - enjoy a big dose of it at...

And enjoy a fun and storm-free weekend!

Atlas Aftermath (The Destruction)

I think The Weather Channel should rename Winter Storm Atlas "Winter Storm Asshat" because of all the damage it did across so many states. As you can see in this slideshow, compared to several places - especially South Dakota with its fierce blizzard and tornadoes - we got lucky with "only" about 10 inches of snow, 45mph wind gusts, and a lot of downed trees and power lines. Despite my pessimism in my last post, I was able to save our own little trees from breaking and am now hopeful they'll survive, and although the school across the street lost power, we never did. But power was out all over town, schools and the local community college closed (that happens very rarely here), as did many businesses and most state and Interstate highways in and out of Sheridan (and Wyoming). But the ever-intrepid UPS was out delivering what they could in the mess (tomorrow will be a delivery horror show again in spite of it) and I was miraculously able to keep my massage and haircut appointments. After seeing some of the devastation on my way to those appointments, as soon as I got home I grabbed my camera and went back out to take some photos, and took more yesterday in the sunshine after BW and I walked the dogs. 

Mine aren't nearly as dramatic as the photos in the slideshow I linked to above and I missed getting a couple of the best shots because it was just too dangerous to try. But I did brave the slushy, icy streets (they didn't plow), downed and perilously-close-to-falling tree limbs and power lines, several non-working traffic lights at some of Sheridan's busiest intersections, and a ridiculous amount of traffic (some of which were utility trucks and emergency vehicles, but most of which were regular civilians - and I didn't see any of THEM with cameras to their faces, so what were they thinking? LOL) to bring you these photos of the storm's local destruction...

These first three were close to home in our neighborhood:

One of several large trees that shade - err, shaded - the front of the elementary school across the street. Most of them took fatal hits like this one. :-(

A neighbor's house by our mailbox bank. Note the garden hose... people were still mowing and watering lawns last week, and no one has had their sprinkler systems winterized yet.

This was a lovely row of large trees along the road leading out of our neighborhood.

All over town there were a lot of close calls...

And several direct hits...

This house was for sale two years ago and we'd looked at it before rejecting it as overpriced and needing far too much work. The people who bought it fixed it up (at least on the outside) and are probably less than thrilled at this huge tree limb crashing into their window! At least it didn't land on their roof.

Doesn't that figure? They're seriously needing that gutter as all this snow melts (which it was already doing with enthusiasm in yesterday's warm sunshine)!

This is the fence around one of our favorite houses in town, part of which is pictured below...

Big cottonwoods, elms and maples all over town were looking like this. They're not supposed to be shaped like weeping willows! (Note the large downed tree limb on the right). At least I was able to shake the snow and ice off our little trees, there was nothing anyone could do for the larger ones except listen helplessly to the loud cracking sounds all over town, now replaced with the sound of chainsaws. Like I said, "Winter Storm Asshat!"

I tried to get into Kendrick Park (where we lived when we rented Dragonfly Cottage), but first was stopped by this tree limb across the road...

... and then by barricades erected by the city at each entrance. I'd heard through the hair salon grapevine that Kendrick Park was a tragic mess with all its huge deciduous trees. :-( In sad irony, there's a sign at this entrance declaring Sheridan's status as a "Tree City USA." 

With the traffic and downed power lines making my photo safari increasingly treacherous I headed to the much quieter cemetery...

And while there, as well as closer to home, I also got some photos of the beauty to try to balance out the destruction, and plan to share those in my next SkyWatch Friday post (I'm burning some midnight oil to make time to put one together before Jo's arrival on Thursday). So until then, enjoy the Fall colors for me if you've got 'em! Because what few we were starting to get around here now look like this...

SkyWatch Friday: Hello Snow, Goodbye Flowers!

We were under our first Winter Storm Watch of the season last Friday night, and although it just rained here in town (thank goodness), Saturday's sunrise revealed a dramatically altered landscape in the higher elevations...

We'd covered our herb garden since the temps fell below freezing, so though we lost most of our Italian basil, everything else, including our flowers, was spared. We had several beautiful days this past week, enjoying more long walks with the dogs and even some basking in shorts and bare feet on the patio. But Autumn in these parts is a fickle lass, and so along came Winter Storm Atlas yesterday. Not a mere Watch this time, but a more dire... 

Winter Storm Warning

URGENT - WINTER WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE BILLINGS MT
405 AM MDT FRI OCT 4 2013

A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW AND BLOWING SNOW REMAINS IN
EFFECT UNTIL MIDNIGHT MDT TONIGHT.

* TIMING...HEAVY SNOW WITH SOME BLOWING SNOW WILL CONTINUE FOR
  MUCH OF THE DAY. SNOW WILL TAPER OFF BY THIS EVENING.

* SNOW ACCUMULATION...TOTALS OF 8 TO 15 INCHES...WITH THE GREATEST
  AMOUNTS ALONG THE NORTHEAST SLOPES OF THE BIG HORN AND PRYOR
  MOUNTAINS.

* WINDS...NORTHWEST 15 TO 30 MPH. HIGHER GUSTS ARE EXPECTED FROM
  ABERDEEN HILL TO SHERIDAN.

* IMPACTS...SNOW WILL STICK TO SOME TREES AND POWER LINES. THIS
  COULD LEAD TO POWER OUTAGES.

* TRAVEL...THE COMBINATION OF HEAVY SNOWFALL...POOR VISIBILITY
  AND GUSTY WINDS WILL CAUSE VERY DIFFICULT TRAVEL CONDITIONS ON
  INTERSTATE 90 THROUGH SHERIDAN COUNTY. 

Did Mother Nature somehow forget that we're only two weeks into Autumn? She's as bad as Walmart, who started putting Christmas stuff out in September!

The storm started as rain Wednesday night and it rained most of yesterday, then turned gusty and started snowing around dusk. The mountains aren't visible this morning and I got a face full of blowing snow and sleet when I opened the front door, so here's what it looked like from our back door at about 7 this morning...

The trees and shrubs are covered in thick clumps of ice and frozen snow, and I fear we've probably lost our Linden tree (pictured above) and the Amur maple in our front yard. :-( Our two Russian sages are flattened, our Barberry is bar-buried (haha) under a drift, and it goes without saying that our flowers and herbs are history. I think Josie's expression this morning sums up all our feelings about this cruel turn of weather...

But we feel really badly for the folks in Boulder and Laramie Counties, CO, who although they're not getting the worst of this storm, are still getting snow, wind and freezing temps just three weeks after suffering from devastating flooding. And just south of us and to the east in South Dakota, they're under blizzard warnings calling for gusts of 70mph and up to 18" of snow! So it could definitely be worse. 

Aware of what was headed our way, I harvested some herbs for drying, cut some flowers, and took some photos of how things looked when Fall was Fall and not Winter! The trees were only just starting to change color (and some weren't even doing that yet), so we won't be enjoying anything like the gorgeous Autumn we had last year. Anyway, here are some "before" photos to end this post on a prettier, more season-appropriate note!

Our Russian Hawthorne's pretty red berries 

One of our two Burning Bushes in its crimson glory

(A Russian Sage with its lavender flowers is visible in the background)

Portulaca (Moss Rose)

Our portulaca went absolutely crazy this summer, looking more like a shrub than a flower! 

BW's daisies 

BW couldn't wait to plant daisies in our front flowerbed and chose these fancy ones at the greenhouse; next year we plan to add at least one more variety.

Memories of Summer

The lavender, Gazania, Viola, daisies, marigolds and mums 

that I snatched from the jaws of death to enjoy for a few more days.

Enjoy skies from all over the world (as well as all over the calendar!) at...

My friend Joanne is coming from Michigan next Thursday to visit for a few days, and though there won't be any pretty fall foliage or flowers for her to enjoy, we've still got lots planned to keep us busy - including Sheridan's annual quilt show! So I'll be back in a couple of weeks (she said with the best of intentions!) :-) Have a great weekend, everyone!