SkyWatch Friday: Before the Skies of November Turned Gloomy

Around here November's been a month of contrasts. It began with days bookended by colorful sunrises and sunsets with sunny shirt-sleeve weather in between ~ more reminiscent of mid-September than of November. Then it suddenly morphed into a January-like monster, with a bitter, snowy week of leaden skies, single digit highs, subzero lows, and wind chills too nasty to mention on a family-friendly blog. 

Since much of this week was spent finishing my fall cleaning, curled up in front of the fireplace watching Netflix or reading, and trying out new (and delicious!) curry, mushroom soup, chili, and muffin recipes rather than risking frost bite to photograph a lot of nothing, I'm sharing some of those colorful sunrise and sunset photos I took during the balmy first week of this month but didn't have time to post last Friday. And with no time today to do anything other than slightly crop a couple of them and reduce their file sizes, these are SOOC. Enjoy! 

Sunrise, Nov 1

The early morning clouds didn't linger, but provided a dramatic dawn sky

Sunrise, Nov 2

The dawn sky looked none too happy about Daylight Saving Time ending

We get fewer dramatic sunsets here than we do sunrises, but when we do get one it's a doozy. This series of photos, taken from our front porch and posted here in the order in which I took them, occurred over just a two-minute period…

Sunset, Nov 6...

And finishing up the week with another sunrise, this one taken with our iPad…

Sunrise, Nov 8

Wishing you a week of beautiful skies wherever you are…

SkyWatch Friday: Summer Sets, Autumn Dawns

Seems it was summer just yesterday! Or at least just last weekend….

But all good things must come to an end, and so the sun has set on another summer season. Literally. I took this series of sunset photos over the course of 15 minutes from the all-but-deserted Sheridan visitors center/rest area off I-90 last Friday evening. We'd gone there to use the free RV dump station after a weeklong camping trip in northern Montana (future post!), only to be thwarted by a new - and premature, IMO - "Dump Station Closed for the Season" sign and a winterized, waterless hose. Oh well, at least I'd thought to bring my camera since the views of the Big Horn Mountains from the visitors center seldom disappoint!

Going...

going...

gone.

But even more spectacularly than it set on the final weekday of summer, the sun rose on the first day of autumn. What an enthusiastic greeting for the new season! I took these straight-out-of-the-camera photos just 7 minutes apart. Amazing how much the sky can change in such a brief time...

06:45

06:47

06:52

That sunrise will be hard to top, but I'll give it my best from now till the winter solstice. :-) Meanwhile...

And happy spring to all you Southern Hemisphereans! :-)

SkyWatch Friday: A Gift of Skies Tied with a Rainbow

A magnificent sunrise on Saturday, a glorious sunset on Thursday - a lovely gift of skies, all tied up with a beautiful (rain)bow...

Last Saturday dawned on a chilly mix of tattered clouds, golden sun, and freshly fallen rain that created a sunrise-colored rainbow. It seemed to be bringing good luck to the elementary school across the street, though I doubt the kiddos whose summer vacation is on its last legs were impressed...

Here's its other end ~ it was a full double rainbow, though I couldn't fit it all in the frame…

Unlike our hectic days spent beneath them, the skies for the rest of the week were mundane. At least until last night's sunset painted this pretty picture, so evanescent I nearly missed it...

SkyWatch Friday: every week a gift of lovely and interesting skies around the world...

SkyWatch Friday: Sunset Alchemy

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!

SkyWatch Friday: All the Sky's a Stage...

It was an interesting week for skies here, from bright blue and cloudless to dark and thundery to smoky haze that completely obscured the mountains. A lot of sky theater!

But the highlights ("skylights?") of the week were two incredible sunsets. 

This first one was last Friday evening. We'd spent the day in Montana and got home not long before a big thunderstorm rolled in. The storm clouds turned the sky black and menacing just as the sun set, and this one small opening in the clouds - like a slightly lifted theater curtain - gave us a captivating glimpse of this molten sky...

It didn't last long before the clouds obscured it and the rain and lightning took the stage! I was sure grateful to be home to capture it...

On Monday night we had the most unusual sunset we've ever seen - it looked like a giant laser or stage light. Amazing and otherworldly, there really are no words adequate to describe it so I'll let the photos speak for themselves. Except for reducing the file size, I haven't touched them - I wanted you to see just what we saw!...

Wow. 

Changing skies, scenes, and moods completely, here's a beautifully painted teepee set up this week at the corner of Coffeen Avenue (the busiest street in Wyoming, we're told - and we believe it!) and Main Street for the tourists to enjoy. I snapped this while sitting at a red light (Luckily I was the passenger and had my camera with me, though I don't remember why!) I got a SkyWatch twofer with this one: the beautiful summer sky above and the one painted on the teepee! :-)

More skies of all kinds await you at...

SkyWatch Friday: Peaceful Skies...

When not being assaulted by bottle rockets or bedazzled by brocades and chrysanthemums, our skies were putting on a beautiful (and much quieter) July 4th holiday weekend display of their own...

It seems a cloud-bird lost a tail feather ~

now drifting, lonesome and lazy, across the tranquil sky…

"… So let us welcome peaceful evening in."

~William Cowper

May the skies above you be peaceful as well. Enjoy your weekend!

P.S. For those of you who enjoy such things, my next post will be Part 1 of 2 of the 2014 Karz Club "Rod Run" annual hot rod/classic cars show, which took place in Sheridan last Saturday. Hope you'll cruise on by! 

SkyWatch Friday: Dawn's Early Light to Twilight's Last Gleaming

Happy SkyWatch Friday to my fellow SkyWatchers around the world, and Happy 4th of July to my fellow Americans! 

Lots going on in today's post, so I'd best get busy…

It was not a good week here for sky photography due to a thick haze from wildfires in Alberta, Canada. But it started to clear by yesterday, when I took all of these photos ~ beginning at sunrise when I walked barefoot to the end of our street to finally photograph the Western Meadowlark (Wyoming's State Bird) who sits atop the corner streetlight every day, singing his sweet little heart out. I thought he looked especially lovely bathed in the "dawn's early light"...

I've always loved the Meadowlark's melodious songs and calls, and so was happy to catch a snippet while he alternately preened and sang (his version of singing in the shower?) :-)...

(Don't know what the annoying clicking from my camera is all about!)

I was also able to capture this still photo of him in full-throated song...

...but noticed that he was no longer bathed in the pretty golden sunlight. So I turned around to see what had befallen the rising sun and discovered it had been obscured by an ill-timed cloud. Still, it was a pretty sight, so I snapped it...

… and only after viewing it on my camera did I notice the silhouettes of the deer on the right! Since I had my telephoto lens attached, I was able to get a few nice closeups of this doe and her suitors (the one on the right, whom I also hadn't seen till I downloaded this photo, is clearly not a morning person!)...

After mowing and weeding, BW and I took a break in the shade of our front porch and enjoyed the view of this interesting cloud, who appeared to be responding to complaints about the increasing cloudiness with, "Talk to the hand." :-)

At the end of our busy day - and our first hot one (92ºF) in nearly a week - we enjoyed an evening bike ride, and then a final respite on our front porch to watch the sun go down…

BW sporting his "go to hell hat" beneath our festive star-spangled string of lights!

And what a sunset it was!! All of the following sunset photos are "SOOC" - straight out of my camera, which had captured the breathtaking magnificence of the "twilight's last gleaming" so perfectly that the very thought of trying to improve them through editing seemed both futile and arrogant…

Even after the sun had set, the show - and photo ops - had still not ended. By the very last of the day's light, a herd of at least nine mule deer paraded past in front of the school across the street, providing a delightfully perfect close to a day that had begun with a beautiful sky and beautiful deer... and because what is Independence Day without a parade? :-)

Click on the photos to enlarge, and please pardon their poor quality. I was surprised my camera was able to capture the deer as well as it did, given my distance from them and the lack of light! Though some of them had lagged behind to peek in the classroom windows and front doors (not kidding) and so didn't make it into the frame, the ones who did are more visible in this photo...

Again, I wish a very safe and 

to those who are celebrating it…

And please also enjoy a mindful holiday celebration...