Posts from the ‘Nature’ category

September Moon and Karl “in the dark”

This post will Groundpossibly add evidence to conjecture about my level of craziness… 5 a.m. this morning I stepped out with Karl.  It did not get extremely cool overnight – a balmy 56.  I looked up – these photos hardly do the sky justice but the moon at about 3/4 was surrounded by light cloud cover that had cracks between the cloud sections making a beautiful mosaic pattern – backlit by the moon… I put Karl’s bed on the ground to take these photos as best I could.

If I was smart, I would put the camera on the tripod the night before during near full moon nights – just in case- so far I have never remembered to do that.

So, the pillow-bed on the ground – me on the dog bed looking up and trying to keep the camera steady enough for a focused shot.

Trees

Moon

Karl in the dark…when I moved to my previous house I bought a lighted collar for Karl.  He has always been easy to train to stay in the yard and off the road, but it only takes one mistake and Fall, Winter, early Spring in Montana it gets light late, and dark early so first and last outings of the day are in the dark.  I found a great collar from Auroralites in Canada – a lot of lighted dog collars blink – that would annoy me and I’m thinking make Karl crazy!   This collar has a neon blue constant light powered by a 9v battery in it’s own little zippered compartment on the collar.  When I first put the collar on Karl I nearly peed my pants from laughing.  The collar sheds light out in a radius, but the dog’s head blocks light directly ahead.  Karl was mystified – he would turn to the left – light disappeared, to the right – again!  This went on for a bit while I got nearly hysterical.  Ok, everyone calmed down and Karl apparently accepted that it was peripheral light and out he goes on his usual nightly rounds.  I’m on the house steps and now there is this blue band bobbing around the pasture – more hysterical laughing as it looked like some cartoon of the invisible dog.  At any rate, Karl and I are now both used to the thing and he wears it at this house so I can watch where he is in the woods and keep myself on the driveway in the dark where I have a fighting chance of not tripping over anything.

Collar 

Karl II

Moon shadows

I wish I could get a photo of moon shadows – the moon has not only been full or near it lately but it rises about the time I go out with Karl before bed and is still high enough to light the driveway when we get up in the morning so he and I take a very early – 5 a.m. little walk … “by the light of the silvery moon.”

Winter, with snow on the ground will be the time to try for a photo.  Usually, I so enjoy the moonlight that I don’t want to fuss with camera, tripod, settings – but this might be the year.

Things in my life have taken such a wonderful turn lately – not that they were “bad” – but WOW,  the stars and planets seem to have aligned themselves in a new way and everything seems brighter, more in focus, more fun – absolutely full of life. 

Not moon shadows but after the moon set and the sun started up behind the mountains, I got these:

Clouds I

Clouds II

Clouds III