The above courtesy of tips and tutorial from Ivory Hut in a guest post at Pioneer Woman titled: Shoot for the Moon
If you’ve not been happy with your moon shots, click on the link above. I read, jumped up, grabbed my camera – no tripod – went forth and followed instructions. I hope I can try again tonight when the moon is low and large over the mountains. It is supposed to be clear tonight…
From the same spot, the morning scene:
The weather changed yesterday. A moonlit morning turned cloudy, then sunny, then cloudy with heavy rain and a lot of wind. Mid-afternoon, there were brief periods of sun between showers and the air was colder but clear and dry – relatively… Late afternoon, the sun shone for real and Karl and I headed out for a walk. Though it is still more than a month from the Winter equinox, the sun makes a fairly low arc across the southern sky now. This afternoon, the almost setting sun (4 p.m.) was casting an intense light from low on the horizon, across the tree tops and under the snow clouds moving in from the northwest. It made for some incredible lighting effects.
As we came near the end of the walk, we stopped and watched the snow shower move into the small valley between our foothill and the Swan Range. The wind was gusting and the clouds were rolling as the squall moved in.
Shortly after our walk, I headed to Bigfork Village. Another snow squall produced an alpenglow light show to the south as the sun set behind the Bitteroots to the west.
Low light – Montana Fall.
I like rainy, gloomy days…for a bit. We have had about 7 rainy, gloomy days in a row! Enough, I said and went looking for a little sunshine.
The photos below are from November 4 – photos that did not make the to see what we could see post . These photos show the shallow end of Echo Lake that is now more puddle than lake. But the mountains bordering Jewell Basin curve around the edge and still make for a pretty scene.
following added 6:30 a.m. this morning
… and a little moonshine – a few breaks in the clouds let a bit of moonshine through this morning. Karl is lying outside the sunroom slider in a narrow moonbeam that is shooting through the trees…
A little sunshine and a little moonshine for this Thursday morning.
The lamp has been next to my chair for many years.
In my previous home, the chair and lamp were situated much like my current home – in a corner with windows on either side.
One night, I was awakened by what I thought was glass breaking. It was midnight and I was sound asleep. I came awake thinking I heard the tinkling of glass breaking, but it was so quiet by the time I was fully awake that I was unsure if I had heard a real sound. Both cats were still on the bed next to me and Karl was quietly sleeping so I thought it was a dream noise and went back to sleep.
The next morning, I had been up, outside, had breakfast and done a few chores before I saw the hole in the window by the chair. That explained the breaking glass noise… On seeing the hole, I thought a bird had flown into the window and broken the glass. I went outside – no body… Back inside, I noticed that there was also a hole in the screen, then I noticed the holes in the lamp shade. It was such an odd experience – noticing the hole in the window first and jumping to a quick conclusion, never noticing the screen and the lamp …and then slowly seeing everything…I had to laugh at myself.
Then I got to thinking about what would have enough velocity to go through the window, the screen, the lamp shade….and where was the bullet now, and who was shooting at my house (me?)?
I turned around and saw a gouge in the wall opposite the chair and then a nick out of the bottom of the picture frame above the wall gouge.
Photos are the same picture in my current house – no wall gouge.
Being a good CSI fan, I started looking back across the room where I thought the ricochet might have gone. Didn’t find it! I called the Sheriff – I really didn’t know if they would be interested, but they were and a deputy was at my house in less than 10 minutes. He found the slug which looked like a tiny bit of solder melt. It was where I was looking but so small at that point and partially buried in the carpet. So much for my CSI career…
With the handy holes in the lamp, the screen and the glass, we could see the trajectory and it led through the trees at the edge of my property, right to a speed limit sign – about 100 yards away, in front of my neighbor’s home. We walked out and the sign was pockmarked with dings – unfortunately, not that unusual here. The neighbors’ kids, teenagers – came out to see what we were doing and they got all excited as they had been up late watching a movie and heard what they thought were firecrackers – close – 3 of them. We made a small party of looking through the grass near my house for a bullet in better shape – the deputy wanted to nail the group that was shooting near homes. We had a good time, but didn’t find anything so a bit of an anti-climax to the story.
I fixed the window, screen and wall. I intended to replace the lamp shade and the frame, but I’ve never done it and now it is all part of history and I have no plans to do anything about either.
The lamp shade with bullet holes…a bit of the Wild West.
I owe the freedom and privileges I enjoy, in large part, to all who fought and are fighting… Those that fight pay an awful price for the rest of us. Thank you to all the men and women who served and are serving and to our Presidents and leaders that had the courage to lead and send.
I am thankful for the work I have and the ability to do it, for free enterprise and competition – for the freedom to decide what kind of work I want to do, the freedom to educate myself to do that work.
I am thankful for the right to believe as I think right, to worship, to have the Bible that is the cornerstone of my chosen faith. Those holes in the lamp shade – bullet holes… I am thankful for the right to bear arms… or not. (Though maybe the person who was taking pot shots at a sign and missed should reconsider…)
I am thankful for my warm house, that I selected, in the place I wanted to be.
I am thankful that I can walk by these mountains.
Veteran’s Day – thank you.
Another gray day, making for not much “easy” in the way of photo taking…that, and I’ve been mostly “nose to the grindstone” with my day job…
But as I was working late morning, some movement out the window caught my eye…
And a friend of hers was munching away in the side yard…
Bob kept an eye out…
Karl was with me saying “Please, Mom, I don’t feel like chasing deer”. He generally doesn’t like them close to the house and will convince them to move into the woods where he’ll stand and look threatening until he’s sure they will not venture back. But on occasion, I’ve seen him pointedly ignore them, as if he’s tired of the whole thing. Not the rare bucks, but the does which are abundant, will often not move unless you get seriously close to them. Then they bound effortlessly away. I can understand his frustration.
The golden glow of the ground is not just dying grass… some of the gold is the larch needles that have fallen. The trees are looking a bit sparse, some already bare. There is some color left, but between the sparsely leaved and needled trees, the gray skies and clouded in mountain tops, Karl and I in our hunter orange were as colorful as anything!
Rainy day Monday.