What do angry clouds portend for the seasons ahead?

These were the angry clouds that moved slowly through early this week.  Habringer of turbulent summer weather to come?

Sunny flowers brighten backyard

The sunflowers in the backyard are really putting on a show this week.

Cotton puff sky highlights Ole Glory

I was watching the sky today as we moved around the city on chores.  This shot was while I was at Kinsel Ford dropping off a vehicle which needed repairs.  I was struck by the contrast between the cotton puff clouds in the  background and in the foreground the American flag flapping actively in the breezes brought in by a cool front.

Great Blue Heron ponders how to eat a catfish whole

Okay, you're a Great Blue Heron and you have caught a big catfish for your meal.  How do you eat it? 

Well, you play with it and poke it with your beak for about 20 minutes. (repeat poking and playing as necessary). Then you are ready for the "big swallow" (see bottom photo). 

This was taken at Cattail Marsh Scenic Wetlands and Boardwalk in Tyrrell Park in Beaumont, TX -- a popular birding spot.

Excuse the fuzziness -- but this heron was a long way away and wasn't going to tolerate me getting any closer (fearing I would steal his meal).

Alligator enjoys an after lunch nap at Cattail Marsh

This alligator at the Cattail marsh seemed to be enjoying a nap back a good ways from the viewing boardwalk.  He was up on the land to get more heat to help digest his meal of one of his marsh fellows.

Sunset near the Indiana-Michigan border

This was a recent sunset from near the Indiana-Michigan border. The cool night seemed to make the colors crisper.

Posing lizards thumb noses at gravity.

My brick-scaling, gravity-defying, photo-posing lizards are very active this summer, in case you wanted to know.

They want you to know.

Driving into the Houston sunset

This is how things looked driving into the Houston, TX, sunset on the I-10 a few weeks back. Beautiful colors, but blinding views to have to maneuver through.

Flowery needle lights.

This Alaskan flower shot, from our Alaskan cruise, seems like needles of light.

Sunset gazed

A scene from our Alaskan cruise.  Linda gazes into the sunset.

Stools make great stomping for inside kids

This was a kids playground at a hospital we were at in Dallas last week where our 8th grandchild was born.

You get a better sense of the intense, playful activity from above.

Snow, silence and a white winter greet horses' hunt for grass.

This was the scene of our daughters ranch in Indiana earlier this week.  The snow eventually accumulated to 9+ inches.  I love the hush that falling snow pushes down. It looks like a White Christmas for her family.

Seattle's aptly named Discovery Park

Having fun with a game of chase under the huge trees in Seattle's Discovery Park which overlooks the Puget Sound.  We could have spent days exploring this wonderland.

Riding the DFW Sky Link

what else do you do when you have a long layover?

Baton Rouge airport sky view

This is the scene at the Baton Rouge airport as we waited for our flight home.

Nectar neighbors

It's not just bees busy with nectar searches.

Nectar seeker

Foraging for nectar.

Blackbird well skilled at diversionary tactics

This agitated Red-Winged Blackbird was doing everything he could to catch my attention and draw it away from his nest in Mishawaka's (Indiana) Central Park on the St. Joseph River.  When I turned around, he would fly in front of me to keep me looking at him

I didn't see the nest, but I got a good idea where it was when I walked over to a tree near the overlook by the dam.  He made a couple of close swooshes past me to make sure I was focusing on him.

He was a darned good watchman.

Blue Heron stands sentry at fishing grounds

Despite the fact that this Great Blue Heron seems to favor this Mishawaka, IN, park as a favorite fishing hole, he didn't seem to be having much luck the day we spent some time together.  The spot is in Central Park at a small dam.  You can see the splash from the dam in the background.

Seattle flowers

Seattle, nuff said.

Chicago swells with traffic for air show

It was an extra busy day on the Chicago River Saturday when we were passing through to catch a flight back to Texas.  We were sitting eating by the river side, wondering if it was always this busy.  A person sitting near us told us it was the Air and Water Show was going on.  (That explained why so many people on the train had fold up seats and ice coolers).

We tried to make it out to the Navy Pier to watch the show and were almost at the gates, when we realized we had left our suitcase back where we ate lunch.  Oh, well.

Ominous clouds can't deliver on rain threat

This was the weather system that blew past our neighborhood last night. Ominous as it might look, it was all bluster and no rain.  The air cooled down to about 80 degrees, and it turned breezy  -- but not even a sprinkle.

Blue Heron stands watch at Mishawaka Dam in South Bend, IN

This blue heron was standing watch below the Mishawaka Dam at Central Park in South Bend, Indiana where we were visiting my daughter's family last week.
It didn't look like he was having much luck finding lunch. Maybe he was just trying to keep cool in the 90-degree heat.

Butterfly flies off to mythical world

So this butterfly and I were having this photo shoot up in Seattle along the side walk.  I guess she just got tired of waiting for me to set up and take a shot or something.  She just says "to heck with this cameo, I'm out of here."  And just like that she flies off to some mythical world. Oh well, who am I to blow against the wind.

Baseball: team effort

This is a shot of my grand-daughter Sophie playing baseball a couple years ago. Notice how many players are coming in to make the play.  (the boy on the right eventually gets the baseball glove off his head.)

Now look closely where the ball ends up... She stopped the ball, that's what counts.  If she hadn't stopped it, I am sure they would have been pile of players behind her smashing down on it.

Elusive butterfly

We were in Seattle recently and this butterfly was wandering through the flowers next to the sidewalk as I walked along. I let the others walk along without me while I stopped to spend some time with my new BFF. He proved pretty elusive. (Wait, wasn't that a song?).

Great Egret does a high five

How about a high five?

You always see egrets standing on their legs and rarely see them using them for anything else.  In this case, the Great Egret is getting ready to do some scratching.  It does, however, look like he's doing a high five.

The shot is from a small bayou at the edge of the Atchafalaya Basin in Louisiana.

Fishing the falls near Seattle

I took this shot several years ago when we were up near Seattle.  I didn't  take this guy long to get a bite at this waterfall fishing hole.

Flower opens for business

Some flowers seem to hide their pollen and nectar displays down deep in a petal tunnel.  Not this one. It's open for business - clearly visible from all directions.

Louisville iron bridges by the dawn's early light

A view of bridges over the Ohio River in Louisville Kentucky in the dawn light. We were there a few years ago for a Iron Man competition our son was in.

Glacier calving is caught in photo

This is a somewhat close-up view of a glacier as it meets the water from our recent Alaskan trip.  The big blue columns of ice form a wall at the water's edge.  The best I could estimate the size is that the columns are about 200 to 300 feet high.  Periodically, a sliver will fall into the water and create a big splash. You can see that splash at the bottom center of the photo -- I think that splash is about 30-50 feet high.  The process is called calving.

Brilliant Alaska blues beam from lake

 This lake we saw on Alaska journey last year takes your breath away. The blues assault your eyes with their brilliance.

Mt. Ranier... Seattle, Washington

This is Mount Rainier, near Seattle, taken from a plane.

Spider lunch time

This spider, hanging in my back yard, was munching down on his lunch, when I came upon him.  He had a couple future meals  hanging elsewhere on his web.  He probably lost those, though, because later in the day, the wind blew away his spindly fortress.

Alaska wows with cold sites

The mountains slide past our cruise ship as w3 sail the passages near Skagway, Alaska, on our recent vacation,  My wife, Linda, is holding on to her hood because of the brisk, cold wind.  Two things to note about this photo 1) the glacier in the middle of the picture sliding down the mountains ( you can slightly see the blue color of the ice). 2. the guy walking in shorts toward us -- he must have been doing the ice bucket challenge or something.  Oh, by the way, this is from the first week of August.

Ducklings get lessons on grooming

"Okay kids, you had your dinner and your play time,  now it is time to clean up."  A mother duck, sheppards  her ducklings, teaching them good hygiene habits.  The scene is from Lake Washington.

Whale wakes whale watchers with tale show

This shot is from our recent Alaskan cruise on the Norwegian Jewel. We took a whale watching tour out of Juneau, and saw quite a few whales from afar.  After about 45 minutes of this, we ended up in a place where whales were mulling around, but not close to our boat. The captain turned off  the motor and decided to wait and see. Just as he was walking to the front to start the boat to leave, this whale and a companion surfaced about 40 feet from us to gasps and "wow" from all of us. This is the Humpback whale's signature move as he starts a deep dive for food.

Seattle slides away

This was the view from the Norwegian Jewel as Seattle slid away from us and we set sail for an Alaskan Cruise.

Eagle brags about his Salmon catch

After an hour of watching this Alaskan  eagle from afar, as we were walking back to the bus, he zoomed to a tree by the road which we were walking past.   I was so excited to shoot the shot, that I did not notice the salmon hanging down.   You can barely see it, but he has already eaten the head off of his catch.  This shot was from our recent Alaskan cruise on the Norwegian Jewel.

In the dust

Found in the wreckage in Oklahoma this past summer.

Eastern Blue Bird

Eastern Bluebirds aren't a common site, chez moi, so I was glad to see this visitor.

Shade Bathed

After the rain is gone, sundrops hang on for as long as they can in the shade.

Bluebonnets and friends

I pulled over on the side of the road and took this shot a few weeks ago.  It was a patch of Texas Bluebonnets and their friends.

Red-Headed Woodpecker

This Red-Headed Woodpecker was flying around City Park in Baton Rouge, unbeknownst to the kids having fun with more terrestrial pursuits. AllAboutBirds.com notes "These birds don’t act quite like most other woodpeckers: they’re adept at catching insects in the air, and they eat lots of acorns and beech nuts, often hiding away extra food in tree crevices for later."

Roadrunner

This Roadrunner I met in Austin this weekend didn't feel comfortable enough to let me get close.  He did however let me get close enough for a zoomed in shot.

Butterfies fill the air

Butterflies were all over the backyard Monday.  This is the only one that would sit still for a portrait, though.

Beautifully ugly

My iguana friend kept a sharp eye on me, but still let me get more than a dozen pictures of him without flinching.  This was as close as I felt like getting for fear of chasing him away -- I just wanted a good clear picture of his beastly bling bling.

Egret unruffled by my camera

You know that this egret had to feel pretty safe with me shooting pictures of him, if he took the time to scratch.  There was a good bit of swamp between the two of us.  Still, he was playing it pretty cool.

Flowers passionate about time

The Passion Flowers are still hanging around in the backyard, opening by day, closing by night -- floral clock style