Out for a drive – June 2013

Sometimes I go back to check for stuff that, for one reason or another, I did not post.

Today I’m going back to June of 2013. Specifically, June 8, 2013, a windy Saturday. Melisa was doing something with a friend, so I grabbed my friend and I too headed out.

My friend, of course, is a camera.

For them who might click on one of the photos, or . . . gasp! . . . go to the SmugMug gallery HERE, you might notice a slight blurriness in the flowers and grass.

There is a reason:

It were a very windy day. In some photos, the wind duplicated the effect one might see in a painting . . . 

Last year, as this year, May had been a relatively wet month. Of course, even before June things were beginning to dry up, and we all know what happened then . . . drought, arid conditions, fires. 

But, on this June 8th day things were still looking green, and wildflowers dotted the landscape even as the ground was beginning to crack from lack of moisture.

People might think these as isolated patches where tears of forlorn lovers drenched the soil and turned into flowers . . . not so. 

It is worth nothing that not many weeks after this, the fields were brown to the point of crackling underfoot, and only three days after this, the Black Forest Fire sprang into life, and before it was contained on June 20th, 14,280 acres (22.31 sq mi; 57.8 km²) were burned, at least 509 homes were said to be destroyed, and two people had died. 

But on this day, I drove around blissfully unaware of the conflagration to come. 

People who have been reading my blog for a while might remember this silo, first introduced in this post from February 2012.

Not to change the subject, but changing the subject, let me mention something I’ve been wanting to mention for a long while now.

Clouds.

That’s right, clouds. I’ve been collecting cloud photos for a while now (clouds are somewhat rare where I live), and I keep threatening to do a post of just clouds. 

Obviously, this ain’t it. But I can show a few views of Colorado landscapes with clouds watching over them.

Yes, that is Pikes Peak in the background, still with some residual snow on it.

Here’s a shot of just the clouds . . . 

. . . and here’s a shot with Mt. herman and the clouds . . . 

. . . and here’s a different angle on the clouds and mountains.

Them who read this post know where I am heading next and what this next photo is showing.

Here’s a picture from the previous post:

This is a one lane underpass beneath I-25.  The Cliff Swallows nest there every year, and whenever a car drives into the underpass, they take flight.

They then swirl on the sky above the entrance. I took a few photos (more can be found in the SmugMug gallery HERE)

Here, this is what it sounded and looked like.

And here’s a video of the birds flying in and out of the underpass.

Note the noisily and how close the cars pass right above this overpass. 

Just on the other side of the underpass there is a small marshy area where I can usually find some birds . . . 

. . . some cattails that look like hummingbirds (with very short wings) . . . 

. . . some logs . . . 

. . . and a killdeer. 

The Killdeer actually tried the whole injured wing bit trying to distract me from the nearby nest, but quickly gave it up once she noticed I was not advancing on her position.

The Red-winged Blackbird perched on one of the dead branches and belted out a few cries.

I concentrated on the dead tree stump . . . 

. . . and on some sorry-looking cattails . . . 

The Killdeer did its best to draw my attention . . . 

. . . while I kept returning to the cattail and tree stump.

The Killdeer waded away, bitching at me.

The backdrop for the marshy area is a nicely textured fence.

And around the corner from it stands an abandoned structure that might also be familiar to some of my readers:

A bit worse for wear, but still standing.

As I continued my drive I stopped to shoot what I thought were interesting textures . . . 

. . . interesting compositions . . . 

. . . and, of course, more wildflowers.

I even found me some alien-looking thing windsurfing . . . sort-of.

But, really, flowers and textures demanded most of my efforts.

Where’s the textures, you ask?

Well, Bob, that’s been bugging me as well . . . ah, here they are.

The scenery also clamored for attention . . . 

Some of it was positively panoramic!

I would alternate between flowers  . . . 

. . . landscape . . . 

. . . and textures . . . 

This next piece gave me an idea . . . 

Not as good as I envisioned it, but close enough . . . 

And that, dear readers, was a look drive of about eight miles starting and ending at my house.

That’s it. This post has ended . . . except for the stuff below.

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Astute persons might have noticed these doodles, and correctly surmised they hold some significance for me, and perhaps for humanity at large.  

If you click on the doodle, and nothing happens, this is the link it’s supposed to go to: https://disperser.wordpress.com/2011/12/26/palm-vx-and-i/.

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Note: if you are not reading this blog post at Disperser.Wordpress.com, know that it has been copied without permission, and likely is being used by someone with nefarious intention, like attracting you to a malware-infested website.  Could be they also torture small mammals.

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. . .  my FP ward  . . . chieken shit.