Virga

It's time for some more cheerful images. Here are some virga clouds--lovely snow that nobody has to shovel!

Oh, how I love electricity!

The power finally came back on this morning, just 12 hours shy of a whole week without electricity. I can go a whole week without tv just fine, but candlelight isn't quite enough light for reading, or for sewing, or any other creative work I like to do. It's maddening! You can play dominoes, but not cards, not really. So I'm ecstatic to finally have POWER again! Not to mention that we were frickin' freezing.

Another view of the sad sycamore, taken from the front yard.

A side view of the sad sycamore. This shot really shows all of the broken branches--pretty much all of the large branches not curving upward are broken, including that big one halfway up on the right side. :-(

A cold kitty discovers the joys of an old-fashioned hot-water bottle.

How to survive a week without power: flashlights, bottled water, sheets tacked over the windows and doors, every blanket in the house piled on the couch for sleeping, and every candle in the house clustered in front of a mirror for light.

And finally, we get sunshine too. A morning of blessings!

Broken

This is the damage to my sycamore tree from the ice storm that hit Oklahoma on December 8-9. My power went out around 11 pm on December 9, and it's still out. The ice on the trees was pretty until the limbs starting breaking. I haven't been able to bring myself to take pictures for fun because I love trees and it's just so depressing to see almost every single tree in town nearly destroyed. There are a lot of trees in Norman--or were. We'll see how many survive.

These pictures were taken at about 8 a.m. on December 13 just as the morning fog began to thicken, which explains the bad lighting.

"Leaving on a Jet Plane . . ."

Sunset with contrails

Interesting shadows on the pedestrian bridge

Gone south for the winter

Right now I wish I could fly south for the winter, too!

The Modern, part 3

I told you I was obsessed with the texture of the polished concrete walls. . . . Here are some close-ups.

The foreground is at right in this image.

The foreground is at left in this shot. In the reflected light that illuminates the wall, you can see blue from the reflecting pool, a stripe of the green grass above that, and lighter blue sky at the top.

The Modern, part 2

A view toward downtown Fort Worth, Texas

For some reason, I am fascinated with these concrete walls

Crepuscular Rays

The Modern, part 1

I recently attended an exhibit at The Modern, Fort Worth's modern art museum. The art was lovely, but I fell totally and completely in love with the building itself. With the rhythmic windows that remind me of Mondrian, with the four-inch-deep reflecting pool that surrounds half the building, with the polished-concrete walls and floors. . . . So what could I do but take an obsessive number of pictures? Most of them of concrete. Yes, really. So I will be posting a series of my pictures of The Modern, though I'll try to mix it up with some other stuff for variety.

The front door of The Modern

A quick snapshot of the main stairs

The view from a second-floor hallway

Wave cloud wisps at sunset

Happy post-Halloween!

We were lazy this year (didn't even hand out candy), but at the last minute I decided I wanted some Halloween treats besides the usual candy bar avalanche. I used to make Jack-o-lantern sugar cookies, but I wasn't up for the task of making buttercream icing (tastes fantastic, takes for-ev-er!). Then I had this idea. . . .



My roommate made the Rice Krispy treats, adding some orange food coloring and using a round measuring cup as the mold. I drew the faces on these two using drizzle chocolate and M&Ms. Talk about a sugar high!

Sweet Potato Vine

Wave Clouds

Still life II

with reflection

Still life

with shadow

Texture

Sunlight on tree bark
at the Oklahoma State Fair

Evening Finery

A mackerel sky in gold

became pink and orange froth a few minutes later

Roses are Red

...but violets are prettier.

Nana's violet

Sundown

"My Sundown" by Jimmy Eat World

Good news!

So I'm not a huge football fan, but I am a Sooner, and I couldn't resist this shot. Plus I was curious about how well this camera would photograph documents.

Boomer Sooner! Check out that score

Oh, and trust my mom to have some of this:

Yes folks, that is real gum. Only in Oklahoma....

P.S.: The shot of the Oklahoman is just for fun and in support of the team. If ya want me to take it down, just leave a comment and I'll take it down. All rights reserved by the Oklahoman, yadda yadda yadda.

Late in the day

Storm cloud caught by the sunset

What's this? The left side appeared within moments of the first shot...

...and then the middle arc grew brighter...

...not to be outdone by the right side.
Do you think there's a pot of gold over there?

A cloudy day

Waterfall

Still at the Chickasaw National Recreation Area. . . .

This is the point at which the stream from the main sulfur spring flows into Rock Creek. The area at the top left has been my family's favorite picnic spot for years.

Waterfall

A mossy rock at the foot of the falls

Foam