Cloud Bursts and Tiny Squatters

Some mornings, the sunrise is so awe-inspiring

that it stops me dead in my tracks.

At that moment, I fumble for my camera, tucked neatly in my pocket.

Anyone with me at the time must be patient and stand very still.

Snap.

There.  The moment is noted and permanently recorded.

I have so many photos of spectacular sunrises.

That's the beauty of digital photography.

Gone are the days of waiting for the perfect shot and laying it down upon celluloid.

(I still remember my first little Brownie camera... its images long gone, now.)

And, for me, it's a much better world...

to be able to take advantage of each and every photographic possibility and save

all of them for rainy day perusal.

And just like that... off goes that particular photograph to a place called "the cloud".

I can only imagine that the cloud must be the most amazing place

that doesn't really exist.

I picture a puffy white cumulus cloud high in an azure sky...

from the ground it is huge and fluffy... an enormous billowy, nebula filled with tiny images.

If you have the privilege of visiting this realm, then you have the pleasure of seeing

billions, no, maybe trillions, of fantastic photographs from every continent of this

diverse, magnificent world of ours...

of sunrises, sunsets, smiles, tears, landscapes, animals, children...

limitless beauty captured in single-frame moments.

Yes, technology makes our lives just a little more complicated,

 (its original goal being an effort to make our lives easier, I believe.)

But, to me, the ability to take so many photographs and have them

available to us forever (or until- quite possibly- the cloud bursts some day)

is one of them most wonderful gifts that technology has given us.

(Note to self:  store a back-up copy of these photographic moments- just in case!)

Amazingly, most of my photographs are now captured with my iPhone.

Cell phone cameras have come a very long way.

For someone, like myself, who is out and about in the muck and the mire,

and the dust, and the weather...

iPhone photography has been liberating.

I save my "good" (SLR) camera for times when the weather is perfect,

and I am trying to capture that amazing, close-up shot.

The rest of the time, my cell phone is always on my person...

ready to capture something that would otherwise have to exist only in my memory.

(which is not nearly as easy to access some days as the cloud is!)

We enjoyed another warm-ish January day yesterday.
I continued my work cleaning up the garden...
cleaning out the skeletal remains of last year's tomatoes vines,
and dreaming of new seedlings taking their place.

While I did that, Jack cleaned out our bluebird houses.
He does this every winter in preparation for late winter nesting.
Each box had a different style of nest...
constructed with whatever was handy in that area.

Nearest to the dry lot, nests are constructed of horse hairs.

On the other side of the barn, where the guineas and ducks live,
the nests are built with feathers.

Nests close to the bramble that grows by the old log cabin
are constructed of twigs.

As Jack cleaned out this particular box,
he found that it had become the winter home of a family of squatters...

discovered as three somnolent mice dropped to the ground.

Feeling sorry for these three sleepy wee ones,
Jack replaced the nest and lifted the tiny mice up into the box.
(We'll clean that box out when warmer weather arrives.)

I love this about my husband.
He has a tender heart... even for vermin.
We'd prefer to not have them in our house,
however, the woods belongs to them as well as us...
so, we "live and let live."

And with that, January comes to a close.
The weekend is once again upon us.
Our only scheduled activity is Tyler's last swim meet.
With the forecasted weather remaining on the warmer side,
it will be a good weekend for outdoor activities.
We'll be back on Monday to share weekend Tales from the Farm.

Big, furry hugs from the farm!!!