I'm sure all of you who blog have noticed that blogging makes us more aware, more present. Haven't you? I checked out one of my new follower's blogs and he asked the question: Why Do You Blog? a few posts away. There are many reason why I blog, but what I really like about blogging is that it makes me more present in my life. I see so much more in nature, in the way my dogs live their lives, in the books I read, and I was going to say in my baking/cooking, but in all honesty, not quite yet. But even there, I think blogging will help me.
Yesterday, I went to my BIL's place to do some more laundry and I also managed some visiting and shopping in the heat. As I drove home, I saw clouds! I haven't seen many clouds since those magnificent red ones I posted on my blog in early June. But yesterday, I saw the prettiest, puffy, white clouds all around the mountains.
Here are some other things that caught my attention yesterday:
My BIL's garden shed. The former owner of this house was an artist, who loved bird houses. There is a whole town of bird houses on all three sides of their fence with cute names painted on them, like: The Library: Where Owls Get Wise. Here are some others:
This is the jail, so of course the plaque says Jail Birds.
At 11:00 in the morning, it was already 100F/38C in the garden. Butterflies were the only wildlife to be seen. No birds, no ground squirrels, nothing – all the smart critters took a break from the heat. And so did I. After I took a few pictures and picked a few apples, I hurried back into the cool house.
All in all, I had a good day: Got some laundry done, went to see my girlfriend and Suki, the Shih Tzu, her dog, at the dentist's office. Suki, by the way, was very busy with a guy waiting to see the dentist and totally ignored me. But before I left she rolled over and let me scratch her tummy. She's so cute that little dog.
When I got home, I had to take some cloud pictures.
In the evening, I heard thunder rolling through the hills, my power went off, and I went outside to see what was going on. The clouds had changed color and character to this:
The wind was blowing like crazy, stirring up the mustard tumble weeds and making them fly all around with my trash can lids and other loose stuff. There was thunder and lightning, but only about two drops of rain fell around my place.
But it cooled off fast and smelled as if it had rained. A much needed and appreciated break after the hot day.
Angel and Soldier barking at the thunder.
I don't like thunder storms without rain and, sure enough, lightning must have struck somewhere, not too far away:
Or something else could have happened to start a fire. This one didn't look bad and it was put out right away.
At 7:45 p.m., the sky looked like this as the sun set and the temperature was a cool 82F.
Phew! What a day!
We'll have another hot day today, but by Sunday it's supposed to be around 68F during the day according to Weather.com! That doesn't seem possible, but I'll enjoy any cooling off we get. Then it will get warm again, but I hope for no more heatwaves like this one until next year.
Thanks for visiting and have a great day!
