Natural Art Show

I have always been captivated by beautiful skies.  I love sunsets and sunrises because no two are ever the same, kind of like snow flakes.  Watching and observing these natural occurrences is like a free trip to an art gallery so I try very hard to point out these moments to my kids.  Hopefully they will always appreciate natural beauty. 

It is very typical for us on the Central Coast to have clear blue skies.  We get very little rain fall so we have very few stormy, cloudy days.  There are many overcast foggy mornings and wispy clouds in the afternoon but real storm skies are rare.  Over the last few weeks we have alternated between rain, sun, and freezing overnight temperatures.  It seems like we are on a two to three day rotation of these weather patterns and this makes for some fabulous skies.

This was Christmas day looking out over the barn.  We had rainy weather and the sun kept peeking through the clouds.

People always talk about Hawaiian sunsets.  I have been to Hawaii several times and I have to argue that our sunsets rival any island.  This is what we get to see on a regular basis.  This was taken a few days after Christmas.

I said that we have had many freezing temperatures overnight.  This was what the hills looked like under a blanket of frost last weekend.  The intense sunlight in the morning is a regular thing around here.  When it reflects off the frost, it makes the new grass look brown and its intensity almost obliterates any blue in the sky.

The rain came back overnight and the sky had a real heaviness to it.  With the sun shining through in the east, this heaviness was accentuated.  This orientation of this picture is actually the same as the previous one but the camera was tilted up a bit. The two pictures were taken at almost the same hour one day apart.  What a difference twenty four hours makes, huh? 

I have always taken pictures of the skies and it is really hard to edit myself.  Who doesn't want to trap the beauty they're witnessing?  I have to keep reminding myself that another beautiful sky is only a day way.