Big, Dark Cloud Coming in from Lake Michigan

 

Sky After Rainy Day

 

Cloud Street

 

Sunday Clouds and Sailboats

 

Morning Moon, 10/23/2021

 

Some September Skies

 

Cloudy Day Drive, Round Trip From Sun to Rain

 

Not a Sunrise, Not a Sunset

 

Sunrise can come on sometimes like a brutal onslaught, so harsh is its glare, impossible to ignore. Sunsets, more peaceful, are often vivid and phantasmagoric, stopping us in our tracks. But just as journalists all rush to one focal spot, ignoring everything else happening at the same time, we may notice only the light and color in the morning east and evening west, forgetting to look at the subtler glory in other directions. This was the sky to the south in Dos Cabezas on January 13, 2021, at sunset.

Mountain Morning, or, Between Rainy Night and Rainy Day

 

Light at the Bight Breaks Through

 

I Can't Stop with this Tree

 

October 9, 2020: Good Morning, Northport!

 

Follow the Road

 

24 Hours in Dos Cabezas

A Hole in the Clouds

Outdoors behind the cabin, I was talking on the phone with my son when for no reason at all I looked straight up into the sky above me. This  is what I saw. The formation lasted only a minute before it was gone.

Storm Makes Drama

Sun on Mountains After Snowy Night

As I looked north (above) on Wednesday morning, clouds were hiding the Dos Cabezas peaks. The view northeast (below) was similarly magical, however, with sunlight piercing the clouds and lighting portions of the snowy mountainsides.

A Favorite Evening Ride

We have a favorite ride we often  take as day is winding down. It's our own highway, a road beautiful at any time of day (and I love it just as much in the morning light), but it is such a conveniently short distance from the cabin that we often drive a few miles after an early supper for a quiet, peaceful, and unobstructed view of sunset over mountains and desert. 

Of course, it isn't only the sun setting in the west that captures the eyes of the Artist and the seasonally retired philosopher-bookseller. It is the light in all directions -- before, during, and after the sun has gone down. See how the last low light of day is reflected on the prickly pear cactus pads? And how it bathes the range in gold?

As the sun dips below the horizon (or as our portion of the earth turns away from the sun and toward the night), the clear desert sky turns from cool blue to blazing warm colors of the Western palette, and souls sigh in contentment.

Every Day Begins and Ends Beautifully

Then One Morning, a Different World

Tuesday, February 19, was not our big snow of the winter. That was yet to come. What made it spectacular, to my eye, was the way it coincided with a day of gorgeous clouds. As we took the curve from the mountains onto the flats for the first time that morning, with the sunlit playa ahead, I had no idea what sky scenes awaited us farther down the road. Scenes like this: 

As you can see, clouds and blue sky were already playing tug-o’-war, and it was a toss-up which would eventually hold sway. 

Unfortunately — no, I take that back. Fortunately, I had forgotten something back at the cabin, and when we were almost at the city limits of Willcox we turned back to retrace our steps. I could not regret the extra trip as “wasted,” with sights like these in my viewfinder. 

And then, back towards town again, marveling at how hidden the mountains were behind the clouds. 

Areas of blue sky increased, mountains reappeared, and as more sunlight was able to break through, light and cloud shadows on the mountains colored the distances.

As the shots below demonstrate, the last one at day’s end, blue sky eventually triumphed and gave us a clear window for Wednesday’s mountain drive.