rain

Drizzly Day in the Country

Just before 7:00 am this morning, I’ve always been an early riser, more Blue Jays than I had ever seen before swooped down in the drive to begin eating and drinking.  It was sprinkling and still very dark but I was able to make all of them out.  Knew that it would make an awesome picture with well over 10 Blue Jays only in this tight group.  Of course when I came back to that window after fetching my camera, at least half of them had flown away.  I quickly set the ISO to 800 but realized it was not working after the first two shots.  Not much better at 1600 ISO.  Hand held, dark and rainy.

I have been ill for over a week now with some kind of viral sore throat, bronchitis deal. I do get allergies around this time and I came down with it after running errands a couple of days in a row in thick fog. Even when I try to breathe through a scarf, it can still effect me adversely.
My apartment backs up to woods with all kinds of wildlife out here. Before I became ill I took pictures of some deer grazing right outside my window. I apologize for the poor quality of shooting through my screen. The windows have a special immovable screening that covers the entire window for safety and security or they are just cheap.

These are some shots I got a month or two before when I was outside, which are a little clearer. I try not to get to close and spook them as I did this fawn. His brother could care less I was there, he was hungry!

Sees me…
There’s his brother…
Both…
Starts to run…
Still running…
Going…
Going…
Gone!

These are even earlier still.

Notice me taking pictures..
keep eating…
Little one in the shrubs
Pops out…
Notices people coming…
They start to run away…

My next post I will be sharing my Cheesecake recipe with you all!  First Cheesecake in a very long time and sadly it will not be my last!  Next one will be Pumpkin Cheesecake.  Forgot to take a picture of a mock pumpkin mug cake that I nuked in 90 seconds.  Came out perfect.  Just a plain cake replaced liquid with Coffee-mate Pumpkin Spice.  I will include this recipe when I complete the Pumpkin one within the next couple weeks only adding some actual pumpkin pulp next time.  I just purchased the sugar pumpkin to pressure cook in my Instant Pot.  I prefer fresh pumpkin to the canned any day.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Blur

The last six years have been a blur for so many reasons.  But since this is a Photo Challenge, better late than never!  I usually delete my bad photos and sometimes take soft focused that border on just looking blurry.

My first photo is of the latest solar eclipse I got halfway through.  It basically looks like a regular moon in one of its waxing or waning phases.

AprilLunarEclipse 020

Took some pictures before daybreak one rainy morning at various aperture settings.

Blessed Rain

There was a storm last week and it was so great!  It was not bad in my area and we really needed the rain desperately.  I am still doing a rain dance in my head for the rest of America so the drought will go away.  Our economy is bad enough without the farmers having to share in this misery.  It is very scary to think that if this were to keep up and we really did not have enough rain soon that it will adversely effect all the food that is grown and that in turn effects everything!  The least of which is the cost of what food we do have going up, the most is more people actually starving.  I have not been able to grow any sustainable food in my garden this year, even with additional careful watering.  The animals are ravenous and even with my bird baths, the birds got every berry off my shrubs this year.  This has never happened even with my yard full of birds every year.  I went out once to check for ripeness and you should have heard the commotion.  First a few of them gathered squawking, then more kept flying over by me griping loudly.  I swear they were afraid I was going to pick some and I would have if any had been ripe at the time.