It Is Over...

5/28/24 Showers Across the Valley - image ©Bruce A. Morrison

It's official now...the Drought in Iowa has finally ended.  No exclamation point punctuating the end of that opening statement yet, but I am happy none-the-less.

It's been a bit of a mixed bag of course, nothing is ever straight forward or simple.  The weather systems in the middle of the country have come with a cost...flooding and damaging storms in many areas.  Iowa lost the best part of two small communities in the SW/Central part of the state from tornadoes.  Its been bad elsewhere too.  

Its been a bit of a race with area farmers trying to get crops in during the melee...the neighbor just got his beans in behind us yesterday afternoon.  I was kidding him a bit and said he still had a couple hours before the next rain comes and he said he didn't think he could disk and plant another 300 acres before then!  He'll be looking for another hole in the storms like so many others I guess.

5/28/24 Showers in the "Neighborhood" - image ©Bruce A. Morrison

 

Its been a real joy "here" to see everything as it "used to be"...the pastures were mostly burned late last winter and early this spring.  We left the NW quarter unburned to help the invertebrates out...had a bonus surprise there just two days ago - our 3rd Prairie Skink in 22 years!!!  We had our 2nd Prairie Skink outside the sheep barn in the south pasture late last summer...that really gave me hope that maybe they could make a come-back.  Now I'm optimistic!  Yes, even this pessimist is now optimistic!  What a little rain can do for a person, right?  Our first Prairie Skink here came the first or second week we moved here in the Fall of 2002...we discovered it in the mouth of the farm cat that came with the place!  Ouch!  Was so sad to see that.  

Red-headed Woodpecker on the acreage - image ©Bruce A. Morrison

 

We do not allow cats out side here unless supervised anymore...we are just down to one now and she is my studio kitty...I'm afraid that little rescued lady is indoors bound.  Don't get me wrong...I have had cats since I was a little kid, but I've witnessed first hand what they do outdoors.  I revisited a report I read many years ago on birds...it was reinstated recently due to the precipitous fall in the world bird population.  Cats are the LARGEST documented cause in the drop in the population of birds.  Larger than habitat loss even - very significant!  And I will be witness to the significance of that here - we have lots of birds...more than we used to before bringing all the cats inside...lots more!  And they are more successful in raising their broods than I have witnessed in past years.

Anticrepuscular Rainbow - 5-8-2024 - image ©Bruce A. Morrison

 

This last day of May marks an interesting month here, its been quite eventful really.  We get rainbows here fairly often each year...except during the drought when it's not raining of course!  We had a rainbow on the 8th of May that was kind of special in it's own way - a rainbow accompanied by ANTICREPUSCULAR RAYS. I have only witnessed Crepuscular and Anticrepuscular rays 6 or 7 times in my life - and ALL of them Out Here. Most people have either never seen them before or just didn't realize what they were witnessing.

 

Here's a WIKIPEDIA Quote for a brief explanation - "Anticrepuscular rays, or antisolar rays, are meteorological optical phenomena similar to crepuscular rays, but appear opposite the Sun in the sky. Anticrepuscular rays are essentially parallel, but appear to converge toward the antisolar point, the vanishing point, due to a visual illusion from linear perspective."

 

Fun huh!

 

Northern Lights from the North Pasture - 5-10-2024 - image ©Bruce A. Morrison

 

 

But the Crème de la crème was the Aurora Borealis on May 10!  A solar storm so active that the Aurora was visible into Mexico and the South Pacific!!!

 

I was so fortunate I got photographs from the north pasture here...even luckier I went out and set up when I did.  It was still daylight; that civil twilight when you can still make things out but the darkness is closing in.  And there they were!  Spiking high and moving around.  I had to be quick and probably got the best of the evening - the shot above shows the foreground still discernible and the moon off to the west as the Aurora danced on the horizon!  The next 45 minutes was great fun but I still prefer this image, as the rest had the foreground only as a blank black canvas.

 

Well May was great for us...here's to June being better!

 

Have a great rest of your Spring out there and always - be good to one another...we are not all the same, yet we are all from the same Maker and Loved Equally.  Again - Be Good To One Another.

 

Until next time...

 

 

Fun to Watch and Do!

"Father's Day Rainbow"

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on images for a larger view) 

 Its been a fairly dramatic late spring here with the sky and weather; the clouds across the valley from the studio are beginning to take over my efforts with the camera and the easel.  

"Breaking Clouds Over the Rookery"

oil painting - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on images for a larger view) 

 I've been working with the sky out front on the easel as well - this painting was my first plein air work in quite some time...it is easy to just sit out on the studio deck and paint away...oh I still get distracted constantly but it sure is convenient just outside the studio door!

On the studio deck!

 

I've looked at the rookery across the valley each spring and summer and always wanted to see if I could paint it in some way.  The breaking clouds one day this spring was the answer and I was lucky enough to be able to take advantage of it! 

 

"Valley Rain"

photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison

(click on images for a larger view) 

But its really amazing what the weather will create for the "eyes"!  Whether it was the rainbow I barely caught in time, or the "Valley Rain" system that knocked the rainbow out of the sky and drenched me as I was trying to hide under the eaves of the corn crib!  Whatever and whichever - they were all fun to watch and do!

 

 

 

I've Said It Before...

Rainbow in front of the Prairie Hill Farm Studio

I've said it before and I'll say it again - the skies here are amazing! We don't have mountains, and what hills we have are pretty far and few in between (except in the valley below us). But the sky makes up for this...on the prairie the sky is "our mountains".

I shot quite a bit of this evening (last night) from in front of the studio and will "someday" maybe have enough time to further investigate and process the other files from the event.

In the meantime, I hope you enjoy our view!