Mr. Grumpypants

Mr. Grumpypants, right, seems full of vinegar on a wet morning. His dining companion, left, seems a bit taken aback.

Faded glory

White wildflower holding its head up after a heavy rain and after the peak of its blooming.

STILL BEAUTIFUL – Even in its final days.

Late in the day

Interplay of sun and clouds near the end of the day.

SIDELIGHT – Setting sun skims the tops of clouds.

ANVIL — Cloud convects into an anvil with virga.

Mother Goose

Goose and pair of goslings on a family outing in the rain in Goshen, Arkansas. There were two families of geese with goslings close in age. The group seemed to move together always in the two days we saw them.

Goose and goslings on a family outing in Goshen, Arkansas.

Two families of Canada geese stick together in a subdivision pond in Goshen, Arkansas.

Heron on the prowl

A great blue heron stalks frogs and other prey in a pond near the White River in northwestern Arkansas, against tall grass spangled in wildflowers.

Great blue heron seeks frogs in a shallow, rain-expanded pond.

Onion domes and water droplets

This morning’s springlike shower left droplets clinging to moss venters and creating a miniature architectural fantasy of onion domes and tiny glass spheres.

The deck moss gets a rain shower.

 

The stark beauty of a foggy winter’s day

For most of the last week, winter has cast a foggy, rainy spell over our part of the Arkansas Ouachitas. This is how nature makes her own monochromes.

The fog-shrouded silhouettes of pines, oaks and hickories describe the angle of descent to the south valley.

 

Bared of its leaves, except for a few tatters, this blackjack oak looks almost prickly.

Weekly photo challenge: Containers

“Containers” is the theme of this week’s WordPress photo challenge. Pondered on this for a few hours before realizing that containers can be broader than simply a can or a pot. Each droplet was a container of sort — each held a micro image of the world around it.

SUSPENDED – Droplets in a spiderweb.

Other containers we liked:

• Rolling “tin cans.” – http://dewetswild.com/2014/07/18/containers/
• Storm in a bottle – http://polymathically.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/weekly-photo-challenge-containers-or-storm-in-a-bottle/
• In Nepal – http://scottseyephotos.wordpress.com/2014/07/18/weekly-photo-challenge-container/
• Well contained – http://clickychickcreates.com/2014/07/18/containers-beauty-within-photo-challenge/
• Olympic sized container – http://michealdebarra.com/2014/07/18/weekly-photo-challenge-containers/

 

 

 

 

Who needs TV?

With skies like this? Who needs TV?

Water from sky to earth and back. No tornadic activity, just scuds in the center and mist sweeping upward at the right of the frame.

Storm brewing to the west and south. With a little of everything. Rain, crepuscular rays, convection and dissipation.

Anvils

Sure looks like summer out there.

Thunderheads developing in SW Arkansas as seen from near Little Rock.