Tag: sunrises

Autumn Evening Colors, Pink Sunrises and Royal Blue Days

Last night after grabbing a quick dinner and running some errands, my husband and I made a quick trip through Mount Muncie Cemetery just before sunset.  I took several snapshots with my smartphone, and liked this one the best:

Fall colors at Muncie CemeteryThis morning, after commuting in the pre-dawn darkness and parking almost underground, I emerged to find this pink sunrise greeting me on this fabulous Friday morning:

20141017_072039And in honor of the World Series bound Royals (first game is here in Kansas City next Tuesday evening) enjoy this snapshot from one of my many lunch walks around the Country Club Plaza, where all the fountains are overflowing with Royal blue:

20141015_120842Have a great weekend everyone!

Venus Overtakes Jupiter

I thought I’d use the European racing term more commonly known in the States as ‘passing’ to refer to the progress Venus has made in the predawn sky this past week.

Saturday morning I woke up way too early for a weekend, but remembered reading something about Venus and Jupiter getting closer together.  Without reminding myself by actually looking the information up via Facebook or Twitter or Google, I threw on some clothes, grabbed the keys to one of the vehicles (didn’t care which one) and rushed outside.  It was still very dark, just after five o’clock (Central time zone).  I drove a block up a slight hill to my favorite eastern horizon viewing site (just to the east of Lansing City Hall) and waited … and waited … and waited.  I finally used my smartphone (which I never leave home without) to check when Venus and Jupiter were supposed to rise (using Astronomy.com’s Tonight’s Sky mobile web page).  Continue reading “Venus Overtakes Jupiter”

Summer Sunrise

Summer officially arrived yesterday, but today it dawned for the first time.  I woke up way way early for a Sunday (sometime during the four o’clock hour) and spied a hazy crescent moon from my bedroom window, but no bright shining Venus.

Late in the five o’clock hour, I went outside, taking Apollo with me, to see if Venus peaked through the clouds.  No, nothing but the moon.

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First Summer Sunrise 2014

Some of my flowers are doing well, like my day lilies and the moss roses, potted or in flower beds:

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Potted Moss Roses (four plants, various colors)
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Flower bed with moss roses, day lilies and cone flowers.

The cone flowers I planted last year and not doing very well. The one I planted at the north end of this flower bed only produced three or four leaves. The other one (shown above) is flowering, but also looks pekid. I’m just not much of a gardener. My one true success is the day lilies, which I planted six years ago on Memorial Day.

Watch a staggeringly beautiful time-lapse video of Yosemite National Park

http://io9.com/5878091/this-time-lapse-video-of-yosemite-is-staggeringly-beautiful

I’ve been to Yosemite twice. I loved it. It would be the only reason I would ever move to California.

[vimeo 35396305 w=500 h=281]

Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

This stunning time lapse combines several of my favorite photography subjects into four breath taking minutes: sunrises, sunsets, moon rise, Milky Way with meteors, nature, landscapes, etc.

And if four minutes wasn’t enough, try the five minute sequel from Project Yosemite:

[vimeo 87701971 w=500 h=281]

Yosemite HD II from Project Yosemite on Vimeo.

Sunday Sunrise

I almost missed the sunrise this morning because I overdid it yesterday trying to contain my oak tree’s leaf largesse.  I ran out of leaf bags (two left over from last year plus ten more purchased this week from Home Depot) and the rain (or is that reign?) of leaves continues.

I fell out of bed at about a quarter to six and this is what I saw out my bedroom window:

Sunday sunriseNot bad with just my smartphone camera on “Dawn” setting.

I’m taking the rest of the morning ‘off’ to recover from yesterday.  Home remodeling projects will be calling my name this afternoon.

Good morning!

Sunrise (Singular) for Groundhog Day

No repeats.  No snoozing to ‘You Got Me Babe’ from the alarm clock.  Just one single solitary sunrise to greet the groundhog last Saturday morning:

Groundhog Day Sunrise
Groundhog Day Sunrise (click on image for the other 58 photos in the album)

I almost gave up on this sunrise. The clouds stayed a dismal grey until the last ten minutes or so before sunrise. At least I had a cub of fresh made Irish Blend tea to keep me warm while I waited for the drab to transform to gilded.

First Snowy Sunrise of 2013

First Sunrise 2013
First Sunrise 2013 (click image for rest of album)

When I let Apollo out this morning at 5:30 a.m., I saw the moon.  I didn’t think much of that until I let him back in and it dawned on me (pun intended) that I could probably see the sunrise today.  Today being New Year’s Day 2013.  I was supposed to wake up to snow falling, not mostly clear skies.

I groaned, though, because even without a wind, the temperature plummeted over night to the lower teens.  I didn’t fancy standing outside for a half hour or more to photograph a sunrise.  I made a compromise and setup the tripod and camera in the as-yet-unfinished Purple bedroom, where the window faces east and doesn’t currently have a screen installed.  I could open the double-pane window and have an uninhibited view of the eastern horizon (with the exception of the leafless winter tree skeletons silhouetted against it).

I waited until five minutes after sunrise but should have hung around ten minutes or so longer.  Instead, I went outside to shovel the driveway and the stairs before the sun, which wasn’t supposed to be shining this morning, could melt the powdery stuff to ice.  The sunrise never produced any golden or pink overtones to the clouds, but it did become a bit more dramatic than what I photographed above while I shoveled snow.  Oh well, such is life.

Happy New Year!