Total Lunar Eclipse & Polished Snow

A total lunar eclipse on the evening of February 20, 2008, began at 8:43 p.m. local time. This picture was taken seven minutes later and the Earth's shadow had made substantial progress in that short time. As the outside temperatures had fallen into the single digits, I decided to shoot my pictures through a firmly closed window. So the flare (and lack of detail) is due to two panes of (dirty) glass. I put the camera (a Canon PowerShot S2 IS) on a tripod, turned off the living room lights and shot away. Totality was from 10:01 p.m. to 10:51 p.m. so when I climbed into bed, I looked up and saw the moon was a muted and rusty red. Just above and to the left was Saturn; just below and to the left was Regulus. I don't remember seeing either when the moon was fully lit. The eclipse ended at 12:09 a.m. but I was already asleep. I did awaken at some point, though, and noticed the moonlight was returning.

Snow and more snow! And for the past day, we've had sleet and freezing rain falling and coating the snow. It almost looks as though the snow has been polished. There are strange reflections everywhere you turn.

Looking across the back yard, the shiny snow reminds me of a foamy sea. The snow seems to lie in waves of white froth. Walking on it is weird as it holds my step for a fraction of a second and then collapses and makes a remarkable crunchy sound underfoot all the while.

Icicles hang from the garage roof and we have to duck down to walk through.

Colder Still!

The Russian sage is covered in ice in mid-February though things aren't as bad as they look. The road, at least, is passable.

Looking back towards the house from the north, you can see that the snow isn't deep. The pampas grass in the foreground is usually torn apart by the winter winds. But not this year. Why not? It's been windier than ever.

A view of the house from beneath the pines along Clayton Road presents a pretty picture with the bare trunks of the trees, the snow and the meager winter sunlight punching through.

One of the first pictures I took with my 'new' (i.e used!) Canon PowerShot S2 IS in the macro mode gives a good idea of the ice the recent storms have deposited. It's a wonder anything is still standing. Though there are a few limbs down, for the most part there was no damage.

Winter's Cold

Last night was the coldest of the season at +1 degree. So far no temperatures below zero. I awoke to the bathroom window frozen over with ice crystals, a pretty pattern in the early morning light where the crystals formed interconnecting lines.

The window shown above is right beside my shower and I found a familiar sound when stepping upon the fiberglass floor - a creaking, crunching sound that is unmistakable: ice! My bare feet gave further proof. Later I sat the toilet bruch down there to drain and coming back to it a few hours later I found that it has frozen in place. Lifting it took bristles from the end. That's no place to take a proper shower.

I did manage my usual walk to Hemple a third of a mile to our north but I had to press a gloved hand against my face to prevent the wind from stinging my cheek. Upon arriving back at the house, I turned and looked back north and took this picture:

It doesn't look cold in that shot, does it? But it had only risen to about 2 degrees when I took it. A sunny day makes it look much more comfortable than it was.

The "Lowly" Thistle?

Late August presents all sort of weeds that might work equally well in a flower bed. This thistle, when viewed up close, has petals as delicate as threads and in a lovely shade of lavendar.

I wonder how we came to call this a weed? I suppose the fact that it survived the drought and managed unattended while the exotics died even when given their daily drink made all the difference. This thistle will sport some thorns later and the plant itself is spindly and lank. But think of the orchid! That something this beautiful can bloom in some hidden corner of the field, without cultivation, without fertilizer, without regular watering, makes it all the more special to me.

Watching the ISS Pass Overhead

Though this late evening image seems not to have captured the International Space Station passing overhead, it was a fairly bright pass just the same. I went into the back yard just before 9 p.m. when the sky still had a faint glow from sunset to it and waited for the 9:01 p.m. pass to begin. The ISS pass began in the WNW and ended about six minutes later in the SSE. When the station passed across the southern sky, it moved just below the moon and Jupiter.

The moon, by the way, was brilliant even though just past first quarter. I set the camera to telephoto (3x) and shot this picture on a tripod. You can see a little jaggedness to the left edge of the moon where the terminator slices through the lunar rugged terrain.

Besides the moon, Jupiter and the ISS, the backyard air was full of bats! Not one but probably dozens, all flying about for summertime bugs. If you listen in the still night air, you can hear an occasional "click" as they echolocate their next meal. A few night ago in the early evening I saw what I thought to be multiple small birds flying a circuit over our garden. What? Swallows? Martins? I walked outside in my bathrobe to see what it could be. I was met by hundreds of very large dragonflys! Other than a recent rain, there are no areas of standing water nearby - save our very small birdbath. It was magical.

All of this just proves how nice it is to spend some time outdoors at night. The country is especially pleasant at later hours when we can enjoy what the sky has to offer.

The Summer Heat

So far this summer, we've had 18 days at 90 degrees or above. Here's a graph of August so far.


Last evening (08/09) we had beautiful cloud formations as a cold front passed. Though torrential rains were reported well north and east of here, we had not a drop at my location. This view (below) is facing east through the catalpa trees in our front yard. A classic cumulonimbus!


And this view (below) is facing west as the final line of storms approached. To the right of the picture (north), it's clear that someone is getting some much-needed rain. But so far this month, Farmersville stands at 0.05". That's really critically dry, especially considering the extreme heat.

Is It HOT Enough Yet?

This summer has been one of the hottest I've recorded. Here in early August, I've logged 18 days with highs of 90 or above. Yesterday my "official" high was 98.7 degrees (with the electronic station) but a mere twenty feet away, also on the north side of the house, the bimetalic thermometer read an even 100 degrees.

Now that's in the shade, of course, and on the north side of the house. Coupled with the heat, we've had only 0.05" of rain in the last 12 days so the crops are beginning to feel the pinch. The corn is curling up trying to protect itself from this heat.

August has been well above normal; yesterday alone was 13 degrees above normal

It makes me wish for winter even more.