Rain and Rays

...storms have been rolling across the valley since late Friday night.  I love the fury and the fierceness, the dark entangled with light.  This beam came out of nowhere, spearing through the clouds like a laser in the misty rain...

First Sign

...this morning I took the boys to the county park for the first time since May 15th--the park is closed to dogs from May to September 15th.  It was lovely and peaceful and so blissfully quiet.  Though too soon for the visible signs of change, I took this photo of a small tree across the river that's just beginning to show its Fall colors...

Toil

...it's blazing hot today, temps over 100*.  I saw what I thought was a dust devil down in the valley below my house this afternoon.  It turned out to be a farmer, plowing his fields, on a day neither man nor beast should have been out there.  Clicking on the photo--taken with my telephoto through wavy layers of heat--shows the image with a melting, cartoon-like effect.  Poor tractor man...

Contrast

...meandering at an old (1910) homestead called Doc Bailey's this morning.  Behind me are the mountains and a most fertile expanse called Garden Valley--aptly named as the whole area was farmland in the time of the settlers.  There are still a few farms, though nowadays much of the land has been converted to wineries and vineyards.  I loved this lone tree in a seemingly barren landscape...

 

And yet, turning--with the tree at my back--the contrast is startling, both in the landscape and the weather.  It's one of those light/dark days, clouds rolling like tumbleweed across the sky...