Climbing the hills and rocks would definitely be more fun than hiking through the snow drifts. The snow, with the thawing, rain and re-freezing, feels as hard as rocks when you fall.
I don’t know if I could climb to the top but a young fox had no problem getting to the top to look down at me.
Climb the Rocks
To close out this week’s summer clouds theme, haying during the summer time quickly comes to mind. Haying methods have changed over the years but I know it is much easier to look at the hay in the fields than to be stacking hay bales on a wagon!
Summer Bales
Some summer skies aren’t filled with white, puffy clouds but are bursting with fiery red instead. Maybe a blazing sky can melt the snow and allow spring to appear.
Blazing Sky
It felt more like the first day of winter instead of the first full day of spring when the temperature was below zero overnight so the thought of a warm summer day is still on my mind.
Needing Summer
Some summer days don’t have the puffy cumulus clouds to image critters in the clouds, but instead look more like kitty litter scattered on the floor or frost on a window.
Whether cumulus or cirrus clouds, I just to see some green instead of white snow.
Summer Wispy Clouds
Last week’s theme of spring wildflower didn’t help the winter to end, not when I’m looking out the window at falling and blowing snow. So instead of thinking spring, maybe I have to think of a warmer season like summer; a warm summer afternoon in the hammock instead of shoveling snow.
Lazy Summer Day
With the new snowfall, there is very little color on the landscape, and certainly no bright yellow flowers. Bright flowers and even colorful spiders won’t reappear for a few more months.
This successful spider, carrying its latest victim, is called the goldenrod crab spider or flower (crab) spider, because it is commonly found hunting in goldenrod sprays in the autumn. The goldenrod attracts a large numbers of insects and therefore, the older female spider will prey there to produce the best possible clutch of eggs.
Younger females will hunt on a variety of flowers such as daisies and sunflowers and are able to change their color to yellow or white. The color change takes several days to complete.
The goldenrod crab spider does not build webs but instead they ambush their prey and they have small jaws with venom to take on larger insects.
Goldenrod Crab Spider
The new snow covered the pine trees so they are pretty white again but it wasn’t so pretty clearing the driveway when the snow was blowing in my face. So I think I rather see the trees in the summer instead of looking at the snow in the below zero wind chills.
Green instead of White
It seemed odd to have it raining yesterday when the ground is cover with snow instead of having it rain on a green landscape. But at least there wasn’t storm like many of the summer time rains can bring or a lot of freezing rain since it is winter.
Summer Storm
The sun was out early this morning and with the continued above average temperatures this week, the image of summer popped in my head. An image of a warm summer evening with cattle grazing in the pasture, the moon rising as the sun was setting and swallows chasing bugs above the barns roof.
Cattle Grazing on Summer Evening
