RAINBOWS!

A few days ago we had warmer than normal temps, with rain.

just before a cold front moved in.

I saw TWO BEAUTIFUL RAINBOWS, one late morning:

 Then we got back on the road. Dramatic clearing clouds in the sky while passing Wilkes-Barre.

 Early afternoon, here's ANOTHER rainbow!

Views from our backyard. 

The entire arch touches down in front of the mountains on the west side of the Susquehanna River.

Eagles & hawks in the sky, OH MY!

A few days ago, while we were crossing the Susquehanna River on the CrossValley (Rt 309) , 
I saw a large hawk of some sort flying alongside, but down near the water. As I scrambled to get my camera out, it, rose... flew beside us, then rose up over the car. I remember how we used to watch hawks soaring in the sky as kids with Dad. This is the only shot I got - still a YAY day! :-) 

The next day I saw an eagle in the same area. It was flying high enough to clear the cars, 
but had to climb up quickly, about 4 more feet, to soar over a truck.

Inspirational Autumn 11-11-2014

Autumn in NE PA is spectacular.

This view is of the Susquehanna River, looking Pittston towards Exeter and West Pittston. 

Have a great 11-11 day!

There's more info and a photo with the quote at this link 

(one of my online portfolios)

Autumn scene and Medjugorje quote

I haven't been on here recently, being busy with too many other things, 

but a good thing is participating in  Art on Main gallery in Pittston, PA,

exhibiting work in other regional art shows...

Here are a couple more photos of our local color.

                                      

 I love the patterns and textures together!!

NEW gallery opening at Pittston PA 2nd Friday ArtWalk

TOTALLY ARTRAGEOUS

will be open Friday May 9th, 2014   5pm-9pm

*** GRAND OPENING ***

I am one of the participating artists.

(event link at end of this blog entry)

Here's a photograph of the nearby Susquehanna River I took,

 "Susquehanna Gold" or "River Gold",

matted and framed, which will be in the gallery.

-- with smaller prints/cards coming soon.

One of my paintings, "Cranes in Croatia"

(award-winner) :-)

Here's a link where I share part of the inspiration and process that went into it.

Cranes-in-Croatia, the process 

Totally Artrageous gallery grand-opening EVENT

mockingbird in tree

 A recent sunset - Plains, looking across the river towards the west side - the sun is moving towards the right in the sky, and will be settling in the dip in the mountain range during the summer. That dip is where the Crossvalley cuts up and over to Dallas. 

 This stubborn mockingbird! (the fir is also the tall tree at the left edge of the 1st photo) Bird's going after a robin's nest. every day.

He was in the yard... kept hopping from branch to branch as I tried to chase him away and leave the baby robins alone... around  this japanese maple. THREE times! finally flew away.

They're safe. at least for one more day :o)

I'm putting together a portfolio project of fog lifting one cold day in January 2014.

There's one view at Market St. Bridge looking  towards Wilkes-Barre that I'm not settled on yet.

WHICH DO YOU LIKE BETTER?

here's the link:

Choose which photo is better.   

Here's part of another photo that may be in that photo-documentary of that surprisingly beautiful day.

Ducks at Market St Bridge

Mid January - a frigid cold snap

I was photographing the fog lifting, looking toward Wilkes-Barre

from Nesbitt Park on the Kingston side of the Susquehanna river.

They happened to fly overhead

(the birds, not the words ;-)

I'm putting together a collection of photos from that morning:

"Fog Lifting"

They will be posted one of these days at

www.behance.net/christina-v

and a few will be chosed for: http://christina-verdgeline.artistwebsites.com/ 

FRIGID FLOW

We've had some frigid weather, 

and some ice in the river as a result.

AWESOME!

Winter sunset

We only got light snow in the #Wilkes-Barre, PA area Wyoming Valley#nepa this  afternoon (predicted 1-3"). Now it's breezy and the temps are dropping to the teens tonight, and a predicted high of only 26 (yikes!) tomorrow. But what a beautiful #sunset outside just a few minutes ago! 

Look how far over the sunset moved to the left!

During the Summer, the sun used to set all the way over in that dip in the mountains to the far right. That's where rte 309, the Cross Valley Expressway, cuts North towards Dallas, PA after it crossed the Susquehanna river. You can't tell here, but the altitude is much higher there - quite a climb up and through the mountains.

MAP

Here's a google map showing the location.
The Susquehanna River runs approximately parallel to Route 11 from the town of Plains up to Pittston; it's to the right of Rt 11 and looks green in this view. The mountain range in this blog is the green area, with not many signs of habitation,  further to the left of Rt 11, and the Francis Slocum State Park is on the other side of the ridge, on the "back-side" of the mountain view I see.  The cities & towns all along the river make up  the Wyoming Valley. Pa. USA We're seeing the mountains from the east side of the river, just north of Wilkes-Barre in Plains.
Many locations, etc., in NEPA, this area of Pennsylvania are derived from original Native American words. Here's a quote from Wikipedia: "The Susquehannock people were Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans who lived in areas adjacent to the Susquehanna River and its tributaries from the southern part of what is now New York, through Pennsylvania."


View Larger Map

the 4th of July

I LOVE the excitement of the celebration, and the sense of community when everyone gathers to listen to the philharmonic perform, usually climaxing with  Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture,  just as the first rockets shoot up into the air.
 I started taking MANY photos on Independence Day, from my window. (It was much to hot and humid to be walking around outside, especially since I'd hurt my ankle, but I knew with my view of "da valley" I'd see multiple celebrations.  I kept missing them, tried different settings on my camera... didn't like the looooong "fireworks" setting. WOW, so many photos!!! I edited out quite a few.

    But first: here's the lovely evening sky. I set my chair at the window 

      and started shooting around 8:40pm.

then zooming in a little towards the right.

a panorama after the sun dropped beyond the mountain ridge

And here are some of the shots of fireworks in different spots across the Susquehanna River,

on the West Side of the Wyoming Valley.

*******

The main local fireworks that evening were at Kirby Park, across the river in Kingston, PA,

a little over 2 miles away, south of my location - to the LEFT of my mountain view.

******

I turned left & zoomed in when I started hearing all the blasts, and here are some of the higher ones I saw, just over the treetops:

The grand finale starts:

This is my favorite:

I call it " Fire Art"

(available at http://christina-verdgeline.artistwebsites.com/ )

FOG LIFTING one early morning

Here are a few shots of fog lifting... the clouds slowly disperse before the sun actually came out. They are lifting up from the Susquehanna River in the Wyoming Valley here, in NEPA. These photos catch some of the ethereal quality I find spectacular in the fog and mist. (ok, sorry, the 1st one's a little blurry, but I like to see the fogginess between the mountains as well as in front.)

The next shows a bird that has a front-row seat to the view. (This view is off to the right of the view above.)

A version of the bird photo is available in the "My Mountain" Gallery at  http://christina-verdgeline.artistwebsites.com/?tab=artworkgalleries .

A wider view.