Weather drama

After missing most of the snow and stormy weather this winter season, we're getting some snow now that is actually sticking to the ground, here in NE PA, USA.

BEAUTIFUL!

Stay safe out there! The photo is a different day,, still as exhilarating as any beautiful wonder of nature!

Sunshine is delicious, 

rain is refreshing, 

wind braces us up, 

snow is exhilarating; 

there is really no such thing as bad weather, 

only different kinds of good weather.

John Ruskin

the sky tonight!

It was a tremendously humid day.

We've had record-breaking temperatures here in the NE of PA.

then.... AHHHHHH!

A beautiful sunset, with everchanging patterns and color combinations,
ending with purple accents on bluish-turning grey clouds.

Then the moon, almost full,
peeks out from behind the clouds.
hanging low in the sky.

  

good night moon!

GOOD NIGHT ALL! Sleep well.

VENUS and MOON

LAST NIGHT WE COULD SEE VENUS!

venus and the crescent moon low in the sky

closer view - interesting venus

A friend posted a link about the planet, Venus, in the night sky, 

last evening, June 19, 2015,

So after reading this link:

venus planet info 

I went to my window looking west. 

(the same window from which I take many of my MOUNTAIN photos.)

The crescent moon was low, just above the mountain ridge, 

and the bright orb above it - eureka!!

VENUS!  

:-)

I'm in Plains, PA, next to Wilkes-Barre, looking west across the Susquehanna river, 

towards Dallas Twp, "the Back Mountain"... and all points West.

BERRY TIME!!

The camera draws me in closer... closer... 

from the branches, 

to a berry, up close and personal. 

(the last is a macro photo - very close)

I don't know - What kind of berry is this?

SNOW TREE Reflection

Today the Northeast got lots of snow.

We expected 1-3"

We got 4-6"

Heavy wet snow to shovel, so I took a break and tried out my new camera.

Here's my 1st  photo with "reflection" setting.

(hard to believe the tree's really surrounded by houses, cars...)

A VERY TALL TREE with treeline in the background... and a telephone pole to the right.

early autumn canopy

amazing - the enjoyment from standing under a tree along the street - 

experiencing the early Autumn colors on a crisp morning...
then getting out ofthe way of a passing car.

and love the smell of the leaves 

as the morning dew 

is evaporating in the sunshine.

This is how much the leaves have changed down in "The Valley", along the river.

mountain and sky

BEAUTIFUL SUNSETS

in my backyard

On the Wilkes-Barre area side of the Susquehanna River looking west to the mountain range beyond the river and Kingston/Forty Fort, towards the back mountain (Dallas, Shavertown, Trucksville). The deep dip in the mountain range is where the CrossValley (Rt 309) cuts up and through on its way "North".
map of the area

a few days ago

and a few days before that

a beautiful after-storm sky 

and the day before that...

LOVELY!!! Have a great day! TGIF!!

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)

Spring is here - kind of!

YESTERDAY WAS THE FIRST DAY OF SPRING!

Winter is still holding on, but we just had a warm up:

a few days of average normal temps. 

We'll still have below-freezing temps BUT signs of Spring have started!

The geese have been flying, circling, landing near the river, then moving on,

The mourning doves that had a nest with baby birds last year... ARE BACK!! 

Here is a video of the baby birds last year:

Baby mourning doves - leaving the nest

NO FLOWERS OR BUDS YET THIS YEAR,

but looking forward to seeing the beauty growing all around us. 

HAPPY SPRINGTIME!!!

HAVE A GOOD DAY!

Winter in NEPA

Late November is when we started to get seasonal snow. Here are a few shots, all 3 a little North of the My Mountain location in Wilkes-Barre area.

First, here's a view I shared in an earlier post. Same viewpoint, different time of year.

Still beautiful. Here, its quiet calm serene, with a light snow, late November.

 Energetic cheery red berries - kind of an abstract of color.

This is a tree that my father planted many many years ago.

We call it "The Dedo Tree"

(Dedo is 1 way of saying grandfather in Croatian.)

The cool visual cacophony of this composition would have been his style :o) 

weird cloud

Okay, this is not at my mountain, but it is nearby. 

It's such a strange cloud that showed up all of a sudden.

Almost seems like a 'creature from the sky lagoon' swooping down to swallow the sun. 

Kind of cool, actually.

Interesting.

The day was unsettled in mid-May 2013, breezy, yet with a heavy 

it-will-be-storming-sometime-soon feeling in the air.

late day cloud-gazing - animals in the sky?

I was taking a few shots of the evening sky. It got pretty dramatic - heated - active - impressive.

I remember as a child, 

how our dad would get us kids watching the skies, 

CLOUD-GAZING.

It was loads of fun - great memories!

Using my imagination I could see different scenes.
The first thing that came to mind is a baby elephant.
It's walking from right to left in profile, the head is the big vertical cloud in the center, the body is the right half of the photo.   Can you see it?

Then I saw it as 2 different figures - like they were confronting each other.

The vertical cloud could be like a bull, up on its hind lefgs like it's about to pound down on the head-and-shoulders of another animal. This one looks like it's got its head down, ready to charge, like a ram. hmmmm, wonder if there's a horn or antler down there.

IF YOU SEE ANYTHING ELSE LET ME KNOW.

The Plane! The Plane!

There is a smaller local airport on the other side of the river. On beautiful sunny days it’s very pleasurable to hear the distant drone of a plane gearing up to fly up into the air, then you see it climbing up into the air in front of  the mountain, and finally soaring across the sky as though it’s chasing the clouds. Sometimes it turns and flies overhead, other times it disappears in the distance behind the mt, becoming an increasingly smaller speck.  After a bit of time passes, there’s the distant drone…  

One day in mid-May, I was walking on the levee along the Susquehanna river near the airport. Had the opportunity to see one plane as it was preparing to land. It’s exhilarating to see one of those seemingly “tiny” aircraft at such a much closer proximity. 

Sunset Series

 These photos were taken one after the other, a few minutes apart, one evening in mid-May, 2013. I didn't change any settings on my camera, but I zoomed out in the last to see more along the mountains.

 This 3rd photograph feels inspirational to me... I love the plane streaking up higher and higher.

This is my 2nd post in my ... I guess you can call it a diary.... of the mountain. It's also in early June, as a storm was approaching late afternoon. Dramatic! The wind was kicking up and you can see the storm clouds gathering, moving quickly towards us minutes before the rain reaches our side of the river. A closeup is at

http://fineartamerica.com/featured/storms-coming-christina-verdgeline.html showing the bright area surrounded by the heavy grey clouds.

1st MT ridge photo taken in early June 2013

I call this mountain ridge MY MOUNTAIN because it is the view I see from home; the only view of mountains I see there. What a beautiful change from the last place we lived! It is not one of the many more majestic views in our area in NEPA, Northeastern Pennsylvania, but it is definitely mine. There are a plethora of emotions, views, activities that display daily around this mountain range across the river from us. Ive been pleasantly surprised at the beauty of the simplicity of this view, and its wondrous variety of simply mountain, tree, sky, sun, cloud, nature.
      I am attempting to document this, informally. I love telling stories with my art, but no words are required when the mountain, my mountain, speaks volumes in every moment. It exists. It endures. It is a creation of beauty in its reality.

Here's my first photo: It's sunset, early June 2013.