It's misty out this morning... 69°and damp. We haven't seen but glimpses of the sun in days and days. Ever since that week of freezes, the Earth is visibly browner. The grass, the shrubs, even some trees, have all taken on that seared look. Yesterday I saw pictures on that…
It's much warmer this morning than it was even yesterday. First trip out to the bus stop it was 64°. It's another cloudy day with a chance of rain. Even with all the clouds, the temperature should push into the mid-70s. When I walked out this morning, it was crows…
Chee... I got a little busy this morning and forgot to post this. Not that I had a lot to say. Spent most of the day reading. Doing chores. Just another Tuesday in paradise... oops I mean Texas. The day started out at 39°, it's now 75°. That's a bit…
Winter has decided to move back north and let some spring in the air... The temperature this morning is 56°. It should be 70° on the back porch by the afternoon. That's pretty much what the rest of the week is going to look like, at least according to the…
It's frosty out this morning. A cool 28°. A beautiful cloudless winter morning. The yard is probably the brownest I can recall seeing in a couple of decades. I can't recall this many consecutive days of below freezing weather. It's funny how I haven't felt the need to sit out…
It's 10:00 a.m. and 38° outside. The one result surviving the rolling blackouts is that we're sleeping later each morning. I can't go on for long, school will start again on Monday. But even going to bed at a normal time finds us dragging out of bed at a non-normal…
Well it's late. Afternoon actually. Our power came back on at 10:00 p.m. on the money. And surprisingly, it stayed on. After making the rounds of the house and making sure everything was copacetic, I went to bed in my own bed at 10:45 p.m. for the first time since…
I woke up this morning due to the chill in the air in the house. Overnight, the house is temperature had dropped to 58°. Not bad, compared to some of my neighbors, one of whom reported last night on Facebook that her house was at 47°. Compared to the outside…
It's 36° and chilly with a wind chill in the mid twenties. The countdown is on for the coming winter storm. Everyday that goes by, the forecast below for Monday night drops a little lower. As of right now it's set at 13°. Now that is very, very cold for…
Baby it's cold outside... 37° at 7:30 a.m., there's a steady wind blowing, and a lot of moisture in the air. All day yesterday, where the forecast called for rising temperatures, that kept falling. Forecasted low last night was only 40°. It's below that now. The forecast says it's going…
Why is it that when it looks like winter it feels like spring, and when it looks like spring it feels like winter. The conundrum of Texas gulf coast weather... It's bright and sunny out today. It's also breezy. And when the temperature is 42°, breezy's pretty cold. I missed…
Happy Birthday Abby It's chilly this morning, and there's a bit of a breeze blowing, but it'll warm up some by afternoon. Sitting at the bus stop, the temperature on the car dashboard is 44°. The wait with one grandchild is what it takes to warm the car. The second…
It's very bright out today. A cloudless blue sky. But still, it feels like spring, in the middle of winter. The weather app says it's 57° out. While on the back porch, the sun has warmed it into the sixties. The cold front has passed us by. Tonight's low will…
It really looks like winter out this morning, but it feels like spring. It's 66°, heading for the mid-70s. There's a 40% chance of rain according to the diagnosticators. Once again I slept in way too long. So now I'll play catch up on a Saturday morning. But playing catch…
Walking out this morning to sit with the grandkids waiting for the school bus, the moon was impressive as it set to the west. Last evening, after watching the fox eat on the back porch, I walked outside to see if I can see him again and spent some time…
It's nippy outside this morning, 42°. All of the color in the sunrise is to the north, so my pictures don't show it. There are some individual crows out and about this morning, cawing as they travel across the yard. The flocks of blackbirds are gathered in the pecans behind…
This string of hazy, foggy, overcast and rainy days just doesn't end. At least the spring like temperatures have stuck around with the clouds. I will admit that it does make for nice sleeping in weather. Without the brite sun streaming in around the window blinds, another hour in bed…
Yesterday's fog, that lingered all day, has carried over into the new morning. And it is a new morning, a morning for America, a morning for democracy once again. This blanket of fog, hanging low, holding sound to the ground, making birds voices ring throughout the yard, through the woods,…
Martin Luther King Day No school today, so I slept in. The sun is up, it's bright outside, and the temperatures not as cool as yesterday. The prognosticators are promising a series of days that will be very spring-like. High's in the 70s and lows in the upper 50s or…
It's 36° on the back porch this morning. But it's sunny and bright and it'll hit 60° before it starts back down. There's not a cloud in the sky and the sun is brighter than it should be on a Saturday morning. The gray fox visited again last night. I…
It's still cold out this morning, 38°, when I went to the bus stop this morning. The sky is clear. Flocks of birds are flying from tree to tree. Their noisy as they fly. I've noticed that when the big flocks are in the area the smaller birds hold up…
It's a chill 30° this morning out in the yard. Frost on the grass. Birds on the feeder. Birds on the wing from tree to tree. Cardinals singing the sun up. Took quite a few minutes this morning for the ice on the windshield to melt as we waited for…
It's chilly outside today. And and blustery, the wind is blowing, rain is falling. We're probably at about the warmest it's going to be today as the cold front comes barreling in from New Mexico. Over half of the state of Texas is forecast to have snow today and tomorrow,…
The start of school for 2021 Up early, kids out to the road, waiting on buses in the fog. Both of the grandkids now headed for school for the first time since March 2020. Let's hope this isn't a mistake. It's quite foggy out this morning. The birds are singing…
Once again it's 70° this morning. It's very breezy. But the clouds that cover the sky, they are standing still. The chickens around the corner talking as chickens do. And the wind is whistling through the pines. When I came out this morning, I forgot to bring me a cup…
Winding down on 2020... Thank God. It's a beautiful almost spring like morning. There's a breeze, temperature is cool. The wind chimes are chiming. And the chickens, they are clucking. There's a bank of clouds moving in from the southeast. Beginning to cover the blue skies this morning. Over on…
Happy Birthday Breanna Out early on the back porch. It's unseasonably nice. T-shirt weather... The sound of the morning seems to be the chickens waking up around the corner. https://youtu.be/kdi2EEfVOuA Large trucks seem to be out and about today. From the sounds they're dump trucks. I saw a "V" of…
Another cool and brilliant December morning. The winter solstice... autumns end and winters beginning. This is supposed to be the shortest day(light) day of the year. Today the sun will shine 10 hours and 15 minutes. Up in New York where my son is calling home there's a marked difference...…
It's a frosty, cold morning. As in, there's frost on the grass. It's still, no breeze is stirring... which evidently helped the temperature fall. It's 31 degrees outside, 34 degrees on the porch. Did I say it's frosty. A train whistle interrupts the quiet of the house. Train whistles, Carolina…
Another prelude to winter. A reflection of winters long ago. Damp, cold, short dreary days followed by short dreary days. If this continues it will be a fitting end to the long and dreary year of Covid-19. A fitting end to a long four dreary years of living in the…
Lines of thunderstorms have been moving thru all day long... just now another line blew thru... and it really did blow.
Laying abed this morning, the light coming in from around the blinds was fading as the minutes passed. Now I see why... by the time I arose, the rumbles of distant thunder were making themselves heard. By the time I had acquired my record shots of the morning a mist…
An overcast morning fallowing a rainy night. Not a lot of rain, but, rain none the less. At 9am it's almost 70 degrees outside... so it's shorts and a tshirt kind of day. The birds were singing when I went out. And I could hear a phoebe announcing itself. I…
It's a wonderfully mild morning on the back porch. A bit breezy, a little bit cool, with the promise of warmth later in the day. There's an overcast that bodes well for a colorful sunrise... The morning light goes through color shifts as the sun approaches the horizon from below.…
I thought this morning would be a good day to look back on the progression of fall color this year... That sequence runs from mid November to today. My one living, breathing red tree. It's only been the last ten years or so that the red oak has acquired it's…
When I first stepped out on the back porch this morning it was chilly and blustery... the wind chill was pushing the thirties. The overcast was so deep that the sun was doing little to brighten the day. Even now, almost an hour later, it's a dark wintery looking day.…
'Tis a frosty morn out this day. An appropriate way to start the final month of 2020. My weather app says it is 30 degrees outside and I believe it. All of my temperature sensors are on porches about the house and they average 3 to 4 degrees warmer. This…
It's chilly outside... so I'm musing indoors. It's not the low temperature so much as the blustery north winds. Tomorrow is going to be even colder. It's hard getting the grandkids moving after a week out of school. It'll be even harder after the next break. For a change the…
The sun was shinning thru the clouds with a squinting brightness when I walked out... now the clouds have closed back in and the glare is gone. A blustery north wind is cooling the morning. A cardinal sings from the edge of the woods. Two days of rain have soaked…
It's ten degrees cooler than yesterday... not cool enough to call for long sleeves yet, maybe tomorrow. A steady lite rain is falling, and a steady north breeze is blowing. Besides the gentle patter of the falling rain, it the gossip of the chickens that is providing the background sound…
It's a bit on the warm side this morning. And a lite rain is falling. Evidently it's been falling for awhile. The trees are filled with dozens of small birds. The muted colors of fall are more evident in the rain. But I'm still waiting for the full blown color…
A pleasantly cool Sunday morning... with a Sunday morning quietude going on. Even the chickens around the corner are not their normally chatty selves. Maybe they feel the poultry dinner doldrums as we close in on Turkey Day. Somewhere way off a train whistle blows. Soon the quietness will be…
Today the world has pulled the covers up over its head. Trying to get a little bit more sleep before being forced to face the craziness... Foggy mornings are different... almost surreal. Birds sound closer, trains sound far off, traffic noise seems to come from different directions than normal. Everything…
Once more around the clock. Cool, 45 degrees... check. Bright, cloudless skies... check. My breath visible... check. Ahhhhhh... if only this was our normal I'd be extremely happy. There's a flock of midsized birds in the woods... I don't recognize their chatter. With the glare of the rising sun in…
It's cold and crisp this morning. The sounds of trains, traffic, and crows fill the pre-sunup day. Birds chirp and chatter. And every breath I take is visible in the air before me. I find myself at a loss for words today. Sitting, listening, thinking... not writing. It's just after…
I lay in bed a while after the alarm... wasn't really asleep. I had actually been awake for a bit before the alarm... in that half world of fantasy and reality... thoughts running through my head. Once I decided to move I wandered about my morning routine... with the added…
The morning starts out warm and gray. An overall, overreaching, overwhelming gray to the world. Even the normally unheard cows in the neighbor's pasture are mooing mournfully. This transitional weather leaves a lot to be desired. Waiting for the change, anticipating the change even, frustrated by the slowness of the…
The sun rises onto a cooler morning on the back porch. Not a lot cooler, but here in Texas every little bit helps. Once again the prognosticators are foretelling of a high in the 80's. Once again we are forced to watch a petulant schoolyard bully bluster and lie about…
As you can see, yesterday's fog is back and lower. The world feels smaller, more closely held, layers of gray. The overnight lows are easing back up. It's warm enough to make the ceiling fans a a luxury I might not need but can enjoy. The birds are a bit…
It's a pleasant 68 degrees this morning under a rising dense fog. There's a lite breeze blowing from the north. Chicken sounds are coming from the place around the corner. I'm glad I don't live closer. It must be a bit like living close to a commercial chicken house. Color…
The ground fog is thickening as the morning brightens. It's cool out, but not as nippy as it has been. My thermometer said 56 before I walked our. It's cool enough to see my breath. But not cool enough to make me feel underdressed in my shorts and Henley. We…
Daylight Savings Time has gone for another year and my alarm goes off just before sunrise. So my morning coffee muses won't be spent waiting for the light. The three shots above were taken right after I walked out this morning. And quiet it isn't. Birds are singing all around…
I now recall the real reason for the umbrella. Even with the alarm going of at 6:30 the sun comes up pretty quickly once we are back on "standard" time. It takes the umbrella to keep the rising sun from my eyes. The first thing I heard this morning was…
Another very cool morning with starry skies. I added a layer to my henley... my fleece hoodie is just enough to keep me comfortable enough to stay on the porch for awhile. The weather app is reporting a temp of 46 degrees. An invigorating temperature to say the least. A…
Western sky. It's really quiet out this morning on the back porch. Seemingly more so because of a lack of need for the ceiling fans. The weather app on my phone says it's 63 degrees but it doesn't feel that cool. The sensor on the back porch was reading 67...…
Ah, Saturday morning. Add in a cool front that had this morning's temperature in the 50's and a cool north breeze and the morning couldn't get much better. Though, I had to open the umbrella to keep the sun's glare out of my eyes so I can enjoy the morning.…
It's 50 minutes till sunrise, but already I can see fog around the lights in the neighborhood. It's not the normal ground fog either... even in the dark I can see it reaches to the tops of the trees. While it's not a pea soup kind of fog, I'm sure…
Shortly after first light, it's a different story from yesterday. I would have said it was fogless, but in the last five minutes the ground fog has seemed to rise up from the grass like the ghosts of days long gone. This morning multiple flights of whistling ducks flew over…
Walking out 15 minutes before first light to just a glow in the east. It's cooler this morning, but still not below 70 degrees. And, I can see the humidity, a layer of wafting fog... almost not there but there. Layers coalescing and separating, combining and dividing, dancing to the…
When I first walked out this morning the upper seventies temperature and the humidity hit me in the face. Such a very different way to start the week than the way we ended the last one. The eastern sky is just beginning to lighten. It pretty much is just as…
I had to open the umbrella again this morning... Clear skys, bright sunshine, slightly foggy air made it unbearably, glaringly brite. Opening the umbrella I woke a anole that had taken refuge inside the closed fabric... he is still roaming the fabric looking for breakfast. The morning an hour after…
There was no sunrise this morning. A cool blustery darkness greeted my appearance on the back porch. It was so dark for so long I had trouble sipping from my insulated travel mug. I couldn't see the hole in the top... black on black in an unaccustomed blackness. And to…
Walking out before "first light" in the morning, the sliver of a moon hangs like a stylized bowl just a bit above the horizon. Once the sky lightens enough to photograph though, that bare sliver fades into the background. By the time the shot above was taken, three separate flights…
A school day, laundry day, early voting day... I'll be busy today. Since it is a school day, I'm on the back porch before the eastern horizon began to color. It's cool, but it's not that cool... so the ceiling fans are on chilling my hair still damp from my…
Fog. The weather prognosticators say it's a dense fog. Out here on the back porch it's as dense as I've seen this fall... but not really all that dense. Just another fall sunrise of cool portents. The dense air is helping the traffic sounds travel from the bypass with a…
Ahhhhhh, sleeping in on a Saturday. Yesterday's windy, rainy weather has moved on to the northeast. Delta has churned her/his way onshore and into the interior were it's still spinning and looking very much like a Hurricane on land. According to the prognoticaters, this coolish morning will have to last…
Another blustery near miss morning. Hurricane Delta is about 180 miles south-southeast of Galveston. This morning's winds are blowing almost east to west at the moment. A few weeks ago the morning temperature would have made me smile, but after a couple of weeks of fall-like temperatures I'm just not…
I slept a bit late this morning since my daughter is home to start her kids off with school. Stepping out on the porch I was greeted with overcast skies. Looking at the radar I can see these are the outer bands of Hurricane Delta starting to move into our…
Fall Morning Redux The whistling ducks flying over each morning keep growing in number... even as they loose all coherence as a flight. Flying over this morning I was reminded of watching a mob move through an environment. I was unable to really gauge there number, but at a guess,…
Another fall morning on the back porch that luckily actually feels like fall. Whispy clouds hide in the first light color. The sunrise should make them pop. The stars are fading rapidly in the lightening bowl of the sky. Birds are singing. Crows are cawing. The whistling ducks flew over…
In order to enjoy this beautiful fall morning on the back porch I had to break out the big umbrella. The stand has managed to get itself broken, but that's ok, it works great laid over on it's side... The morning flight of whistling ducks keeps getting larger. It appeared…
Saturday morning... an hour and a half of extra sleep... a cool fall morning. Quiet, the only sounds are traffic roar from the bypass... louder on this side of the house. Well... karma seems to have caught up with our president***. His politicalization of masks and social distancing seems to…
7:35 am Full Moon Setting 7:36 am Sun Under Horizon Walking out to last night's full moon settling towards the western horizon as the sun rises to the east... nice. This is what the sunrise schedule is for this morning as we slide into fall. 6:00am Start of astronomical twilight…
It looks like another cool, cloudless morning. The eastern glow has gone from pink to yellowish. The most prominent sound is of tires on concrete coming from the bypass. Though, the mockingbird is doing it's best to try and outdo the traffic. A flight of great egrets flew over just…
6:45 am The first real autumn morning. No ceiling fans required. The prognosticators promised a low in the 50's and they were blessed in their foretelling. The flock of whistling ducks grows larger by the day as it circles my house as the sky brightens. This morning it's the cardinals…
It's a warm and muggy pre-cold front start to the day. The first front is around Waco heading our way. There are enough clouds out over Galveston Bay to make the sunrise interesting even if a temperature of 77 degrees doesn't make it very comfortable. There's an owl softly calling…
The sun rose over an hour ago. It's warmer and there's enough humidity to fog my glasses just a bit as I walked out. I had to increase the speed of the ceiling fans back to full power. The hummingbirds are fighting as usual. A daddy longlegs scurries across the…
I'm on the front porch this morning. Another below seventy degree morning. The crows are congregating, not quite a murder yet, but gathering... playing at follow the leader. Big black velvety birds with a big, area filling call. I slept thru sunrise. My favorite weekend activity in these pandemic times.…
It really feels of fall this morning. Sixty-six wonderful degrees. What I am assuming is a clear sky... if there are clouds they aren't evident yet. A color on the eastern horizon even before first light. Birds singing, crows announcing themselves on their morning rounds. Theirs a low hazy ground…
Sunrise facing southeast. The temperature outside this morning is delightful. A couple of degrees below that magical 70 degrees Fahrenheit on the thermometer. And after days and days of winds from Beta, it's still this morning. The outsized remnants of Beta have moved into Alabama and Tennessee. Once the storm…
According to the almanac it's first light right now... but Tropical Storm Beta is putting a lie to that. The only light in the sky is the reflection of civilization on the underside of the cloud cover. It's loud out, the blustery, gusty winds are making the leaves sing. Shadows…
It's a cool, breezy morning. Our first fall-like morning of the late, almost over summer season. But, don't worry, the heat and humidity will be back... we're not done with summer here on the Texas gulf coast. As a matter of fact, as you can see from the radar image…
The silence thirty minutes before sunrise is deafening. The overcast sky just barely lighter than the shadowy blackness of the trees. Though there is enough of a glow to the sky to make the ground visible. The Houston/Galveston eathglow effect. The first bird calls. Then another. A breeze stirs the…
Yesterday's sequence of photos inspired me to do it again once I saw the morning sky... First Light - Dawn The first shot was at Dawn... first light in the sky. The noun dawn refers to the first light of day, or the first time period, like the dawn of…
It's not cool, but it's not that warm either. Pairs of crows keep flying over heading south... raising a ruckus as only crows can. The day gradually lightening as the sun approaches the horizon. The hummingbirds chatter at each other as they bully their way to dominance at the feeder...…
It's a strange morning, no color in the east... what color there is is in the west as the sun rises. In the east it's bands of clouds flowing across the sky from north to south... filling in as the minutes tick by. While around the porch the hummingbird battles…
The sun is well up. Birds are singing. The hummingbird wars continue. The coolness of yesterday morning is fading into memory like a barely remembered dream. The promised rains keep teasing us on an almost daily basis. Thunder, lightning, a bit better breeze... and then 5 minutes of lite rain…
I love weekends. Before covid, I slept in most days... even through the summer I didn't have to get up early. Now that school has started, and virtual school does keep a school schedule, I'm up before the sun five days a week. So... I love weekends... again. I doubt…
There's a difference in the feel of the air this morning. For one thing it's cooler. For another, the clouds are drifting south instead of the more normal northerly direction. I don't know that the front ever made it this far before falling apart. But it really got close. But,…
Once again we are being promised a fifty percent chance of rain. The prognosticators are also foretelling of highs next week in the upper eighties... of course, that foretelling comes with a good chance of rain all week. Oh well, if I can have cooler weather, I'll take a little…