
What you can do, or dream you can do, begin it; boldness has genius, power and magic in it. – Goethe
My online journal where I share my interests in photography, nature, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, coffee life, spirituality and the mystery of it all.

Nature has a kicka$$ color palate. The warm soft colors it presents can warm me on the inside. And, at least for me, nature can create patterns that take the breath away. And, it all changes on a constant basis. Nature lets me know I’m alive and well. I could not hear thunder but flashes of lightening let me know the power within nature.
In the first image I’m standing in the “busy” road looking east and in the second image I’m standing in the road looking west. The roads are about 3 miles apart with the first image taken about 1 hour later than the second image after the sun had set.

Colorado State University is having their graduations this weekend. Since I live only four blocks from campus I decided to vacate the area and avoid the traffic. I spent the earlier part of the day at the Fossil Creek Reservoir Nature Area. It is a massive area of almost 1,400 acres reserved for birds. You will find geese, eagles, grebes, hawks, ospreys, meadowlarks, robins and those cute little birds that dart everywhere. I walked to one of the viewing sites and just spent quiet time there. Later on in the afternoon I drove out east for more quiet and to have a grand view of the mountains and our afternoon storm clouds. It’s been a good month for clouds. Each and every day we are given a new set of clouds to enjoy.
The second image was farther east along a farmer’s field. You can see the rain falling as the system moves eastward.


The weatherman was right. They predicted thunderstorms for yesterday afternoon and sure enough clouds built up in the west over the mountains. It began to rain along the foothills then moved out out to the east. I took the above image at the Cathy Fromme Nature Area then drove out east in anticipation of some good clouds. But I watched the storm build up and obscure the mountains with a refreshing half inch rain. And the plants are loving it. It was all good and the weatherman was right.

Been a busy morning, on the go for most of it. I headed out to the Riverbend Ponds because the storm clouds are breath taking today. We have had three consecutive days of thunder storms in the afternoon bringing heavy rains, lightening, flooding and even tornados along the Colorado Front Range. They are predicting two more days of the same thing and these clouds look like the potential exists. With spring runoff beginning and the heavy rains the creeks and rivers are full and in some places out of their banks. This is true of the Poudre River at the Riverbend Ponds. They have part of the bike trail closed off. Even though the storm clouds are natures way of showing its power, I love the clouds. Hope everyone enjoys the 3-day weekend.
“Let yourself be silently drawn by the stronger pull of what you really love.”
Rumi
The cold wind is blowing right through my coat causing goosebumps and chills. I’m shaking. But nature is sharing its light show as the setting sun shines on the foreground in contrast to the dark and ominous clouds on the eastern horizon. Something pulls me to stay and take it all in. It can’t be explained but it feels good inside my soul to be outside the noisy city. I’m cold.
I headed out east yesterday to follow some of the storm clouds as they moved across the eastern plains. They even stirred up a few tornados. Even had a funnel cloud spotted near DIA. All together I drove about a hundred miles, took a few images and picked up a speeding ticket that’s gonna cost me $145. It was almost a perfect day. 🙂
I drove out east to the Arapahoe Nature Area to watch and photograph the above storm as it slowly moved in a southeasterly direction. This path took the storm over the city of Fort Collins bringing heavy rains and small hail. As I drove towards town I met a jogger who was drenched and getting beat up with the hail. He was glad I picked him up, thanking me as I dropped him off at work. He was getting his lunch time run and had already run three miles with about three to go. That’s another reason for not jogging at my age.


“I go and get the camera and do it. Photography is a medium in which if you don’t do it then, very often you don’t do it at all, because it doesn’t happen twice. A rock will probably always be more or less there juts the way you saw it yesterday. But other things change, they’re not always there the day after or the week after. Either you do it or you don’t. Certainly with things as changeable as shy and landscape with moving clouds and so on, if they look wonderful to you on a certain day and if you don’t do it then, you may never see them again for the rest of your life. So as a photographer you become very conscious – at least I do – that everything is in movement.”
Paul Strand