Dancing In The Rain

Before the skies closed up! Looking east from highway 162.

We loaded up the cameras yesterday and headed to Highway 20 West to photograph spring flowers. The clouds had broken up during the night but the new storm was coming in, promising big puffy cumulus and dark, ominous nimbus stratus highlighted by the sun here and there.

 Spring in northern California is incredibly beautiful. Every tone of green is evident, trees are filled with pastel blossoms and wildflowers abound.

Have you ever tried to photograph delicate poppy in hurricane winds?  I know, it's an exaggeration, but the further south we drove, the higher the winds grew. When we spotted a landscape begging to have it's picture taken, the car doors were ripped from out of our hands. Gusts would try to knock us over.

The clouds got thicker, darker, more threatening with each mile we traveled.

Forget getting to Highway 20; we made an impromptu turn in Willows and headed west.  We were early and saw only the very first, impatient wildflowers but it would have been impossible to snap a shot of any of them except as a block of color.  Individual flowers were rocking out in the breeze!

Clouds were moving five times faster than the sheep...or are they cows? I was focused on not being blown away.

Now and then, just as one of us would get a good foothold to hold our balance from the force of the wind, then focus, a gust would spray the lens with a couple of rain drops.  We did a lot of laughing and swearing yesterday. Frank got some awesome photos and I can't wait to see them downloaded, of course, he IS the professional so he got the really good lens and he remembered his tripod. His photos are in focus. Mine, well, mine are different, yeah, that's it, they're different!

We have been considering leaving California but...and this is a big but, we fell in love with the country in those back roads. Going to check Zillow as soon as I post a couple of photos for a little house in the rolling hills. We fell in love with the area. It is calling us to come back soon.

Clouds closing in fast but still enough light for capturing an itsy-bitsy bit of color.

Never had to flap her wings; she just twisted and turned in a sky ballet!

Getting Darker but it was only about 2:00 in the afternoon.

I want our house at the end of this driveway, nestled in the trees!