Dark Clouds

 

The poetry that sustains me is when I feel that, for a minute, the clouds have parted and I've seen ecstasy or something.

Rita Dove

The other day I saw this interesting situation in the sky. As many of my regular readers know it has been raining a lot here this Fall, Winter and Spring. In fact, we are still having inclement weather but we now have the welcome addition of sunny rays here and there throughout several days this week. I hope it continues until the weather warms up. I digress. Let me get back to the clouds.

I was looking up at the sky and I saw something almost like a straight line on the horizon. The "line" was made by low lying clouds. I thought it was quite interesting and I don't think I've seen anything like it before so I am now sharing it with you.

I hope you can see the portion of the sky just above the tree blossoms.

Let me take a moment to wish you and yours a blessed Easter weekend.

For more interesting sky photos please visit here.

Photo Journey to Kamloops

I recently went to visit my mother who lives about 4 and half hours north through the mountains. I thought it would be good to show you the scenery along the way.

The first 2 photos were taken about 1.5 hours into the journey. Truth be told I never seem to think about taking photos until I see this mountain range. The mountains are always spectacular but on this day they seemed to be outlined somehow in that the shape of them seemed more clearly defined than usual. Perhaps it was just my imagination. No matter how many times I travel this highway, things always look different to me.

This photo is taken on the highway going through Chilliwack, an agricultural area.

 

This photo is past the City of Hope. We are climbing up to the summit of the mountain range.  There used to be a toll bridge here for many years but it is now gone. Instead they are building a toll bridge closer to where I live.

I am always awed by this sheer rock face on the mountain no matter what the season.

There was very little traffic on the highway going up or coming home. It causes me to think that the price of gas has so many people deciding not to travel far these days. 
These photos show you how much snow has fallen this year. There is still plenty of it. In fact, a light snow fell on the drive north and more flurries fell on the return journey.

 

 

When we get to this flat stretch it means we are nearing the City of Merritt which is about 1 hour south of Kamloops.  For years Merritt has been known as the home of the Merritt Mountain Music Fest, a large country music festival held every summer.  This year it will be held July 19-22, 2012.

It is hard to see but if you look at the lower part of the photo you will see some of the buildings (homes and businesses) that make up part of Merritt.

We are now nearing the City of Kamlops; my destination.

We are missing the main town by driving down the side of a mountain into the North Shore.  This scene is always very pretty at night when the city lights are shining.

Normally  the weather would be very warm by now but it is still chilly by Kamloops standards. This is a view of the north shore of the city, Bachelor heights to the top left and the Kamloops Industrial Park and Raleigh in the far distance on the right. You keep driving on the Trans Canada Highway north beyond those mountains. You can read a bit more about that journey here.

Once I got to my destination I quickly set about doing the work mom requested to re-arrange her closet and her drawers, put a stacking shelf on her dresser to hold her products and locate several photos in her storage tubs. I was able to tape all her photos inside the picture frame and hang it up. I also managed to have dinner with my niece and visit mom for a bit. The journey home was quiet and easy. I arrived home in the wee hours of the morning.

I hope you enjoyed the journey with me.