Paddling near Prineville : WW & LAPC

Paddling near Prineville

Paddling near Prineville on a spring day.

Wordless Wednesday (WW)

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Skyscapes or Cloudscapes

The path: LAPC, WWP, WS

The path in front of you may be dark and foreboding

Santiam Wagon Road

At times, it will zig and zag, causing you to lose hope

Zig zag path

Keep your eyes and mind open, looking for an ephemeral glimmer of light

Sunrise and juniper

Persevere to reach the colorful radiance ahead

Curving path & sunrise

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Skyscapes or Cloudscapes

Weekend Writing Prompt – Ephemeral (38 words)

Weekend Sky

Clouds of Harney County: LAPC & WS

The clouds of Harney County form dramatic backdrops to the High Desert landscapes of eastern Oregon. I just returned from the four-day Harney County Migratory Bird Festival. Though I was there to see birds, the cloud formations draw your eyes to the skies.

Layers of fluffy clouds hung over the Battleground Buttes. Higher elevations in the county received 200% of their normal snowfall. Days before I arrived, these fields were covered with snow.

Clouds of Harney County
Battleground Buttes from Greenhouse Lane

Farther south, on the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, wispy clouds drifted in the wind. You can see part of Steens Mountain in the background. This 50-mile long mountain dominates the landscape.

Center Patrol Road
Steens Mountain from Center Patrol Road
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Ochoco Highway drive in Oregon: LAPC

Last October, we took a scenic drive along the Ochoco Highway in eastern Oregon. The landscapes in this area are punctuated by scenic rugged buttes, painted hills, rimrock mountains, and snow covered peaks.

Rustic buildings persevere, despite the harshness of the environment near Strawberry Mountain. Puffy overcast clouds filled the sky.

Ochoco Highway

Black Butte stands out when you round a corner near Mitchell. The clouds in this picture were breathtakingly beautiful.

Black Butte in eastern Oregon
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Morning clouds over Bend: Skywatch Friday

Morning clouds over Bend, Oregon last Fall in a dramatic High Desert sunrise.

morning clouds over Bend

Skywatch Friday

Wyoming skyscapes as paintings: LAPC

I dip a dry brush into Titanium White and tentatively paint delicate wisps onto Cobalt Blue Wyoming skyscapes

Wispy clouds

Emboldened, I fill my brush and paint curving lines reaching towards the sky

Wyoming skyscapes
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Looking up at Lava Butte: Wordless Wednesday

Looking up at Lava Butte
Looking up at Lava Butte, Oregon
Lava fields
Lava fields surrounding the butte

Wordless Wednesday

Dragons breathing fire – haiku: Haiku Challenge & MWM

dragons breathing fire
over magical snowscapes
on the edge of spring

Dragons  breathing fire

Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge – Dragon and Magic

Mid-Week Monochrome #77

Winter aspen silhouette at sunrise: TTL & SF

A winter aspen silhouette with a dramatic sunrise in the background photographed in Bend, Oregon. Spring is making an early appearance here in the High Desert and trees may be starting to leaf out soon.

Yesterday it was 73 degrees F here! Our high temperatures are usually in the mid-30s to 40s at this time of the year. We are having a weird, mild winter.

winter aspen silhouette

Thursday Tree Love #123

Skywatch Friday

Cirrus clouds over a country road : Monochrome Monday

These cirrus clouds stretched across the sky over a country road in Bend.

cirrus clouds

Monochrome Monday

High Desert Clouds-Clogyrnach Poem: LAPC

High desert clouds fill the dawn sky
Graceful brushstrokes conceived to fly
Drifters over earth
Interspersed cloudbursts
Dusk desert, glowing high

High Desert clouds
North of Steens Mountain
Near Malheur NWR
High Desert clouds

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Inspiration

Weekend Sky #36

Smiles of summer sun haiku: WHPPC

smiles of summer sun photo

souls from the past send
wispy notes in azure skies
smiles of summer sun

Weekly Haiku Poetry Prompt Challenge (WHPPC)- Note and Send

Symphony in the skies: Monochrome Monday

Symphony in the skies

We witnessed a symphony in the skies over Shoshone National Forest. Spectacular cloud formations and landforms are common sights near Cody, Wyoming. Dramatic wispy clouds such as these often fill the skies.

Monochrome Monday

Wonderful colors inspired by a song: LAPC

This week I’m featuring pictures of green, red, blue, and white. These are colors in What a Wonderful World, a song that brings back a special memory. Many years ago, I helped a kindergartner class with an art project related to the song. I assigned each student a color and let them paint anything they wanted. It was a “wonderful” experience!

Here’s my take on the colors from the song.

This picture shows the vibrancy of green foliage surrounding a great blue heron in Troutdale.

Wonderful great blue heron

Here’s a picture featuring the power of red in an up close portrait of a hibiscus.

Close up of hyacinth flower
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Softness in the skies haiku: LAPC & SS

softness in the skies
adrift over layered tuff ring,
white veils eclipse sun

Skyscapes from Fort Rock, Oregon.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Soft

Sunday Stills – Things that are white

Hope in a sunrise – tanka poem: LAPC

A sliver of hope
glimmers on the horizon
A dark bud opens
delicate petals unfurl
Hope blossoms, filling the sky

A sliver of hope sunrise in Bend, Oregon Sept 2020
Sunrise in Bend, Oregon Sept 2020
Sunrise in Bend, Oregon Sept 2020
Sunrise of hope in Bend, Oregon Sept 2020

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Inspiration

Day breaks and clouds wait: LAPC & Sunday Stills

Sunrise over Bend, Oregon 15October2019

Day breaks
And clouds
Wait to reflect
Nature’s glow

Day breaks and clouds wait sunrise, Bend, Oregon 15October2019

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) – Morning

Sunday Stills – Mother Nature

Love is in the air on Valentine’s Day

Love is in the air February 2020

On this day when love is in the air, remember to…

Be the rainbow in someone else’s cloud.

Maya Angelou

On the Hunt for Joy Challenge – Cheer Someone Up

Watching & waiting for clouds: LAPC

Watching & waiting for clouds

Turning the sky into a color collecting kaleidoscope

Watching & waiting for clouds over Bend, Oregon 2August2014

Expressing their thoughts with fiery punctuation

Orange clouds in sunrise over Bend, Oregon 12October2014
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Magic in the Wind Haiku: LAPC

Magic in the wind, Nevada 29August2019
Magic in the wind. Windmill in Fort Rock, Oregon 30May2019
Windmill in Fort Rock, Oregon 9June2016

Magic in the wind
Pushes whirling windmill blades
Creating power

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge – Magical

Flying Saucer Cloud: Monochrome Monday

Flying saucer cloud, Steens Mountain, Oregon 28 August 2019

I saw this flying saucer cloud hovering near Steens Mountain a few days ago. I see why lenticular clouds, like this one for example, are often called UFO clouds.

Monochrome Monday

Clouds in my sky: LAPC

I can be jubilant one moment and pensive the next, and a cloud could go by and make that happen.

Bob Dylan

Here are few clouds in my sky from the last year’s worth of Lens-Artists Photo Challenges. These pictures were taken in Eastern and Central Oregon, my favorite country. Enjoy their many moods.

Steens Mountain 1May2017
A flock of clouds over Steens Mountain
Winter Walks Art Station 9March2019
Light winter clouds over the Art Station
Unusual Clouds in my sky in Bend, Oregon 18October2017
A brilliant sunrise of clouds in my sky from home
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