And I can hardly wait.
Most of the photos that I have posted as a "view of pond looking south", show trees, some junked cars, and just give a general impression of density, but the density isn't real. We live on the very edge of a small community and there is very little beyond the boundaries of our backyards. This place and the place just of the East of us were a single farm on the edge of town when I was in grade school. My parents bought the land in 1967 and although the people still farmed maybe 5 acres to feed their livestock, they abandoned the pasture directly South of us. There was an old pond, maybe twice the surface area of Bill's, and half the depth, and there was a concrete irrigation ditch that ran East and West about 50 yards South of where Bill's pond is. That whole area went through the normal restoration process that disturbed land follows - the pond was covered with prairie grasses and some mesquites, the plant rows filled in and eventually disappeared, and the irrigation ditch filled with organic debris. Also, for some reason elms trees started growing along a line above the filled concrete ditch. They never received any care but they were never bothered by livestock, and although they are stunted, have become a permanent feature. I remember when they were a couple of feet high and looked like a long hedge behind our house during the summer. Now, 38 years later, Camron calls them "the forest" and his Grandfather has mowed a track that winds through them for his motorized toys, but they are an illusion. A couple of steps and you are through them and there is nothing but plains for as far as you can see. The first photo shows what is really south of the pond.
I don't know how to photograph is yet, but on some nights in the dark area behind the pond I can see the lights from towns as far as 60 miles to the Southeast. Was just now reminded of this.
I read something about clouds a few weeks ago that has me watching them constantly. It was correct. Some of the cloud formations are defying the behavioral limits that professional weather observers once imposed on them. Now they are likely as not to present as rows of squares with the centers cut out. What an assortment of specialized winds that must require.