In the gloaming

Today was a day of torrential rains and even hail storms. The pigs elected to stay in the barn, the dogs and I cocooned in the house, and Martin took shelter under his favourite tree.

Suddenly in the late afternoon, just as dusk was falling on this first day of the return to Standard Time, the clouds stopped their crying and swept away just in time to allow the sun a brief moment to illuminate the fall colours before slipping below the horizon.

I was heading into the pasture with the dogs when the weak rays of the setting sun broke through, and by the time I raced back to the house for the camera, it was almost gone. But I happen to love stormy dusky pictures and silhouettes of night skies, so I happily clicked away as the dogs explored the soaked ground, rising creek, and recent bear and coyote droppings.

Bare branches against the sky

Straw in the evening light


Sunset

Swirling mist as dark descends

Unfortunately, my camera is on its last legs (last lens?). The auto focus is no longer working, and the flash has to be pried up manually. Of course, the good news is that this gives me an excuse to get a new camera that allows me to snap quicker and better pictures of the dogs and pigs at play. But for now, about half of my shots end up looking a wee bit like "modern art". Strangely, I rather like some of them:

Fall colours through blurry eyes

Nature mimics art

And just to show you that the dogs really were out there in the pasture with me:

Dogs being uncooperative

And a few parting shots as we head back to the house:

Darkness descends

Spectres in the sky