Sky Watch Friday

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Each morning as I go up on the hill behind our cabin here in the mountains of western NC to greet the day I am reminded of an old Navajo Chant, and the photo's below are a prime example of that...the Quote follows...

"Beauty is before me and Beauty behind me.

Above me and below me hovers the beautiful.

I am surrounded by it, I am immersed in it.

In my youth I am aware of it, and, in old age, I shall walk quietly the beautiful trail.

In beauty, it is begun,In beauty, it is ended."

Sunrises begin and change very quickly as you can see below by the sequence of photo's...and beauty changes and increases as time passes..often times within a 20-30 minute time span...in all of the Four Directions.

Click on any image to enlarge for a better view.

First dawning of Sunrise East

Shortly after..about 20 min. East

East North East

North

South

More South

Sugar Loaf Mt. SW

Sugar Loaf Mt. SW

South West

West

West

Later in the SE

20 Min. later SE

The Day of The Gemstones

My post today is of some of the gemstones I have been cutting recently.

Click on any image to enlarge for a better view.

My first presentation is a Rare sized Gem Grade Malachite Bulls eye piece..see the photograph below....click to enlarge.

The next stone is a beautiful Free form piece of NY Labradorite with Blue and Gold flashes of color over the entire stone.

My next stone is a combination of Gold and Blue Tiger eye Rough..marked for cutting..which I will soon cut.

This is a slab of Gold and Blue Tiger eye Rough that I have marked for cutting..note the one with the Red tornado in it.

This is a slab of a larger piece that I bought some time ago and then cut into slabs..it is from Australia.

This is a cabochon that I cut from a slab like the one above..and has a description and measurements above it.

This is a Free form piece of Apache Jasper that I cut and polished..pretty isn't it?

Sky Watch Friday

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My post today was taken just a couple days ago after several days of dark looming cloud filled skies where we neither got Sunrises or Sunsets of any color..but did get much needed late evening showers.

Click on any image to enlarge for a better and closer view.

Sunrise in the East--Early morning.

Sunrise over Bald Rock Mountain..just slightly South of East.
Note the fog still rising from off and behind the mountain.

Sunrise in the East about 20 minutes later.

Sunrise East North East.

Sunrise NE

10 Minutes later...Sunrise over garden NE

Foggy Sunrise over Sugar Loaf Mountain SW.

Sunrise West South West.

Follow Up To "Hawk Day"

While photographing the Hawks in the Walnut tree in the fog I noticed a small House Sparrow sitting on a bush branch just in front of me at just a short distance and I decided to take his picture because he was so cute and photogenic.

Click on the photograph to enlarge.

House Sparrow

After shooting the Hawks in the fog, and later that day when the skies got nice and clear, I came out of my work shop and walked towards the cabin and happened to look up...there soaring high overhead was my friend the Red Tail Hawk..so I grabbed the camera quickly from the cabin and got a couple shots of him which I will show you below...again..click on the photographs to enlarge.

Soaring High Overhead

Another shot

Looks good against the fluffy white cloud

Riding the air currents

Red Tail Hawk Day

As some of you know I have an obsession with taking photographs of my Red Tail Hawk friends here..so I keep an Eagle eye out for any of them to come around and tempt me to take their pictures.

For some reason the Hawks have been frightened and do not allow me to approach them as close as I used to be able to..at most the best I can do is to get about 1,000 ft. at closest to them anymore.

A few days back, I spotted two Hawks doing the "Hawk Dance" ( Mating Dance) in and around a Walnut tree about a 1/4 mile from the cabin..so I grabbed the camera and out I went to get some picture..and happily snapped away for a short while..then realized I had the VR turned off on my 70-300 lens..I looked at what I had shot and found "Blurr" from camera shake.

I then turned on the VR and started to try it again when all at once the clouds came and sat down on all the surrounding area...covering everything in a thick fog like atmosphere.

Now being a stubborn person..I still managed to get some pictures out of it and pulled them out of the fog to a fair degree and will show some as follows.

Please feel free to click on the photographs to enlarge for a better view.

The Walnut Tree in thick fog..there is a Hawk in there

Two Hawks sitting in the tree

A bit of a close up of the Two Hawks

After one Hawk flew off..got a close up of other Hawk

Another close up

Close up

Note the small birds sitting very close to the Hawk.."Do Ya Feel Lucky?"

Could be a morning snack for a Hawk.

Click to enlarge...see the Mocking Bird flying in close and the Robin above?

Another Close Up in the Fog

Do you think He likes to be photographed?

Skty Watch Friday

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Sorry I didn't get to make a post last week..I was rather tied up and also a bit under the weather..but "I am Back" once again and here is my post for this week.

Click on any image for a larger and better view.

The day dawned with very cloudy dark skies as I went up on the hill to greet the day, but I managed to get a few photographs of a developing sunrise, and I am posting them here...the time began at around 5:30AM..with the final photo being around 6:30AM...after I came down from the hill .

Frist Light Sunrise in the East

About 10 min. later in the East

First Light Sunrise in the North

First Light Sunrise in the NE

NE about 10 minutes later

NE even 10 more minutes later

This photograph was taken at around 6:30AM after I came down from the hill to our yard...I looked up as I went to my workshop and saw the beauty of the morning sky so I turned around and went back in the cabin and grabbed the small Sony point and shoot camera and snapped a picture quickly...here is the results.

Sunrise in the East....Thank you Creator for painting the sky with such awesome colors for our viewing pleasure.