The summer of amazing clouds

As a child I spent hours lying on the ground watching the clouds overhead.

It's a past time I have continued to find enormously satisfying my whole life.

This summer we have had more amazing clouds than usual.  And now I find

myself drawn to capturing the fanciful formations on my camera.

Watching you, watching me!

We seem to have a new eagle duo in our neighborhood, one of whom takes up the viewing post at the end of my garden, on a regular basis. Recently this beautiful creature sat through a couple of hours of crow "bombing" without moving. I had never seen one sit for so long, ducking crows. In the image below it appears one crow is on lookout in the upper branch, while the other continues its harassment of the eagle.

Fanciful clouds

Mount Rainier lies to the east of my garden and sometimes the view west is just as dramatic. A few evenings ago the skies, to the west, were mindful of the paintings of a local artist named Victoria Adams. Victoria paints landscapes that are mostly about the skies overhead.  The clouds were amazing and the sunset "gobsmackingly" ( an Australianism) beautiful. It was an evening to remember.

Amazing flora

Stepping away from our garden view of Mt. Rainier, we traveled to Port Townsend last week. Around the town we found these two stunning flowers.  A poppy blooming on a street corner amongst some weeds and the foxglove in the beautiful Chetzemoka Park, and in the bloom of a flower from a friend's garden in Kent. Mother Nature simply at her most spectacular, summertime best.

Erupting? It looks like it ... but

Sometimes I look east from my garden toward Mt. Rainier and it appears to be erupting! In the accompanying images, taken on June 24th, we watched in amazement as this group of clouds appeared to be an eruption from the very top of the mountain. Of course we knew it wasn't ... but it sure looked convincing!