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!

Monsters and mountains!

We have just had a visit from our grandchildren and son.  Our granddaughter, 3 1/2, has a very vivid imagination.  We have been plagued by crocodiles in our kitchen during their stay!!  I wonder what she would have said the day this "monster" appeared to be approaching Mt. Rainier.  For those of us intrigued by clouds ... this was a pretty unique one. It was quite amazing to watch.  And of course 15 minutes later - it was totally gone!

Later in the day, as the lenticular clouds over the mountain grew more pronounced, this view from the hill above downtown Tacoma, through the barbed wire fencing, provided a totally different view.

Mountains and clouds ... clouds and mountains!

And then it was June!  Not only June but the 3rd week of June.  Sometimes living real life just gets in the way. Going back a few months I wanted to share a February morning sunrise with you. Various clouds were swirling around the mountain and small puffy shapes dominated the sky.  The first image was taken about 8.45am. The second at 10am.  It was as though the mountain was teasing us ... now you see you see me - almost .... now you don't!