A Ray of Sunshine

Have a ray of sunshine and light with you everywhere you may go.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Sunrises around here are irresistible to me. If I'm awake for them, that is. As the summer winds down, that orb in the sky dawns a little bit later each week, so the chances of catching one now and then will increase for a few months. This is one that I awakened to in mid July.






This little Ruby-throated hummingbird was sitting in the sun, just outside of our kitchen window. The photo was taken through the glass.






Sometimes the sun highlights the subject with such intensity that the background just disappears - at least with certain camera settings.






Other times, everything around it just shines. This White Admiral butterfly is just basking in the warm summer sun.






These little goldfinch beauties seem to create their own sunshine.






Juicy, red currants need lots of sunshine to ripen.






Occasionally, even a stormy sky can't resist allowing a bit of sunshine to peek through. I bumped up the colours considerably on this one.






Bee Balm soaking up the rays on a midsummer day.






Despite its name, this little Pumpkinseed Sunfish shouldn't be out of the water and in the sunshine for long. And he wasn't.






Leafy green tendrils reaching out to tickle the edge of sunlight.






Late in the day, the sun pours in from the west, illuminating Blueberry Island, across the bay.






A lovely Common Loon relaxing beside a sunbeam. Don't you just love that red eye?






Cats enjoy sunlight better than most of us. Skitty found the perfect patch of warming sunlight for snoozing. His little paw looked so photo-worthy to me.






It's rare that we get notable sunsets because we face east. On this evening though, we got the bounce off of what must have been a spectacular sunset for those facing west. Still, you can't complain about this view.

Thanks for sharing the sunshine with me. More photos coming up soonish.

Nice Night for an Evening & Posts of the Week

What a nice night for an evening.

~ Steven Wright

There's a peaceful feeling about a late summer afternoon, as it gently ushers us into the evening. The sunlight transforms from intense, to golden and from flirty to coy. All of the images below were taken at the dinner hour or beyond. Walk with me and enjoy them, will you?


Wild roses bloomed at Frank's place for the first time that I've ever noticed. I think they were a pleasant surprise to him, also.






This is one of the usual roses we see in bloom, each summer. For some reason, I like how it looks so bright and extended in the foreground as if it's about to catch that ball in the background.






Filtered sunlight illuminates the wild phlox in the field.






It's a shame that you can't smell them. Their scent is intoxicating early in the season.






As the sun begins its descent in the sky, the outlined leaves seem to absorb its warmth with back lit beauty.






The birds bring the final meal of the day to their young.






The moon climbs the sky to watch over the earth.






And all is well with the world.

❀ ❀ ❀

Happy Eventide.

It's pretty obvious that the Posts of the Week are no longer weekly at this point - nor do they appear on what used to be my Wednesday schedule. I do believe I will get back to that habit once I'm settled in my new place but that's going to take a while. I've not even put my old place on the market yet.

We take possession of our new home on Wednesday. Until I'm there for good, I'll be doing some back and forth traveling between each place. For now, Frank and I will be up there for a couple of weeks. My computer is staying back in the old place so my blog visits will be less than regular for a while. I will try to schedule some posts before I go. I'll probably have Frank's laptop to use occasionally - that's if our internet connection is set up there as planned.

So if you don't hear from me for a bit (aside from my scheduled posts), you'll know why.

And now, without further delay, here are the Posts of the Week. The icon below is yours for the taking if if your blog post is named as a POTW.

***
READERS' CHOICE

Recommended by: Joeh
The Story of Leviticus
by Gia
at Mayor Gia

Recommended by: TexWisGirl
That Time of Year
by Rae
at Gram's Cracker Crumbs

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PHINE PHOTOGRAPHY

Wait for it
by Sandy
at Writing in Faith

Rain Hawk
by Andy
at Eye Candy

Letter B
by Sue
at Photowannabe

The Greatest of These
by Jackie
at Teacher's Pet


***

A GOOD READ

Urban Diary
by A Cuban in London
at Un Cubano en Londres


***

CREATIVE FUN

Where Clouds Come From
by Kerry
at Ed and Reub

***

Please drop by their blogs for a visit and leave a kind comment if you have the time. Also, please feel free to add your own choices (for any blog except this one) for a specific blog post in the comments section below, where others can see them.

Thank you

After A Rain

Hey, you're just on time - we're going out walking. This is our first break in the rain all day. I think we should take advantage of it. You might want to put on rubber boots - it's been raining all day and we're sure to run into some puddles.

Have you ever touched the new growth of pine needles? If you have, then you know that they're incredibly soft - like those squiggly Koosh Balls (Google it and you'll know what I mean). After a few weeks, they'll toughen up and before long, they'll be as brittle and sharp as the rest of the tree. But for a few days, they're quite lovely in their brilliant green rubber-like suits. The rain is over but these needles are still wearing their little caps.

These post rain water droplets were found on this plant at the front of my neighbour's house. I noticed it on my way home from her place but had to come back with my camera a moment later.

We sure are seeing a lot of these slow-moving fellows, this year. They come out like crazy on these rainy days.

These beautiful pink blossoms were heavy with rainwater.

It had been a rather stormy day but shortly before the day was done, rain ended, clouds parted and the sunlight beamed itself onto our beautiful willow tree which adorns the dock.

This pretty growth of leaves was glowing in the early evening sun. I snapped a photo and found that the background danced in circles of light known as bokeh.

It's alway fun to have you join me for a walk around my pond. I hope you enjoyed this post-rain walk.