August 31 -- More Re-conditioning of the Back Deck, A Sore Shoulder, A Visit From Ms. Coues Deer, and More Lightning

You'll notice I've done a name change to my blog. While Travels of Discovery may not officially be over, they are certainly on hiatus, now that I'm living at Faranuf. As far as Discovery II goes, "she" is still up at Overton, Nevada, ensconced in Robbins Nest RV Park where she, and her predecessor Discovery I, spent the past 2 winters.My eventual plan is to be in Overton for the month of January, then bring Discovery II down to Portal and park her next to Faranuf (I hope to get some kind of canopy where she's protected by the elements -- and use her in case of a long power outage; her solar panels will come in handy). I'd still do week-long trips, say to the Texas Gulf Coast for spring bird migration, or explore New Mexico ( which I have yet to do). Since I'm fully retired, my options are open...Now it's on to the events of yesterday, August 31. I woke up at my usual 2am, made more nectar for the hummingbirds (a 4 to 1 mixture, 4 cups of water to 1 cup of sugar) and am putting it in large gallon water containers so I'm not always making it, as I'm filling the feeders at least 3 times a day. Thirsty little beggars -- and no wonder they're zooming all over the place and being aggressive to one another, as they're hepped-up on sugar!  Then the sunrise was another memorable one, not so much to the east but to the west and Cave Creek Canyon --

Though to the east there was a beautiful, thin curtain of what started out as virga, then came to the ground as rain; the color is from the sunrise -- 

After a good breakfast (the most important meal of the day for me, as it sets the tone for the rest of the day) I went back to re-conditioning and staining the back porch decking. After an hour it was done, and looked pretty good (though I just checked, this morning, and it's still not completely dry) . I walked down my driveway and got this shot of Faranuf and what is known locally as "False Portal Peak" (otherwise un-named) in early-morning light --

My left shoulder was (understandably) tired from pushing the paint roller around and using the weed whacker, so I gave it the day off, relaxed in a section of the back deck that I had stained the day before, and watched the hummingbirds. My neighbor/friend/personal guru, Helen, said she had a Magnificent Hummingbird at her feeders the day before, so I was on the lookout for a visit -- but no. But what's neat is that there is always the chance that something good will come along. After about 2 hours of watching the aerial antics I had lunch, then called Jackie Lewis at the George Walker House in the tiny burg of Paradise , telling her that I wouldn't be able to come over and glean some hummingbird tips from her that day. My shoulder, you know... But my heavy lens was on a tripod, so I was able to use that if there was something "good" that showed up in my back yard -- and I didn't have long to wait -- 

A Ms. Coues Deer, looking exceptionally pretty (and her eyelashes are to die for) and even sporting the European look of hair on her chin..:o) She was wary of me, not quite sure what to do if I came closer to her, but I didn't need to as I was using my 500mm lens with a 1.4x TC on it, giving me a total of 700mm. So there was NO REASON to get any closer, and she was fine with that. She drank from my water feature, then slowly retreated back into the underbrush. Foxito the Gray Fox has been a no-show for the past 3 or 4 days (just after I bought a bag of dried dog food and a few cans of Alpo, natch)  but the deer in the back yard have been ample compensation, I think. So now it's dinnertime, and I look northeast towards Hwy 80 in New Mexico, and Granite Gap -- 

Uh-oh, the harbinger of another storm... Looks like they can just about turn into tornados. There was lightning inside those clouds, too, and as it got darker -- and easier to take lightning shots -- lightning started flashing all over the sky. With hundreds of lightning strikes these past few days, it's a miracle that there has only been one fire caused by it -- and that is about 50 miles to the west, in the Dragoon Mountains. As it got darker, I went out to the front porch, put on my lightning settings --- and waited for the light show -- 

The tough part of taking photos of lightning is not the settings, but keeping the shutter open. I don't have a shutter release cable, so I just keep my finger on the shutter button. But there can be some shaking involved which you can't see on your view screen at the time -- and that's what happened to the majority of my shots that night. But I bought a shutter release cable from Amazon which should be arriving any day now, and that problem should be solved. There are T-storms forecast for at least the next week, so there are lots more chances for photo-ops like this...