Summer Sky

The sunsets in the Walla Walla Valley are not easily beat; this one changed so quickly I found myself snapping photos every few seconds trying to catch the beauty of it all. One redeeming factor of summer is that there are fantastic sunsets. Almost makes up for the typical 95+ degree heat (F). (Though I do have to say I've very much enjoyed this mild summer we've been having. I think we have only hit 95 twice, and we've stayed very close to 90 or under most of the summer so far. Very odd.)

Skywatch Friday

Believe it or not this is not a black and white photo. I simply took it on a very grey day. The tree is budding, which means spring is well on its way here in the Walla Walla Valley. Springtime skies here often look like this...full of rain. Welcome to spring in the WW Valley!

You can view more Skywatch Friday shots from around the world by visiting the Skywatch Friday website.

Skywatch Friday

The sky was AMAZING last Friday as I pulled into the store parking lot to grab a few items for supper. I had to take a few pictures, and of course I will share them with you for Skywatch Friday.

Layers

A sunset earlier this week had the clouds simply glowing and it was irresistible.

From Under the Stormclouds

The sky was dark and foreboding when I snapped this quick photo with my cell phone, but the sun was doing its best to get below the darkness and light up the fall colours. Oh how I love autumn colours!

Autumn Skies

The sun heading toward the horizon on a fall evening in College Place.

Skywatch Friday

This is the Marcus Whitman hotel in downtown Walla Walla. It's probably the most iconic building in the valley, and is quite recognizable. I loved the colours behind this well-known landmark and was fortunate enough to get a red light and time to snap a decent photo. For more information on this hotel, check out these other posts:

Telephone
Looking Up
The Corner

Skywatch Friday

Fall is here! I love it when I see the trees changing colour for the first time of the season. It makes me smile every time, because autumn is my favourite season. This lovely tree resides in the Wal-Mart parking lot...but you wouldn't know it from this picture! (And yes we only have one Wal-Mart, so it is THE Wal-Mart.) I had to snap a shot of the early fall sun shining through the beautiful colours of this little tree.

Skywatch Friday

Another shot snapped quickly from the car while going 60 mph down the highway. Not my best skywatch shot, I will admit, but this week I'll take what I can get. I'm tired! The sunsets around here during field-burning and forest fire season are phenomenal...though I wish they could be this beautiful without the smoky air and the destruction wrought by wildfires. Every season we have them throughout the Blue Mountains to the east of the valley...at the end of the summer they are worst due to the dry summer and everything starting to dry from the inside and die off for the winter.

Skywatch Friday

Catching the moon with my camera is never easy, because it's just a point and shoot digital - nothing fancy. I liked how this turned out, though...probably my best ever moon shot, even though it's still slightly blurry. This photo was taken while driving down the highway between Walla Walla and Milton-Freewater. You can see the Blue Mountains on the horizon, and a farm in the foreground. The moon was just about to slip behind a small wisp of a cloud.

See more great skywatch shots at the Skywatch Friday website!

Skywatch Friday

We actually get a couple of rainy, cloudy days every summer. They are rare and far-between, but we do see a couple every year. I love rain, especially in the summer, so I was happy to spend a day under a sky that looked like this.

See more skywatch shots at the Skywatch Friday website!

WW Frontier Days #2 - Skywatch Friday

This was the sunset as my husband and I left the Walla Walla Fair and Frontier Days on Sunday. The building is on the fairgrounds, and was used to house horses brought for show and racing.

Skywatch Friday

Like Salt Lake City, the Northwest is full of Latter-day Saints (otherwise known as Mormons). In fact, Boise, Idaho, actually has more Mormons per capita than Salt Lake City. Washington and Oregon are no exception to this; buildings such as this - complete with easily recognizable Mormon steeples - are the norm around here. This one is in Milton-Freewater, and is nearly surrounded by orchards.

Skywatch Friday

All credit goes to my sister for this shot, which I absolutely love. The sun was painting a fabulous piece of artwork for us one evening as we were about to enjoy some ice cream at Dairy Queen in Walla Walla. She didn't have her camera, so she grabbed mine and snapped away. I love the outcome.

Go and check out more Skywatch images at the Skywatch Site!

Skywatch Friday

This gorgeous sky greeted me as I headed into town on Saturday evening last weekend. The sun was a blazing ball of orange and gold as it sunk lower and lower. Though I wanted to get another photo of it as it transformed into an even larger glowing sphere of red and orange, I couldn't get to a good enough vantage point before it melted into the horizon altogether. At least I managed this shot. It was taken over the treetops and roofs of northern Milton-Freewater, just as you are getting onto Highway 11 headed north.

Skywatch Friday

Just a couple of hours' drive from the WWV is Wallowa Lake, a beautiful area nestled at the base of the Wallowa Mountains. It's a major tourist attraction with adorable little towns scattered around it. Enterprise and Joseph, Ore., are the biggest towns, with populations of 1,718 and 1,054, respectively. The entire county has only 7,000 residents. Just last weekend we went to watch the fireworks over the lake, and just before they started, I caught this scene with my camera. I love how the mountains and trees are barely visible as sillhouettes in front of the nearly full moon.

Skywatch Friday

One of the small towns not too far from the WWV is La Grande, a town of about 12,000 people nestled in the beautiful Grande Ronde Valley of Oregon. This past weekend I traveled there for a wedding which was held at one of the few wineries that have sprung up in this valley. Though the Walla Walla Valley is known for its wine, the grape-growing hasn't spread into the Grande Ronde Valley quite yet, but it's starting to. La Grande is a mere 90-minute drive from the WWV, and is a lovely place to visit all times of the year. Though it does get hot on summer days, the mountains the town is snuggled up against make sunset a lot earlier than most of the state, and the altitude (around 2,700 feet) allows the valley to cool a lot faster than the lower-elevated WWV (we're at between 700 and 1,000 feet, depending on where you are). This is a shot of the sunset on Sunday over the vineyard where the wedding was held. It was a beautiful evening for a wedding.

NOTE: Once again, I find that Blogger has not been publishing my prescheduled posts. It's been happening for 2-3 weeks now. Does anyone have ANY idea how to fix this issue? Am I the only one having trouble with this?

Skywatch Friday

During the spring, the skies in the WWV are glorious. I've mentioned before that I LOVE spring clouds, as they are so different from the clouds in any other season. Perhaps that is something unique to the WWV? Does this happen where you are? Are the spring clouds different than clouds in your other seasons? What I especially love is when the sun shines through in a rare fashion, creating patterns of light in the sky that just beg to be captured, but simply cannot be. I've done my best here...a photo of a springtime sky in the WWV.

Go and check out more Skywatch images at the Skywatch Site!

Skywatch Friday

This was the sunset last Sunday from Highway 12 just a few miles outside of Walla Walla. It was a fabulous evening.

Go and check out more Skywatch images at the Skywatch Site!

Skywatch Friday

I spotted this cloud pattern while walking from my car to my office earlier this week. It really struck me, and I couldn't help but snap a couple of shots of it. I added the edge of a nearby tree for some added interest to the shot.

Go and check out more Skywatch images at the Skywatch Site!