Almost Summer

Summer is quickly approaching. Technically, the solstice occurs at 11:32 PM on June 20, and that marks the official start of summer in the northern hemisphere. It has been getting light around 6:00 AM each morning, depending on your definition of light. Soon, it will be later and later when the sky begins to brighten each morning. I enjoy walking early, so I'll miss those early morning walks. 

We've had some occasional showers, though we are still roughly about 2½ inches below our normal rainfall for this time of year. And even though summer does not start for a few more days, we've had some hot days. In compliance with requests from the electric companies, we've raised our thermostat and turned off any appliances we don't use regularly. We are avoiding the use of high energy appliances during the heat of the day (dryer, oven, etc.), and are eating more "cool" dishes, such as sandwiches. Gosh, a nice bowl of gazpacho sounds good, doesn't it?

We continue to feel more comfortable with the COVID situation. Our numbers are low in this neck of the woods, and I continue to be grateful for that. We still wear our masks when we go out. The main exception to this is when we go to our community clubhouse. Since hospital teams came to us to vaccinate our community, we feel good when we are around our neighbors.

I'll leave you with a few pictures I've taken recently. Stay safe, everyone!

We recently had an early morning storm. We sat on the back patio and watched it move through. We found this cloud formation to be interesting, especially the thin horizontal thread above the darkened portion of cloud in the center of the picture. The wind was really kicking up, and the clouds were moving quite fast.

The sun was just rising as I approached the entrance to our community on a recent walk. I like this picture, with the colors of the sunrise and the attractive street lamps lining the street.

I snapped this photo just a few moments later. I love West Texas sunrises and sunsets.

I came across this rascal on the curb during a walk. I tried scooting my shoe closer so I could zoom in more, but I frightened him and he darted away with amazing speed.