Smoky, smoky day

yep, today was smoky, smoky, until the wind changed direction
and blew most of it away. then the thunderstorms came and cooled
things off and the air was fresh and clean again!





everything looked very orange... except the green, and that
looked more intensely yellow-green.



i took this a couple of days ago... i had no idea that thistles are
a composite flower. this is what i love about picture taking-- seeing
things i didn't know were there before.

Ummm... not that close

so this is the third time i've written and uploaded pics for this post. maybe i'm not so close to blogging after all...

since i'm now tired out, i'll just say that these two pics were taken yesterday after playing in the creek... the only good and sensible thing to do on a hot afternoon.

Getting closer...

let's try out the text and see where it lands...