Just another fall evening

Often when I get off of work Mama and I go for long drives on the back roads surrounding Malden and Campbell.  We do this to unwind and to talk about our days, and to discuss other topics.  Our conversations range from the mundane like music and the comings and goings of our friends at the library, and also deeper stuff like God and politics and death and life.  On some days I also like to take pictures of the clouds, particularly on days like today when weather systems are moving in or pushing out.  Today was one of those days; it was dreary and dark most of the day, with heavy clouds, but towards sunset the clouds began to clear.

These next two pictures show one of my favorite photography subjects, virga.  See the streaks that look like cat paws?

I love virga.  If caught by the sun's rays they can turn gold or pink or purple, but these were destined to stay gray.

The harvest is well underway here in the Bootheel, as the yellow strips in this picture show.  Someone has their cotton all baled up!

In addition to a lovely roll cloud, a recently disked cotton field is visible here.

Another lovely view to the west, where a beautiful sunset is developing.  Spoiler alert:  it gets better than this.

To the north now, where clear sky is beginning to show.

Of course clouds aren't the only thing worth photographing out here where civilization and the boonies converge.  Flanking the freshly disked field are these bushes of yellow flowers.  The windbreaks are FULL of these!

Of course I had to get a closer look.  Had it not been so chilly this evening I would've doffed my shoes and gone through that soft dirt in my bare feet, but it was cold so I didn't.  Here's a closeup of the yellow blossoms; I have no idea what kind of flowers they are, but they're very pretty.  They look like they might be related to sunflowers.

Of course no post of mine would be complete without at least some dolly chatter, so just for grins here's Abigail in front of the blossoms.  Y'all will get to meet her on Halloween, since she IS a witch.

Back to the sky now.  We drove west on J Highway, stopping at a few points to take more pictures of the sunset.

One minute those wispy little clouds were dark, and the next minute they were gold.

I turned back to the car thinking I was done and caught these clouds to the east.

Back to the west again...

...and east again...

And back west, facing the road that runs along the base of Crowley's Ridge.  This stretches about two miles to the north before splitting east and west.

Again I thought that shot would be my last picture, and again I was mistaken.  After we traversed the two miles along the base of the ridge and turned back towards town we ran into a strange sight in the middle of the road.  We weren't sure at first what the shadows in the road were, but they were moving and were thus some sort of critter.  Mama stopped the car and turned on the high beams, and we were greeted by these guys.

My pictures of animals never do turn out well since animals are always on the move.  Long story short, our shadows proved to be a group of about fifteen turkeys, maybe more.  The birds were extremely calm in the presence of people, showing no fear of either the car or the flash from my camera.  They trotted past us without a care, gobbling softly as they went.  Pretty darn nifty; it isn't every day we get to see critters like this.

Last picture, for real this time, of the fading sunset.

And that was it!  What a show!  That wasn't the end of the story, though.  Upon our arrival home we subsequently learned that the turkeys were indeed domestic, hence their vibrant colors and their fearlessness in the face of humans.  They belong to our vet and somehow managed to escape their cage.  I'm glad I didn't have to round 'em up in the dark!

God clearly knew I needed a pick-me-up.  My beloved blind cat Pebbles fell seriously ill over the weekend and I spent the past few days crying and moping and praying the vet could save him.  This is the same vet who owns the turkeys, by the way; Malden has but one vet.  Long story short, Pebbles will survive and most likely be back to his old self before too long, but I still feel awful.  I thought Pebbles would be okay with Mama since my other cats hate strange animals, but Pebbles apparently couldn't handle being separated from me.  He stopped eating, stopped washing himself, stopped doing everything a cat should do.  He's on the mend now and won't be leaving my side now, but he's got a lot of weight to gain back.  Anyway, I spent the weekend beating myself up and was still in a funk today, so thank God for the sky and the flowers and the turkeys, whether they were tame or not.  One doesn't see turkeys every day, and I'm grateful that Mama and I got to see them.

Now what do I do?  Get ready for bed and make sure the animals are warm enough!

Cheers,
RagingMoon1987