Sometimes you grab the camera, sometimes you leave it alone.

Sheryl brings the light and heat of herself to the barn, wherein we escape the heat of the Arizona day. I may have mentioned it before, we sleep in there because it has no roof insulation, no heat generating electricity nor a heat generating kitchen. The house, however, gets hot throughout the day and remains that way at night. There are also two doors on opposite sides of the barn and a nice breeze blows across us all night long. Basically, the more primitive barn does not trap any heat, and since we are at about mile high altitude, it finally does cool off at night. Indeed Sheryl is using a table saw as a bedside table, and we're using a portable workbench as a head-board. It's quite nice, we like it. In the morning we have been awakened by a hummingbird hovering over the bed. Sometimes the ravens get a bit raucous, waiting to be fed.

Walking out to the barn at night I noticed these frogs in the little pond next to the house. This property has been more or less converted to an animal sanctuary. The frog on the left is completely submerged, the one on the right is only half under water.

Sheryl ran an extension cord out from the battery shack/pump house (we are off the grid here ) and started using the barn/bedroom as her office. I took this photo off the deck in the early evening. The light source is a battery powered lantern and her laptop computer only.

It might seem strange for a photographer to report on things he did not photograph, but last night the clouds at sunset were amazing, lots of subtle shifts of hues and textures, the sky itself was changing from pale blues to turquoise, electric blue and deeper shades. The clouds kept altering texture and shape as the far away winds shaped and reshaped them continuously. We sat outside enraptured for at least an hour.

Tonight there was a terrific lightning Storm to the north. So far away that we couldn't hear the thunder at all (I can hear it right now though, just a little.) Again I sat and watched the silent bolts stretching miles into the sky, flickering and hanging in the air. Sheryl didn't like it, it scares her. I loved it. Both nights I could not stand the idea of switching my mindset from awestruck spectator to one of photographer.

We are so very blessed.