Billboard Collage

Here is a collage of all 5 of "my" billboards with their locations. We finally got to get shots of the last ones today. Click on the image for a large view.


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Harrier Party

We got a treat this morning at Rick Husband International Airport. A squadron of a dozen or so Harrier "Jump Jets" stopped over on their way home to North Carolina, and Steve and I were there to see them. They had been at Twentynine Palms, CA for training - "Blowing things up." as one pilot told us. One of the pilots was available and kind enough to take us out to the flight line and give us a tour of one of the Harriers. Never saw one up close until today. Awesome machine! Here are some shots I took of them.

The Harrier "Jump Jets" were accompanied by a C-130 support aircraft. Here, they are warming up its engines.

This pilot gave us a tour of this Harrier. Awesome machine!

A pilot boards his bird in preparation for takeoff.

The Gatling Gun on the Harrier is enclosed in a pod.

The Harriers depart AMA with the Amarillo skyline in the background.

The "tail feathers" of some of the Harriers on the flight line. Note the jet's yaw control ports on the tail.

Each of the pilots waved at us as they passed on their way to the end of the runway.

(As always, click on the photos for a larger view.)

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Full Moon over Palo Duro Canyon

Beautiful Palo Duro Canyon

photo by SD Stanton copyright 2009.
All rights reserved.

Red Canyon Wall

One of three photos that have been made into posters for our
KACV-TV Palo Duro Canyon, The Natural Wonder of Texas show.
Photography by yours truly!

copyright SD Stanton 2009

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Saturday Sunrise

If you elected to sleep in this Saturday morning, you missed this! It only lasted a few minutes and was a breath-taking sky on the heels of a morning sunrise.

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(I got a couple too, but Shelley's were better.)


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Beautiful Chaos

A nice line of thunderstorms went through the area tonight. On the back side of it, I shot a little lightning from our front porch/alcove. While I was talking to Steve about it, this one shot across the sky. All I could say was, "WOW!" I couldn't have planned it better if I tried. Steve saw it too, from his apartment.

Here are a few more I got.

Click on the images for a larger view of each.

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Geronimo!

This Kite played with me over the last week or so, by perching in this tree until I got my camera. He would leave as I came back out with my camera. Today he decided to pose for me for a while. Here he was just leaving. You can see a couple more shots on my bird blog.

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Rhubarb Maladay

We have some really nice rhubarb plants, but they are getting their stalks killed off before they can mature. The culprit is a little rascal resembling a termite somewhat. If anybody knows what they are or how to get rid of them without killing our boys (cats), please let me know.

Click on the image for a larger view.

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Billboards

"My" billboards are up! We checked a couple of them out yesterday before going to a birthday party. Mine is the one for KACV with The Lighthouse on it. I took the photo on my first hike (6 miles round trip) to The Lighthouse in Palo Duro Canyon while shooting photos for a calendar.

This one is on 45th, viewable eastbound just before Teckla.

Viewable southbound on Western at 33rd, south of I-40.

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Morning Glory

We have some morning glories climbing a portion of our fence at the side of our house. I caught them just about right in the evening to give kind of a unique composition.


The billboards are going up around the area now. I saw one the other day. We'll be doing a billboard photo tour and I'll post one/some. Stay tuned!

Camping? Try Glamping!

I guess camping nowadays, isn't all leaky tents and campfire cooking.

Go Glamping

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Late Summer

Signs of late summer are everywhere. Besides all the back to school preparations, the late summer flowers are taking over the garden. My cosmos are starting to bloom and cicadas are buzzing up in the trees. The days are getting shorter and the temps are cooling down a bit.
Soon, college will be back in session too. Its a lovely time of year.

Purple Coneflower

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Big Guy /Little Guy

Does whatever it takes to get away from the one below.
Too much energy for him.

He's really sweet--until about 4:30 in the morning when he's "hungry".
We need to buy him a watch.

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Dale v/s Wind and the Tent

Last week we took a day trip up to El Porvenir and got all excited about camping this fall. We are buying Paul and Connie's pop up tent trailer from them, but we wanted a tent, too--for supplemental storage and sleeping in areas where a tent trailer wouldn't work. So, we found a really nice LARGE tent yesterday when we were out shopping. Today, Dale thought he'd set it up to see how it looked. After a few tries, wresting with the wind and "help" from Chip and Buster, Dale got to try out the fruits of his labor.

View from inside through the top without the rainfly on. We can lay and look up at the stars~

It was too much for Chip. He had to be the first to crawl inside and enjoy the new "toy".

Of course, Buster had to try it too..he was running around the inside because he liked the sounds his feet made on the tent floor.

We liked the tent because we can stand up in it. It has room for two queen sized mattresses and gear.

Tis done!

Let's go camping!

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Touchtable

Dad sent me this. Its very cool. Its like an iPhone and Google Earth on steroids. Thanks for sharing dad. I missed this program.

Ah..... A cool mountain stream in New Mexico

A cool mountain stream at El Porvenir Campground, New Mexico

Dale and I had to take off our shoes and socks and wade a little.

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From Dale:

Here are a few of the shots I took on our road trip Friday.

New Mexico Highway 104 is a bit on the desolate side at times.

A log cabin is dwarfed by Hermit's Peak, west of Las Vegas, NM.

I have no idea what butterfly this is. It sits on a mountain aster.

Not sure what this one is either, but it appears to have had a rough life.

This is a black-billed Magpie. It's the first I've seen in person, and there were a lot of them in one small area.

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