Come on, come on! Blow up!

Yet another night of aurora forecasts that said we could have a really big show.  We've missed the last couple of big displays because of clouds.  We finally had clear skies here in Bear Valley, and when a very bright band of green appeared around 11 pm I thought we might be on to something.   You could just tell they were getting another strong show up north around Fairbanks or Delta Junction.  There was a nice band of pink at the bottom for a bit, which usually indicates a strong show, but once again, she just never really got going here.  Grabbed a couple of shots and finally gave up at 2 am.  

Feeding Frenzy!

Sitting in the living room yesterday afternoon listening to tunes when a flock of several hundred Grosbeak's and Pine Siskin's decided to stop in for lunch.  It was crazy for awhile, but what fun to watch, plus I think they really liked Jethro Tull.

Blast-off!

The aurora showed up last night around 10:30 pm and looked like it was really going to blow up around midnight.  Instead, the wind cranked up to around 40mph!  Luckily, it was really warm, but it was blowing so hard it was almost impossible to keep the camera from shaking, even though I was hiding behind the end of the house.   Clouds were blasting across the sky, and then completely covered it around 1:30 am.   

Shaken, not stirred.

It's been an interesting couple of weeks weather-wise here in Bear Valley.  Cold for a couple of weeks; a whole bunch of snow--almost 3 feet in 5 days, followed by 50mph winds and +40ºf temperatures the last couple of nights with rain.   This morning at 5:30 am there was a pretty good 4.6 magnitude earthquake that gave the house a nice, sharp jolt.  Gravity took over and we've had a nice avalanche off the slippery metal roof of our woodshed.