Pictures!

Well, I've got nineteen pictures I'm going to share, so this may take a little while!
     First, from July 24th.  Early that morning (around 2am), we'd all been jarred by an incredible thunderclap.  (Most thunderclaps roll.  This one was so loud, the result of such a close bolt of lightning, that it sounded like a single bomb explosion.)
     I think we all figured that the lightning must have struck something pretty close to the house for the thunder to have been so violently loud, so later that morning my brother and I went out to see.
     Somehow I walked right past this tree (probably because I was distracted with trying to keep Tikka from chasing a robin), but a short while later Jonathan called me back and showed it to me.  The lightning bolt had send splinters of wood flying in all directions, and some of the splinters had burn marks on them.
     (Lower left photo:  In the evening of that day, the sun was shining on some puffy clouds in the east and I thought it looked neat.)

So that was quite the interesting experience.  Thankfully nothing was lit on fire.
     Next, on July 25th, we were outside in the evening as

a storm was starting to roll in.  We could see the other side already, and the different clouds with the sun shining around them was amazing.

On July 27th, the sun rays appeared to be laying across some clouds instead of shining through them, giving them an odd appearance.  It almost looked like water in the ocean or something.

Three from July 29th.  The first one is the sunset, and the other two are of my chicks (well, they're not really chicks anymore but I still think of them as such).  I still think Rocky is a cockerel and Tasha is  pullet, but I'm still not 100% sure.  Anyway, the quality of the first picture isn't great because the sun was starting to go down when I took it.  The one of them roosting is a bit better - except that Rocky had to be staring straight at the camera and he looks kind of creepy.

They've both turned into quite pretty young chickens, especially Tasha.  Lilly (I changed Neve's name to Lilly because her original name kept getting pronounced wrong) is trying to go broody again, but she's been sitting on an empty nest - like she did the first time - and anyway, we have the roosters in a separate pen right now so the eggs wouldn't hatch even if she was sitting on them.  As of right now, we keep throwing her off the nest.  But I'm planning to keep her over this winter and see if she'll hatch some more babies for me in the spring.
     Okay!  The rest of these pictures all all from August 1st. 

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Bachelor's buttons and baby's breath and a California poppy, all from the flower rows my sisters and I planted a while ago.  The plum tree, two half-ripe apples, an unripe pear, and the sun shining behind the spruce tree that morning.

And finally, my favourite flower.  Wild roses are still a favourite of mine as well, especially since they have a scent that compares to no other flower, but the Flanders poppy (I believe is also known as the common poppy) is my favourite blossom.  I plant poppies every year but this year the ones I planted from saved seed never came up.  I planted some in a different location with different seed, and these ones came up.  The first one opened on July 31st, I think, and I took this first picture on August 1st.

I hope you enjoyed these photos!