Dawn over Norfolk - 10-22-2009

A new day dawns, as seen from my office window.

Why they're called the Blue Ridge Mountains

This past Sunday evening in Asheville we had dinner on the Sunset Terrace at the Grove Park Inn. It is an open air terrace with legendary views of the sunset. Unfortunately, because of the clouds, there was no sunset to see! However, I still got a few good pictures and it finally dawned on me why the mountains of western North Carolina and Virginia are called the "Blue" Ridge Mountains - because they are blue! As you can see, from a distance the mountains actually appear blue in color. The blue comes from the trees releasing isoprene into the atmosphere, a natural gas that helps protect the trees from ozone, as well as protecting them from the heat of the sun. Broadleaf trees are the largest producer of isoprene, with oak trees being the major producer. In these particular photos, because the sun is hidden by the clouds, I think the blueish color is somewhat magnified. All of these photos were taken from the same location (our dinner table) but each is of a slightly different angle and/or magnification. Except for cropping the photos for size, none of these pictures have been retouched (i.e. paint-shopped). What you're seeing is just what we saw, God's color-palette!

Sunset on Sunday evening in Asheville, NC was approximately 7:00pm. The photos are numbered by order in the lower right-hand corner.

#1 - about 90 minutes before sundown

#2 - about 60 minutes before sundown

#3 - about 45 minutes before sundown

#4 - about 30 minutes before sundown

#5 - about 30 minutes after sundown

The Biltmore Estate

We were at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC over the weekend. Just a small country home with 35 bedrooms, a huge banquet hall, library, etc. etc., etc. Plus 8,000 acres of back yard! They do not let you take photos inside the house, but here are a few of the exterior, plus a couple of shots of the "backyard".

Flowers of Biltmore

A few shots of some of the foliage around the Biltmore Estate. Notice the bees?

Orange Sky

Dusk on Wednesday morning.

Sunrise

While I don't really have a great view out of my office window (although I am one of the first to know when Dillard's is having a sale!) I do get to see some great colors early in the morning!

Rainbow

I saw this rainbow, and note the faint double rainbow, while stuck in traffic one day last week. It seems I always see these things when I'm stuck in traffic. Maybe I need to walk more!

Sunrise

I thought the blue, up above the gray clouds, made a nice contrast in these pics.

Praying Mantis

I saw this little guy on my fence post yesterday. I did not seem to be much of a bother to him. Unfortunately he was just inches away from a very large spider web, owned by a very, very large spider. Hopefully he prayed about which way to move and is still with us today!

Fading Foliage

09-09-09

A new day begins in Norfolk.

Circumzenithal Arc

With all the trees in our neighborhood it is usually difficult to see anything in the sky, unless you are looking straight up. However, this evening I took the dogs out for a walk a few minutes past 6:00pm and was treated to a glorious display in the sky - two sundogs, an ice halo, and a circumzenithal arc! Wow, say that three times fast!

Anyway, sundogs, also called mock suns, are what essentially look like mini suns that appear on the left and right sides of the sun. Sometimes you may only see one, but this evening I was blessed to see them on both sides of the sun. And as you can just barely see from one of the photographs (upper right), there is a faint halo surrounding the sun and connecting the sundogs.

But the coolest thing to see was the circumzenithal arc above the sun! The circumzenithal arc (CZA) is what looks sort of like an upside-down rainbow. CZA's are formed by sunlight refracting through ice crystals that are flattened out, and floating horizontally through the sky. These types of crystals are called plate crystals.

It was a most beautiful site this afternoon, and I am sorry to say, these pictures do not do justice to "sky show" just above our heads. Unfortunately I do not have a wide-angle lens for my camera. If I had, I think I could have gotten a picture of the CZA "floating" above the sun and sundogs. Truly an awesome sight!

One note - the "specs" in the one photo of the CZA (lower left) is not dust on the camera lens. They are turkey vultures that have begun to frequent our neighborhood!