Old Barn and Old Vines

The weather is something we all seem to be able to talk about perhaps far too much, but today has been singular. When I woke up this morning the sky hinted at warmer, drier weather.  By the time I was ready to go out, all that had disappeared into cloudy skies that obscured even the closest the hills. 

We drove across town to pick up our tax returns from the accountant which took two minutes rather than the twenty five OilMan had allotted, so we ambled through the back roads to Kathy's.  I was even able to prevail upon OilMan to turn around...no easy feat on narrow roads between full ditches...to take this picture of yet another old barn  set behind rows of recently pruned vines. Usually the old vines like these are head pruned which I think makes them more picturesque than the ones trained on wires. I think that those are favs beans which are planted between rows as a cover crop.

As it turns out, this is the only picture I took today, but I was rewarded for my muddy shoes when I put it  up on my computer and saw the beautiful light.

A beautifully planted border outside La Crema winery was particularly striking, its blossoming fruit trees in stark contrast to the darkening skies. The magnolias were in glorious bloom, framed by the increasingly black clouds behind them. I have tried to photograph this border many times, as it always has something eye catching and interesting in it no matter the season. Alas it is never possible to get far enough away from it to get a wide enough shot, especially when the ditches are running with water.

While we were at Kathy's we were treated to thunder, lightning and pouring rain of Biblical proportions, and headed home through the downpour as well as the remains of a serious hail storm. It took me awhile to realize that those weren't piles of white blossoms covering the ground but hailstones looking like snow.

We've been holed up all afternoon watching it rain steadily and relentlessly for several hours. The sun came out in the late afternoon, but it was still raining and there was a rainbow. Quite a spectacular end to a wild potpourri of weather.